Logic and Critical thinking

 Chapter One
 Logic can be treated simaltanousely as field of
study and instrument
 As field of study - branch of philosophy
that study arguments and principles and
methods of right reasoning
 As instrument - logic use to formulate
our own rational arguments and critically
evaluate the soundness of others‘
arguments
 Meaning and Nature of Philosophy
• Etymologically :- comes from two Greek words
• philo – means love
• sophia – means wisdom
• Literally philosophy is “love of wisdom”.
• Pythagoras was the first ancient Greek
thinker to use the word "philosopher" to
call a person who clearly shows a marked
curiosity in the thing he experience.
 any person who asks questions like;
 Does God exist?
 What is knowledge?
 What is reality?
 What is the ultimate source of being?
 What is value? and the like, is a vital concern
for becoming wise about the phenomena of the
world and the human experiences.
 Giving a clear-cut definition of philosophy
is difficul because;
 Philosophy is universal in nature /has no
definite bounder
 Has no a specific subject matter to primarily deal with
like Biology/chemistry
 Primarily philosophy deals with issues, issues which are
universal in nature.
 But when we say this Philosophy is not as thought as
elusive nor is it remote from our various problems.
 But this is not sufficient by itself to understand
philosophy, for not all wisdom are philosophy but
philosophy is wisdom.
 The best way to understand philosophy is;
 to confront with philosophical questions
 to use philosophical language
 to read the philosophers themselves,
 to acquainted with differing philosophical
positions and manoeuvre and
 to grapple with the issues for oneself

 What is the beginning of philosophy?
 According to Socrates: philosophy begins
in ‘’wonder”.“ Wonder’’ is the feeling of a
philosopher.
 When we have thoght/reflected what
most matters us we all have touched the
feelings of wonder.
 But thinking alone cannot make us
philosophers.
 What is the wisdom philosophers
seek?
 The wisdom that philosophers seek is not
the wisdom of the expertise or technical
skills of professionals.
 According to Socrates, wisdom consists
of/the wisdom philosophers seek is/
 a critical habit,
 eternal vigilance and
 watchfulness for all thing and
 a reverence/respect for truth
 Based on the Socratic understanding of
wisdom,
 philosophy, as a pursuit of wisdom is ;
 the development of critical habits
 the continuous search for truth
 the questioning of the apparent

 What is the questioning of the apparent
mean?
 Is it to deny the existence of the facts?
 It is to interrogate the obvious to deal creatively
with the phenomenal world, to go beyond the
common understanding, and to speculate about
things that people accept with no doubt.
 It is not to deny the existance of the facts
 eg, Earth was beliefed to be flat but now prooved
oval
 Raising the right question/criticism/ is not the
final end of philosophy.
 but it is often taken as
 the beginning
 direction or
 essence of philosophy
 Vincent Barry stated , philosophical enterprise is
“an active imaginative’’ process of formulating
proper questions and resolving them by rigorous,
persistent analysis.
• In this case philosophy has two sides;
• The Constructive side: it attempts to formulate
rationally defensible answers to certain
fundamental questions concerning the nature
of reality, value, knowledge and truth.
• The Critical side: deals with giving arational
critic, analysis, clarification, and evaluation of
answers given to basic metaphysical,
epistemological and axiological questions
 Basic Features of Philosophy
1. Philosophy is a set of views or beliefs about life
and the universe, which are often held uncritically.
2. Philosophy is a process of reflecting on and criticizing our
most deeply held conceptions and belief
3. Philosophy is a rational attempt to look at the world as a
whole
4.Philosophy is the logical analysis of language and the
clarification of the meaning of words and concepts
5. Philosophy is a group of perennial problems that interest
people and for which philosophers always have sought
answers.
 Basic Features of Philosophy
 The salient features of philosophy are as
follows;
1.Philosophy is a set of views or beliefs about life and
the universe, which are often held uncritically.
 This is informal sense of philosophy or “Having a
philosophy” referring to an informal personal
attitude.
2.Philosophy is a process of reflecting on and criticizing
our most deeply held conceptions and belief
• this is formal sense of philosophy “Doing philosophy”.
• the two senses of philosophy “having” and
“Doing” cannot be treated entirely independent
of each other.
• If we did not have a philosophy in the formal and
personal sense, then we could not do
a philosophy in the critical, reflective
 However, having a philosophy is not sufficient for
doing philosophy;
 ZFDZFDso agenuine philosophical attitude iszx
xcchcchvcx searching and critical; open-mildness,
tolerant and willing to look at all sides of an issue
without prejudice/bias/
†x
 • Philosophers, theologians, scientists, and others
disagree, because
 they live in a changing universe
• Some are sensitive to change;
 others cling to tradition and the status quo
3.Philosophy is a rational attempt to look at the
world as a whole
 Philosophy combine the conclusions of the
various sciences and human experience into some
kind of consistent worldview based on reason
• It bring the results of human inquiry into some
meaningful interpretation that provides
knowledge and insight for our lives
4.Philosophy is the logical analysis of
language and the clarification of the
meaning of words and concepts
 Philosophy is serving in the
clarification of the use of language
and meaning of terms.
• the aim of philosophy is to expose
confusion and nonsense and to
clarify the meaning and use of terms
in science and everyday affairs
5. Philosophy is a group of perennial problems
that interest people and for which
philosophers always have sought answers.
like;
 What is “truth?”
 What is life?
 What is reality?
 What is beauty?
 Where does knowledge come from?
 Is there a possibility of a life after death?
Core Branches of Philosophy
1. Metaphysics- study the ultimate nature of
reality and existence
2. Epistemology- studies about the nature of
knowledge
3. Axiology- study of value (the worth of
something)
4. Logic - study about argument or right
reasoning
1. Metaphysics
• comes from two Greek words-
 Meta means beyond/after/up on and
 Physika means physics
• Literally, it refers those things after the physics
 Aristotle’s writings on “first philosophy” came after his treatise
on physics, therefore, Aristotle’s editor, Andronicus of Rhodes,
named them metaphysics.
• Metaphysics is deal with issues of
• ultimate nature of reality, existence, human knowledge,
Issues of Go, freedom, cause and effect relationship,
soul/immortality, the mind-body problem, Form and
substance
 Metaphysical questions provide the foundation upon
which all subsequent inquiry is based.
 It seek an irreducible foundation of reality or “first
principles” from which absolute knowledge or truth can
be induced and deduced
 some of the questions that Metaphysics primarily deals
with:
 What is reality? What is the ultimately real?
• Can reality be grasped by the senses, or it is
transcendent?
 What is mind, and what is its relation to the body?
 Does God exist, and if so, can we prove it?
 What is the meaning of life?
 Metaphysics is divided into four
aspect
1.Cosmological Aspect - study the origin,
nature, and development of the universe as
an orderly system
2.Theological Aspect - deals with
conceptions of and about God
3. Anthropological Aspect - deals with the
study of human beings
4. Ontological Aspect - deals with ultimate
 i. Cosmological Aspect
 It is study of theories about the origin,
nature, and development of the universe as
an orderly system.
 Questions of Cosmology
 How did the universe originate and
develop?
 Did it come about by accident or design?
ii. Theological Aspect
 It is t part of religious theory that deals with
conceptions of and about God
 Theological question
 Is there a God?
 If so, is there one or more than one?
 What are the attributes of God?
 If God is both all good and all powerful, why
does evil exist?
 If God exist what is the relationship b/n
man and God?
iii. Anthropological Aspect
deals with the study of human beings
Anthropological question
What is the relation between mind
and body?
Is mind more fundamental than body?
Which one depend on the other?
What is humanity’s moral status?
Are people born evil,good or neutral
iv. Ontological Aspect
• Deals with ultimate nature of reality or
existence
• Ontological question
 Is basic reality found in matter or
physical energy?
 Is it fixed and stable?
 Is it found in sprite or spiritual energy?
 Is reality orderly and lawful or merely
ordered by human?
 2. Epistemology
• Derived from two Greek words Episteme and Logos
 Episteme meaning knowledge/ understanding
• Logos meaning study
 Literaly epistemology mean study of knowledge
• Epistemology deals with-
 nature, scope, meaning, and possibility of
knowledge
• issues of opinion, truth, falsity, reason, experience,
and faith
 dependability of knowledge and validity of sources

 Epistemology Questions
 What is knowledge?
 What does it mean to know?
 What is truth, and how can we know a statement is true?
 What is the source of knowledge? Experience, reason or
both?
 Can reason really help us to know things without being
informed by sense experiences?
 Epistemology also seeks answers to a number of
fundamental questions
 whether reality can even be known
 Whether truth is relative or absolute
 Whether knowledge is subjective or objective
 Whether reality can be known Greek Sophist
Gorgias, asserted that;
 It is impossible to acquire reliable knowledge
 any search for truth is in vain
 nothing exists, and that if it did, we could not
know it
 These thinkers are called Skepticism,
 Skepticism is the word relate to Agnosticism
 Agnosticism is a profession of ignorance in
reference to the existence or nonexistence of God
 On other hand most thinkers claim that reality
can be known by following five sources of
knowledge like;
1. Empiricism- the senses or experience is source of
knowledge
2. Rationalism - reasoning/thought/ is source of
knowledge
3. Intuition- direct apprehension is source of
knowledge
4. Revelation - supernatural/omniscient is source of
knowledge
5. Authority-professional skills is source of
knowledge
1.Empiricism
 It is knowledge obtained by senses
 knowledge appears to be built into the very nature of
human experience
 Sensory knowing is immediate and universal and
 forms the basis of much of human knowledge in many
ways
 Weakness
• Data obtained from the human senses is incomplete and
undependable
• Example: seeing a stick that looks bent when partially
submerged in water but appears to be straight when
examined in the air.
 Fatigue, frustration, and illness also distort
and limit sensory perception
• There are inaudible and invisible things that
cannot be identified by sense
 Advantage of Empirical knowledge
 Many sensory experiences and
experiments are open to both replication
and public examination
2.Rationalism
• view that reasoning, thought, or logic is the
source of knowledge
 emphasizing humanity’s power of thought and
mind’s as source of knowledge.
• senses alone cannot provide universal, valid
judgments that are consistent with one another
 data obtained from the human senses is raw
material of knowledge that must be organized by
the mind into a meaningful system before they
become knowledge.
 people have the power to know with certainty
various truths about the universe that the senses
alone cannot give.
 humans are capable of arriving at
irrefutable/impossible to disprove/ knowledge
independently of sensory experience
 Rationalists used formal logic as a tool;
 the logic systems have advantage of possessing
internal consistency, but they risk being
disconnected from the external world.
 Systems of thought based upon logic are only as
valid as the premises upon which they are built.
3. Intuition
• Is direct apprehension of knowledge that isnot
derived from conscious reasoning or sense
perception
 Is immediate feeling of certainty or a sudden
flash of insight
• claimed as a source of both religious and secular
knowledge
 Source for many scientific advancement-
confirmed by experimentation

 Weakness of intuition
• It is not a safe method of obtaining
knowledge when used alone
 It goes astray/ away from right path/
very easily and lead to absurd/decieve/
claims
 Distinct advantage of intuition
• Being able to bypass the limitations of
human experience
 4. Revelation
• It is primary source of knowledge in the field of
religion
 It presupposes a transcendent supernatural
reality that breaks into the natural order
• Is omniscient source of information
 Advantage of revelation
 the truth revealed is absolute and uncontaminated
 Disadvantage revelation
• Can be distorted in the process of human interpretation
• It cannot be proved or disproved empirically, accepted by
faith,
5.Authority -
• though it is not a philosophical position;
• It is knowledge comes from experts
 For example in classroom, textbook, teacher and
references have authority as source of knowledge.
 Note/attention
•One source of information alone might not
supplying people with all knowledge.
 so, combine use of all sources of knowledge is
necessary to enhance our knowledge.
 3. Axiology
 It is the study or theory of value
 Comes from Greek words Axios(value, worth) and
logos (reason/theory/science/study of)
 It is the philosophical study of value ( worth of
something).
 Axiology deals with issues of value in three areas,

namely Ethics, Aesthetics, and Social/Political

Philosophy.
A. Ethics (Moral Philosophy)
 Deals with the philosophical study of moral
principles, values, codes, and rules,
 Determining what kind of human
conduct/action is said to be good or bad, right
or wrong.
 Ethics,or ethical studies, can be grouped into
three broad categories: Normative ethics, Meta-
ethics, and Applied Ethics.
i. Normative Ethics
 Study the moral rules, principles, standards
and goals by which human beings might
evaluate and judge the moral values of their
conducts, actions and decisions.
 Critical study which things are good, right, and
which acts are blameworthy.
 Examples of normative ethics are:
 Consequentialism or Teleological Ethics,
• Deontological Ethics, and
 Virtue Ethics
ii. Meta-ethics
 It is the highly technical philosophical discipline
that deals with investigation of the meaning of
ethical terms, including a critical study of how
ethical statements can be verified. .
 More concerned with the meanings of such
ethical terms like good or bad and right or
wrong than with what we think is good or bad
and right or wrong.
 The main examples of meta-ethical studies are:
• Moral Intuitionism,
• Moral Emotivism,
• Moral Prescriptivism,
• Moral Nihilism, and
• Ethical Relativism
iii. Applied Ethics
• It is a normative ethics that attempts to
explain, justify, apply moral rules, principles,
standards, and positions to specific moral
problems, such as capital punishment,
euthanasia, abortion, adultery, animal right,
and so on.
 It is termed applied because the ethicist
applies or uses general ethical princes to
resolve specific moral problems.
b) Aesthetics
• It is the theory of beauty.
• It studies about the value of our artistic and
aesthetic experiences.
• It deals with beauty, art, enjoyment,
sensory/emotional values, perception, and
matters of taste and sentiment.
• Aesthetic questions are:
 What is art? And What is beauty?
 What is the relation between art and beauty?
 What is the connection between art, beauty, and
truth?
c) Social/Political Philosophy
 studies about of the value judgments operating in
a civil society, be it social or political.
 Questions that Social/Political Philosophy
 What form of government is best?
 What economic system is best?
 What is justice/injustice?
 What makes an action/judgment just/unjust?
 What is society?
4. Logic
• What do you understand about logic?
• Logic is the study or theory of principles of right
reasoning.
• It deals with formulating the right principles of
reasoning; and developing scientific methods of
evaluating the validity and soundness of
arguments.
• Questions raised in Logic:
• What is an argument?;
• What does it mean to argue?
• What relation do premise and conclusion have in
argument?
• How can we formulate and evaluate an argument?
• What is a fallacy?
1.4. Importance of Learning Philosophy
 Can you list the benefits of studying philosophy?
It needs to critically examine our lives as well as the
world in which they live.
 It can assist us to actualize ourselves by promoting
the ideal of self-actualization.
There are many characteristics of self-actualization:
a) Intellectual and Behavioral Independence
 The ability to develop one's own opinion &
believes.
b) Reflective Self-Awareness-Intensify our self-
awareness by inviting us to critically examine.
a) Flexibility, Tolerance, and Open-Mindedness
 Understanding the evolutionary nature of
intellectual achievement and the ongoing
development of human thought.
b) Creative and Critical Thinking
 Ability to develop original philosophical
perspectives on issues, problems and events on
a deeper level.
c) Conceptualized and well -thought-out value
systems in morality, art, politics and etc.
 Provides us with an opportunity to formulate
feasible (possible) evaluations of value, and
thereby meaning in our lives