Ielts Words Chinese
Introduction to Philosophy
Week 1: What is Philosophy? Rough Transcript for Lecture 1: What is Philosophy?
Hello! Welcome to the course. Idea is to give you a brief intro to some of the main areas of philosophy Aim for this week: to think about what philosophy is Five short parts: Introductory part, where we try and get an initial idea of what philosophy is Next 2 parts where we try and assess some common claims made about philosophy: that it’s (somehow) fundamental and that it’s about important questions Case study: how a philosopher (or anyone) might address the question ‘what is the meaning of life?’ Finally, we’ll look ahead to the rest of the course, thinking about how the topics we’ll cover there relate to what we’ve said about philosophy this week. So… 1. What is Philosophy? Easiest definition: Whatever it is that philosophers do… - This is what the course is designed to show you! - Might be true that this is the most important def: I’ll suggest philosophy importantly involves activity, so actually doing it is the best way to understand what it is - So you’ll learn more about what it is by working your way through the course than by (just) listening to what I have to say… 2nd easiest definition: The love of knowledge (from the Greek philosophia) - But what does it mean to love knowledge? Will any knowledge do? 3rd easiest (route to a) definition: Google what other people have said about it: - Wilfrid Sellars: ‘The aim of philosophy, abstractly formulated, is to understand how things, in the broadest possible sense of the term, hang together, in the broadest possible sense of the term.’ - Martha Nussbaum quotes Epicurus: Philosophy is an activity that uses reasoning and rigorous argument to promote human flourishing - Barry Smith: Thinking clearly and well about reality and our place in it. - Attempt to think systematically about the presuppositions of a given topic I think these are all right, and our job for this week is thinking a bit more about what
Week 1: What is Philosophy? Rough Transcript for Lecture 1: What is Philosophy?
Hello! Welcome to the course. Idea is to give you a brief intro to some of the main areas of philosophy Aim for this week: to think about what philosophy is Five short parts: Introductory part, where we try and get an initial idea of what philosophy is Next 2 parts where we try and assess some common claims made about philosophy: that it’s (somehow) fundamental and that it’s about important questions Case study: how a philosopher (or anyone) might address the question ‘what is the meaning of life?’ Finally, we’ll look ahead to the rest of the course, thinking about how the topics we’ll cover there relate to what we’ve said about philosophy this week. So… 1. What is Philosophy? Easiest definition: Whatever it is that philosophers do… - This is what the course is designed to show you! - Might be true that this is the most important def: I’ll suggest philosophy importantly involves activity, so actually doing it is the best way to understand what it is - So you’ll learn more about what it is by working your way through the course than by (just) listening to what I have to say… 2nd easiest definition: The love of knowledge (from the Greek philosophia) - But what does it mean to love knowledge? Will any knowledge do? 3rd easiest (route to a) definition: Google what other people have said about it: - Wilfrid Sellars: ‘The aim of philosophy, abstractly formulated, is to understand how things, in the broadest possible sense of the term, hang together, in the broadest possible sense of the term.’ - Martha Nussbaum quotes Epicurus: Philosophy is an activity that uses reasoning and rigorous argument to promote human flourishing - Barry Smith: Thinking clearly and well about reality and our place in it. - Attempt to think systematically about the presuppositions of a given topic I think these are all right, and our job for this week is thinking a bit more about what