PHILOSOPHY

Nature, Scope, Areas

 1. Objectives
2. Introduction
Outline 3. Meaning of Philosophy
4. Areas and Scope of Philosophy
Objectives

• Discuss the meaning of philosophy of

education
• Enumerate the various function of philosophy
of education
• State the various methods of philosophical
inquiry
• Describe the relationship between philosophy
 Philosophy

• Philosophy is a search for general

understanding of values and reality by
Introduction

chiefly speculative rather than

observational means.
• It signifies a natural and necessary urge in
human beings to know themselves and
the world they live in and move and have
their being.
• Intellectual quest for truth
Meaning of Philosophy
Nominal Definition
• Comes from the Greek word (philo), meaning
a friend and sophia, meaning of wisdom.
• It means lover of wisdom, or “ a friend of
wisdom”
Real Definition
• Is the science of all things that exists (of
beings) and their ultimate cause
through the aid of human intellect.
Nominal Definition: Word etymology
Real Definition: Meaning
Elements of the definition
a. it is a science, a systematic
body of knowledge not only
opinions, theories but perfect
knowledge;
b. of beings, of all, of everything
that exists, of everything
knowable ;Philosophy is the
highest synthesis of all sciences
dealing with man, nature and
God.
• c. in their ultimate reason/cause because it
asks and answers not only facts and proximate
causes but the deepest causes of things;

• d. through the aid of human intellect alone,

philosophy uses natural reasons not Divine
Revelation or the recourse to the Bible; it is
the product f one owns thinking not an
imagination of fantasy.
 Areas of Philosophy
To be a Philosopher, therefore, is to be interested in the following four questions, which give rise to philosophy's four main areas:
 
* What are we like and what should we do? (ethics)
* Is the world such that we can do it? (metaphysics)
* How do we know all this? (epistemology)
* How much faith can we place in this knowledge?
(logic)
Logic Epistemology

Metaphysics Ethics

Aesthetics
Epistemology
• is the study of knowledge (Greek episteme).
•  Epistemologists study the putative sources of
knowledge, including intuition, a priori reason,
memory, perceptual knowledge, self-knowledge and
testimony.
• They also ask:
– What is truth? Is knowledge justified true belief?
– Are any beliefs justified?
– Putative knowledge includes propositional knowledge
(knowledge that something is the case),
– know-how (knowledge of how to do something)
– acquaintance (familiarity with someone or something).
Epistemologists examine these and ask whether knowledge is really possible.
Metaphysics

Metaphysics is the philosophy or theory of the

‘real’.
Knowledge that is studied in epistemology
automatically leads us to the question of the
‘known’. You know, but what do you know?
Knowledge is different from mere thought or
imagination. Hence, like thought is related to
thing in order to be complete, knowledge is linked
with the known in order to be meaningful
Among the numerous topics within metaphysics
and epistemology, broadly construed are:
 Philosophy of language explores the nature, the origins and the use of
language.
 Philosophy of mind explores the nature of the mind and its relationship to
the body. It is typified by disputes between dualism and materialism. In
recent years this branch has become related to cognitive science.
 Philosophy of religion explores questions that arise in connection with
religions, including the soul, the afterlife, God, religious experience, analysis
of religious vocabulary and texts and the relationship of religion and science
.
 Philosophy of human nature analyzes the unique characteristics of human
beings, such as rationality, politics and culture.
 Metaphilosophy explores the aims of philosophy, its boundaries and its
methods.
Ethics

Ethics, or "moral philosophy", studies and considers what is

good and bad conduct, right and wrong values, and 
good and evil.
Its primary investigations include how to live a good life and
identifying standards of morality.
It also includes meta-investigations about whether a best way
to live or related standards exists.
The main branches of ethics are:
a.normative ethics,
b. meta-ethics 
c.applied ethics
Ethics is the study of human conduct based on moral impulses and wisdom. 
ETHICS

• Ethics deals with the question of how people ought to act

with regard to themselves, other people, and the world.
• For example, here are some questions to ask in ethics:
•What should I do in a particular situation?
•How should I decide what to do in a particular situation?
•When, if ever, is it okay to tell a lie?
•Do animals have rights?
•Should we care about strangers?
•Are we ever in a situation where there is no morally correct course
of action?
•Should corporations have the same rights as people?
•Given worries about overpopulation, is it morally acceptable to
have more than one child?
Aesthetics

• Aesthetics is the "critical reflection on art, culture and nature.

• Aesthetics is the study of art and beauty as concepts as well as how we
ought to evaluate potential instances of beauty and artistic creation.
• "It addresses the nature of art, beauty and taste, enjoyment, emotional
values, perception and with the creation and appreciation of beauty.
• It is more precisely defined as the study of sensory or sensori-emotional
values, sometimes called judgments of sentiment and taste.
It divides into :
• art theory,
• literary theory
• film theory and
• music theory
• What is beauty?
• Are some things objectively beautiful?
• What makes for a great work of art?
• Can something be humorous even if it never
makes anyone laugh?
• What makes something ugly or objectionable
to view?
• Why should we care about art?
Logic

• Logic is the study of reasoning and argument. An argument is

"a connected series of statements intended to establish a
proposition." The connected series of statements are "premises
" and the proposition is the conclusion.
For example:
•All humans are mortal. (premise)
•Socrates is a human. (premise)
•Therefore, Socrates is mortal. (conclusion)

• Because sound reasoning is an essential element of all

sciences, social sciences and humanities disciplines, logic
became a formal science.
• Sub-fields include mathematical logic, philosophical logic, 
Modal logic, computational logic and non-classical logics.
LOGIC

• For example, here are some questions to ask in

logic:
• What is infinity?
• What makes an argument a good argument?
• What is truth? What is falsity?
• What is the fundamental meaning of words like
“and,” “or,” “but,” and “therefore.”
• Can something be both true and false? Or neither?
• What is nonsense?