Why should we study

Philosophy

Group: Blue sky

 Prepared for

Kaniz Kakon
Faculty of CBA, IUBAT

Prepared by

Name ID Program
Jasia Ahmed Romana 09102088 BBA
Md.Alamgir Hossian 08102058 BBA
Tahmina Akter Shilpi 09102084 BBA
Kh. Masrur Ferdous 09102089 BBA
Md. Saiful Islam 09102068 BBA

22
 

IUBAT— International University of Business Agriculture andTechnology

December 06, 2010

Kaniz Kakon
Course instructor
CBA - College of Business Administration
IUBAT (International University of Business Agriculture & Technology)
4 Embankment Drive Road, Sector 10,
Uttara Dhaka, 1230.

Subject: Letter of transmittal.

Madam,
We are very pleased to submit our report on “Why should we study philosophy?”.

It was a great opportunity for us to work as a reporter on the topic. That you have asked us
to prepare on 22nd March, 2011. In this report we have to elaborate our knowledge what we
learn from our academic career. We tried to give our maximum effort on preparing this report
as best.

Considering the level of hard working, information, processing, and analysis we believe that
this report is a complete one. We provide our full concentration to prepare this report. We

33
hope that our study will meet your expectation as well.

Sincerely yours,
Group: Blue sky

Letter of Authorization

March 22, 2011

Jasia Ahmed Romana
ID# 09102088
Program: BBA

Dear Romana,
You will be happy to know that, a report on “Why should we study philosophy.” has been
assigned to your group. You will have to submit your group report within the given deadline.
I hope you will successfully complete the report on time. After successfully completion of the
report you are requested to present your report in a PowerPoint slide presentation.

For any kind of needs don’t hesitate to contact with me.

Thank you.

44
_____________________
(Kaniz Kakon)
Faculty, College of Business Administration, IUBAT

Acknowledgement

This is high time for us to convey our deepest gratitude and sincere submission to the
Almighty Allah for giving us the opportunity to accomplish such a huge task of preparing this
report.

We convey our heartfelt thanks to our respectable Faculty, Kaniz Kakon, College of
Business Administration (CBA), and IUBAT for his careful suggestion and enthusiasm to
make this report.

We have so far given our best effort to prepare and represent the report according to
instruction of our respected Faculty. We hope our endeavor will be beneficial to the audience
and urge for forgive eyes for any mistake or error found in this report.

Finally we would like to thank once more our respectable Faculty, Kaniz Kakon, as because
he gave us opportunity to make this project that will be very much helpful for our prospective
career.

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 Student’s Declaration

This is to inform you that, this report on “Student Declaration”

This is to inform you that, this report on “Why should we study Philosophy” has only been
prepared for purpose of the fulfillment of the course PHI 114: Introduction to Philosophy. It
has not been prepared for any other purposes.

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 Executive Summary

We have limited time so there are some mistakes, so next report we will try our best to do it
proper way. Philosophy is the practice of making and assessing arguments. Philosopher called
Philosophy as a way of life, because it bears the culture of free thinking, awareness of rights
and obligations, a habit of inquisitiveness and so on. By learning Philosophy we can discover
the different cultures norms, views, problems and their justification in an intercultural
perspective. Finally it helps us to become free and knowledgeable.

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 Table of Content

Seria Content Page number

l no.
01. The Report formal part
 Title page 2
 Letter of Transmittal 3
 Letter of Authorization 4
 Acknowledgement 5
 Executive summary 7
02. The Report Introductory part
 List of Table 9
 List of Figures 9
 Introduction 10
-Background Information 11
 Mission 13
 Vision 13
-Problem studies 14
-Classification of Problem 14
-Specific Problem 15
-Aims and Objective of the Study 15
03. The Report Body Part
 Review of the Report
-Historical Study with Expert View 16
-Our Criticism and point of Expert 17
-Theoretical Deign 18
-Hypothesis Formulation 18
-Methodology(Unstructured Interview) 19
 Research Deign
-Type and Nature of the Study 20
-Sample Deign 20
-Data Collection Method 20
-Data Analysis Technique Use 20
04. The Report Final Part
 Result or Outcome of the Report
-Discussion With Data Interpretation 21
-Conclusion 24
-Recommendation 25
-Limitation 26
-Direction for the Future Reporter 26
05. The report Source of Information

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 Reference 27
 Appendix 28

Part 2

The Report Introductory Part

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 Introduction

Philosophy is the practice of making and assessing arguments. An argument is a set of

statements (called premises) that work together to support another statement (the conclusion).

Making and assessing arguments can help us get closer to understanding the truth. At the very
least, the process helps make us aware of our reasons for believing what we believe, and it
enables us to use reason when we discuss our beliefs with other people. It teaches to make
strong arguments and to assess the arguments other people make.

Background Information:

1.1Background information

Western philosophy really begins with Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. What we know of their
predecessors comes from fragments and references in later works; their doctrines could be
described as speculative cosmology that occasionally strays into analysis. Presumably they
were driven by whatever makes people in every other society invent cosmologies. [3]

With Socrates, Plato, and particularly Aristotle, this tradition turned a corner. There started to
be a lot more analysis. I suspect Plato and Aristotle were encouraged in this by progress in
math. Mathematicians had by then shown that you could figure things out in a much more
conclusive way than by making up fine sounding stories about them. [4]

People talk so much about abstractions now that we don't realize what a leap it must have
been when they first started to. It was presumably many thousands of years between when
people first started describing things as hot or cold and when someone asked "what is heat?"
No doubt it was a very gradual process. We don't know if Plato or Aristotle were the first to
ask any of the questions they did. But their works are the oldest we have that do this on a
large scale, and there is a freshness (not to say naivete) about them that suggests some of the
questions they asked were new to them, at least.

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Aristotle in particular reminds me of the phenomenon that happens when people discover
something new, and are so excited by it that they race through a huge percentage of the newly
discovered territory in one lifetime. If so, that's evidence of how new this kind of thinking
was. [5]

This is all to explain how Plato and Aristotle can be very impressive and yet naive and
mistaken. It was impressive even to ask the questions they did. That doesn't mean they
always came up with good answers. It's not considered insulting to say that ancient Greek
mathematicians were naive in some respects, or at least lacked some concepts that would
have made their lives easier. So I hope people will not be too offended if I propose that
ancient philosophers were similarly naive. In particular, they don't seem to have fully grasped
what I earlier called the central fact of philosophy: that words break if you push them too far.

"Much to the surprise of the builders of the first digital computers," Rod Brooks wrote,
"programs written for them usually did not work." [6] Something similar happened when
people first started trying to talk about abstractions. Much to their surprise, they didn't arrive
at answers they agreed upon. In fact, they rarely seemed to arrive at answers at all.

They were in effect arguing about artifacts induced by sampling at too low a resolution.

The proof of how useless some of their answers turned out to be is how little effect they have.
No one after reading Aristotle's Metaphysics does anything differently as a result. [7]

Surely I'm not claiming that ideas have to have practical applications to be interesting? No,
they may not have to. Hardy's boast that number theory had no use whatsoever wouldn't
disqualify it. But he turned out to be mistaken. In fact, it's suspiciously hard to find a field of
math that truly has no practical use. And Aristotle's explanation of the ultimate goal of
philosophy in Book A of the Metaphysics implies that philosophy should be useful too.

Objectives

Broad Objective: Broad objective is to know about the importance of philosophy.

Specific Objectives: Specific objectives are following –
 To develop a habit of thinking things through.

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  To think logically & systematically.
 To become free and knowledgeable.
 To develop the ethical values and norms.

Methodology

Source and collection data

For preparing this report we used both secondary data and primary data. We have collecting
many of the data and thought questionnaires interview while preparing my report. For the
secondary sources different journals, radicals, research, publication and internet etc has been
also reviewed.

Data Collection Method:

For prepare this research project we collect both types of data.

1. Secondary data.
2. Primary data.
Secondary Data Source:
 Internet
 Library source
 Introduction to Philosophy books
 Philosophy Research book.
Primary Data Source:
 Our Knowledge
 Through a set of structured questionnaires

Scope

This report is only for the assessing the philosophy. In this report we tried to highlight the
main concept of the importance of philosophy. Apart from these, this report is not included
with any other topics or any other discussion. . So our report capacity is belongs to the
importance of philosophy.

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 Limitation

The main problem faced in preparing the paper was the inadequacy and lack of availability of
required data. Like any other study the limitations of this study is not out of questions. But
the following factors seem to me the main points of weakness of this study:

 We undergo a semester system but it was difficult enough to cover the report within
this short time.

 In our university we have a lot of students but our computer lab is so small. So that
we couldn’t access our computer lab at the right time.

 As we are doing such report first time, some error might occur during the study.
Therefore, maximum effort have given to avoid mistakes

 During our report working period we faced electricity problem.

 We don’t have any practical work on this topic we are making report.
 Being a student this type of report was so expensive.

Purpose
The main purpose of the report is to grow a habit of becoming serious in the
investigation of fact Philosophy. This report is the fulfillment of our “Introduction to
Philosophy” course.

Part 3

The Report Body Part

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 Review of the Report

TOP TEN REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD STUDY

PHILOSOPHY

1. Philosophy stimulates one’s abilities to think critically, creatively, and enhance

analytical and interpretive capacities.
2. Students with an emphasis in Philosophy generally develop an interest in self-
expression and reflection and enjoy debating ideas, skills which provide the ability to
deal with the complex problems for which there are no easy answers.
3. Instead of one particular skill, philosophy prepares students for careers in a wide field
of professions, such as law, medicine, government, business, journalism, publishing,
teaching and the ministry.
4. In a global environment, people who are able to use critical thought and imagination
are especially sought for by employers.
5. Are you interested in actively participating in the future of this society and country?
Studying Philosophy helps one become a better citizen by promoting the ability to
listen carefully, critically evaluate and respond thoughtfully to the claims that others
make. These are the fundamental skills we need as citizens to engage in the sort of
public discourse that is essential to a healthy democratic process.
6. Students follow in the footsteps of famous Philosophy majors as Phil Jackson (Chicago
Bulls), Umberto Eco (Novelist), Carly Fiorina (CEO of Hewlett-Packert), Aung San
Suu Kyi (Burmanese Human Rights Activist and Nobel Peace Prize Winner), David
Souter (Supreme Court Justice), Bruce Lee (Movie Star), Harrison Ford (Sexiest Man
Alive, People Magazine 1998), Tom Morris (Corporate Consultant), and Robert
MacNamamara (Former Secretary of Defense and Head of the World Bank).
7. Philosophy students are more likely than computer scientists to land jobs immediately
after graduation. In a study released by Higher Education Statistics Agency, 63% had
jobs, 15% pursued further full time education, and only 7% were unemployed.
Source: Times Higher Education Supplement, August, 2004. p9 (1).

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 8. Thinking about and discussing the most urgent question: the meaning of being (Martin
Heidegger).
9. Studying in an environment where the “art of disagreeing” is practiced.
10. Philosophy students acquire eligibility to become part of the famous Philosophy Club
at College of DuPage.

Branches of philosophy

The following branches are the main areas of study

 Metaphysics is the study of the nature of reality, including the relationship between
mind and body, substance and accident, events and causation. Traditional branches are
cosmology and ontology.
 Epistemology is concerned with the nature and scope of knowledge, and whether
knowledge is possible. Among its central concerns has been the challenge posed by
skepticism and the relationships between truth, belief, and justification.
 Ethics, or "moral philosophy", is concerned primarily with the question of the best
way to live, and secondarily, concerning the question of whether this question can be
answered. The main branches of ethics are meta-ethics, normative ethics, and applied
ethics. Meta-ethics concerns the nature of ethical thought, comparison of various
ethical systems, whether there are absolute ethical truths, and how such truths could
be known. Ethics is also associated with the idea of morality.
 Political philosophy is the study of government and the relationship of individuals
(or families and clans) to communities including the state. It includes questions about
justice, law, property, and the rights and obligations of the citizen. Politics and ethics
are traditionally inter-linked subjects, as both discuss the question of what is good and
how people should live.
 Aesthetics deals with beauty, art, enjoyment, sensory-emotional values, perception,
and matters of taste and sentiment.

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  Logic is the study of valid argument forms. Beginning in the late 19th century,
mathematicians such as Gottlob Frege focused on a mathematical treatment of logic,
and today the subject of logic has two broad divisions: mathematical logic (formal
symbolic logic) and what is now called philosophical logic.
 Philosophy of mind deals with the nature of the mind and its relationship to the body,
and is typified by disputes between dualism and materialism. In recent years there has
been increasing similarity between this branch of philosophy and cognitive science.
 Philosophy of language is inquiry into the nature, origins, and usage of language.
 Philosophy of religion is a branch of philosophy that asks questions about religion.

Most academic subjects have a philosophy, for example the philosophy of science, the
philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of logic, the philosophy of law, and the
philosophy of history. In addition, a range of academic subjects have emerged to deal with
areas that historically were the subject of philosophy.

The New Science Of Philosophy by

Philip Atkinson

To allow philosophy to become a science I suggest the following self-evident truths be

adopted :

1. Philosophy is the study of understanding.

2. Understanding is the bestowing of meaning upon observations.

3. Meaning is the realization obtained by applying beliefs to the observations of an

understanding —the use of reason.

4. Two Kinds Of Beliefs:

i. Control the Understanding —those bestowed by nature and modified by infancy in the
creation of an understanding so are unchangeable: that is, the instincts and infantile
experiences, which dictate what the creature should, or should not, do — survive, eat, sleep,

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 multiply, etc.— thus allowing the recognition of right from wrong, and are the morality of
the understanding.

ii. Tools of the Understanding — those revealed by the understanding's experience of cause
and effect. That is, if you step off a cliff you fall, and these axioms, which are collected and
refined throughout the life of the understanding, allow the recognition of true or false and are
the knowledge of the understanding.

— this Morality and Knowledge together form the beliefs, or truths, of the understanding.
These beliefs, along with its observations, are the understanding. Hence:

5. Truth is the beliefs, or realisations, of an understanding, and form the reality of an

understanding.

6. Reality is the creation of an understanding as it is the remembered meanings, or

experience, of an understanding and consists of:

i. The position of the understanding ii. The experience of the understanding

What it can observe The meaning it realizes.

7. Wisdom is the habits (traditions) adopted by an understanding to achieve the greatest

benefit from its reality.

These beliefs convert Philosophy into a useful tool—a science. This science of philosophy
explains not only understanding, reality, and truth, but also language (the medium of
understanding) and society (a shared understanding). These explanations allow a better
understanding of ourselves by revealing why humanity behaves the way it does in forming a
civilization (a dominant society) and why such a society waxes (refines its understanding)
then wanes (loses its understanding). But these explanations also condemn our current society
as waning (losing understanding) so condemning most citizens as fools, who naturally resent
such a judgement.

This means that although the new science of philosophy significantly improves human
understanding it is resented by most contemporary citizens who insist upon ignoring the new
science, and if they are pressed to recognize it will persecute its proponents.

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 Part 4

The Report Final Part

Result and Outcome of the Report

Why Philosophy is  Awesome

If you are thinking about learning philosophy on your own, it can be a good idea to think
about why philosophy is so important. Philosophy is exactly what you’ve been waiting for.
Medications, self-help books, get quick rich schemes, and religion is all rather meaningless
unless they have been vindicated through philosophy. There are at least two reasons that we
should learn philosophy. One, it is enjoyable. Two, it helps us live a better life.

1. It is Enjoyable

Either philosophy is enjoyable only because of how our brains work or also because we can
realize how important philosophy is. Philosophy covers every interesting subject you can
imagine: ethics, the nature of reality, free will, the meaning of life, what makes good art, and
so on. The knowledge given to us by philosophy could be good for its own sake. We might
not need some other reason to learn philosophy other than the goodness of learning it in and
of itself.

After you learn philosophy, you will find out that many of the greatest books ever written are
philosophy books and a life that hasn’t read some of these books will seem to be lacking.
How can we be offered such a short life in this world and not enjoy the greatest philosophical
achievements?

2. It Helps Us Live a Better Life

Philosophy can help us live a better life in at least two ways. One, a “good life” can be, in
part, a philosophical life. Two, it can help us decide how our lives can be improved.

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A philosophical life might be a better life

People used to want to seek enlightenment because enlightenment itself was one of the best
things we could do. Philosophy offers the greatest kind of enlightenment that I know of. Not
only could the knowledge of philosophy be good in itself, but a philosophical life (to try to
live in accordance with philosophical knowledge) could also be good in itself. To become
philosophical was once seen as to become a better sort of being. To become more “godly.”
Someone who studied philosophy might even hope to become a god. (This was even agreed
upon by some Christian philosophers, such as Boethius.)

I doubt that we can become gods, but I suspect that philosophy can help us become better
people. Nietzsche thought that becoming godlike was asking for too much, so he just hoped
to become an overman, a better kind of person. That might be the right kind of attitude to
have.

A philosophical life can help us achieve our goals.

Philosophy offers us a path to improve our critical thinking skills far beyond anything else I
know of. These skills are holistic and can be applied in every domain of our life. To learn to
“make sense” means we can “make sense” in our personal life and figure out what mistakes
we have been making day to day. We can use philosophy to help us figure out how to
improve the world, improve ourselves, and have better relationships.

Philosophy offers one of the best sorts of “self improvement” that self-help gurus tend to be
too impatient to really learn about. This sort of “self-help” requires “too much thinking” and
“too much work” when people want a “quick fix.” The best way to improve our lives isn’t to
take a pill or to try to “get rich quick.” It’s to work on improving ourselves a little at a time.
To learn about philosophy is to learn about the world, improve our critical thinking, and to
use our philosophical knowledge and skills in everyday life.

Other things to keep in mind

Be consistent. For example, if I begin my paper by arguing that Marquis is right about
abortion, I shouldn't say later that Thomson's argument (which contradicts Marquis's) is also
correct.

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Avoid overstatement. Watch out for words like "all," "every," "always," "no," "none," and
"never"; supporting a claim that uses these words could be difficult. For example, it would be
much harder to prove that lying is always wrong than to prove that lying is usually or
sometimes wrong.

Avoid the pitfalls of "seeing both sides." Suppose you think Kant's argument is pretty
strong, but you still disagree with his conclusion. You might be tempted to say "Kant's
argument is a good one. I disagree with it." This appears contradictory. If an argument really
is good and you can't find any weaknesses in it, it seems rational to think that you should
agree with the argument. If you disagree with it, there must be something wrong with it, and
your job is to figure out what that is and point it out.

Avoid personal attacks and excessive praise. Neither "Mill was obviously a bad person
who didn't care about morality at all" nor "Kant is the greatest philosopher of all time" adds
to our understanding of Mill's or Kant's arguments.

Avoid grandiose introductions and conclusions. Your instructor is not likely to appreciate
introductions that start with sentences like "Since the dawn of time, human beings have
wondered about morality." Your introduction can place your issue in context, explain why it's
philosophically important, and perhaps preview the structure of your paper or argument. Ask
your instructor for further guidance about introductions and conclusions.

Stay focused. You may be asked to concentrate closely on a small piece of text or a very
particular question; if so, stick to it, rather than writing a general report on a "topic."

Be careful about appealing to faith, authority, or tradition. While you may believe
something because it is a part of your religion, because someone you trust told you about it,
or because it is the way things have always been done, be careful about basing your
arguments or objections on these sorts of foundations. Remember that your reader may not
share your assumptions and beliefs, and try to construct your argument so that it will be
persuasive even to someone who is quite different from you.

Be careful about definitions. Rather than breaking out Webster's Dictionary, concentrate on
the definitions the philosophers you are reading have carefully constructed for the terms they
are using. Defining terms is an important part of all philosophical work, and part of your job

2020
in writing a philosophy paper will often be thinking about how different people have defined
a term.

Conclusion

People are living their lives exhausted. They are working, shopping, and being entertained.
This is not the best life for human beings. The best life for human beings requires us to use
our minds and develop them beyond the capacity that other animals seem to be capable of.We
believe that philosophy is one of the best ways to do so.

Part 5

The Report Source of Information

Recommendation

 In this part we have some suggestions which are helpful for the future reporter to
work in this field.
 For getting better output in this field everyone should have clear idea about the
Philosophy.
 Need to know about the importance of philosophy.

References

1. Berry L. L. and Parasuraman A. (1991). Marketing Services: Competing Through Quality,

Free Press, New York.

2121
2. Brogden H. E. and Taylor E.K. (1950). A Theory and Classification of Criterion Bias,
Journal of Educational and Psychological Measurement, Vol.10, 1950, pp. 159-186.
3. Cleveland J. N., Murphy K. R., and Williams R. E. (1989). Multiple Uses of Performance
Appraisal: Prevalence and Correlates, Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol.74, 1989, pp.130-
135.
4. Dessler G. (2005) Human Resource Management, 10th Edition. Prentice-Hall, Inc, USA.
pp. 84-87
5. Fisher C. D., Schoenfeldt L. F., and Shaw J. B. (1997).Human Resource Management, 3rd
Edition. All India Publishers and Distributors.
6. George S. Odiorne. (1965). Management by Objectives. International Edition. Pitman
Publishing Corporation. p. 78.
7. Gomez-Mejia L. R., Balkin D. B., and Cardy R. L. (2004). Managing Human Resources,
4th Edition. Pearson Education, Inc. India. p. 69.

Group Activities:
Our group consists of four hard working members. We all work hard to complete our
report. Though report contains five main parts; so the part based group performance is
given below:

Serial no Name ID # 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th

Part Part Part Part Part
01. Jasia Ahmed Romana 09102088 * *

2222
02. * *
03. * *
04. * *
05. * *

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