Module 1: Introduction to Philosophy and Ethics

Philosophy

• love for wisdon

Epistemology

• The branch of philosophy that studies theories of knowledge such as its methods, scope, and validity.

• It distinguishes truth from opinion. 

Metaphysics

• The branch of philosophy that studies theories of reality.

• It deals with principles and abstract concepts such as being, causation, identity, time, and space. 

Logic

• The branch of philosophy that studies the validity of an argument using categorical concepts and/or symbolic and mathematical techniques.

• Logic is traditionally divided into traditional or Aristotelean logic and modern or mathematical logic. 

Ethics

• Studies the moral principles that govern a person’s behavior and distinguishes the moral correctness of an action.

Aesthetics

• The branch of philosophy that deals with a set of principles concerned with the nature of beauty found in art.

Social and Political Philosophy

• A branch of applied philosophy that studies political theories such as politics, liberty, justice, rights, and laws. 

Philosophy of Religion

• The study of the meaning and nature of religion and religious belief.

• It analyzes religious concepts, beliefs, terminologies, and arguments of both religious and atheistic adherents. 

Reason

• Human beings are unique because, as far as we know, we are the only ones in the animal kingdom that are endowed with reason or rationality.

• We are able to project ourselves into the future and decide what we can be on the basis of our actions and decisions. 

Freedom and Responsibility

• It is impossible to act without presupposing that we are free.

• It s always accompanied by the accountability of one’s actions.

Human Agency

• Our capacity to make a choice and act according to that choice.

• The object of ethics

Goodness

• Christian thinkers have always presented that the human person is created in the image and likeness of God.

• It follows, then, that we are inherently good.

Happiness

• A goal of our human actions.

• It can only be attained through a good and moral life.

Humanity

• The choices we make now will have ripple effects on the rest of the people around us.

• We must make wise and ethical decisions if we want to achieve harmony in our society. 

Normative and prescriptive ethics

• A type of ethics that determines what moral standards determine the rightness or wrongness of our actions.

• It prescribes how a person should act in society.

• The ethical principles serve as our moral standard.

• May have a religion or nonreligious origin

Descriptive or applied ethics

• The factual investigation of moral behavior.

Ethics

• A moral philosophy which studies whether an action is good or bad.

• More theoretical and detached as it is a systematic study of the morality of human actions and behaviors.

Morality

• Human actions which are done with knowledge, freedom and voluntariness.

• More personal and subjective as these involve personal choice and volition from first person point of view.