paai1 what is philosophy?
TRANSCRIPT
Philosophy as Adventures of Ideas
Week1
What is Philosophy?
Kazuyoshi KAMIYAMA
NIT, Ibaraki College
2017/4/15
CONTENTS
What is Philosophy?
Three approaches to this problem
(1) historical approach
(2) problems approach
(3) linguistic approach
linguistic approach 1
linguistic approach 2
To sum up
Why do you learn philosophy?
Recommended Reading
THREE APPROACHES TO THIS PROBLEM
(1) historical approach
(2) problems approach
(3) linguistic approach
(1) HISTORICAL APPROACH
Thales (predicted an eclipse in 585 BC),Parmenides,Heraclitus,Pythagoras
→ Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle (Greek philosophy)
→ Augustine,Thomas Aquinas (medieval philosophy)
→ Descartes,Locke, Hume, Kant, Hegel (modern philosophy)
→Marx, Nietzsche,Frege, Russell, Wittgenstein, Husserl,Heidegger, Sartre,
Quine, Kuhn, Rawls,Derrida, … (contemporary philosophy)
cf. 16,17,18 centuries:natural science(Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Newton,・・)
philosophy = what these “philosophers” have been doing
(2) PROBLEMS APPROACH
Why is there something rather than nothing?
(the riddle of existence)
What is existence?
What is reality? How much do you know about reality?
Do you really know yourself?
What is knowledge?
What is truth?
What is time? Where is the past?
Are numbers artifacts (objects made by human beings)?
If not, what are they?
Do we have free will or is everything predetermined?
Why should one do what is morally right, and refrain
from doing what is morally wrong?
What is morality?
How should we organize society? What is justice?
Does God exist? Can we prove the existence of God?
Where does the soul go after we die?
What is happiness(or well-being)?
・・・
What is philosophy?
philosophy = the activities for asking and answering to
these “philosophical” problems
THREE FEATURESOF PHILOSOPHICAL PROBLEMS
(1) very general
(2) extraordinary (or fundamental)
(3) not easy to give a clear-cut answer
Science, Religion, Literature, Arts, and SF have
some important things in common with Philosophy.
They are (at least sometimes) adventures of ideas!
WHY PHILOSOPHY?
Because
there are still lots of deep problems in our world,
or
we are not God.
(There are no philosophical problems for God!)
(3) LINGUISTIC APPROACH 1
the origin of the word “philosophy”
Ancient Greek: φιλοσοφία
φίλος (philos, “beloved”) + σοφία (sophia, “wisdom”)
the love of wisdom
1) the narrow sense
philosophy
= what Thales, Plato, etc. have been doing
(the investigation of philosophical problems)
= (or ⊂ ) adventures of ideas
2) the wide or ordinary sense
philosophy = the set of beliefs an individual or an
organization has about what is good and what is
not, which he/she/it would not easily give up
(simply a policy)
ex. Philosophy of Donald Trump
TO SUM UP
philosophy = inquiries about the fundamental problems of the
world and man, or adventures of ideas
(philosophy1)
or
philosophy = the set of beliefs an individual or an organization
has about what is good and what is not, which he/she/it would
not easily give up
(philosophy2)
Ex. (philosophy2)
the philosophy of Steve Jobs,
the Apple Computer, Sony, Shiseido, NY Yankees,
Manchester United, the Unesco, ・・
UNESCO CONSTITUTION
That since wars begin in the minds of men,
it is in the minds of men that the defences of
peace must be constructed.
WHY DO YOU LEARN PHILOSOPHY?
The higher you climb, the more you need general
points of view-philosophy.
Doing philosophy (philosophy1) is to think about
general, deepest problems, which is going to give
you a general point of view, deep understanding
about yourself, society and world, and to help you to
be an independent, open-minded person who has
philosophy (philosophy2).
NOTE: WHO IS AN OPEN-MINDED PERSON ?
(According to an opinion)
An open-minded person is someone who is willing to consider
ideas, opinions and arguments purely on their merit.
If an idea can be shown to be correct then an open-minded person
will alter their world-view with this new-found knowledge.
If the new idea does not stand up to scrutiny however, it will be
rejected.
NOTE2
Main branches of philosophy1
Ontology(or metaphysics): study of being in general
Epistemology: study of knowledge
Theories of values
Ethics(or moral philosophy): study of proper action,
well-being
Political philosophy: study of justice
Aesthetics: study of beauty
Philosophy of religion: study of sacredness
NOTE3THE ORIGIN OF PHILOSOPHY
“Philosophy begins in wonder.“ (Plato, Theaeteus)
"It was their wonder, astonishment, that first led men
to philosophize and still leads them.“
(Aristotle, Metaphysics)
RECOMMENDED READING
Rene Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy: With Selections from the Objections and
Replies, Cambridge University Press, 1986.
ルネ・デカルト『省察』(ちくま学芸文庫)
Jim Holt, Why Does the World Exist?: An Existential Detective Story, Liveright, 2012.
ジム・ホルト『世界はなぜ「ある」のか?:「究極のなぜ?」を追う哲学の旅』 (ハヤカワ・ノンフィクション文庫)
Ikujiro Nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuchi, The Knowledge-Creating Company: How Japanese
Companies Create the Dynamics of Innovation, Oxford University Press, 1995.
野中・竹内『知識創造企業』東洋経済新報社
Plato, The Republic, Penguin Classics, 2007.プラトン『国家』(岩波文庫)
Karl Jaspers, Way to Wisdom: An Introduction to Philosophy, Second Edition, Yale University
Press, 2003. カール・ヤスパース『哲学入門』(新潮文庫)