Synthesis Paper: Philosophy

Synthesis Paper: Philosophy

Does God exist? How to build an attractive city? Does life is real or just an imagination? An average person fails to answer these questions objectively, but philosophers have this will on solving these problems. Philosophy and logic are the fundamentals in search for meaning. Philosophers have these skill set which makes them think different from others, which leads and guides them to real and unbiased answer, it is a slice of life where they embrace every single moment they put up time and effort in their search for answer.

Long time ago, Ancient Greeks invented philosophy as the way of thinking and asking questions about all things through its ultimate causes. Pre-Socratic Pythagoras coined the word philosophia which means “love of wisdom” or people who are faithful to wisdom as St. Thomas Aquinas called as wise man. Philosophy began to spread throughout the rest of the world, as the knowledge and discipline that engages and sharpens our reasons.

There are three components of philosophy, the material object, formal object and natural scope. The material object refers to the subject being observed and finding the root cause on how it exist is its formal object. The natural scope is simply defined as natural reason which philosophers use in search for explanations. Ordinary and profound are two types of knowledge in philosophy. Ordinary knowledge is the foundation or the simplest form of knowledge; knowing a phenomenon. Profound knowledge is the deepest causes of all or determining the causes of a particular phenomenon. In nature of philosophy, a man is eager to fulfill his wisdom, and can be filled with theoretical considerations, which is the satisfaction of intellectual knowledge, or practical reasons, which focused on how to act with moral uprightness.

Philosophical search started decades ago when man began to wonder about the existence of all things. The search can be only philosophical if the object of the search has real value, consumes your time, effort and interest, and until the answer is found or not yet found. A good example of philosophical search were performed by pre-Socratics of Greece. They were asked about a particular source where all started. Different elements and ideas were contributed, but the one only stood out is the idea of all matter is composed of indivisible particles called atoms by Leucippus and Democritus.

Louise Pojman (2006) constructed a Commandments of Philosophy which are the laws used on a philosophical search. Even a person knew all aspects on how philosophy works, it’s still impossible for a person to conduct an answer without desire, determination and intention on his work. One of the use of logic is doubt, with the use of logic and critical thinking, philosophers can simply doubt a claim if the evidence doesn’t support the main purpose. Truth guides the philosophers, if a philosopher hates a truth, then he can’t find the truth on his own. Philosophical search is all about dividing the question into smaller chunks to analyze every part specifically. Collecting facts, and building a planned argument. Criticize and prove false illogical claims. Philosophers hold down their beliefs, and starts to find their own interpretation of truth on their own perspective. Use simpler words, to be easily understand for other. Same as love the truth, philosophers also have to live with the truth of their philosophical work. Lastly, let the values of your work encourage you.

Through years, philosophy has been emerged into five different main branches. The study of the correct thinking, valid reasoning and arguments are focused by logic. The study of reality beyond physical means deals with metaphysics. Epistemology investigates the structure of a certain knowledge and its validity. The study of perception of art and beauty are focused by aesthetics. Finally the study of acts from a moral perspective which is ethics. However, there are subjects as cosmology, theodicy, rational psychology, social philosophy, and philosophy of man are the sub-branches of philosophy.

Logic and critical thinking are important topics on studying other branches of philosophy, having knowledge with these helps on decision-making, analyzing issues and argument. Logic is derived from the word logos which means study, reason, or discourse (Cruz, 1995, p .6). It is a main part of philosophy which practices reasoning and necessary on studying other branches. The two classifications of logic are logical and illogical thinking. Logical involves understanding in order, where logicians prefer a well-organized and consistent analysis, while illogical is the exact opposite which defines as random and inconsistent thinking. Logic involves analysis, comparison, classification, definition, logical division and the most primary objective which is inference. Inference is an organized way of constructing a claim which conclusion is supported by premise in a logical sense. For example, “Every cat is an animal, Deb is a cat. Therefore, Deb is an animal”, this is a form of inference with the right use of reasoning, but be careful on constructing and identifying inference, some have premises to support the conclusion but it lacks of evidence to support it. For example “Every cat has four legs, Deb has four legs. Therefore, Deb must be a dog”, this sounds illogical due to the fact that not only cats has four legs in animals, therefore you may not conclude that Deb is a cat. Nature of logic can be related to arts and science. It considers as an art due to the fact that it has freedom of ignorance which separates critical thinkers to ordinary people. It considers as science due to the fact it has organized analysis of data. Logic discovers correct thinking, its correctness is also called valid. An argument is considered valid if the conclusion or the result of the statement is relevant from the premises or evidence. If the premise have the power to support a conclusion, then an argument is considered as correct or valid. Logic does not provide additional intellect, instead, experiences, insight to principles, and authority are the only factors a person can obtain knowledge. There are two components of logic, the material and formal object. The material object deals with the thought a person think on a particular subject and its characteristics is its formal object. For example, using the sense of sight, a man see a round-shaped, floating on air, red (formal object) balloon (material object). Logic is divided into four parts, term, proposition, reasoning, and induction. Term is simply define as an idea or perception a person claim without any process of reasoning or people often called as common sense. Proposition is the way which subject is being judge in order the idea to be accepted as true. Reasoning is a skill using conclusion and premises to obtain