Understanding Philosophy: Key Concepts and History
Philosophy: Key Concepts and History
Philosophy is an activity that involves thinking and reasoning about concepts and ideas whose meaning is commonly understood or taken for granted. Philosophical activity is initiated, therefore, in asking questions about concepts by argument or reasoning. Philosophy is primarily an effort to think for ourselves on very varied topics that are common to humans.
The Origin of Philosophy
The term philosophy comes from Greek and means “love of wisdom”. The etymological sense of the word reflects the idea that philosophy is not a proper knowledge of the world, but is an attitude, a disposition that begins at the time of assuming ignorance about an issue or when the everyday becomes problematic. Aristotle states that the philosophical attitude is born of admiration for the world around us. Admiration for a person, for example, can lead us to want to know more about his life and his actions; that is, in admiration, there is an implicit recognition of ignorance. At the same time, there is an aspiration to know everything that you admire. The recognition of one’s ignorance is, therefore, one of the initial impulses that lead us to raise all sorts of questions and, ultimately, to true knowledge. The questioning attitude is also a critical attitude because it does not dogmatically accept claims or arguments from authority.
Questions of Philosophy
The first group of questions is called theoretical philosophy and focuses on reality and knowledge of the world. The second group of questions follows a practical philosophy and focuses on human action and moral conduct.
Scientific Explanation
Scientific explanations, like myths, are answers to questions that arise from the contemplation of nature. Any natural phenomenon, such as the movement of the stars, can become a scientific question. But unlike myths, which use an invented story in which extraordinary beings appear, science tries to describe the causes and the actual mechanisms that cause these phenomena. Scientific questions are specific and are aimed at solving a problem of nature. The union of science and technology began in the Renaissance. Scientific progress is based on the application of the hypothetical-deductive method, which consists of the following steps:
- Identify the problem they want to solve (observation).
- Formulate a hypothesis to explain the causes of this phenomenon.
- Design experiments to compare this hypothesis with nature and determine if it is correct. If it is correct, our hypothesis becomes a scientific law; otherwise, we must reject this hypothesis and propose a new alternative.
Scientific activity is developed by formulating hypotheses that must then be confirmed or refuted by experience. If a hypothesis cannot derive observable consequences or experiments, it is not a scientific hypothesis.
Differences Between Science and Myth
- Scientific knowledge is based on observation and experimentation of facts, while the mythical story is a figment of the imagination.
- In science, if the facts invalidate the hypothesis, this is rejected, while the myth is intended to be real and undeniable because it is untestable.
- Science explains theories and predicts future outcomes, while myth cannot predict anything.
- Science knows who said it, while the myth is anonymous.
- Science comes to describe the causes of these phenomena because, as the myth tells stories of supernatural beings.
- Science allows the world’s knowledge transformation through technology applications, while the myth does not help to transform anything.
Philosophical Reasoning
Philosophical reasoning consists of a reflection on some aspect of reality, the world, or human nature, which cannot be answered by observations or experiments due to its abstraction or complexity. The philosophical questions are very general, while the issues of science are characterized by their concreteness. However, the philosophical questions have meaning only if they appear from a particular problem in the world. Reality is the source of philosophical reflection. Scientific questions are specific questions that are answered by observation or experimentation, while philosophical questions are general questions and answers by exposing arguments. In addition to raising issues and reflecting on concepts, philosophy has a social responsibility to denounce those beliefs or actions that are irrational and mythical.
Philosophy and Science
Despite differences, philosophy keeps many links with science because both cases are rational and argumentative speeches, and statements are developed logically, and in both cases, it is drawn to the truth. One of the main objects of study of philosophy is scientific activity. Philosophers ponder the fundamentals of the various sciences or the reality of some mathematical tools that scientists use. This is because to discuss a reality, one must know it before. And there are problems, such as those related to consciousness, that are so complex that they require very close collaboration between philosophers and scientists.
Branches of Philosophy
- Epistemology or Theory of Knowledge: Is devoted to studying the possibility, origin, and limits of knowledge. It also asks about the criteria of truth. Epistemology refers to all the knowledge we acquire, including scientific knowledge.
- Philosophy of Science: Is devoted to studying what science is, to define and thus distinguish it from other discourses that are not science but pseudo-scientific.
- Logic: It is the part of philosophy that studies valid reasoning, i.e., those that guarantee reaching true conclusions if we started from true premises.
- Metaphysics: Is the reflection of all that exists and for this reason is also the more general discipline.
- Aesthetics: It deals with the problem of art and tries to answer the question of what beauty is.
Philosophy and its History
What you never miss in a philosopher is the knowledge of their own tradition. In fact, a very important part of philosophical studies that are currently dealing with past authors. Interesting reasoning to defend a particular argument or, conversely, erroneous views that need debunking. An aspect, however, may cause confusion is the diversity of opinions that exist on any subject. As Comte-Sponville and Ferry say: “Philosophy is a long quiet river, where everyone can catch their truth. It is a sea in the face of a thousand waves, where a thousand opposing currents sometimes intermingle, separate, meet again, oppose again… Each one is sailing as you can, and that’s what you call philosophizing.”