pcr 311 - National Open University of Nigeria

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PCR 311 Philosophies and Great Personalities of Peace philosophy as the search for knowledge and truth, especially about the nature of man and his behaviour and beliefs. This is born out of the various interpretations which the usage of the term ‘philosophy’ has been subjected to by philosophers as well as its day-to-day usage generally. Plato described the philosopher as a man whose passion is to seek the truth, a man whose heart is fixed for reality. According to Aristotle, ‘Philosophy is rightly called the knowledge of the truth, while Epicurus described philosophy as an utility which secures the happy life by means of discussion, and argument. To William James, Philosophy, in the full sense, is only referring to man, thinking about generalities, rather than particularities. Martin Heidegger conceived philosophy as corresponding to the being of Being. Jacque Martin sees philosophy as the science which, by the nature of light of reason, studies the first causes or highest principles of all things. Philosophy is thus a discipline, the nature and scope of which has constituted a problem to itself, for it is a critical discipline which does not exempt itself from its own criticism but applies its critical tool itself. Nevertheless, philosophy can be and has been described in various ways as hereunder highlighted. • Philosophy is a rational search for answers to the questions that arise in the mind when we reflect on human experience. • Philosophy is a rational search for answers to the basic questions about the ultimate meaning of reality as a whole and of human life in particular. Scope of Philosophy From an empirical perspective, philosophy does not have a single ‘face’. It is multi-facetted. By this, we mean that all intellectual disciplines emanated from philosophy. Early philosophers were interested in the nature and workings of the cosmos, a search for knowledge about the origin of the world and the truth that underlines all human experiences. Modern Philosophers, however, branched into History, Philosophy, Theology, Psychology, sociology, physiology, Anatomy and Sciences. Philosophy is derived from two Greek words, Philo and Sophia which translate to “Love for Wisdom.” Philosophy is the systematic and logical arrangement of thoughts and ideas. In philosophy, one has to learn to be critical. Branches of Philosophy These could be summed up thus: Epistemology, Apriori knowledge, Aposteriori knowledge, psychology, formal logic, metaphysics, ethics, Normative science, Ethnic and Morality, Synthetic Apriori knowledge, Political philosophy, and Logic. 22
PCR 311 Philosophies and Great Personalities of Peace Epistemology This is the study and the theory of knowledge, centred on the objective and scientific knowledge. The term ‘Epistemology’ is derived from two Greek words. Episteme & Logos meaning “Knowledge and Theory” respectively. The usual questions in Epistemology are – How valid and reliable is human knowledge? What do we know of, and what are the limits of human knowledge? Is knowledge entirely relative to be objective? We have two types of knowledge: • Apriori knowledge • Aposteriori knowledge Apriori Knowledge This is the knowledge acquired independently of experience (innate ideas) e.g. breast feeding baby. The rationalist deny all knowledge which is derived from sense experience and maintains that reason alone can attain knowledge without reference to experience. Aposteriori Knowledge This is the knowledge that is derived from experience. The empiricists are those that claim that all human knowledge is derived from experience and that there can be no knowledge which is not derived from sense experience. We derive knowledge through our five senses, which are • Sense of sight • Sense of taste • Sense of smell • Sense of hearing • Sense of feeling Psychology The formal object of psychology is the description of the phenomenon of language, either written, spoken or gestural. Formal Logic The formal object in logic is the truth of proposition of statements but the term ‘truth’ in the case of logic is purely formal. Logician asks only for what the truth of one proposition implies, with regards to another proposition, independent of whether the truth of the formal is objective or merely formal. Metaphysics This is the theory of the Universe, derived from Greek expression: “Metaphysica” meaning thinking beyond the physical realm. Metaphysics has its main aim in the construction of an all embracing global scheme. Metaphisics is the discipline which studies a being precisely in its aspect as being. It is the study of the ontology status of phenomena; the study of constitutive element of the universe, the science that studies what is or what constitutes reality. 23
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pcr 311 - National Open University of Nigeria

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