What is philosophy?

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Sculptor: Neil Dawson "Horizons"

What is philosophy?
How are we going to answer this question?

What is philosophy?
How are we going to answer this question?
1. Reading samples of philosophical texts
2. Contrasting philosophy with other areas
3. Doing philosophy

Some of the works well read

380BC

1077

1274

1641

1955

1970

2008

Aristotle 384 BC
Hume 1776
Kant 1785
Clifford 1877
Dennett 1978

Level of difficulty of the readings

Rachels [long]
Descartes [short but difficult]
Clifford [a bit long]
Dennett [fun short story]
Churchland [a bit long]
Flew & Mitchell [short, but a bit difficult]
Nussbaum [long]

This week
General goals and methods of
philosophy
Why study philosophy?
Course requirements

History of Western Philosophy

Ancient (6th BC 5th AC)
Medieval (5th - 14th Century)
Modern (16thtoday?)

Things that have changed throughout

the history of philosophy

Things that have changed throughout

the history of philosophy

Objects studied
Methods used
Relations among different disciplines
Priority of some questions

Philosophical tasks that will always be

important

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Philosophical tasks that will always be

important

Analyzing important concepts

Examining basic assumptions
Evaluating sources of beliefs
Understanding questions about values
Exploring connections among different
areas of research
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Conceptual analysis

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Conceptual analysis
Basic goal
Clarify our concepts by defining them in
terms of simpler components

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Importance of Conceptual Analysis

Before debating
We need to clarify the terms used in a
debate

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Importance of Conceptual Analysis

Decision-making
Important decisions depend on how we
define our concepts
Examples: Happiness, freedom, love,
justice, democracy, knowledge, evidence

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Questions for later

What are concepts?
What is to analyze them?
What tools can we use to analyze them?

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Examining our beliefs and sources

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Examining our beliefs and sources

Basic questions
Do I have good arguments and enough
evidence for my basic beliefs?
Is my belief system coherent?

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Questions for later

Why examine our beliefs? How far should
we go?
How can we begin to examine our beliefs?
What is knowledge, opinion, evidence?

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Questions about values

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Questions about values

Not the same thing:
Describing
Explaining
Evaluating

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Questions about values

Example: What happened? How did it
happen? Is what happened right?

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Example: What kind of education do students

get in different countries? What kind of
education is more efficient, valuable, etc?

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Terms related to values

Normative
Related to values and evaluations
Normative statement
An evaluation according to some standard

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Normative terms
Examples
Ethical vs. unethical
Rational vs. irrational
Efficient vs. inefficient
Artistically valuable vs. no artistic value

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Questions for later

Are all evaluations just a matter of
opinion?
What makes ethical statements true or
false?

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Connections among different areas

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Connections among different areas

Beyond a particular problem
Implications of a result outside its
discipline

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Connections among different areas

Examples
Technology and ethics
Neuroscience and personal identity
Biology and politics

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Consistency between belief-systems

Example
Are the teachings of religion X compatible
with science?
Are my political beliefs compatible with the
findings of psychology and sociology?

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Areas of philosophy today

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Theoretical philosophy
Epistemology: What is knowledge? How
do we know?
Ontology: What kinds of things exist (e.g.,
minds, numbers, gods)?
Philosophy of mathematics, science,
mind, language, etc.

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Practical philosophy
Ethics
Political philosophy
Philosophy of religion, art, law, technology,
etc.

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Recap
Philosophical tasks
Analyzing important concepts
Examining basic assumptions
Evaluating sources of beliefs
Understanding questions about values
Exploring connections among different
areas of research
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