Chapter 1: What is Philosophy?

1. Chapter 1:What is Philosophy? Objectives: I. What Do Philosophers Do? A. The Study of Human Nature B. The Study of the Universe C. Human Nature and the Universe II. Rationality, Universality, and Objectivity III. The Limitations of the Western Philosophical Tradition

2. Philosophy is: • Love of wisdom; the systematic, critical examination of the way in which we judge, evaluate, and act, with the aim of making ourselves wiser and more self-reflective.

3. The Socratic Method • A process of questions and answers by which we systematically reach deeper and deeper insights into the principles of truth and goodness. • Ken Samples isolated 5 characteristics of the method: • Skeptical • Conversational • ‘definitional’ or conceptual • Deductive reasoning • Inductive reasoning

4. Socrates Theory • A theory about how each of us ought to examine his or her life, subjecting it to critical analysis and questioning. • It was his style of teaching and philosophizing and it rested on 4 basic principles (pg.7): • The unexamined life is not worth living • There really are valid objective (true for all men and women) principles of thought and action that must be followed if we are to live good lives-if we are to be, at the same time, genuinely happy and good. • The truth lies within each of us, not in the stars, or in tradition, or in religious books, or in the opinions of the masses. • Some people can ask questions that prod men and women to begin the task of self-examination. These people or teachers may also be able to guide the process, at least in its early stages…because they know where the pitfalls are.

5. The Study of the Universe • Cosmology • “kosmos” = world or universe • The study of the nature of the world • The study of the human condition and the study of the cosmos are the two great branches of philosophy and there is no division more fundamental in philosophy • Part of the subfield of “Metaphysics” or the study of First Principles.

6. Human Nature and the Universe • First strategy tried by a group called the Stoics. • They claimed that the natural world exhibits a rational order that can be explained by appeal to the existence and operations of a power of reason, which they called “logos” • Ex. of a Stoic is the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius (A.D. 121-180)

7. Empiricism and Rationalism • Two leading epistemological theories of the past four centuries. • Empiricism: the theory that all human knowledge comes from the evidence of our five senses, and therefore that we can never know more, or know with greater certainty, than our senses will allow. • Rationalism: is the theory that at least some human knowledge comes from reason, unaided by the senses, and therefore that we can know about things that the senses do not reveal to us, and can know with greater certainty than the senses will allow.

8. Epistemology • Literally, the study of knowledge • The study of how we come to know things • What the limits are of our knowledge • What sort of certainty or uncertainty attaches to our knowledge • Side note: Psychology also studies how we come to know, but epistemology is not so concerned with the mechanics of knowing but more with the possibility of defending, proving, or justifying what we think we know.

9. II- Rationality, Universality, Objectivity • One of the few things that philosophers do agree on is that philosophy ought to be these three things. • Rationality: the mind’s ability to present reasons, evidence, and arguments in support of our beliefs. Our willingness to set aside prejudice, passion, and self-interest and use our intelligence to understand the world and ourselves.

10. Cont… • Universality: applying everywhere and always. Being true for everyone and not just me or a particular race, gender, or economic class. • Objectivity: being true to the way the world really is, not merely reflecting the inner nature of an individual subject.

11. III- Limitations on Western Philosophical Thought • Despite the fact that it is largely the product of “dead white males”...this tradition presents itself as the philosophical tradition of Western Civilization. • Yet, in this tradition, the voices of women and persons of color are scarcely ever heard. • Major thinkers present their doctrines as universally true-true for all human beings, or even, in the case of Kant, for example, true for all rational beings whether human or not. • Shakespeare’s character of Hamlet, “there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in (this) philosophy”

12. Enlightenment • Period during the 18th and 19th century • When orthodoxies of religion, science, and politics were called into question and the authority of tradition was replaced by the claims of reason.

13. David Hume • Read pg. 28 • Major works include A Treatise of Human Nature • His view on Africans • The counter argument to Hume’s view by Beattie. Beattie’s book was called Essay on the Nature of Immutability of the Truth

14. W.E.B Du Bois • Born 1868 in Western Massachusetts • Doctorate from Harvard University-1st African American to do so! • Played a central role in founding the NAACP