UTS
Lesson 1: Philosophy
What is Philosophy?
• Its etymology comes from the Greek – Philos – love and Sophia – wisdom – “love
• of wisdom”.
• The study of the basic/fundamental principles of life, knowledge, reality,
• existence, morality, human nature, etc., through the use of logic and reason.
• As an academic discipline, it does not provide ultimate answers, despite the
• ultimate nature of philosophical ideas.
• Opens the minds of people.
• Encourages individuals to ask questions and to seek answers for themselves.
• Encourages students to philosophize.
History of Philosophy
• An approach that can be employed
• Grounds the ideas to the context of the philosophers
• Shows the development of philosophy alongside with the development of human discovery and knowledge
• Grounds contemporary ideas
• Can provide an objective presentation of philosophical ideas
• Can be a ground/basis for other approaches
Philosophy therefore is the study of the fundamentals of world, life, way of life, and the universe
Branches of Philosophy
Logic: Logicians study good and bad arguments and reasoning, and they study formal, symbolic languages intended to express propositions, sentences, or arguments.
Metaphysics: Metaphysicians study what sorts of entities exist, what the world and its constituents are made of, and how objects or events might cause or explain each other.
Epistemology: Epistemologists study knowledge, evidence, and justified belief. An epistemologist might study whether we can trust our senses and whether science is trustworthy.
Values: In value theory, philosophers study morality, politics, and art, among other topics. For example: What makes wrong actions wrong? How do we identify good people and good lives? What makes a society just or unjust?
Ancient Philosophy (1000 BC – 500 AD)
Three (3) Periods:
1. Pre-Socratics (The Melisians) – How do you answer the question, “Who am I”?
2. Ancient Triumvirate – in what ways do I get to know myself?
3. Post-Aristotelians
1. Pre-Socratics - claimed that there was a single enduring material stuff that is both the origin of all things and their continuing nature.
● Cosmo-centric – explains that there is a fundamental principle/thing that underlies everything else, including the human self. This also implicates that the emphasis is on the notion of the.
Thales of Miletus (c. 624 BCE – c. 546 BCE) – is often regarded as the first Western philosopher. One of his significant contributions was his attempt to provide a natural explanation for the universe, rather than relying on mythological or supernatural explanations. He proposed WATER was the fundamental substance of all things.
He also believed that all things, from humans to stars were ultimately composed of this single substance.
Anaximander (610c. – 547 BCE) – is a Greek Philosopher who lived in the 6th Century BCE. He was the successor and pupil of Thales, and he proposed a different theory about the fundamental substance of the universe.
Key Points of Anaximander Theory
The Boundless: Anaximander introduced the apeiron, often translated as “the boundless” or the “the indefinite”. This was the fundamental substance from which all originated.
Origin of Everything: All the heavens, worlds, and things that came to exist came to be from apeiron.
Separation of Opposites: The apeiron generated the opposites of hot and cold, which then interacted to produce the various elements and things in the universe.
Justice and Injustice: Anaximander believed that things give penalty and recompense to one another for their injustice , suggesting a cosmic order or balance.
Anaximenes of Miletus (6th Century) – he was a pupil of Anaximander and proposed a different theory about the fundamental substance of the universe. AIR
Key Points of Anaximenes Theory
Condensation and Rarefaction: The process of change was explained by the condensation and rarefaction of air.
Creation of Elements: As air condensed, it became wind, cloud, water, earth and finally stones. Ratified air became fire.
Mechanism of Change: The condensation and rarefaction of air were connected to cooling and heating, as demonstrated by examples like blowing on soup or cold hands.
Democritus – proposed the atomic theory, suggesting that the universe is composed of tiny, indivisible particles.
Heraclitus – Believed that fire was the fundamental substance and that everything is in a state of constant flux.
Anaxagoras – introduced the concept of nous (mind) as the organizing principle of the universe.
Pythagoras – emphasized the importance of numbers and mathematical relationships in understanding the universe.
The Ancient Triumvirate
Socrates (469-399 BCE) – was a renowned Greek philosopher and one of the most influential figures in Western Philosophy.
Socratic Method
Questioning and Dialogue: Socrates is best known for his Socratic Method, a form of philosophical inquiry that involved engaging others in dialogue through probing questions.
Key Beliefs
Know Thyself: Socrates emphasized the importance of self-knowledge and understanding.
Unexamined Life: He believed that an unexamined life is not worth living.
Dualistic Reality: Socrates believed in a dualistic reality consisting of a physical word (changeable, transient, and imperfect) and spiritual world (unchanging, eternal, and perfect)
Soul and Immortality: He argued that the soul is distinct from the physical body and is immortal, surviving death.
Innate Knowledge: Socrates believed in the concept of innate knowledge, suggesting that the soul possesses certain truths that can be remembered through philosophical inquiry.
Moral and Intellectual Aspects: He saw the soul as having both moral and intellectual dimensions and emphasized the importance of ethical knowledge for living a virtuous life.
The Post-Aristotelians
Stoicism
Apathy or Indifference: Stoics advocates for apathy or indifference to pleasure and pain.
Virtue as One: They believed that virtue is one, but can manifest in different ways, such as prudence, courage, temperance, and justice.
Moral Norms and Happiness: Stoics focused on moral norms and the attainment of happiness through virtue.
Hedonism:
Pleasure as the Goal: Hedonists believed that pleasure is the ultimate goal and motivation for human action.
Psychological Hedonism: This view claims that only pleasure or pain motivates us.
Ethical Hedonism: This view claims that only pleasure has value and only pain has disvalue.
Epicureanism:
Moderate Pleasure: Believed in the pursuit of pleasure, but emphasized that the things produced pleasure often entail disturbances.
Pleasure and Value: They believed in a good life is a pleasurable life and that there is no objective value system independent of human experience.
Tranquility: They sought tranquility or ataraxia, which is the highest pleasure and comes from meeting our desires of lacking them altogether.
Lesson 2: Medieval Philosophy
Medieval Philosophy (500 AD- 1360)
Theo-Centric – the perspective on self is centered on God.
From the scientific investigation on nature and search for happiness to the question of life and salvation in another realm.
There was an aim to merge philosophy and religion (Christian, Jewish, and Muslim)
St. Augustine
Integrates Platonic ideas (physical reality is subjected to change, which makes it unreliable. However, there is a world of permanence and reliability, and this is the Platonic Form.
Platonic Realm of Forms and Christian Philosophy: The self strives to achieve union with God through faith and reason.
Material Entities: Augustine conceived of both God and the soul as material entities.
True Happiness in the Afterlife: True happiness will be realized in the afterlife as a gift of God’s grace.
Resurrection and Scriptural Authority: Resurrection is a promise of God that must be believed in Scriptural authority.
Identity in this Philosophy:
Union with God: How can one achieve union with God
Overcoming Distance: What can be done about the distance between oneself and God?
Self-Existence: How can one be sure that self-exists.
Modern Philosophy (14th century – Early 20th Century)
Anthropocentric Focus: modern philosophy shifted its focus to the human person.
Rejection of Scholasticism: Thinkers began to reject the reliance on authority and scholastic methods.
Emphasis on Rational Inquiry: Genuine knowledge is based on independent rational inquiry and real-world experimentation.
Rene Descartes: A rationalist
Cogito Ergo Sum: I think, therefore I Am
Human Identity: The self is a thinking thing.
Dualism: Descartes proposed a dualistic view of the self, distinguishing between the spiritual (thinking) self and the physical body.
Spiritual Self: The spiritual self is governed by the laws of reason and God’s will.
Physical Body: The physical body is governed by the laws of nature
Indissoluble Connection: Despite the distinction, Descartes believed in an intimate connection between the soul and the body.
John Locke: An empiricist
Knowledge from Experience: Knowledge originates in our direct sense of experience
Reason Role: reason plays a role in interpreting and understanding our sense of experience.
The Self in Philosophy
The Self and Physical Body: The self is not embedded in a single substance or soul but exists in space and time. The physical body is integrated with the self, but the self endures because of memory.
Consciousness and Memory: Conscious awareness and memory of previous experiences are crucial to understanding the self.
David Hume: Empiricist, Sceptic, and Nihilist
Empiricism: Impressions are basic sensations of experiences ideas are copies of these impressions.
Floating Stream of Sensations: There is no constant and invariable self that exists as a unified identity over time.
The Self as a Bundle: The self is a bundle or collection of different perceptions that succeed each other rapidly and are in perpetual flux and movement.
Immanuel Kant: A priori concepts
A Priori Concepts: Fundamental organizing rules of principle built into the architecture of the mind, which categorize, organize, and synthesize sense data into the familiar fabric of our lives.
Unity of Consciousness: A priori concepts make the world intelligible.
A priori vs. Posteriori: A priori statements are logical reasoning and innate, while a posteriori statements express something the speaker knows from experience.
Sigmund Freud: Psychoanalysis:
Multi-layered Self: The self is multi-layered consisting of the conscious, preconscious, and unconscious.
Conscious Level: Governed by the reality principle, behavior and experience are organized in rational, practical, and appropriate ways.
Unconscious Level: Contains basic instinctual drive, traumatic memories, unfulfilled wishes, and socially taboo thoughts and feelings.
Id, Ego, Superego: The id is the pleasure principle, the ego is the reality principle, and the superego is the morality principle.
The Self in Philosophy: Contemporary Perspective
Gilbert Ryle: A physicalist
Behaviorism: Eliminates the mind-body dichotomy by denying the existence of innerselves, immortal souls, or unconscious specific entities.
The Self as Behaviour: The self is defined in terms of behavior, the tendency or disposition for a person to behave in certain ways in specific circumstances.
Paul Churchland: A physicalist
Eliminative Materialism: Grounded in neuroscience, it proposes that the mind/self is the brain.
Edmund Husserl
The father of Phenomenology - the study of structures of consciousness as experienced from the first-person point of view. The central structure of an experience is its intentionality, its being directed toward something, as it is an experience of or about some object. An experience is directed toward an object by virtue of its content or meaning (which represents the object) together with appropriate enabling conditions.
We experience our “self” as a unity in which the mental and physical are seamlessly woven together.
Maurice Merleau-Ponty - He believed in the “lived body”. An entity that can never be objectified or known in a completely objective sort of way, as opposed to the “body as object” of the dualists. “There is no duality of substance but a dialectic of living being in its biological milieu.”
Expressing the idea that living beings and their environments are not separate entities with distinct substances, but rather they are interconnected and in a dynamic relationship. This relationship involves continuous interaction, where the living being and its environment shape and affect each other, leading to a more complex understanding of their interdependence
Embodied Subjectivity
Both Husserl and Merleau Ponty agree that our living body is a natural synthesis of mind and biology.
Phenomenological approach: describe the phenomena of the lived experience (reducing biases) by describing what your immediate responses are— physically, emotionally, cognitively.
Lesson 3: True Self
Charles Cooley: Looking Glass Self
Self Creation: the creation of our self-image is based on how others perceive us.
Elements of Self-Idea: Imagination of appearance, judgment of others views, and feelings associated with these judgements.
George Herbert Mead: Self as “Social Life”
Self-Development: The self develops through interaction with others
Generalized Other: A representative of the group that carries out the burden of societal expectations.
I vs. Me: The I is subjective while the me is objective.
Play Stage vs. Game Stage
Play Stage: Children practice taking on single roles, but don’t understand the broader game.
Game Stage: Children understand their roles within a larger social structure.
Oral (0-1): Focus on Oral Stage
Anal (1-3): Focus on Bowel Movements and bladder control
Phallic (3-7): Discovery of genitals, Oedipus/Electra Complex
Latency (7-11): Libido is low, focus on school and friendships.
Genitals (11-adult): Renewed sexual interest
Carl Rogers: Self-Concept
Three Components: Ideal Self, self-image, and self-esteem
Ideal Self: The person we aspire to be
Self-Image: Current perceptions of oneself
Self-Esteem: confidence in oneself
Additional Concepts
Ethnocentrism: Belief in superiority of one’s own culture
Xenocentrism: Preference for the culture of others
Cultural Relativism: Understanding cultures without judgment.
Incongruence – is like feeling out of sync with yourself. For example, someone who believes they are a kind and compassionate person but often finds themselves acting harshly may experience incongruence.
Congruence – is like being in harmony with yourself. In other words, you’re being true to yourself and your actions match with your beliefs and values.
Conditions for Affection – Affection is often reciprocated, meaning you’re likely to feel affection towards someone if they feel the same affection towards you.
Unconditional Love – You’re not expecting in return, you’re not waiting for them to reciprocate the same intensity or energy you’re giving to them. It’s a love regardless of flawed and mistakes.
Erik Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory
- The theory focuses on the social and emotional human development.
8 stages of Psychosocial Theory
1. Trust vs. Mistrust (Infancy)
- During this stage, infants develop a sense of trust or mistrust based on their interactions with caregivers
Too much Syntonic: vulnerability and prone to lies.
Too much Dystonic: difficulty to form healthy relationship in the near future.
2. Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt (Toddlerhood)
- Toddlers begin to assert their independence and develop a sense of autonomy. If they are overly restricted or critized they may develop feelings of shame and doubt.
Too much Syntonic: become stubborn and unwilling to compromise
Too much Dystonic: leading to low self-esteem and difficulty of making decisions.
3. Initiative vs. Guilt (Preschool)
- In this stage they become more curious and take on new challenges. If they are encouraged, they develop a sense of initiative. If they are discouraged or punished, they may feel guilty.
4. Industry vs. Inferiority (School Age)
- School age children develop a sense of competence or inferiority based on their experiences in school and other activities.
Too much syntonic: arrogant or unable to handle failure
Too much dystonic: develop a sense of inferiority and struggle to achieve their goals.
5. Identity vs. Role Confusion
- Adolescents explore their identity and try on different roles. If they are successful, they develop a strong sense of identity. If they are not they may experience role confusion.
Too much syntonic: struggle to form meaningful relationship with others
Too much dystonic: confusion and anxiety
6. Intimacy vs. Isolation (Young Adulthood)
- Young adults form close relationships with others or may experience isolation.
Too much syntonic: struggle to form deep meaningful relationship
Too much dystonic: isolated and fearful of intimacy
7. Generativity vs. Stagnation (Middle Adulthood)
- Middle-aged adults contribute to the next generation through work, parenting, or community involvement or may feel a sense of stagnation.
Too much syntonic: neglect their family and community needs
Too much dystonic: bitter or resentful
8. Ego-Integrity vs. Despair
- In late adulthood, individuals reflect on their lives and either develop a sense of ego integrity or despair
Too much syntonic: complacent and uninterested to try new things.
Too much dystonic: bitterness
Possible Personalities (Syntonic)
1. Narcissistic
2. Histrionic
3. Borderline
Possible Personalities (Dystonic)
1. Avoidant
2. Dependent
3. Depressive
Relationship to Freud’s Psychosexual Theory
Freud emphasized the biological and sexual drives that underlie development , while Erikson focused on the social and emotional factors. Additionally, Erikson theory extends beyond childhood and adolescence encompassing the entire lifespan.