PHILOSOPHY 1 REVIEWER

2nd Long Exam

I. The Mind – see other reviewer

II. 3 Senses of the Term Philosophy (By Dr. Armando F. Bonifacio)
 Reflective Method
1. Reasoning happens at the speed of light  example is the
husband and wife and cheating
2. After a while, people reflect
 There are many ways of reflecting
 Detective, priest, etc.
3. Different reflective methods = different philosophies
 Intellectual Presupposition
1. Intellectual = mind, presupposition = presupposes other beliefs
2. In physics
 Isaac Newton – parallel lines don’t intersect vs Albert
Einstein – parallel lines intersect
 What if parallel lines did intersect?
 Big Bang  all lines will inevitably bend  drawing a line
will take time  bend
 When can we say Euclidian is right/wrong? All we can do
is presuppose
 Belief System
1. When you have a belief system, everything in your mind is
connected
2. Observation: Philosophy and Logic  Arts and Poetry
 Supposed to be related to one another
3. All philosophies are belief systems, not all belief systems are
philosophies
 Philosophies do not have contradictions
 Some belief systems do not give value to abhorrence of
contradictions
4. Why we call things Philosophy
 Philosophy of Sports  contradiction with men and women
inequality so philosophize
 Philosophy of Science  theories not truths so
philosophize
 Arts and music “not related” to mathematics and logic 
contradiction (supposed to be related) so philosophize
5. Connection of philosophy of art with environment, birds of UP,
Krus na Ligas lives
 III. Fallacies
Fallacy Definition
1. Argumentum ad  Appeal to the person or
hominem personality,
 poisoning the well fallacy
 Focus on person, not argument
2. Argumentum ad  Appeal to popularity
hominem  Even if everyone says it, doesn’t
mean it’s good
3. Wag the dog /  Modern kind of fallacy
“Red herring”  Talk about something else to avoid
4. Argumentum ad  Vere = veritas = truth, cundiam =
verecundiam carrier
 Appeal to authority
 What if authorities don’t agree, get
authority, get authority, etc.
5. Argumentum ad  Appeal to emotion
miserecordiam  Feel good about something, not
necessarily correct
6. Argumentum ad  Baculum = club
baculum  Appeal to coercion
7. Straw Man  Attacking a different argument
Fallacy from what the other presents and
saying it disproves the argument in
question
 Oversimplification, exaggeration,
changing
 When original question is too hard
8. Argumentum ad  Appeal to ignorance
ignorantiam  Lacking evidence  conclude
 (1) Claiming that simply because
something has not yet been
proven that it is not the case
 (2) Claiming that simply because
something has not yet been
disproven that it is the case
9. False Dilemma/  Limiting options to 2 when there
False Dichotomy/ are more options to choose from
Black-and-white
fallacy
10. Slippery Slope  Moving from a seemingly benign
premise or starting point and
working through a number of small
steps to an improbable extreme
(unlikely).
11. Circular  Petitio principii meaning “Assuming
Example
 “Don’t smoke” but person is
smoking
 Arguments of Duterte and
Mocha Uson
 Everyone smokes, so smoke
 Priests = morality
 Physics = Newton and
Einstein
 Something singing at the
steps  if you feel moved
 Politician answers a question
“did you engage in corrupt
actions” by saying “my
favorite campaign donation”
 Ads for beer encourage
underage drinking 
underage drinking often has
negative consequences 
therefore, ads for beer
should be banned from TV
 Since nobody could prove
ghosts do not exist, ghosts
do exist.
 No one has provided proof
that God exists, so God does
not exist // Not one has
provided proof that God does
not exist, so God exists
 There are only 2 kinds of
people: those who love Led
Zeppelin or those who hate
music
 Advertisements
 Going to party or else no
friends  alone and jobless
and living in a basement until
30
 “The Bible is true because
Argument (petition the initial [thing]“ the Bible says it’s true"
principii)  Begging the Question  "According to my brain, my
 Restating one’s argument so it brain is reliable.”
looks like an argument
12. Hasty  General claims too hastily made  You could never trust a
Generalization (without sufficient evidence) woman
13. Tu Quoque  “You too”  “Maybe I committed a little
Fallacy  Appeal to hypocrisy adultery, but so did you
Jason!”
14. Causal Fallacy (1) False Cause  “Since your parents named
 "not the-cause for a cause" you ‘Harvest,’ they must be
 Conclude about a cause without farmers.”
evidence to do so

(2) Post Hoc Fallacy  “Yesterday, I walked under a

 "after this, therefore because of
this"
 Mistake something as a cause
because it came first
(3) Correlational fallacy aka cum hoc
ergo propter hoc
 “with this therefore because of
this"
 mistakenly interpret two things
found together as being causally
related
ladder with an open umbrella
indoors while spilling salt in
front of a black cat. And I
forgot to knock on wood with
my lucky dice. That must be
why I’m having such a bad
day today. It’s bad luck.”
 “Every time Joe goes
swimming he is wearing his
Speedos. Something about
wearing that Speedo must
make him want to go
swimming.”

15. Fallacy of Sunk  Thinking we should continue a  In a career for 10 years but
Costs task because of all that we’ve put not happy, ask yourself
into it, without considering the what’s the best for your
future costs future? So as not to not
waste the 10 years (the sunk
cost), stay
16. Equivocation  Using a word, phrase, or sentence
(ambiguity) to confuse, deceive, or mislead by
sounding
17. Gambler’s  Thinking that because X derives  "His father is a criminal, so
fallacy from Y, and Y has a certain he must also be up to no
property, X must have the same good."
property also

IV. Formal Fallacies

 Affirming the Consequent Fallacy
1. Fallacy: p  q, q therefore p
2. Similar to Modus Ponens: p  q, p therefore q
 Denying the Antecedent Fallacy
1. Fallacy: p  q, ~p therefore ~q
 2. Similar to Modus Tollens: p  q, ~q  ~p
3. Example / story
 Papa Isio and the farmers
 Hacienderos  Earning haciendas
 Not hacienderos therefore not earning haciendas

V. History: Macedonia, Rome, Athens, etc.

VI. Scientific Method
 Method Itself
1. Observation - induction
2. Formulation of the Problem
 Intersubjective
 Had a specific problem in mind
 Sets apart scientists from others
 Gives direction
3. Formulation of the hypothesis
4. Testing of the Hypothesis – generation of data
5. Formulation of the theory
 Goal in UP is to harvest as many theories as we can:
predict the future with accuracy
 Why is it called a theory?
a. Sentence  called a generalization
i. Genera  Genus (a number of things)
b. Not called truth
i. Theories can be proven wrong
 All generalizations are commonsensical
 Only a subset of commonsensical can be called scientific
B. Problem: Guesses
1. Not all guesses are scientific
2. Some require testing; some cannot be tested
C. Limitations
o Based on steps:
1. Observation
a. Context and background of prior experiences
affect it = observation is never neutral
b. Which came first? Observation or problem
c. Discussion:
i. Ernest Mach and flashcards:
1. What were the similarities and
differences of the 2 flashcards?
2. No pattern in similarities but in
differences: always the form first 
capital and lowercase (not color, size,
texture)
3. Gestalt Psychology
ii. Observation comes in 2 steps:
1. Sensing
2. Perceiving (Interpret) – what for some
would be music, others noise
iii. Ex. Rabbit and duck
 2. Problem
a. Different values for what is considered a problem
b. When formulating a problem, hypothesis, theory,
etc. use language
i. Formed by convention
ii. Formulation will be delimited by your
language
iii. Contaminate formulation with bias = no
objectivity!
3. Formulation of the Hypothesis
a. Mostly accidents  irrational
b. Discussion: Examples of accidents
i. Benzene Ring
o How did it take so much energy or be
so explosive?
o Kekulé  dreamt of snake eating its
tail  RING
ii. How can light travel through a vacuum
o Michael Faraday and Dynamo 
found out electricity can travel
through a vacuum
o Roentgen and his trash / messy lab
 saw items glow
iii. Why do some things float and some sink?
o Law of Buoyancy  also through
accident
4. Testing of Hypothesis
a. Deciding proper sample reflects cyclical nature
i. Sample: discard some sample
(representative) = concept of right sample
ii. Need a measure or norm to decide sample
iii. Norm = theory
iv. > Sample  theory  generalization –
b. Don’t see entire universe of discourse*
5. Formulation of Theory
a. Not truth  expect to be revised or rejected
b. BUT we believe them  to predict better and to be
in control of your destinies
c. 1500s – 2100s
 Experience of mankind with science
 Revised or rejected for better theories
 Theories have different values
a. Bruno: Copernicus is right: The Earth
is not the center of the universe
b. Because of the context  burned alive
and spear VS now: not the same
D. Cyclical Nature
 Investigating theories  repeat cycle
 Discover something wrong  light travels through a vacuum +
electricity  How can something travel through nothing
VII. Generalizations require:
 Enough quantity (large sample) to say generalization is reliable
 Quality: representative sample
 To be scientific: No counter instance
 Free falling bodies – have you observed one year’s worth?
 Never observed event 1% of them
 No counter instance  why we say f = ma
VIII. Truth is Problematic
 Truth is Conventional
 If all sentences are conventional, truth is conventional
 Anybody can have their own concept of truth
 What if someone says “truth is not conventional”
 Truth is Trivial
 Can invent language without it
 Example:
o “S” is true if and only if S.
o S iff S.
o “S” ^ S.
o “S” ^ ~S

MORAL PHILOSOPHY

I. Types of Reasoning – nature vs results

A. Deontological Reasoning
 Focus: nature
 Choices: Save the baby, no capital punishment
o Save the baby – letting die vs save the mother – killing
o “Thou shalt not kill”
B. Teleological Reasoning
 Focus: purpose, aim, goal, results
 Choices: Save the mother, capital punishment (with CP  less
crimes  better economy)
II. Deciding on the better reasoning
A. Problems
 Can’t use deontological to say you choose teleological reasoning
 Ciodel’s Incompleteness Theorem
 B. With what norm can you compare the 2 beyond what is advantageous for
you?
 Athens and Socrates:
o In Athens, nobody wanted to be called a “philosopher” 
scandalous
o Socrates wanted to be a philosopher, taught philosophy
o Philosophers in Persian coastal cities
 Went back to Athens: needed money
 Made schools
 Earned money
o Problem of Sophists:
 Political scenario and economic scenario kept
changing
 So decided that: man should be the focus of
attention, one decides upon principles
o Socrates:
 Sophists are right: Focus should be man and
how he reasons
 Man  his actions  what action is good/evil
 Invented ethics
 Normative Ethics  by which norm is good/evil
o Different for Muslims and Christians
 2 Kinds of Ethics
1. Normative Ethics
 By which norm is good/evil
 Different for Muslims and Christians
2. Metaethics
 “Beyond”
 Will your moral reasoning or principle lead to
coherence or contradictions?
 Coherence of norm and other thoughts in mind
 Result of your creativity
 Source of abhorrence of bigotry  source of
creativity  want to be coherent
 Importance of choosing between teleological and deontological
o Slippery Slope Fallacy – ambiguity
o Give up one in favor of another  but why give up one?
o By training of being in scientific era  teleological
(results)
---- stories of Socrates ----

ENVIRONMENTAL PHILOSOPHY

I. Introduction
a. Go Harlem Brundtland
i. Became a doctor when women weren’t known
ii. 1980’s, Norway
iii. Many with upper respiratory tract infection (but many trees)
 iv. Noticed reason why: Norway was affected by the industrialized
countries (when the Earth was rotating)
v. Became Minister of Earth
vi. Called attention to European Union  United Nations
b. UNEP: United Nations Environmental Program
i. To know the state of the Earth
ii. 1982-1985  studied state of the Earth
iii. Baseline data
iv. Brundtland data: state of the Earth report as of 1987
v. Report was published in book: Our Common Future
II. Situation
a. Kids to give candy
b. There should be equal distribution instead of differential distribution
because everyone should be saved
III. Reasons for Environmental Decay
1. Deforestation
 Statistics
o Primary forests are lost 80,000 km2/yr (original forests)
o 7% of the whole worlds  50% of all life reside here
 Why Inbreeding isn’t good
o No diversity of species
o Need gene pool from wild (coming from 50% plants and
animals from 7%)
 World was gas  cooled  crust w/ minerals
o Plantlife absorbed minerals  dried and produced layer
1000 years to produce 1 inch of topsoil
o No trees – siltation  trees absorb water with unproductive
material  water is not pure
 The Chain Effects
o X primary forests  X water  X oxygen  X drugs and
medicines
 Mankind studied the poison arrow frog  used in
medicine to cure tuberculosis going around Europe
(whole mankind might die)
o siltation  no sunlight  X coral polyps  X coral reefs  X
fish  smaller brains / malnourished
 More coral reefs destroyed by deforestation than
dynamite fishing
 PH has 8% forest cover left (supposed to be 53% forest cover)
2. Climate Change
 Over time
o More super typhoons (used to be 1 every 10 years  1-2
super typhoons every year)
o In last 200 years, 1.5-4.5 degrees Celsius increase
 10,000 years ago to before 18th century = 18th century
= next 100 years
o Stephen Hawking: estimated that by 2055, climate change
will be so devastating we won’t be able to do anything
 Currently
o Philippines: already 2 deserts
 o One of these days, Ilocos Norte and ______ and La Union
may become deserts
o By 2030, Pangasinan will feel desertification
3. Pollution
 Three Kinds of Pollution
a. Household
i. Examples
1. Pen – 1.6 billion in 1987 US (6 inches x 1.6 billion
 go around world 6 times)
2. Disposable Diaper – 16 billion in US x 1 foot = go
around world 122 times
3. Napkins – non-biodegradable – 3 billion women in
the world, 1/3 example uses – 1 billion women 
every month x 5 = 5 billion x 10 months = 50 billion
ii. NOAA (National Oceanographic Atmosphere
Administration) – Predicting that end of century, more
trash (plastic) > fish
iii. In Europe, microplastics in sea; there are plastic
islands bigger than countries
b. Industrial
i. World Wars
1. Nergas Bomb – World War I
a. U.S.: 500,000 tons of Nergas Bombs; can’t
dispose  to decommission, complex
chemistry  500 years to decommission all
b. Left Nergas bombs in PH
c. Subic and Clark – most leukemia in PH
d. UP Clark – with cement – might be bombs
2. Nuclear Bomb – World War II
c. Radioactivity
i. UN: can’t put nuclear stockpile in volcanic area and
earthquake and super typhoon prone areas
1. Japan – 40 nuclear power plants
2. Taiwan – 6 nuclear power plants
ii. Brought to special facility in Pangasinan (nuclear
sickness)
iii. West PH sea – nuclear waste – China, Taiwan **
4. Population Growth
a. Problem: less than 11% of the Earth is agriculturally
productive
b. UN Development Program: 2 hectares per person
c. 1 meter rise (sea)  15 million in Bangladesh will be
refugees (no homes)
d. 11 people – sharing 1 productive hectare, need 2 hectares
per person