Chapter 1 Philosophy
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Eastern Florida State College *
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Philosophy
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Feb 20, 2024
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Wei Lee
Dr.
Alfarone
PSY 2010 23Z
9 February 2024
Assignment Ch.1: Introduction to Philosophy
1. What do people often learn about themselves through the study of philosophy?
That beliefs about themselves and the world are often wrong and sometimes contradictory to one another.
2. What are some of the questions we deal with in philosophy? •
What is real?
•
What is truth?
•
What is knowledge?
•
What is the good?
•
What is justice?
•
Is the mind something separate from the body?
•
Are we free or our actions determined by that over which we no longer have any control or influence?
3. List the five or so most important questions or problems you think about.
Is there life outside of earth?
What is love?
Why are we here?
What’s the meaning of life?
Why do we think this way?
4. If you had virtually unlimited financial resources at your disposal what would you begin doing with your life?
I would start travelling the world, seeing beautiful scenery and not having to worry about getting a job or stressing about financial issues.
5. How do you use the term "philosophy"? How do others use the term "philosophy"? Give examples. How I use the term "philosophy" is the way I think. As for others they most likely use the term the same way, a way to think.
6. What value do you think philosophy has both to you as an individual and to us as a society?
It allows an individual to understand oneself and the world around them. As a society it helps bring other peoples beliefs together in order to gain a deeper understanding of each other.
7. According to the readings, there are many erroneous ways to define philosophy. List a minimum of 5 to 7 of these erroneous attempts.
8. How is philosophy defined in the Webster's 9th New Collegiate Dictionary?
1. pursuit of wisdom; knowledge of things & their causes, whether theoretical or practical
9. the system which a person forms for the conduct of life
9. List the “basic problems” philosophy deals with.
•
What is real?
•
What is truth?
•
What is knowledge?
•
What is the good?
•
What is justice?
•
Is the mind something separate from the body?
•
Are we free or our actions determined by that over which we no longer have any control or influence?
10. Give a formal (dictionary) definition of Logic
The study of correct reasoning, especially as it involves the drawing of inferences.
11. Give a formal (dictionary) definition of Metaphysics
Branch of philosophy whose topics in antiquity and the Middle Ages were the first causes of
things and the nature of being.
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12. Give a formal (dictionary) definition of Ontology
The philosophical study of being in general, or of what applies neutrally to everything that is real.
13. Give a formal (dictionary) definition of Cosmology
Field of study that brings together the natural sciences, particularly astronomy and physics, in a joint effort to understand the physical universe as a unified whole.
14. Give a formal (dictionary) definition of Epistemology.
The philosophical study of the nature, origin, and limits of human knowledge.
15. Give a formal (dictionary) definition of Ethics.
The discipline concerned with what is morally good and bad and morally right and wrong.
16. Give a formal (dictionary) definition of Axiology
The philosophical study of goodness, or value, in the widest sense of these terms.
17. Give a formal (dictionary) definition of Aesthetics
The philosophical study of beauty and taste.
18. What are the ‘attitudes” often associated with philosophical reflection?
Curiosity, open-mindedness, and critical thinking
19. What are some of the ‘effects” of philosophical reflection?
A sense of the “better” life. A sense of what is important. A sense of what one values.
20. What did the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle believe to be the starting point of philosophy? Why do you think he believed this?
Because philosophy begins in wonders and the first thing you do when you question a belief
is wonder.
21. What meaning does your reading give to the Santa Claus example?
Reading about the Santa Claus example helped explain philosophy from a child 's point of view.
22. Why do your readings suggest that the best definition of philosophy is “the most critical and comprehensive thought process devised by humans?”
Philosophy is the means by which those answers are evaluated, examined and found to be acceptable or else rejected.
23. At the time of Socrates Greek culture was undergoing a major revolution. What were some of the characteristics of that cultural shift?
At this time, they were transforming from an oral culture to a literature culture
24. What is the meaning behind the statement: “Philosophy arises out of a cultural background?”
Philosophy arises out of a questioning of the myths, the accepted truths, the beliefs, and tales of a culture.
25. Your reading presents some of the elements of Alfred North Whitehead’s Theory of Educational Development. Please describe the elements of this theory.
Romance, precision, generalization.
26. What is the coherencies theory of truth, as described in your unit reading?
A statement is true if it coheres with our existing set of beliefs.
27. What are some of the developments that mark the origins of philosophical though in the West?
"Now for Socrates, Plato and Aristotle the idea of the Greek deities came to make little sense in the light of reason and so the idea of a more abstract entity emerges with them as more satisfying as an explanation of origins and order. Their ideas satisfy the dictates of reason for which they abandoned the blind adherence to the stories of their ancestors.”
28. List a few of the odd combinations of beliefs, noted in the unit reading.
A single deity must exist and everyone is entitled to believe in whatever they wish concerning the deity and it will be true.
Reality consists of physical and spiritual entities and reality is whatever any group agrees that it is.
There are moral wrong or evil acts and whatever people think is morally correct is morally correct for them.
There are evil acts and there is no one way to declare anything to be evil.
29. Please explain what your text means when it says, “Yet tolerance itself is a disvalue as post modernists would have promoted it.” What are some of the things that those who advocate tolerance cannot be tolerant of?
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Tolerance is not respect. To be tolerant is to put up with something. It does not include accepting it or considering it as valuable or worthy. Tolerance of people and beliefs is promoted but it is misguided and harmful whenever to be tolerant of behaviors and ideas would hurt individuals and groups in physical and emotional ways.
Those who advocate tolerance cannot be tolerant of rapists, murderers, child molesters, racists, misogynists, intolerant groups, and individuals.
30. “Most folks think very little about Philosophy. Of those who do many have some erroneous ideas about the discipline and its history. One of the most troublesome, for Philosophers, of these mistaken ideas is that it is about opinions.” Explain why?
Because opinions are what humans all have, with which to think and all opinions are pretty
much of equal value, these two ideas run directly opposed to what philosophers are attempting to do. Philosophers search for wisdom.