Philosophy

Course Description

This is a bridging course for non-Ateneo senior high school graduates.  It aims to equip them with basic knowledge and philosophical skills to meet the demands of Jesuit university education that hopes to inculcate among its students the ability to ask fundamental questions, dialogue with other persons, and discourse in order to arrive at the truth.  It includes but is not limited to the nature of philosophical discipline, various ways of philosophizing, application of philosophical thinking to the personal, societal, spiritual and ethical dimensions in life, and its interdisciplinary value to other academic disciplines.

Course Objectives

At the end of the course, the student shall have been able to:

1. perform philosophical reflection on their particular experiences from a holistic point of view;

2. demonstrate analytical, reflective, evaluative, and integrative skills in appropriating information important for problem-solution.

3. demonstrate capacity for asking fundamental questions on issues that matter in society;

4. actively engage others through rational conversations and dialogues; and

5. articulate their own justified beliefs as a commitment to truth, which is socially just and reflective of the common good.

1. Philosophy is seeing the whole.

   • Differentiating seeing the whole from seeing the parts. 

     • The Blind Men and the Elephant

       • What is an elephant?

         • Seeing the elephant as like a wall or snake, etc.

         • Seeing the elephant as elephant.

       • Can the blind men see the elephant as elephant?

     • The Ancient Greek Beginnings of Philosophy

       • What is everything?

         • Thales:  Everything is water.

         • Anaximander:  Everything is the unbounded (apeiron).

         • Anaximenes:  Everything is air.

         • Heraclitus:  Everything is fire.

         • Democritus:  Everything is the indivisible (atomos).

         • Anaxagoras:  Everything is earth.

       • Can philosophers see everything as everything (lahat-lahat-sabay-sabay)?

         • Different from lahat-lahat, but not sabay-sabay.

         • Different from sabay-sabay, but not lahat-lahat.

   • Seeing the whole as seeing with the mind.

     • The whole is not the sum of parts, but is greater.

     • The whole is seen not with the senses, but with the mind.

     • What is seen with the mind must be expressed and fixed.

       • • Through analysis

         • Through metaphor

         • Through abstraction

2. Philosophy is knowing the truth.

   • Differentiating truth from opinion.

     • The experience of prisoners in a dark cave:  dark, shallow, monochromatic, perspectival, myopic, etc.

     • The experience of the unfettered person outside the cave in the light of day:  bright, has depth, richly colored, multi-perspectival, has breadth, etc.

   • Knowing the truth as rising above opinion.

     • From opinion one may pursue knowledge through higher and higher stages:  

       • The scientific truth, 

       • The mathematical truth, and 

       • The philosophical truth.

     • This pursuit requires liberation and is difficult, but is also liberating.

       • The pursuit of knowledge requires the admission of ignorance and the openness to have one's opinions be put to the test (transforming opinions to hypotheses).

       • This pursuit also requires commitment to the empirical evidences and the logical arguments.

3. Therefore, philosophy is something one does.

1. First, philosophizing is asking the 'what' question.

   • The ordinary question and the philosophical question.

   • The philosophical question as a search for the whole.

   • The philosophical question as a search for the truth.

2. Second, philosophizing  is defining the essential concepts.

   • Clarification of concepts through contrast.

   • Creation of new lens based on contextual elements.

   • Creation of new lens based on required elements.

   • Evaluation of new lens.

3. Third, philosophizing is reflecting on meaning.

   • Differentiating conceptual from nonconceptual thinking.

   • Nonconceptual meaning as consciousness of situatedness.

   • Nonconceptual meaning as essential descriptions of relationships.

1. Philosophizing about the Self

   • The Question:  What is the self?

   • Conceptual Analysis of the Self

   • Phenomenological Reflection on the Self

2. Philosophizing about the Body

   • The Question:  What is the body?

   • Conceptual Analysis of the Body

   • Phenomenological Reflection on the Body

3. Philosophizing about Sociality

   • What is sociality?

   • Conceptual Analysis of Sociality

   • Phenomenological Reflection on Sociality

4. Philosophizing about Labor

   • What is labor?

   • Conceptual Analysis of Labor

   • Phenomenological Reflection on Labor

5. Philosophizing about God

   • What is a religious experience of God?

   • Conceptual Analysis of Religious Experience of God

   • Phenomenological Analysis of Religious Experience of God

1. One philosophizes to be liberated.

2. One also philosophizes to attain personhood.