Download Philosophy Intro

PHILOSOPHY INTRO
Past Days’ Objectives
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Understand more about your selected philosopher
Construct an engaging presentation for our class
Today’s Objectives
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Gain an understanding of the origins and basic
categories of philosophy
Pique your interests by philosophizing
Hear more details about philosophers from our
group presentations (Charlie, Mike, Celeste, Leila
requested to go first)
Intro Question: Think, Pair, Share
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What is science? How might it be connected to
philosophy?
Science: a systematic way to study the world in
which we live.
 Observation
 Propose
scientific questions
 Design scientific experiments
 Collect scientific info
 Make scientific interpretations
Science as Philosophy?
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The word “science” is a relatively modern word that
came around 1400 A.D.
The word “scientist” was introduced in 1834 by a
British scholar William Whewell. Before this time
people who studied science were called natural
philosophers.
Philosophy Origins
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“Philosophy” comes from the Greek words philein,
which means “to love,” and soph, which means
“wisdom.”
 “love
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of wisdom”
Today’s modern science stems from the three ways
ancient philosophers investigated the world
 Ideas
 Observation
 Application
Philosophy Origins
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Earliest philosophers
clustered around the
Mediterranean Sea, most
notably ancient Greece.
However, activities that
we would ascribe to
modern science were
happening all over the
world.
Philosophers we’ll learn about by date
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Ancients
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Early Modern
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Confucius (551 BC – 479 BC)
Socrates (469 BC – 399 BC)
Plato (429 BC – 347 BC)
Aristotle (384 BC – 322 BC)
Descartes (1596-1650 --”I think, therefore I am”)
Kierkegaard (1813 – 1855)
Nietzsche (1844 – 1900)
Twentieth Century
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Dewey (1859 – 1952)
Sartre (1905 – 1980)
Major Issues in Philosophy
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Metaphysics: The ultimate structure of reality
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Epistemology: The nature of knowledge
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Typical questions include: Does life have a meaning? Does God
exist? How does one event cause another? What is essential and
what is accidental in something’s nature? What can we say exists?
Typical questions include: How is knowledge justified? What are
the different sources of knowledge? What different kinds of
knowledge are there? How can we know anything at all?
Ethics: The study of morality
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Typical questions include: Are there objective rules for moral
conduct? On what grounds can we say an action is right or
wrong? Do we have free will? To what extent are we responsible
for our actions? Should our moral decisions be indifferent to those
affected by them (agent-neutral) or should we behave
differently toward those close to us (agent-relative)?
Talking about ethics…
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Let’s practice the act of philosophizing.
Gather with some friends and be ready to read
about and then discuss your reactions to an ethical
issue.
Try to declare your opinion and