Introduction to Philosophy
Definition, Nature and Scope, Concept,
Branches
Module I; Unit I
What is Philosophy?
• The word originates from the Greek word philosophia
which means ‘love of wisdom’.
• In a broad sense, philosophy is an activity people
undertake when they seek to understand fundamental
truths about themselves, the world in which they live,
and their relationships to the world and to each other.
• As an academic discipline philosophy is much the
same. Those who study philosophy are perpetually
engaged in asking, answering, and arguing for their
answers to life’s most basic questions.
What is Philosophy?
• The main concern of philosophy is to question and understand
very common ideas that all of us use every day without thinking
about them.
• A historian may ask what happened at some time in the past, but
a philosopher will ask, "What is time?" A mathematician may
investigate the relations among numbers, but a philosopher will
ask, "What is a number?" A physicist will ask what atoms are
made of or what explains gravity, but a philosopher will ask how
we can know there is anything outside of our own minds. A
psychologist may investigate how children learn a language, but a
philosopher will ask, "What makes a word mean anything?"
Anyone can ask whether it’s wrong to sneak into a movie without
paying, but a philosopher will ask, "What makes an action right
or wrong?“
What is Philosophy?
• We couldn’t get along in life without taking the ideas of
time, number, knowledge, language, right and wrong for
granted most of the time; but in philosophy we investigate
those things themselves.
• The aim is to push our understanding of the world and
ourselves a bit deeper. Obviously it isn’t easy. The more
basic the ideas you are trying to investigate, the fewer
tools you have to work with. There isn’t much you can
assume or take for granted.
• So philosophy is a somewhat dizzying activity, and few of
its results go unchallenged for long.
Branches of Philosophy
• Metaphysics
– At its core the study of metaphysics is the study of the nature of reality,
of what exists in the world, what it is like, and how it is ordered. In
metaphysics philosophers wrestle with such questions as:
o Is there a God?
o What is truth?
o What is a person? What makes a person the same through time?
o Is the world strictly composed of matter?
o Do people have minds? If so, how is the mind related to the
body?
o Do people have free wills?
o What is it for one event to cause another?
Branches of Philosophy
• Epistemology
– Epistemology is the study of knowledge. It is primarily
concerned with what we can know about the world and
how we can know it. Typical questions of concern in
epistemology are:
o What is knowledge?
o Do we know anything at all?
o How do we know what we know?
o Can we be justified in claiming to know certain
things?
Branches of Philosophy
• Ethics
– The study of ethics often concerns what we ought to do
and what it would be best to do. In struggling with this
issue, larger questions about what is good and right arise.
So, the ethicist attempts to answer such questions as:
• What is good? What makes actions or people good?
• What is right? What makes actions right?
• Is morality objective or subjective?
• How should I treat others?
Branches of Philosophy
• Logic
– Another important aspect of the study of philosophy
is the arguments or reasons given for people’s
answers to these questions. To this end philosophers
employ logic to study the nature and structure of
arguments. Logicians ask such questions as:
• What constitutes "good" or "bad" reasoning?
• How do we determine whether a given piece of
reasoning is good or bad?
Nature and Scope
• It enquires into the nature of matter, time, space,
causality, evolution, life, and mind, and their relation to
one another.
• It is the discipline of thinking all things logically,
systematically, and persistently.
• It is the discipline of thinking rationally and
systematically of the reality as a whole.
• Philosophy is the critical analysis of the popular and
scientific concepts, and the discovery of their relations
to one another. It is a rational attempt to integrate our
knowledge and interpret and unify our experiences.
Nature and Scope
• It systematizes our scientific knowledge, and
moral, aesthetic and religious experiences. It
analyses the popular and scientific concepts,
examines their validity in the light of reason,
and interrelates them to one another.
• Its method is logical and rational. Its chief
instrument is logic. Its method is rational
speculation—logical analysis and synthesis.
Nature and Scope
• It investigates the nature of the fundamental
concepts of matter, time, space, life, mind,
and the like and interrelates them to one
another.
• It enquires into the nature of the universe, its
stuff or material, its creator or God, its
purpose, and its relation to man and his soul.