Using This Guide | Contents < 4 >

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CHAPTER 1: POWERFUL IDEAS

Main Points

1. The word philosophy comes from two Greek words, philein (which means “to love”) and sophia (which means “knowledge” or “wisdom”).

2. For ancient Greek thinkers, “philosophy” was a word that could describe the careful consideration of any subject matter (such as what today we would call physics or psy-chology). Today mathematics, the physical and biological sciences, economics and political science, theology, and many other areas have become disciplines of their own.

Philosophical Questions

3. Philosophy today mines a rich vein of fundamental questions unanswered by other fields of knowledge, such as “What is truth?” “Is it possible to know anything with absolute certainty?” “Do people really have free will?” “What kind of person should I be?” “What are the ethically legitimate functions of the state?” and “Is there a God?”

4. Consideration of these fundamental questions grows out of everyday questions: If a utility company makes a mistake and undercharges a customer, would it be wrong to pay the bill and not report the error? Could a computer be built that could actually think?

5. Facts alone can’t provide the answers to philosophical questions. But that doesn’t mean philosophical questions are unanswerable.

6. Many questions that are philosophical are normative questions about the value of something. What are the norms of beauty? What are the norms of morality? How are they to be established?

7. Other philosophical questions concern the nature of change. If something changes, is it different from the way it was, and, if so, is it the same thing? The implications are more than just theoretical. If a young man murders someone, is he still guilty forty years later if not a single molecule of the young man is in the old man?

8. Some philosophical questions arise from commonsense beliefs that seem to conflict. If causes make effects happen, then are voluntary choices really voluntary, since they are caused? Or are some choices uncaused?

9. Some contemporary American philosophical concerns are ethical issues in the pro-fessions; artificial intelligence; social implications of medical technology; feminist issues; the meaning of personhood; human rights and distributive justice; skepticism and relativism and knowledge and morals.

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Misconceptions about Philosophy

10. “Philosophy never makes any progress.” Progress can come not just in answers to questions but in their clarification and analysis.

11. “As soon as progress is made in philosophical inquiry, the matter becomes another field of learning.” This is true in many cases, but not all; logic is still a branch of philosophy.

12. “In philosophy, one opinion is as good as another.” But contradictory views cannot possibly both be true. Philosophy requires views supported by good reasons.

13. “Truth is relative.” Perspectives on various matters may differ, but one and the same sentence cannot both be true and not true at the same time and in the same respect.

14. “Philosophy is light reading.” Just the opposite may be the case!

The Tools of Philosophy: Argument and Logic

15. When someone supports a belief by giving a reason for accepting the belief, that person has given an argument. The conclusion of the argument is the point the person is trying to estab-lish; the reason or reasons the person gives for accepting the conclusion is given by the pre-mises of the argument.

16. The two ways an argument can fail: (1) one or more of the premises might be questionable and (2) even if the premises are not questionable, they might fail to support or establish the conclusion (logic is concerned with this second type of failure).

Common Fallacies (Mistakes in Reasoning)

17. Argumentum ad hominem (“argument to the person”): the attempt to discredit a view by dis-crediting the person holding the view.

18. Appeals to emotion: arguments that try to establish conclusions solely by attempting to arouse or play on the emotions of a listener or reader.

19. Straw man: the alleged refutation of a view by the refutation of a misrepresentation of that view.

20. Red herring: a general term for those arguments that address a point other than the one that is at issue. Ad hominem, appeals to emotion, and straw man can all be seen as specific types of red herrings.

21. Begging the question (also called circular reasoning): more or less assuming the very thing that the argument is intended to prove.

22. Black-or-white fallacy (false dilemma): an argument that assumes there are only two options when in fact other options exist.

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The Divisions of Philosophy

23. Four branches of philosophy: metaphysics (questions related to existence); epistemology (ques-tions related to knowledge); ethics or moral philosophy, social philosophy, political philosophy, aes-thetics (questions related to values); and logic (the theory of correct reasoning).

24. Philosophy-of-discipline areas: philosophy of science, philosophy of language, and philoso-phy of religion.

The Benefits of Philosophy

25. The benefits of philosophy: the search for answers to inherently interesting questions; devel-opment of logical and critical thinking skills valued by employers; the ability to spot hidden assumptions; and less likelihood of being trapped by uncritical dogmatism.

Boxes

Which Came First, the Chicken or the Egg?(If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around, does it make a sound?)

Philosophers on Philosophy(Some intriguing quotations)