Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with reality, existence, knowledge, values,

reason, mind, andlanguage. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance onrational argument. In more casual speech, by extension, "philosophy" can refer to "the most basic beliefs, concepts, and attitudes of an individual or group". The word "philosophy" comes from the Ancient Greek (philosophia), which literally means "love of wisdom". The introduction of the terms "philosopher" and "philosophy" has been ascribed to the Greek thinker Pythagoras. I.2What is philosophy? When we talk about philosophy, we are really referring to the thoughts and ideas that began in Asia Minor around 600 B.C. The word philosophy comes from the Greek words philein, which means to love and soph, which means wisdom. So philosophy literally means the love of wisdom. The earliest philosophers clustered around the Mediterranean Sea most notably ancient Greece. However, activities that we would today associate with modern science were happening all over the world. Ancient peoples such as the Egyptians and South Americans were 6 Chemistry connects to . . . . . . observing the sky and making mathematical calculations. The Chinese were doing primitive forms of chemistry with mercury and sulfur, and the American Indians were testing plants for healing disease and sickness. Today, all of these activities or technologies we would associate with science. Before the 15th century, ideas about science (philosophy) and scientific inventions (technology) were largely separate. Philosophers didnt much care for the crafts of inventors, and inventors didnt much care for the lofty ideas of philosophers. These two aspects of modern science did not really overlap in ancient times. Also, science as discovery (such as chemistry) was largely performed by alchemists who didnt overlap with either the philosophers or the inventors. However, after the 15th century, the philosophical ideas that started in Greece began to merge with the technological discoveries being made by people all over the world. The discoveries made by alchemists began to play a role in both invention and philosophy. For example, with the invention of the telescope, observations about the sky, planet and stars, which ancient peoples had been gathering for many years, were combined with both math and philosophy that came from Greece and the Middle East. This gave us our current understanding of the planets and solar system. From this time forward modern science exploded as new discoveries and inventions were put together with philosophical ideas. Science as ideas, science as discovery, and science as invention began to merge together giving us what we know today as modern science. Greek philosophers As we mentioned earlier, scientific thinking got its start in Asia Minor with the Greek philosophers. Thales of Miletus (625-545 B.C.) was the first Greek philosopher. After Thales of Miletus, there was Anaximander (611-547 B.C.) and Anaxemenes (550-475 B.C.) both from Miletus. Then there was Heraclitus of Ephesus (540-475 B.C.), Pythagoras of Samos (582-500 B.C.) Parmenides of Elea (480 B.C.) Empedocles of 8 Chemistry connects to . . . . . . Agracas (500-430 B.C.) Leucippus of Miletus (440 B.C.) and Democritus of Abdera (420 B.C.)! What a lot of long names to remember! However, all of these philosophers, in one way or another, had something to offer to science and we will learn more about them later. Socrates, Plato and Aristotle However, the three Greek philosophers that had the biggest influence on science and philosophy were Socrates (477-399 B.C.) Plato (427- 347 B.C.) and Aristotle (384-322 B.C.). Both Socrates and Plato came from Athens. Aristotle was from Stagira and was the student of Plato. Plato was the student of Socrates. Socrates did not like to study the natural world. He liked to think about human nature instead. Socrates didnt think there was anything valuable to learn by looking at nature. Plato, however, did like to look at nature and thought it was important. He began the first school dedicated to philosophy and natural philosophy. His school was called the Academy. It was located in Athens and survived for over 800 years. Platos most famous student was Aristotle. Aristotle studied at the Academy for almost 20 years before he was asked to tutor the son of King Philip II of Macedonia, Alexander. Alexander would go on to become Alexander the Great. Aristotle took the study of natural philosophy even further than his teacher Plato. His work, which included logic, physics, cosmology, anatomy, and even ethics, marked the beginning of a 2000 year history of Aristotelian thought that dominated much of the Western world. 10 Chemistry connects to . . . . . . What is most interesting about these philosophers was not that they got everything right. In fact, many of the ideas they had were simply wrong! However, what they contributed to science was their idea of taking a rational and objective approach to understanding how the world functioned. What we will soon discover is that science progresses through a series of disagreements about how things are. By using reason, logic and observation we can uncover many facts about how the world around us works, what it is made of, and even examine how it came into being.

Introduction to the Five Branches of Philosophy Philosophy can be divided into five branches which address the following questions: Metaphysics Study of Existence What's out there?

Epistemology Study of Knowledge How do I know about it? Ethics Politics Esthetics Study of Action Study of Force Study of Art What should I do? What actions are permissible? What can life be like?

There is a hierarchical relationship between these branches as can be seen in the Concept Chart. At the root is Metaphysics, the study of existence and the nature of existence. Closely related is Epistemology, the study of knowledge and how we know about reality and existence. Dependent on Epistemology is Ethics, the study of how man should act. Ethics is dependent on Epistemology because it is impossible to make choices without knowledge. A subset of Ethics isPolitics: the study of how men should interact in a proper society and what constitutes proper.Esthetics, the study of art and sense of life is slightly separate, but depends on Metaphysics, Epistemology, and Ethics.

Epistemology - the philosophical study of Knowledge What is Knowledge? (Knowledge vs. Opinion) Can we Know? (Scepticism vs. Dogmatism) How can we Know? (Rationalism vs. Empiricism) Metaphysics - the philosophical study of Reality Ontology - What kinds of things actually exist? (Realism vs. Nominalism) Philosophy of Mind - What is the nature of consciousness (Monism vs. Dualism) Philosophy of Religion - What is God and how does God relate to the universe? Axiology - the philosophical study of Value Ethics - What is Right? Aesthetics - What is the Beautiful? Politics - What is Justice? Logic - the philosophical study of Arguments What is an argument? What makes an argument work? What makes an argument bad? History of Philosophy - why did people think the way they did when they did?

The Branches of Philosophy In order to narrow the aims of discussion philosophy was broken into branches. Traditionally philosophy has been broken into four main branches; however we would like to add a fifth branch in our text

Epistemology Epistemology, from the Greek words episteme (knowledge) and logos (word/speech) is the branch of philosophy that deals with the nature, origin, and scope of knowledge and love. Metaphysics Metaphysics however (derived from the Greek words "ta meta ta physika biblia") - meaning 'the book that follows the physics book'. It was the way students referred to a specific book in the works of Aristotle, and it was a book on First Philosophy. (The assumption that the word means "beyond physics" is misleading) Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy concerned with the study of "first principles" and "being" (ontology). In other words, Metaphysics is the study of the most general aspects of reality, such as substance, identity, the nature of the mind, and free will.In other way is a study of nature and the nature of the world in which man lives

Logic Logic (from Classical Greek (logos), originally meaning the word, or what is spoken, but coming to mean thought or reason) is most often said to be the study of arguments, although the exact definition of logic is a matter of controversy amongst philosophers (see below). However the subject is grounded, the task of the logician is the same: to advance an account of valid and fallacious inference to allow one to distinguish good from bad arguments. Ethics Ethics is a general term for what is often described as the "science (study) of morality". In philosophy, ethical behavior is that which is "good" or "right." The Western tradition of ethics is sometimes called moral philosophy. Other Branches Philosophy of Education: Fairly self-explanatory. A minor branch, mainly concerned with what is the correct way to educate a person. Classic works include Plato's Republic, Locke's Thoughts Concerning Education, and Rousseau's Emile. Philosophy of History: Fairly minor branch (not as minor as education), although highly important to Hegel and those who followed him, most notably Marx. It is the philosophical study of history, particularly concerned with the question whether history (i.e. the universe and/or humankind) is progressing towards a specific end? Hegel argued that it was, as did Marx. Classic works include Vico's New Science, and Hegel and Marx's works. Philosophy of Language: Ancient branch of philosophy which gained prominence in the last century under Wittgenstein. Basically concerned with how our languages affect our thought. Wittgenstein famously asserted that the limits of our languages mark the limits of our thought. Classic works include Plato's Cratylus, Locke's Essay, and Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. Philosophy of Law: Also called Jurisprudence. Study of law attempting to discern what the best laws might be, how laws came into being in the first place, attempting to delimit human laws from natural laws, whether we should always obey the law, and so on. Law isn't often directly dealt with by philosophers, but much of political philosophy obviously has a bearing on it. Philosophy of Mathematics: Concerned with issues such as, the nature of the axioms and symbols (numbers, triangle, operands) of mathematics that we use to understand the world, do perfect mathematical forms exist in the real world, and so on. Principia Mathematica is almost certainly the most important work in this field. Philosophy of Mind: Study of the mind, attempting to ascertain exactly what the mind is, how it interacts with our body, do other minds exist, how does it work, and so on. Probably the most popular branch of philosophy right now, it has expanded to include issues of AI. Classic works include Plato's Republic and Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations, although every major philosopher has had some opinion at least on what the mind is and how it works. Philosophy of Politics: Closely related to ethics, this is a study of government and nations, particularly how they came about, what makes good governments, what obligations citizens have towards their government, and so on. Classic works include Plato's Republic, Hobbes' Leviathan, Locke's Two Treatises, and J.S. Mill's On Liberty. Philosophy of Religion: Theology is concerned with the study of God, recommending the best religious practises, how our religion should shape our life, and so on. Philosophy of religion is concerned with much the same issues, but where Theology uses religious works, like the Bible, as it's authority, philosophy likes to use reason as the ultimate authority. Philosophy of Science: Study of science concerned with whether scientific knowledge can be said to be certain, how we obtain it, can science really explain everything, does causation really exist, can every event in the universe be described in terms of physics and so on. Also popular in recent times, classic works include Hume's Treatise on Human Nature, Kripke's Naming and Necessity, Kuhn's Structure of Scientific Revolutions.