View Single Post
  #1  
Old Sunday, January 17, 2016
exclusively's Avatar
exclusively exclusively is offline
Senior Member
Medal of Appreciation: Awarded to appreciate member's contribution on forum. (Academic and professional achievements do not make you eligible for this medal) - Issue reason:
 
Join Date: Jul 2013
Posts: 1,879
Thanks: 1,595
Thanked 1,290 Times in 783 Posts
exclusively has a spectacular aura aboutexclusively has a spectacular aura aboutexclusively has a spectacular aura about
Default Philosophy Notes for CSS~2016 "Complete"

Hello guys, I am posting complete notes of Philosophy. It is a boom scoring subject, and I have tried my level best to prepare everything concisely and to the point so that you can get more score. I am posting chapter wise and it will cover all of your syllabus.

Jazak'allah.


I. Introduction:
Definition, Nature and Scope of Philosophy



I. Introduction:
Definition, Nature and Scope of Philosophy

I. Introduction:
 From the ancient time, common tendency of man to know the unknown things & explain the surroundings. And philosophy gave the rational way to think about his problem. It has close relation to all prevailing branches of knowledge.

 Broad subject, many branches, based on logic, rationality, answers the infinite questions

 It is since human on the earth in the world of rationality and logic to quest for knowledge.

2. Definition:
 1st coined by Pythagoras.
 Greek word-‘Philos’ meaning love & ‘Sofia’ meaning wisdom or nowledge. Thus, “Love of wisdom/knowledge”
 Traditionally the word, “philosophy”, means the description of study like logic, sociology, psychology etc.
 Surfacely the word, “philosophy” means view, vision and outlook of a particular person to a particular thing.
 Literally, philosophy is “the study of nature and meaning of the universe and of human life.” (Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary: Sixth edition)
Now some authentic definitions of philosophy by some distinguished philosophers:
“Philosophy is the science of sciences”. (Comte)
“is the science of knowledge”. (Fichte)
“is the science and criticism of cognition (process of knowledge to learn)”. (Kant)
“aims at the knowledge of the eternal (forever), of the essential nature of things”. (Plato)
“is the science which investigates the nature of being as it is in virtue of its own nature. (Aristotle)
Thus,“is the love of wisdom”

Therefore, It is to be interested in the following four questions, which give rise to philosophy's four main areas:
Philosophy asks ultimate questions.
1. What is truth? How is Truth arrived at? Reality
2. What is knowledge? Epistemology
3. What is the essential nature of things (God, people, universe)? Metaphysics
4. What is the good life? Ethics
Philosophy seeks understanding.
1. Clarity of understanding--defining terms.
2. Help society and culture to be self-critical.—Making people think
3. Develop an ideology to guide people and society.—Establishes to generate ideologies

Definition of Philosophy
There are many definitions of philosophy, however, with the consensus of philosophers, the worth mentioning definitions are the following:-
1-Etymologically-Philosophy is the love of wisdom.
2-Metaphycially-Philosophy as the search for reality. (Principle of life & existence)
Philosophy as the search for truth.
3-Ethically-Philosophy as the search for value or the best forms of life.
4-Cosmologically-Philosophy as the rational study of nature.
5-Dialectic arguments-Philosophy as the critical discussion of received ideas. (Logic)
6-Philosophy as the concern with the problems of human existence. (Karl Marx-advocate)
7-Philosophy as a reflection on human experience (Chinese & Indian Philosophers-ideological)

3. Nature:
 1-Interlinked with diverse discipline science, psychology,
 2-Branches-“metaphysics”, “epistemology”, “ethics”, “logic” and “the infrastructure of disciplines”
 3-To know-truth, rationally and logically.
 4-To Wonder-basic questions about universe and man-Greek Thinkers
 5-Ontology (nature of existence), Subjective (man), Objective (universe)- questions (man’s relation with universe & “change”-(born, die), (season changing)
 5-Dialectical Argumentation-thoughts & rational arguments
 7-School of though-Negates with one another-idealist, Materialist, empiricist(experience as the basic ideas), utilitarian (the belief that the right course of action is the one that will produce the greatest happiness of the greatest number of people) or designed to be useful and not beautiful: etc..

4. Scope:
 Parameter & what to talk/does not talk about:

 -What philosophy talks about:
 ~universal & general realities. Sees things broadly as a whole.
 ~Universal discipline-talks about man and everything what interlined with him.

 -What philosophy does not talk about:
 -Does not talk about particular, specific, individual entities, example of democracy: it does not talk about the democracy of Pakistan but talks about global democracy.

Branches
Though it has many branches and sub branches, but the major branches are five including logic. The four are purely branches and the one is as a tool of philosophy that is logic.
1. Metaphysics
 Means, “beyond physical” and “Ultimate reality”. It is subdivided as:
• Ontology- the study of being (being qua being) (deals with the nature of existence)
• Cosmology- the study of the nature of the universe
• Cosmogony- the study of the origin of the universe

Metaphysics has two school of thoughts:
1-Idealistic (Hegel)
2-Materialistic (Karl Marx)

2. Epistemology
 Episteme-knowledge & logos-theory. Thus, “theory of knowledge” means critical evaluation of all knowledge. It has 2 school of thoughts.
a) Rationalism- rationalist (Plato) based upon “reasoning” by mind. (based upon reason rather than emotions or religious beliefs)
b) Empiricism- empiricists (Aristotle) based upon five senses (the use of experiments or experience as the basis for your ideas; the belief in these methods)

There are some other school of thoughts which are included into epistemology:
c)Scepticism-nothing can be known at all & knowledge is impossibility. The 2 brands of it:
i-Universal Scepticism (Knowledge is impossible)
ii-Mitigated Scepticism (Knowledge is partially possible)


3. Ethics
-Moral Phil, a normative & prescriptive discipline.
-Definition-“the normative science of human conduct”
-2 Branches:
a) Meta Ethics: adj:
-deals with the analysis & clarification of ethical terms such as “good, bad, vice, justice & so on. Hence, Ethics is a question of ”how do we know about good/bad actions”. Thus, meta ethics solve this problem which are naturalism, anti-naturalism, prescriptivism etc.
Normative (relating to rules, or making people obey rules, especiallyrules of behaviour)
b) Normative Ethics:
-deals with norms, principles & standard of human behaviour.
-challenges: What is the moral standards? The solutions are in its 8 platforms, whether individually or collectively have been proposed, they are; Social custom, Law, Revelation, Conscience, Pleasure, Right, Reason, Intuition (the ability to know something by using your feelings rather than considering the facts).

~furthermore, ethics has some more school of thoughts, the most prominent are as under:
c) Utilitarianism-(the belief that the right course of action is the one that will produce the greatest happiness of the greatest number of people)
-“greatest happiness for the greatest no.” sth morally good for large no. of people.
-Proponents: Jeremy Bentham & John Stuart Mill.
Proponents (a person who supports an idea or course of action)

d) Hedonism (the belief that pleasure is the most important thing in life)
-“Pleasure” as a moral standard. Means, the actions which fetches pleasure are good & the actions which fetches pain are morally bad.
-Epicurus is a proponent of this school of thought.
Egoism (the fact of thinking that you are better or more important than anyone else)
-Self interest as the foundation of morality.
Intuitionism
-to know by feeling rather than reasoning/logic and facts.

4. Logic (a tool)
the use of reason, or the science of using reason:
Reply With Quote
The Following User Says Thank You to exclusively For This Useful Post:
mustansar~hussain (Tuesday, January 19, 2016)