PHILOSOPHY (MIDTERMS)

1. Human person desires to know that

● From the Greek words “Philos” leads him to seek the ultimate
(love) and “Sophia” (wisdom). causes of everything.
● “Love for wisdom” 2. His search for knowledge is
induced by theoretical
Philos : Friendship considerations, as well as
● Situated between Eros (desire, practical reasons.
receiving), Agape (giving, caritas), 3. He needs to find an answer to many
Philos (friendly, requited, questions about existing realities
medyo-medya). around him.
● Controlled, disciplined
● Not constrained to either giving or
receiving.

Sophia : Attitude
● Higher form of knowledge.
● The understanding of what we are
supposed to do (and not to do) with
what we know.

WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?
- STUDY OF ANYTHING
“WONDER”

Philosophy is...
a SCIENCE that by NATURAL
LIGHT OF REASON studies
the FIRST CAUSES OR
HIGHEST PRINCIPLES OF ● You should not only seek for
ALL THINGS KNOWLEDGE, pursue
WISDOM.
MEANING OF PHILOSOPHY
● Philosophy is… a SCIENCE. It
Philosophy is the study of general and uses scientific approach
fundamental problems, such as those because the investigation is
connected with existence, knowledge, systematic.
values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is...
a science that by NATURAL
Philosophy is the rational attempt to LIGHT OF REASON…
formulate, understand, and answer
fundamental questions. Philosophy investigates things,
NATURE OF PHILOSOPHY neither by using any laboratory
instruments or investigative tools, a thing, idea, or person always has a
nor on the basis of supernatural name, a concept, and a characteristic
revelation. otherwise, it becomes for that thing to exist.
Theology.
-PRINCIPLE OF CONTRADICTION X
Philosophy is... is not non X
a science that by natural light of reason It is impossible for a thing to be and
studies the first causes of the highest not to be at
principle of ALL THINGS at the same time, and at the same
respect.
Philosophy is not one-dimensional or
partial. Rather,philosophy is -PRINCIPLE OF EXCLUDED MIDDLE.
multidimensional or holistic. Either X or non- X
In short, the philosopher does not a thing is either is or is not;
limit himself to a particular object of everything must be either be or not
inquiry. be; between being and not being,
there is no middle ground possible.
He questions almost anything, if not,
everything. -PRINCIPLE OF SUFFICIENT
REASON
PHILOSOPHY is… 1+1 =
a science that by natural light of “For everything that exists, there is a
reason studies the FIRST CAUSES sufficient reason for why it is the way it
OR HIGHEST PRINCIPLES of all is and not the otherwise.”
things.
Nothing exists without a sufficient
FIRST CAUSE OR HIGHEST reason for its being and existence.
PRINCIPLE
- An idea which means How to understand Philosophy
something is the main and first
cause why an event or In attaining wisdom, there is a need
a situation took place. It is a for emptying.
principle because everything in
the world and every situation has Emptying is suspending of one’s
a starting point or a judgment and conclusion about a
beginning. matter and mentally exploring the
THE FIRST PRINCIPLES pros and cons of the characteristics,
and the purpose of an idea or
-PRINCIPLE OF IDENTITY Situation.
X IS X X IS NOT Y
What is is; and whatever is not is not; Without the virtue of emptying,
everything is what it is. Everything is its without the virtue of emptying,
own being, and not being is not being. It students will only learn partial
means a philosophy that is knowledge-based
without becoming holistic. -A plan is potentially a building
-An idea is potentially a book
5 MAJOR BRANCHES OF -A possibility is potentially a reality
PHILOSOPHY
-EPISTEMOLOGY
-METAPHYSICS EPISTEME = Knowledge
LOGOS = Study
META = Beyond
PHYSICA = Physical -It is the study of knowledge. It examines
questions related to the nature of
deals with the fundamental nature of knowledge, belief, justification, skepticism,
reality and existence. It explores and the limits of human understanding.
questions about the nature of being,
the structure of the universe, the COMMON QUESTIONS IN
relationship between mind and matter, EPISTEMOLOGY:
and the concept of
-What is knowledge?
WHAT IS THE NATURE OF -How do we acquire knowledge?
BEING? -What are the limits of knowledge?
-Can we know anything for sure?
-Being is simply the existence of
things TABULA RASA- humans are born with
-Being is the essence of things no innate ideas or knowledge, all
-Being is a process of becoming knowledge is acquired through
-Being is a relationship between experience.
things
-Being is a mystery ETHICS
ethos= habit or character
2 kinds of World according to PLATO -is concerned with questions of morality,
right and wrong, good and evil, and the
-WORLD OF MATTER principles that guide human behavior. It
Is the world that we perceive with our explores various ethical theories and
senses their implications for decision-making.
-WORLD OF FORMS
is the world of the eternal truths and AESTHETICS
ideas AISTHESIS= Perception or
Sensation
POTENTIALITY - refers to the ability of -The study of beauty, art, and the nature of
something to become something else aesthetic experiences. It explores
questions about the nature of art, the
ACTUALITY - refers to the state of criteria for judging beauty, and the role of
being something. art in human life.

-A seed is potentially a tree LOGIC

-A child is potentially an adult logos= reason or thought
-the study of reasoning and is happening to stories of supernatural origins,
argumentation. It deals with questions to stories about dos and goddesses” ARCHE
about valid and sound arguments,
a fundamental concept that represents the
deductive and inductive reasoning, and
the structure of rational thought. origin, source, or underlying principle of
everything in the universe.
THREE PARTS OF ARGUMENT (Origin/Rule)
-MAJOR PREMISE
-MINOR PREMISE
-CONCLUSION -Thales of Miletus (580 BC)
-He never married, owing to his desire to
DEDUCTIVE REASONING- general avoid the worry of children
ideas to specific
INDUCTIVE REASONING- specific to -He belong to the seven wise men or
general seven sages
-Cause of death : Heat stroke
HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY
-First Person to successfully predict a
PRE-SOCRATIC solar eclipse
(6th Century - 5th Century BCE ) (WATER)
CLASSICAL GREEK PHILOSOPHY
“All things are composed of water”
(5th Century - 4th Century BC )
HELLENISTIC PHILOSOPHY -Thales
(4th Century BCE - 3rd Century BC
MEDIEVAL PHILOSOPHY Anaximander (610-546 BC)
(5th Century - 17th Century BC)
-First person who published the
SCHOLASTICISM
(5th Century - 4th Century BC ) map of the world
MODERN PHILOSOPHY -First Metaphysicist
(17th to Early 19th Century ) -Apeiron (Boundless or Limitless)
-Father of Cosmology
PRE-SOCRATIC
(Philosophers who lived before
socrates) APEIRON
“ Unlimited or Boundless”
Philosophers were primarily concerned with -The infinite or boundless substance from
fundamental questions about the nature of which all things are
reality, the cosmos, and the basic substances created.
that make up the world. -The underlying reality that is beyond all
PRE-SOCRATIC appearances.
MYTHS -The source of all change and movement. -The
“People will usually attribute whatever it is that principle of order and harmony in the universe.
-The divine or spiritual ground of all beings.
SOCRATES
APEIRON -No written works
-A boundless, limitless, or infinite principle that -He was put on trial in Athens on charges of
is the source of all things in the universe. corrupting the youth and not recognizing the
city's gods
Anaximenes (545 BC) -His philosophy often centered on ethical and
-Rarefaction and Condensation moral questions, such as the nature of justice,
-Not satisfied with water as the single element the definition of virtue, and the meaning of the
of the universe good life.
-The ultimate stuff must be an empirical
substance INTELLECTUAL MIDWIFERY
-AIR Intellectual midwifery, also known as the
"Socratic method" or "Socratic
Heraclitus (535-475 BCE) questioning,"
-Unity of Opposites
-Fire is the Arche Key features of intellectual midwifery
-Logos or Reason governed the Cosmo -You include:
cannot step twice into the same river” FIRE
-Change or Flux (The only constant thing in the -Questioning
world is change) -Dialectical Process
-Fire symbolizes Change -Irony
-Elucidation of Concepts
PYTHAGORAS -Inductive Reasoning
-Famous Mathematician -Self-Examination
PLATO
-Invented the Pythagorean Theorem
-Everything is made up of numbers -He was a student of Socrates

-Mathematics as a universal -He is the one narrating the works of Socrates

CLASSICAL GREEK -World of Forms or World of Idea

PHILOSOPHERS -World of Matter or World of Senses

(Triumvirate or the Philosophical Trinity) -He wrote The Republic

covers a wide range of topics and questions ALLEGORY OF THE CAVE

about the nature of reality, knowledge, ethics, 1. The Cave - Physical World
politics, and the human condition. 2. The Prisoners - People who are ignorant of
anything beyond the senses Wisdom- a.k.a. "phronesis" which is often
3. The Shadows - Represents the Physical translated as practical wisdom or prudence.
World Phronesis - Practical Wisdom
4. The Fire: Stands for a source of illumination Sofia - Theoretical Wisdom
and represents the limited source of Justice- maintenance or administration of
knowledge available to the prisoners. what is just especially by the impartial
5. The Raised Walkway: It is the higher reality adjustment.
that exists beyond the sensory world. Distributive Justice - fair distribution of goods,
benefits, and honors within a community or
ARISTOTLE society.
Corrective Justice - rectification of wrongs or
-He was the student of Plato injustices that occur between individuals
-He is the tutor of Alexander the Great
-Golden Mean The Human Person: An Embodied Spirit
-Virtue Ethics
-Lyceum Discovering the Self: Who Am I?
-Founder of Zoology
-We reflect or introspect. In doing so, we
NICOMACHEAN ETHICS are looking within or deep inside
ourselves (at our soul or mind).
explores the nature of ethics and moral
philosophy. He aims to answer fundamental -We know that there is more to who we are
questions about how to live a good and than what we appear to be.
virtuous life, what constitutes human Human Being’s Understanding of
happiness (often referred to as "eudaimonia" in Himself/Herself
Greek), and how individuals can achieve it.
-Human being is the source of many
In order to achieve eudaimonia we need to questions about the existence of the world
have a virtuous traits: and everything that exist

Courage- facing fear and danger in a balanced Human Being’s Encounter with Existential
and rational way. Limit Situations
Temperance- a.k.a. "self-control" or
"moderation," it involves finding the mean or -In existence, a human being is always in
middle ground concrete situations, and he/she is always
confronted with various situations.
-This is why the soul is immortal and learning
-This context of limit situations, human is mere remembering or recollecting what the
beings begin to formulate critical and soul once knew when it was in the realm of
perennial questions and search for deeper forms.
and existential answers of his/ her
fundamental questions concerning (RENE DESCARTES)
his/her self-being. -Rene Descartes also recognized dualism and
expressed this in his Meditations (2nd).
Various Ways in Dealing with the Question
“Who Am I?” in the Course of History -He acknowledges that he is a body that is
bounded by some figure and can be located in
DUALITY of the BODY and SOUL -The some place and occupy space.
duality of body and soul is the view held by
those who believe that our body is separate -However, unlike other bodies, he has the
and distinct from our soul. power to move himself, to feel and to think.
Such capacities and power is not present to all
-The soul, though conceived in many ways, is bodies and so must be attributed to his spirit or
that aspect of our being that is not material. soul.
The soul or the spirit is philosophically
discussed as MIND since mental capacities -By ‘thinking being’, Descartes claims is that
and abilities are attributed to it. which doubts, which understands, which
-Our body shows our corporeality but we are conceives, which affirms, which denies, which
more than our body because we have a soul or wills, which rejects, which imagines
a spirit. also, and which perceives.

(PLATO) UNITY of the BODY and SOUL

-The human soul exists prior to the body and
even after the body is long gone. The UNITY of Human Nature
-The body and soul are not two entities that
-Knowledge is to be found in the realm of ideas interact with each other but are one being
or essences which are eternal and true. The made up of matter and form -Soul is the
soul that humans possess pre-existed in the form of the body but not dependent upon
world of forms or ideas. the body as the body is upon the soul.
-“A Person is a physical substance
underscored the substantial unity of Homo Phaenomenon - Non-empirical
human nature.”
-Phenomenology
Human beings are a unity of Body and Phenomenologists Philosophize that
Soul. consciousness is thought (of a subject) that is
-Without the Soul the body would have no always directed toward an object.
form.
-Without the Body the soul would not have -Existentialism
its required organs of sense through which The existentialist, on the other hand, confronts
to gain its knowledge. the possibility that the “I” might have been
someone else or might not have been at all
Human Consciousness and Existence (Tallis 2004, 1).
Human Faculty of REASON
-John Locke is an English
Philosopher and political theorist. -Humans have a mental faculty or capacity that
-Immanuel Kant as also interpreted by enables them to think, to reason, to
philosophers of mind, provided a basis for a understand, to compare, to analyze, to
rationalist approach. associate ideas, and so on.
Empiricists agree that there is human
Immanuel Kant faculty called reason.
HOMO NOUMENON | HOMO
PHAENOMENON -Rationalists discover truths by sitting and
NOUMENON- The essence of things. thinking while empiricists discover truth using
(THE THING IN ITSELF) their senses or by observing the world.
It cannot be known for it is beyond human
experience. -Empiricists also seek for truths outside of
Homo Noumenon - Non-empirical man by truths outside of man by looking at
sense data. There are also skeptics in
HOMO NOUMENON | HOMO between. Reason is contrasted by some from
PHAENOMENON faith; while others would claim that
reason includes the heart.
PHAENOMENON- A thing which appears to
the observer. -The important point, however, is that human
It can be known by human experience. being possesses a faculty that enables him/her
to survive and endure life.
-His/her reason is a function of his/her mind or REFLECTION
his/her soul. The more that -Primary
a human being uses his/her reason to reflect “Where one recounts, remembers, studies,
and to deliberate things; the more his/her life analyzes, or dissects experience.”
becomes fruitful, satisfying, and meaningful. -Secondary
“Where one recovers, reconciles, relates or
synthesizes a previously isolated and
analyzed experience.”
HUMAN BEING: A Limited Being PRIMARY REFLECTION
-Ob-jectum – “Thrown-in-front”
Gabriel Marcel (1889-1973) -“A Body”
-Frenchman -It breaks the unity of experience.
-Phenomenologist Philosopher -It looks at the world or at any object as a
-“Man’s embodiment is not simply a datum problem, detached from the self, and
alongside other data but the PRIMARY fragmented.
DATUM that is the starting point and -It is the foundation of scientific knowledge, for
basis of any philosophical reflection.” science assumes a stand where the world is
apart from the subject. The subject does not
- Reflection enter into the object investigated.
- As remembering, then as paying
attention to one’s own thoughts then studying SECONDARY REFLECTION
the very value of one’s existence. -Experience -Sub-jective – “Thrown-beneath”
implies Reflection, that experience is more -“My Body”
than the simple meeting of the self (inside) and -It recaptures the unity of original experience.
sense data of the world (outside).
-It does not go against the data or primary
-Experience and Reflection do not just touch, reflection but goes beyond it by refusing to
they meet! accept the data of primary reflection as final. -It
-Experience thus implies not just a is an area of mystery because we enter into the
juxtaposition of perceiver and perceived but arealm of the personal.
meaningful and creative relationship between -A recollection, a pulling together of the
the two, a dialectic. scattered fragments of our experience.

REFLECTION is rooted in EXPERIENCE. The Existential Fulcrum

-“Really, who AM I?
 can never be imprisoned in my flesh and

- ‘I’ and ‘AM’ have to be reflected upon. bones.

- The definition of ‘I’ depends on what we -The experience of my BODY:

understand by ‘AM’, a verb of existence - I have my Body

‘to-be’ . -I am Body
REFLECTION is rooted in EXPERIENCE.

- Marcel has led us into a reflection on our -Primary

way of be-ing, on our personal - “Where one recounts, remembers,

existence. studies, analyzes, or dissects

experience.”

- It is related to “How I AM” where we can -Secondary

more accurately see ourselves be! - “Where one recovers, reconciles,

relates or synthesizes a previously isolated
The Relation of I and the Body
and analyzed experience.”
In the phenomenon of the BODY:
-We have regarded the body as an object. -
I have My Body and I Am my Body
Object of our interest, attention, object of our
reflection.
I Have a Body versus I Am My Body - In
-In asking about our BODY, we refer to our
existentialist thought, Marcel popularized
EXPERIENCE.
these two ways of looking at one's body: as
-The BODY is something which the person
an object of possession and as a subject of
who owns it uses. It is an instrument and a
unity. It is made of flesh. A meaningful
Possession.
existence cannot discard the view of "I am
-“MY BODY, then is something I own. It
is something I use.
my body."

-It is something I HAVE.”

Transcendence and My Body
I have My Body and I Am my Body
“The value of the BODY”
-I cannot detach my body from myself; they are
not two things that happen by chance to be - As the appearance and expression of
together, rather, myself is absolutely embodied. my subjectivity, my body has a unique
value and dignity.
-I cannot reduce myself to my body: I also
experience myself as an I-spirit and will that - It directs me not only to the world and
 others but also to God. - When we speak of existence, we also
mean the sensual nature of
- I only encounter Transcendence existence.
because my body encounters it. 1. We are bodies
2. Among other Bodies
-Every time my body relates with other - My Body as:
embodied beings, I am directly and - Intermediary
immediately relating with other subjectivities - Intersubjectivity
or with I’s.
FINITUDE and HISTORICITY of
Human Being
-Thus, in my relationship with the
Transcendence, I can only relate with this It is characteristic of the expression of
Being through my body. lived experience that its relation to the
spiritual or human content expressed in
it can only be made available to
My Self and the World understanding within limits.
—Wilhelm Dilthey
-The BODY is the most obvious part of
Human Being in TIME
us.
- One of the limit situations of
human being is the situation
- Through it and with it, we relate to and
where he/she is in time and in a
within the world. certain place. His being in time
- At the same time, because of it, the and in a concrete place are
always part of his/her historicity.
world manages to relate to and with
us.
- Human being is constituted by
PAST
PRESENT
FUTURE
- These three expressions of
presence unveil the
temporality of human being.

HISTORICITY of Human Being

- The human being is a historical

being.
- He/she is the matrix himself/
herself of the realities of the
past, present, and the future.

- He/she is where all boundaries

meet. Human being
experiences all the boundaries
of existence through his/her
body, such as suffering,
anxiety, guilt, death, and
communication.

- As a historical being, humans

establish relationships with
other human beings. These
relationships help him/her
define his/her person,
self-being.