Philosophy:

Introductory Lecture

Yubaraj Sangroula

1
Metaphysics Ethics
Philosophy is the
critical study of
the most
fundamental
questions that
human kind has
been able to ask.
Questions are
What is like
Philosophy Epistemology

2
• Metaphysics: What is the nature of
things that exist? Are there things in a
natural world independent of our
perception? What does it mean to think, to
have a mind? Is there a God?
• Epistemology: Is knowledge possible,
and if so, what is the knowledge? How can
we know that our minds actually exist?
• Ethics: Is there a difference between
right and wrong, and if how can we prove
this? What should I do? How should I live?
3
 Existence or Rightness or
being Goodness
METAPHYSICS ETHICS

Paradigmatically,
Philosophy is
Concerned with
Fundamental
Concepts such as
Truth
LOGIC
Knowledge
And
EPISTOMOLOGY
Beauty
AESTHETICS
4
What Philosophy Means?
• The word ‘philosophy’ is derived from the
ancient Greek term philosophia, literally
meaning the ‘love of wisdom’ (philein = to love
+ sophia = wisdom) in the sense of theoretical
or cosmic insight.
• In Sanskrit language, this is darsan, literally
meaning to make something revealed or
obvious by process of investigation.
• Both indicate to ‘knowledge of ideas’. The
method of Philosophy is scientific.

5
Philosophical Disciplines
• Philosophical inquiry is often divided into several
major branches based on questions typically
addressed by people working in different parts of
the field.
• In the ancient world, the most influential division
of the subject was the subject was the ‘Stoics’
division of philosophy into Logic, Ethics, and
Physics (conceived as the study of nature of the
world including both the natural science and
metaphysics).
• In contemporary philosophy, specialties within
the field of are more commonly divided into
Metaphysics, Epistemology, ethics and Logic
and Aesthetics
6
Philosophical Subdisclipines
• Axiology: The branch of philosophical enquiry that
explores
- Aesthetics: the study of basic philosophical questions
about the art and beauty. Sometimes, philosophy of art
is used to describe only questions about art, while
aesthetics is the more general term. Likewise,
“Aesthetics sometimes applies more broadly than to
merely the ‘philosophy’ of beauty: to include the
sublime, humor, or fright- to any of the responses we
might expect works of art or entertainment to elicit.
- Ethics: the study of what makes actions right or
wrong, and of how theories of right actions can be
applied to special moral problems. Subdisclipines include
meta-ethics (something endowed by unearthly power),
value theory( emergence of values by interactions),
theory of conduct (rationality), and applied ethics
(what is applicable by habit). 7
• Epistemology: The study of knowledge and
its nature, possibility and justification.
• History of Philosophy: The study of
what philosophers up until recent times have
written, its interpretation. History of philosophy
can be approached either exegetically (in
which case the main question is the
interpretative question of what past phisophelors
mean and how the structure of their thought
holds together) or critically (in which case the
main question is the logical question of whether
past philosophers said was true or false, and
what the philosophical consequences of their
views are).
8
• Logic: the study of the standards of correct
argumentation. The characteristic method of
this study is the development of formal logic to
symbolize and evaluate arguments. Logics can
be divided into three models:
- Propositional logic: the logic of simple
indicative statements- categorical reasoning by
syllogism.
- Modal logic: deals with logical relationship
involved in particular aspects of the language-
such as modal qualifiers like ‘possibly’ and
“necessarily”.
- Temporal Logic: It deals with the logical
relationship established by tense of a ‘sentence’.
9
• Metaphysics: the study of the most basic
categories of things, such as existence, objects,
properties, casualties and so forth. Metaphysics often is
taken to include questions now studied by other
philosophical sub-disciplines, such a the mind-body
problem, and free-will and determinism.
• Philosophy of Biology: the philosophical study
of some basic concepts of biology, including notion of
species and whether biological concepts reducible to
non-biological concepts.
• Philosophy of Social Science: the
philosophical study of the basic concepts, methods and
pre-suppositions of social sciences such as sociology
and economics.
• Philosophy of Law: the philosophical study of the
most basic concepts and methods and institutions of law.
10
• Political Philosophy: the study of basic
topics concerning government, including the
purpose of the state, political justice, political
freedom, the nature of law and administration of
justice.
• Theory of Value: the study of concept of
value. Also called value theory. Sometimes this
is taken equivalent of axiology.
• As per the field of specialization, philosophy
can be divided as philosophy of religion,
science, psychology, physics, perceptions
etc.
11
Applied Philosophy
• Philosophy has applications. The most obvious
applications are in those in ethics-applied ethics
in particular- and in political philosophy. The
political philosophies of John Locke, Jean
Jacques Rousseau, Karl Marx, John Stuart Mill
and John Rawls have shaped and been used to
justify governments and their actions.
Philosophy of education is typically applied
philosophy. Similarly, philosophy of law can
provide lawyers in their respective fields with
deeper understanding of theoretical or
conceptual underpinnings of their fields.

12
Some Quotes
• Philosophy has been mystery for many for
long time.
Bertrand Russell: “Science is what we
know and philosophy is what we don’t
know”
Ludwig Wittgenstein: What is your aim
in philosophy? To show the fly the way
out of the –fly bottle.
Ambrose Bierce: A route of many roads
leading from nowhere to nothing.
13