Introduction to Philosophy

Broadly, Philosophy can be defined as the “Log of Wisdom”. Also called as Darshana-Sastra in Indian Philosophy. It is a discipline that investigates the nature of values, and relationships integrating humanity with world and reality as a whole.

Philosophical thinking is conceptual in nature. This is necessary to make sense out of the subject matter.

What is number?

What is Justice?

Philosopher is a person who critiques existing philosophical ideas with proof (otherwise its just an opinion). They also try to “prove” whatever is acceptable.

Philosophical Thinking

Philosophical thinking is broadly classified into 5 different categories;

  1. Speculative

    Philosophy began as speculation, and is the core of Metaphysics. Highlights the importance of imagining something, and is used to draw intuitive insights beyond observable facts.

    “Imagination is more important than knowledge” - Albert Einstein

  2. Imaginative / Creative

    Utilization of poems, and being able to draw artistic interpretation of truth. FOr example, Rabindranath Tagore was an astounding poet and a philosopher.

  3. Reflective / Critical

    Very fundamental to philosophy; being able to evaluate the accuracy and relevance of ideas is of utmost importance for the betterment of humanity.

  4. Argumentative

    Being critical requires thinking to be argumentative. Arguments are logical, and are regulated by logic.

  5. Liberal / Inclusive

    Need to be open to other ideas, to be able to eliminate prejudices. Open-mindedness is very important for the betterment of philosophy.

Philosophy is broken down into 4 major branches, given below. We will look at each of these branches at a surface level, to know what the reaches of the topic are.

  1. Metaphysics
  2. Epistemology
  3. Logic
  4. Ethics / Aesthetics

 

Metaphysics

Philosophy began with metaphysics, and was closely intertwined with epistemology. It studies the causes of everything that exists or that may exist.

Metaphysics is considered as the First Philosophy by Aristotle. He classified metaphysics in the following order;

  • Ontology - The science of being Qua Being - The science of existence
  • Theology - Highest kind of being (Divinity)
  • Universal Science - First Principle - Truth of every existing thing, basis of proof or demonstration

A thing is a thing by virtue of something that it is

Although prominent in the pre-socratic era, Metaphysics has been affected in the renaissance era due to enlightenment and groups such as Logical Positivists, and has been claimed as “philosophical nonsense”. Today, it plays the role of disciplinary integration for the better understanding of the connections between different streams.

An example of an ontological question is:

“Who am I?”

 

Epistemology

Epistemology is a branch of philosophy, and is concerned with the theory of knowledge. Justification and debates are used to “prove” that an idea is “true”. A justified belief is knowledge. A belief by itself is just an opinion or doxa.

“Justified True Belief is Knowledge” - Plato

A belief is proven by;

  • Explanation: Should be a causual explanation (ie, what the cause of a thing is)

  • Justification: Argue why the causual explanation is true

  • Understanding: That is, the conveyed idea must be understandable by the listener

Back in the day, most knowledge consisted of passed down information from generation to generation. For progressing knowledge, it is important to doubt the validity of existing knowledge. This practice of doubting is called as Skepticism or Pyrrhonism.

In general, Skepticism suggests that knowledge is impossible.

In Indian Philosophy, knowledge is given by four sources:

  1. Pratyaksa or by perception
  2. Anumana or by inference
  3. Upamana or by comparision
  4. Sabdda or by testimonies from trusted people

There are two important schools of thought regarding the primary source knowledge:

  1. Rationalism: Reason is primary source of knowledge
  2. Empiricism: Experience is the primary source of knowledge

Do note that Rationalism doesn’t say that reason is the only source, rather it says that its the main source. Similarly for empiricism.

 

Logic and Arguments

In indian philo, Logic is known as Tarka Shastra. Logic is the science that evaluates arguments regarding a particular observation/reasoning.

That is, Logic is concerned with:

  1. Proper construction of arguments (Tarkas)
  2. Evaluating the validity of the argument

An argument is defined as a logical sentence that shows how a premise leads to the truth value of the proposition.

  • An argument is valid/invalid if it follows certain laws
  • Arguments can be made from true premises or false premises as well

For example, Rene Descartes was following Methodological Skepticism which said that true knowledge was attainable (opposite to what skepticism said). He would have to justify his thinking, and its validity would be judged by logic.

There are two different types of arguments;

  1. Deductive Arguments

    Introduced by Aristotle, this uses a universal premise to test the truth value/validity of another proposition/argument.

    That is, if premises are true; then true conclusion necessarily follows from the premises.

  2. Inductive Arguments

    Introduced by Francis Bacon, the premises are based on previous experience and intuition. The concept of generalization is introduced here, and these arguments have methods to be followed when being applied.

 

Ethics and Aesthetics

Ethics is conerned with morality, values and the theory of morals. An action being “good” or “right” depends on certain principles, and requires rigorous justification as to the same. This branch is important because “good” need not necessarily imply that the action is “just”.

Similarly, Aesthetics are concerned with the following question

What makes something look good?

Although not as important as other branches of philosophy, much of human brilliance can be seen here; as without an aesthetic appeal life would be dull.