Download philosophy as a second order discipline

PHILOSOPHY AS
A SECOND
ORDER
DISCIPLINE
Philosophy as a Second Order
Discipline
• A second order discipline examines some
issues arising in another discipline.
• Whenever philosophy is practised as a second
order discipline, it is concerned with
interrogating or scrutinising certain problems
and issues arising from studies going on in
other disciplines
• The aims, the methodology, and outcome of
other disciplines are subjected to rigorous
analysis and evaluation
• There is also ethical evaluation of the
practices in other disciplines
• Philosophy, as a second order enterprise,
examines salient issues in other academic
fields like Law, Social Science, Science,
Education, ICT, etc.
• According to Anselm K. Jimoh, philosophy as a
second order discipline has “to do with the
application of the tools of philosophy in
analysing and clarifying the theoretical
problems in the specialised disciplines that
broke away from philosophy mainly for the
sake of intellectual division of labour that
makes for increase in knowledge output and
excellence.
• Philosophy as a second order discipline
emerged in order to respond to new problems
and issues in the various fields or endeavours
PHILOSOPHY AS THE QUEEN OF ALL
DISCIPLINES
• Why is philosophy interested in all other
disciplines?
• This is because philosophy is the queen of all
disciplines. By this we mean that philosophy is
the mother of all disciplines. It gave birth to all
disciplines.
• In other words, all other disciplines or subjects
came out of philosophy
• Observable in the way philosophy was
practiced in the early days is the fact that
history, geography, astronomy, mathematics,
biology, medicine, law were undertaken by
philosophers, who drew no distinction
between these disciplines and philosophy but
reflected about subject-matters in these
disciplines as part of their contribution to
philosophy
• It is however, interesting to note that even
though there is a separation of the other
disciplines from philosophy, every academic
discipline still has some philosophical question
surrounding it. This is because not all
questions by a discipline can be answered
empirically
Philosophy and the Natural sciences
• While not preempting the details of this course, it
is important to point out that the natural sciences
are concerned with knowing in detail, as much as
possible, the cause and effect of things; and what
things are in themselves.
• The natural sciences are concerned with the
observable part of reality and nature. It is only
interested in what can be encountered by our
senses- feeling, touching, taste, seeing, hearing.
• In the natural sciences experience is
regarded as the source of knowledge
• The natural science is further
concerned
with
observation,
experimentation, and generalisation
• The interrogation of science is done
under the field of philosophy known
as “philosophy of science.”
• Philosophy of science as a field of science use
to be under the branch of philosophy called
epistemology. But it became an independent
field of inquiry in the 19th century
• Philosophy is however interested in the
natural science in order to question its
methodology, scrutinise its aims and
objectives, evaluate its findings
• According to Anselm K. Jimoh, “Philosophy of
science tries to explain the process of
scientific inquiry. It is concerned with the
assumptions, foundations, methods,
implications of science, and how science is
used.”
Things done in philosophy of science
• The examination of the procedural methods of
the sciences
• the patterns of arguments that are employed for
justifying scientific claims or knowledge
• Examination of theories
• Examination of concepts of science
• Examination of issues that have to do with proper
demarcation between the sciences and other
disciplines like sociology, economics, and history
• Examination of the problems of induction
Philosophy of Language
• This deals with the philosophical problems
regarding language and its use
• At the core of the philosophical inquiry into
language are the following:
• 1 the nature of language
• 2 the relationship between language, language
users, and reality in the world
• 3 the nature of meaning
• 4. The problem of translation
Philosophy of LAW
• This is the field that examines concepts,
theories, institutions, and practices in law.
• Such concepts likes justice, judicial
precedence, law, freedom are subjected to
critical investigation
• It asks the question: why should we obey the
law?
Three issues investigated in philosophy
of law
• Analytic jurisprudence
• Normative jurisprudence
• Critical theories of law
Analytic jurisprudence
• In analytic jurisprudence there is a separation of law
from non-law. Analytic jurisprudence provides the
analysis of what law is in itself so as to enable an
understanding of the differences between law and
other systems of norms. As such it makes a distinction
between law and ethics for instance. In other words
under analytic jurisprudence we have “an account of
how to distinguish law as a system of norms from other
normative systems.
• In analytic jurisprudence there is the analysis of law
and legal systems
• There are two trends that have emerged in
the attempt to define law in analytic
jurisprudence. These are:
• > the affirmation of a conceptual relation
between law and morality
• > the denial of a conceptual relation between
law and morality
Normative Jurisprudence
• Normative jurisprudence is concerned with “the
normative, evaluative, and prescriptive issues
involved in law.”
• There are three key issues examined in normative
jurisprudence
• 1. the restriction on freedom
• 2. an examination of the obligation to obey the
law
• 3. the ground on which people deserve to be
punished
Critical theories of law
• Critical theories of law aim at generating new
theories that can challenge traditional
explanations in philosophy of law
Philosophy of education
• This branch of philosophy became recognised
as a field of philosophy in the 19th century
• This branch of philosophy examines the aims,
forms methods, and results of education, both
as a process of formation and as a field of
study.
• Generally speaking, philosophy of education is
concerned with “an analysis of the different
theories of education, the political issues that
influence education, for example, the problem
of equal educational opportunity, the sociopolitical values that education should
cultivate, and the economic and political
ideology that should determine academic
curricula and the systems of education to be
practiced.”
• There is a distinction between educating a
person and indoctrinating him/her
• There is also the issue of morality in education
• There is the examination of the appropriate
method with which education can best be
achieved
• There is the examination of how education
and other areas of national life like the
economy, the political and the social meet
Philosophy of the social sciences
• The social sciences are: economics, sociology,
psychology, political science, international relations,
etc.
• In philosophy of the social sciences, these disciplines
are subjected to rigorous interrogation.
• There is an inquiry into the method of investigation
and the logic of the social sciences, as well as theories
and hypotheses
• An attempt is made to understand the difference
between the pure or natural sciences and the social
sciences
Philosophy of history
• This branch of philosophy deals with the
theoretical aspect of history. It examines what
historians do. In it, the aim and purpose of
history are questioned and there is an attempt
to resolve the issues of whether there should
be general law by which we explain human
history
Philosophy of religion
• In philosophy of religion, there is an attempt
to understand various concepts involved in
religious beliefs
• The tools of philosophy are employed in
interrogating conflicting claims of the various
religions