INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY
AS AN ACADEMIC DISCIPLINE
Philosophy (from the Greek word "philosophia" meaning "love of wisdom") is the rational and critical
scrutiny of basic assumptions about ourselves and the world.
AREAS OF PHILOSOPHICAL INQUIRY
I. Metaphysics is
the branch of philosophy that investigates ultimate reality. It
studies theories of reality and the distinction between appearance and
reality. Metaphysics tries
to find the reality behind the appearances.
It looks at issues like what is reality? Is everything material,
spiritual, or a combination of both? It
asks questions like what caused everything to come into existence: God? The Big
Bang? It also asks if there is a hierarchy of being in the universe, or, in
other words, do some beings have more value than others?
II. Axiology is the study of value and the distinctions
between value statements and factual statements.
It includes two parts:
A. Aesthetics is the study
of the nature of beauty in the fine arts. This area asks whether there are objective standards by which to
judge beauty. Some aesthetic questions
are: Is beauty in the object or in the eye of the beholder? What characteristics define beauty and
ugliness? What is the purpose of art in society?
B. Ethics is the study of the nature of morality and
judgment. Some ethical questions are: What makes
behavior morally right or wrong? What
is the role of morality in civil society?
What is the basis or foundation
of value judgements?
How do we handle
conflicts between values?
III. Epistemology
is the study of the origins, validity, and limits of knowledge. It studies definitions of knowledge and the
distinction between knowledge and opinion.
Epistemological questions are: What do we really mean when
we say we know something? What makes
something true? Where does our
knowledge come from? What are the different types of knowledge (e.g., spiritual
vs. scientific)? Is truly objective
knowledge possible? How does the knower (e.g., our senses, our values) affect
the known?
In this course, we will look at
Western thinkers who emphasize the importance of reason and logic in exploring
human nature. It is important for us to
understand that although these ideas formed the foundation of our own culture,
early thinkers often excluded the ideas of other important cultures, e.g.,
Native American, Hispanic, African-American, Asian, etc., in developing their
philosophies. Many of these other cultures used other paths to understand the
universe, including intuition, spirituality, the mystical, etc. I have included selections from some of
these other thinkers in our textbook and I encourage you to check them out. It
is important to note that these different cultures have approached these
questions differently and in an equally valuable way.
We also need to ask: Is logic the only way to truth, or is it only one path to
truth, or, possibly, does it get in the way of truth? We need to ask these questions because "Philosophy,@ as William James said, "is the
unusually stubborn attempt to think clearly" even when it means looking
at philosophy itself!
For further information on this topic, check out http://apps.manor.edu/faculty/knop
Prepared by Anne Knop, Senior Associate
Professor of Philosophy, Manor College , Fall 2000