CHAPTER 2

PHILOSOPHY IN
LIFE
MPU 3193 PHILOSOPHY AND
CURRENT ISSUES
 Greek word:
Philosophia

Philo- Sophia-
PHILOSOPHY Love Wisdom
the knowledge that is
gained by having many
being crazy or obsessed experiences and using it to
with someone or discern qualities,
something. relationships and make
good decisions and
judgement
PHILOSOPHY IN THE WEST

• Love of wisdom
• To guide people in creating good living and happiness
• Natural philosophy
• Working on theory about reality and characteristics of nature
• Focusing on nature
• Intellectual activity to solve problem
PHILOSOPHY IN THE EAST

• Not conceptual in nature

• Relating philosophy with religious understanding
• Inductive and metaphysical approach in explaining reality- not
necessarily based on rational only
 Philosophy: Branches, Question and
Solution
General Branches of Philosophy General Questions

1. Metaphysic What is life? What is justice?

Reality and Existence What is freedom

What can we know? How we

2. Epistemology know it? What is source of knowledge?

Answers
Theory on Knowledge To which extent the source is reliable?
Understanding

Which one should be prioritize? What

3. Axiology should be chose? What conditions to look
Value: Aesthetic beautiful? What is the feeling if beautiful?
Ethics

Western Philosophy
Specific
Eastern Philosophy
4. Logic Islamic Philosophy
PILLARS OF PHILOSOPHY

History of Theoretical Practical

Philosophy Philosophy Philosophy
History of Philosophy
• History of Philosophy focusing on the great thinkers who have
expressed their views on various issues.
• There were a few famous Greek, Islamic, Chinese, Indian and
Western philosophers.
• These philosophers were prolific writers who expressed their
thoughts on a variety of issues facing humans and their reasons
for holding such opinions.
Socrates
• was a Greek philosopher from
Athens whose thoughts and ideas
had a profound influence on Western
philosophy.
• He was a controversial figure but he
wrote nothing.
• However, his ideas are preserved in
the writings of Plato and Xenophon.
• Socrates was well-known for the
‘Socratic Method’ in which he
initiates discussion about a topic .
Plato
• was a Greek philosopher born in
Athens and founder of the Academy
which is regarded as the first
institution of higher learning in the
West.
• Among his famous works are the
Republic, Apology, Dialogues, The
Laws and several others.
• Plato was one of the devoted
followers of Socrates.
• He travelled extensively in Greece
and to Italy and Egypt.
Abu Nasr Al-Farabi
• was a renowned Islamic philosopher and jurist who
wrote in the fields of political philosophy,
metaphysics, ethics, science, mathematics, music
and logic.
• Though his works, he became well-known in the
East and West. He was born in what is now
Kazakhstan and spend most of his active career in
teaching and writing in Baghdad.
• He was called the “Second Teacher” following
Aristotle who was known as the “First Teacher”.
• Among his famous works are The Political Regine,
The Book of Music, Social Psychology, Virtuous City,
Enumeration of the Sciences, Book of Religion and
the Book of Demonstration
Ibn Sina
• was a Persian polymath (a person whose
knowledge spans many subjects) and in
the West he was known as Avicenna.
• He was a physician, astronomer, and
writer during of the Islamic Golden Age,
and the father of early modern medicine.
• He is believed to have written 450 works
and around 240 have survived, including
150 works on philosophy and 40 works
on medicine.
• His most famous works are The Book of
Health and The Canon of Medicine.
Conficius
• was born in 551 BC in Zou (the modern
Shandong province).
• He was a Chinese philosopher, poet and
politician whose teachings and philosophy
had a significant impact on China, Japan,
Korea and South-East Asia to this day.
• His philosophical teachings emphasised
personal and governmental morality, justice,
kindness and sincerity.
• He was the author of the Five Classics which
was the Classic of Poetry, Book of Documents,
Book of Rites, I Ching (Books of Changes)
and s. The principles of this teachings are
compiled in the Analects after his death
Mencius
• was a Chinese philosopher who
has often been described as
the “second Sage”, that is, after
only Confucius himself.
• He is part of Confucius’ fourth
generation f disciples. Mencius
inherited Confucius’ ideology
and developed it further.
Theoretical Philosophy
• Theoretical Philosophy Metaphysics
covers a wide range of
ever-evolving Epistemology
branches in an ever-
changing world. Ethics
• We can classify
theoretical philosophy Aesthetics
into FIVE main
branches Logic
Metaphysics

• the branch of theoretical philosophy that focuses on studying

that which is ‘beyond’ physics (the stuff around use).
• Emphasis is on questions such as :
• How can we prove the existence of something?, The existence of
God or a higher being and how that shapes our soul,
• Do humans have free will?
• Does the world exist outside our thoughts?
• How was the universe made?
Epistemology

• the branch of theoretical philosophy that is concerned with

knowledge.
• It seeks to explain
• what is knowledge?
• How we acquire knowledge?
• How can we know for certain that we know?
• The relationship of knowledge to the truth, belief, and the
justification of such belief.
Aesthetics

• referred to the study of beauty and judgement of good taste,

the feeling of pleasure and critical evaluation of culture, art
and nature.
• Among the questions asked are –
• What is beauty?
• Are there universal standards for beauty?
• What make art beautiful? What is the purpose of art?
• Is beauty in the mind of the beholder? Is beauty subjective?
Ethics
• also known as moral philosophy or the study of morality.
• It seeks to address questions about how we live our lives, How
we define proper conduct, What we mean by good and bad,
What we mean by the good life?
• Ethics is concerned whether an action is good or bad; it also
seeks to devise a way of life we can think of as good.
• It is a study that teach us what is the virtuous life and how we
can put these virtues into practice.
Logic

• the branch of philosophy that studies reasoning.

• It teaches us how to differentiate between good and bad
reasoning and how to construct arguments.
• How can we differentiate between a good and bad argument?
How can you spot fallacies or errors in thinking?
Practical Philosophy
• addresses fundamental questions regarding human action
and society:
• How should we live?
• How ought we to live our lives?
• How should society be organised?
• How should we study society?
• In History of Philosophy, we learn how the greatest thinkers in
the history of humankind answered these and similar
questions.
Practical Philosophy
• These questions are treated
within various disciplines and
Philosophy of politics
fields of study.
Philosophy of law
• Practical philosophy includes
the examination of Philosophy of science
metaphysics, ethics,
epistemology, aesthetics and Philosophy of religion
logic in various fields of
study such as: Philosophy of economy
Philosophy of politics
• focuses on fundamental questions about what makes societies good.
• It addresses conceptual issues about the meaning of justice, equality,
citizenship, and democracy, as well as the nature of power and political
institutions.
• It asks normative questions about the justification of political authority, the
rights and responsibilities of persons and groups, distribution of goods, the
grounds of social criticism, and proper responses to injustice and wrongdoing.
• It also investigates these issues on a global scale, such as the meaning of global
justice, global inequality and the possibilities and nature of a cosmopolitan
political order.
Philosophy of law

• is concerned providing a general philosophical analysis of law

and legal institutions.
• Among the issues discussed are the interpretation of the
constitution, whether capital punishment is morally
permissible, ethics and law, obligations to obey the law and
the grounds for punishment.
Philosophy of Science

• concerned with questions such as what qualifies as science,

the reliability of scientific theories, the purpose of science and
the relationship between science and truth.
Philosophy of Social Science
• investigates the foundational, conceptual, and
methodological questions related to scientific research on
people and society.
• What makes a social scientific explanation good? How should
different forms of collective action be conceptualized? How
should scientific theories and evidence inform democratic
decision-making to achieve social progress and sustainability?
• Our ambition is to do philosophy that is genuinely relevant for
the practice of social research.
Philosophy of Economy

• Discussing about matters or basic questions on economy:

• What is economic justice?
• How we can ensure the justice in the allocation of resources to all
layers of society?
• It is important to help the government in designing the
economic policy that is more balance in allocation of
economic resources.
New Philosophy?

Philosophy Philosophy
of of
Environment Technology
Philosophy of Environment
• Exist due to the problem with the environment that affect
human in term of ecological.
• The arising questions:
• What is the relation between human and the environment?
• What is the meaning of the environment to the human?
• Is the nature meaningful for human due to its importance to the
economy or beyond that?
• The question on human ethics not only between human
being. How ethical human to the nature?
Philosophy of Technology

• Exist due to the emergence of new technology that rapidly

affect the human life especially after 19th century.
• The questions arise on:
• How we define the technology?
• What is the relation of technology to the human?
• Is the technology helping human or threatening human?
• Example: artificial intelligence