Philosophy - Philosophy Course Notes
Introduction to Philosophy
Lecture 1 - Introduction
September 10, 2006
This set of philosophy notes comes from two sources. First the main source is my course notes and lectures notes from Philosophy 100: Introduction to Philosophy from the University of Waterloo. The second source is the lecture notes from Phil 10100-1 Introduction to Philosophy from the University of Notre Dame. I will try to use those notes to supplement and improve my own notes since they follow the same method of learning philosophy.
There are two ways I have seen professors introduce philosophy to students. The first approach is to simply have them start reading classic books and papers by famous philosophers and then help them try to understand the issues at stake. Let us call this approach the Sink or Swim approach. The course I took used this approach. I started out reading Plato and Socrates and ended by reading Bertrand Russell.
The other approach is to have students go through a series of topics such as: how can we know anything, does God exist, do we have free will? For each of these topics the professor would explain the various options and then students would read famous philosophers on those topics. Let us call this the Structured Learning approach.
I do not want to debate which I will be trying to create a set of lecture notes following that format later on based on online lecture notes from the University of Notre Dame and MIT. Hopefully be reading either of these methods you will get a good understanding of basic philsohopical topics.
Phil 100: Lecture 1 - The Professor's Method of Teaching
- Will start out by reading classics in philosophy from 6th century BC to present. Not introductory material since there are no really easy entries into philosophy.
- Topics discussed not usually pressing in society, at least not obviously. But they are often at heart of many issues if you break them down.
- We have many fundamental beliefs (many of which we hold unconsciously) that control how we act in our more everyday concerns.
- Course is introductory since it is not feasible or expected that we master the works cited. Also do not have to know the historical context for each work.
- This approach is the best because the best way to learn philosophy is not to study it, but to do it.
Course Description
- This course is a brief introduction to some of the classic problems in philosophy
- Unlike other subjects, there is no easy way to be introduced to philosophy. You can study philosophy a lot and still not know what is going on.
- Part of the problem is you are reading the same material and books that are read by graduate students and professional philosophers.
- This course mainly deals with epistomology (the theory of knowledge), not with ethics or value theory. So the subjects of this course are our beliefs and what we can know.
- Philosophy often deals with abstract problems that most people do not think are important. But they are important, they affect how we believe and do many things.
- Will start in 6th century BC and end with Bertrand Russell who died in 1970
- This is not a course in the history of philosophy. Concentrate instead on learning what the main problems of philosophy are and what the subsections or areas of philosophy are.
- When reading the materials your goals are to:
- Understand what the discussion is about
- Understand what is happening
- Understand if there is any kind of resolution
Definition: What is Philosophy?
"Philosophy is in large part a clarification, sysmtematization, articulation, relating, and deepening of our pre-philosophical opinion." (Alvin Plantinga, p. 312, The Analytical Theist)
- Philosophy does not have its own subject matter, like physics or history. It does not have its own niche.
- Philosophy is about our unconscious and conscious beliefs such as our beliefs about religion, politics, work and technology
- Everyone has beliefs, some are obvious and some are not so obvious
- Every action we take shows that we believe something or other
- What a large part of philosophy does is ask whether any of our beliefs are rationally justifiable
- So for each of our beliefs we should ask: Is it possible to give good reasons why I believe this?
- Should also try and uncover and unconscious beliefs we have
- Philosophy examines things we take for granted, and critically examines them
- Philosophy also looks at the assumptions that lie behind our beliefs
So from the above, can we form a good definition of what philosophy is?
Philosophy is the study of our conscious and unconscious beliefs, the assumptions that lie behind them, and whether those beliefs are rationally justifiable.
Why Do Philosophy?
- It is possible to go through your life without asking any of the big philosophical questions or seeking answers to them
- The outcome of asking the questions and studying them is to be often less sure of your answers than when you began
- Betrand Russell felt that one of the reasons we should study philsophy in his Value of Philosophy section of textbook is to 'escape dogmatism and satisfy our curiousity'. Good example of how even philosophers can fail since Russell's 'Why I am not a Christian' is dogmatic and built on poor logic.
- Another reason Russell gives is that we should study the questions for the sake of the questions themselves
- Russell also felt that by studying the questions our minds would be improved, even if we did not find the answers
- Socrates felt that 'the unexamined life is not worth living'
- Philosophy does not tell you the way things are, but what they might be
- Everyone has a worldview. Using the tools of philosophy you can better understand why you have those beliefs and why other people believe as they do
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