MEANING OF PHILOSOPHY

Philia- love, Sophia- wisdom

Philosophy- love of wisdom

Philosopher- lover of wisdom

Love of wisdom- a strong desire of the human person to possess knowledge and apply it correctly.

Philosophy- defined as a science that studies beings in their ultimate causes, reasons, and principles
through the aid of human reason alone.

Beings- material (stones, trees, persons) and immaterial (God, soul, spirit)

BASIC QUESTION IN PHILOSOPHY:

1. What is the origin of the world of everything that exist?

2. Why do these things exist, rather than not exist at all?

3. Is there God?

4. If so, how can we justify the goodness of God in the face of evil?

5. What is the meaning and purpose of life?

6. Why do we have to suffer?

7. If one is suffering from an unbearable pain, such as cancer, is it morally right to resort to euthanasia or
assisted suicide?

Philosophy attempts to understand things in a critical and logical manner.

Philosophers do not agree on a single definition of philosophy.

Karl Jaspers understand philosophy as a discipline in which question are more important than answers
because answers themselves will, in turn, become questions.
Major Branches of Philosophy:

METAPHYSICS

- meta- beyond, physika- physical or nature

-etymologically speaking, metaphysics means the study of things beyond the physical, that is,
concepts or things that cannot be experienced, such as concepts of God, freedom, and soul.

- foundation of philosophy

- Aristotle calls metaphysics “first philosophy”

- metaphysika- “after physics” came after those chapters that dealt with physics in Aristotle’s
works.

General Metaphysics

 Ontology

- onto- being or that is which, everything that exixist; & logos- knowledge or
study.

- Ontology studies beings in their ultimate causes, reasons, and principles through
the aid of reason alone.

- It studies the first principles or the essence of all things.

Some basic questions in Ontology are:

1. What is being?

2. Why do things exist, rather than not exist at all?

3. What is the meaning and nature of reality?

4. What is the underlying principle of all that exist?

5. Is there nothing?

 Cosmology

- kosmos- world and logos= study

- is a specific sub-ranch of philosophy that studies the world (or universe), including
its origins, dynamics, and characteristics, and the laws that govern its order.

Some basic questions in Cosmology are:

1. What is the origin of the world?

2. What is the basic material of which the world is formed?

 3. How do things arise?

4. In what consists its (the world) fundamental form or principle of order?

5. Is the world or universe infinite?

 Psychology

- psyche- soul or mind, logos- study

- studies the soul or mind

- study of the nature and dynamics of the human person as a whole, with
emphasis on the way the person’s mind functions the way she behaves.

Some questions in Psychology are:

1. What is the nature of the human person?

2. Is there such thing as human nature?

3. What is the meaning and purpose, if any of life?

4. Is there life after death?

5. How do we account for the existence of sufferings in the

world?

- Theodicy (Natural Theology), theos- God. Theodicy is coined by Gottfried

Willhelm Leibniz, Théodicée. Theodicy is the study of God and is concerned with the justification of the
goodness of God in the face of the existence of evil in the world.

Basic questions on Theodicy are:

1. Is there god?

2. What and who is God, if He exists at all?

3. How do we prove the existence of God

4. If God exists, how do we justify the existence of evil and

suffering in the world?

5. Does a belief in God really necessary?

EPISTEMOLOGY

- episteme- knowledge, logos- study

- Epistemology is the study of the nature and scope of knowledge and justified belief.

Some of the basic questions in epistemology are:

1. What is knowledge?

2. What do we know?

3. How is knowledge acquired?

4. What are the structures and limits of knowledge?

5. What makes justified beliefs justified?

LOGIC

- logos- study

- Logic is the science of correct thinking or the study of principles and criteria of a valid argument.

- attempts to distinguish sound or good reasoning and unsound or bad reasoning.

Some of the basic questions in logic are:

1. What is correct reasoning?

2. What distinguish a good argument from bad one?

3. How can we detect a fallacy in argument?

4. What are the criteria in determining the validity of an argument?

5. What are the types of logic?

ETHICS

- ethos- custom or habit

- morality of human actions

- is concerned with questions of how human persons ought to act, and the search for a definition
of a right conduct and the good life.

- Ethics- theory of right action and the greater good. Morality- indicates practice, rightness and
wrongness of human action.
 Some basic questions in ethics are:

1. What is right conduct as that which causes the realization of the greatest good?

2. How do we determine a right conduct?

3. What is a good life and can we attain it?

4. What is the difference between human act and actions that are based on
instinct?

5. What do people think is right?

Notes:

 Some argue that Aesthetics is also a major branch of philosophy, which is the study of beauty.
 Some argue that aesthetics is also under metaphysics.
 Scholars argue that ethics and aesthetics is under axiology, the philosophical study of value.
ORIGIN OF PHILOSOPHY: A BRIEF SKETCH

Socrates, “Wonder is the only beginning of philosophy.”

Aristotle, “It is owing to their wonder that men both now begin and at first began to philosophize.”

Philosophy begins in wonder

Wonder as the beginning of philosophy is precisely “philosophic wonder”, that is feeling perplexed. For
example, the ancient Greek philosophers are perplexed about the origin and nature of the world.

Aristotle, “For men were first led to study philosophy, indeed they are today, by wonder. Now, he who is
perplexed and wonders believes himself to be ignorant… they took to philosophy to escape ignorance.”

Philosophic wonder seeks answers or to at least makes sense of the mysterious world.

Miletus, Ionia

- origin of western philosophy

- origin of the first philosopher, Thales

- first center of scholarship in Ancient Greek

- Ionia, Asia Minor (Turkey)

- Ionia’s decline started with Persian’s conquest in 530 BCE.

Croton, Southern Italy

- where the center of scholarship is moved

- Pythagoras origin (moved from Samos)

-Phythagorean Brothers is founded

Thales- acclaimed first philosophers

- first philosopher to record and put his philosophy in writing

 WHAT IS ETHICS?

ETHICS
- ethos- custom or character
- studies the rightness or wrongness of a human action

- How human persons ought to act?

- What is a right conduct and a good life?

- Ethics has no single absolute definition because ethics, as a discipline, is constantly

evolving as a result of a change in sociocultural and political context.

GREEK TRADITION
- good life
- discovering the nature of happiness
- Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics contained the theory of happiness and ways to attain
happiness
- being happy

JUDEO-CHRISTIAN TRADITION
- righteousness before God
- love of God and neighbor
- doing what is right

ETHICS MORALITY
“theory” of right action and the greater good “practice”, the rightness and wrongness of a
human action
“systematics study” of the underlying
principles of morality “prescriptive”, tells us what we ought to do
and exhorts us to follow the right way
Science of morals
Practice of ethics

Terrance McConell (199): “Morality is characterized as "an end-governed rational enterprise," one whose
"object is to equip people with a body of norms (rules and values) that make for peaceful and collectively
satisfying coexistence by facilitating their living together and interacting in a way that is productive for the
realization of the general benefit.”
Types of Ethics:

1. Normative Ethics

- prescriptive

- seeks to set norms or standards that regulate right and wrong or good and bad conduct.

- tends to construct guidelines or theories on how we ought to behave

2. Metaethics

- descriptive

- aims to understand the nature and dynamics of ethical principles

3. Applied Ethics

- actual application of ethical or moral theories for the purpose of deciding which ethical or moral
actions are appropriate in a given situation.

Casuists- adherents of applied ethics

- guiding individuals in their choice of actions

Different Fields of Applied Ethics:

Business ethics, Biomedical and Environmental Ethics, Social Ethics

Situation: A police officer shoots a terrorist who is about to blow up a crowded shopping mall.

Metaethics: The act of the police officer is morally wrong.

Normative Ethics: It is the right thing for the police officer to shot the terrorist in this particular
situation.

Casuists: The police officer is just doing his best to fulfill his duty.
WHAT IS MORALITY?

- Mos or mores- customary behavior

Basic Ethical Principles:

1. Respect for Persons

2. Truthfulness and Confidentiality

3. Autonomy and Informed Consent

4. Beneficence

5. Non-maleficence

6. Justice

Ethics

- standards of good or bad, right or wrong, that is imposed by some outside group, a society, or profession.

Morality

- one’s personal sense of right or wrong. It is not imposed by anyone, it is what you think is good and bad
personally.
What is Philosophy?
What are the things you can think of upon
hearing the word philosophy?
Etymological definition:

The word philosophy was coined by the

ancient Greek mathematician and philosopher
Pythagoras.

It comes from the Greek words philia,

meaning love, and sophia, meaning wisdom.
Hence, philosophy is love of wisdom. A philosopher
is a lover of wisdom.
BUT, WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BECOME
LOVERS OF WISDOM?

WHAT DOES LOVE OR WISDOM MEAN?

WHAT REALLY IS PHILOSOPHY?

 There are many thinkers who would claim that
Defining Philosophy is an impossible task?
Because, there are as many definitions to
philosophy as there are philosophers. The
German philosopher, Edmund Husserl remarks:

“[t]o be sure, we still have philosophical

congresses. The philosophers meet but,
unfortunately, not the philosophies.”
Unlike other studies …
Their etymology is very clear, for example:

Biology - Study of Life

Psychology – Study towards man’s behavior
Zoology - Study of Animals
Botany – Study of Plants
 hard but
Yes, defining Philosophy in its essence is

not impossible…
So, how do we do it?
“Begin in the right way”
Let’s go back to what is given, Love and Wisdom!
 SOPHIA
It is distinguished from:
Opinion (doxa)
Technical knowledge (techne)
Scientific knowledge (episteme)
DOXA - is the lowest kind of knowledge because it lacks any proper
justification. Perhaps it can be considered that opinion is an assertion
without proper justification. Any kind of knowledge attained without any
valid or proper justification, for example, rumors and gossips, are
considered as doxa or opinion.

EPISTEME - a kind of knowing that has grounded or justified assertions.

Factual statements, such as "Water boils at 100 degrees Celsius at sea
level” and "Dogs are warm-blooded animals“, are assertions that are
justified, for instance through the scientific method, and therefore can be
verified. Epistemic or scientific knowledge, therefore, is knowledge of the
principles that govern things.
TECHNE - is the knowledge of the means-end of objects, that is, the
“how” things are made and done. A blacksmith’s ability to create knife
is not so much because he or she is knowledgeable of the physics
behind knives or the molecular properties of steel, nor is his knowledge
of knife-making merely a common knowledge because not everyone
has the ability to make knifes. Techne or technical knowledge is a kind
of specialized knowledge. The blacksmith’s knowledge, and, therefore,
his ability to create knives is called as technical knowledge or techne.
Without having to oversimplify the term, techne can also be considered
as the knowledge inherent in skills to produce something, the means to
manipulate certain things.
 WISDOM IS THE HIGHEST OF ALL
FORMS OF KNOWLEDGE
First, wisdom is the encounter of the Nothing.

Second, wisdom is a kind of knowledge that thinks

about itself as its object of thought or self-
knowledge
 PHILIA
Agape is that kind of love that is unconditional, a kind of
love that is paradigmatically expressed by parents to their
children.

Eros, on the other hand, is a kind of love that is expressed

by lovers. Hence, the term erotic love.

Philia is friendship.
 A Friend is “the other self”
To be friends means to know what is pleasant
and good to each other and to seek for the other the
same pleasant and good thing one experiences.
 Synthesis
What is philosophy? Philosophy, then, as a friendship of
wisdom, is a “way of life.” It is a constant enduring and
struggle with the Nothing, that is, a constant struggle in
making sense or giving meaning to one's relation to things
and the world together with those who share the same
“state of being”, together with those whom we call friends.
This is philosophy:

“To do philosophy is to be human,

and to be human is to do philosophy.”
-D.Mendoza
THANK YOU!
 Lesson No. 1

The Nature of Human Acts

I. Definition

Human Act (Actus Humanus)

 an act which proceeds from the deliberate free will of man
 an act that proceeds from the knowing and freely willing human being
 Example: listening to a talk, studying this PDF

Act of Man (Actus Hominis)

 these are man’s animal act of sensation (use of the senses) and
appetition (bodily tendencies) done without advertence and the
exercise of free choice
 Example: actions done in infancy, in sleep, in delirium, etc.
 It is to be noted that an act of man can become a human act by the
advertence and consent of the agent.
 Human acts are moral acts.
 For human acts, man is responsible, and they are imputed to him, as worthy of
praise or blame, of reward or punishment.
 Human acts tend to repeat and form habits in man, which in turn, unite into his
character.

 Thus, a man is what his human acts make him.

II. Classification

A. Based on Complete/Adequate Cause

 There are some acts that begin and are perfected in the will itself, and the rest
begin in the will and are perfected by other faculties under control of the will.
A.1. Elicited Acts
 These are those that find their adequate cause in the will (the deliberate will)
alone. (Example: Your intention to study in your room.)
A.2. Commanded Acts
 These are those that do not find their adequate cause in the will-act but are
perfected by the action of mental or bodily powers under orders from the will.
(Example: Using your mind, eyes, etc. in studying.)
A.1. Elicited Acts
a. Wish
 refers to the simple love of anything
 the first tendency of the will towards a thing, whether realizable or not
 every human act begins with the wish to act
( Example: I do so long to see you tonight. )
b. Intention
 the purposive tendency of the will towards a thing regarded as
realizable, whether the thing is actually done or not
( Example: I will see you tonight. )
c. Consent
 the acceptance by the will of the means necessary to carry out
intention
 it is the further intention of doing what is necessary to realize the main
intention
( If I will see you tonight, I consent to how really to see you. )
d. Election
 the selection by the will of the precise means to be employed in
carrying out an intention
( I will select riding my bike to see you tonight. )
e. Use
 the employment by the will of bodily or mental powers or both to carry
out its intention by the means elected
( To actually see you, I will command my mental and bodily powers to
carry out my intention. )
f. Fruition
 the enjoyment of a thing willed and done
 the will’s act of satisfaction in intention fulfilled
( I will experience this the moment I will see actually see you. )
A.2. Commanded Acts
a. Internal
 acts done by internal mental powers under command of the will
( Example: effort to remember, effort to control anger )
b. External
 acts effected by bodily powers under command of the will
( Example: eating halo-halo, writing your answers )
c. Mixed
 acts that involve the employment of bodily and mental powers
( Example: solving a Math problem )
B. Based on the Relation of Human Acts to Reason
 Human acts are either in agreement or disagreement with the dictates of reason,
and this relationship constitutes the morality of human acts.

B.1. Good
 when human acts are in harmony with the dictates of right reason
B.2. Evil
 when human acts are in opposition with the dictates of right reason
B.3. Indifferent
 when they stand in no positive relation to the dictates of reason
III. Constituents of the Human Acts

 These refer to the essential elements or qualities for an act to be human.

 These qualities are knowledge, freedom, and voluntariness.

1. Knowledge
 A human act proceeds from the deliberate will; it requires deliberation.
 Deliberation means advertence, or knowledge in intellect of what one is
about and what this means. Deliberation means knowledge.
 Thus, no human act is possible without knowledge.
2. Freedom
 A human act is an act determined (elicited or commanded) by the will and
by nothing else.
 It is an act that is under control of the will, an act that the will can do or leave
undone.
 Such an act is called a free act, thus, every human act must be free.
3. Voluntariness
 A human act to be voluntary, or must have voluntariness, simply means it
must be a will-act.
 This is to say that there must be both knowledge and freedom in the agent or
the doer of the action.
 Lesson No. 2
Voluntariness of Human Act
 I.Degrees of Voluntariness
1. Perfect and Imperfect
Perfect – when the agent fully knows and fully intends the act
( Example: telling a lie to your parents )

Imperfect – when there is some defect in the agent’s knowledge,

intention, or both.
( Example: adding details in narrating an event )
2. Simple and Conditional
Simple voluntariness is present in a human act done, whether
the agent likes or dislikes doing it.
( Example: washing the dishes after the family meal )

Conditional voluntariness is present in the agent’s wish to do

something other than that which he is actually doing, but doing with
dislike.
( Example: washing the dishes with a wish of just watching TV)
3. Positive and Negative
Positive voluntariness is present in a human act of doing,
performing. It is present in an act that the agent is ought to do
and is doing it.
( Example: A student attends class on his scheduled time. )

Negative voluntariness is present in a human act of

omitting, refraining from doing. It is present in an act that the
agent is not ought to do but is doing it.
( Example: A student deliberately misses class. )
 Two Types of
Voluntariness:

I. Direct Voluntariness
II. Indirect Voluntariness
Direct voluntariness is present in a human act willed in
itself.

Indirect voluntariness is present in that human act

which is the foreseen result of another act directly willed.

A human act that is directly willed is called voluntary in se

while that which is indirectly willed is called voluntary in
causa.
A person is accountable for his actions and their consequences.
But is he also accountable for results not directly intended?
Paul Glenn considers a person accountable for indirectly voluntary
results of his acts when:

1. The doer is able to foresee the evil results or effect, at least, in a general
way;
2. The doer is free to refrain from doing that which would produce the
foreseen evil;
3. The doer has moral obligation not to do that which would produces an
evil effect.
 Principle of Double Effect
The agent may lawfully perform an act which has two effects, one
good and one evil, when the following conditions are met:

1. The goal itself must be good or at least morally neutral.

2. The good effect must not come about as a result of the evil effect,
but must come directly from the good action.
3. The evil effect must not be desired in itself but only permitted, if there is
no other choice.
4. There must be a sufficiently grave reason for permitting the evil effect to
occur.
The example shown below is for the treatment of an ectopic pregnancy, where the preborn child is developing in
the Fallopian tube. If the child continues to grow there, the tube will eventually rupture and will probably cause the
death of both the mother and the child.

1.The goal of the surgery itself must be good or at least morally neutral. In this case, the goal of the surgery is to
remove a pathological organ which presents an imminent threat to the life of the woman—a good goal. By
contrast, the goal of surgical or chemical abortion is simply to kill the preborn child.
2.The good effect must not come about as a result of the evil effect, but must come directly from the good action,
which in this case is the surgery intended to heal. The good effect (saving the mother’s life) is not caused by
the bad effect (the death of the preborn child). By contrast, in the case of direct abortion (surgical or
chemical abortion), the death of the child is wrongly considered to be the “good” effect.
3.The evil effect must not be desired in itself but only permitted, if there is no other choice. In the case of the removal
of an ectopic pregnancy, the surgeon does not intend or want to kill the baby; the baby’s death is an
unintended and unwanted side effect of the surgery. By contrast, the intent of abortion is to kill the preborn
child.
4.There must be a sufficiently grave reason for permitting the evil effect to occur. In this case, the reason is to save the
life of the mother when all other options for saving her life have been exhausted, a good that is greater than
or equal to the evil effect of the baby’s death. Pro-abortion groups often stretch this principle to absurd
lengths, going so far as to justify all abortions under the principle of double effect because, as
they falsely allege, most or all pregnancies threaten the life of the mother.
From these two principles, we may deduce the
following thoughts before the performance of any
act:

1. We must do good; we must avoid evil.

2.We must never do what is evil, even though good
may be looked for and intended as a result of it