Paste your essay in here..Explain some of the benefits a student may gain by studying philosophy.
Philosophy is the origin or root of almost every science that we know. Studying
philosophy is a way of understanding processes and its causes and consequences which
are commonly ignored. As a student, it is highly important to study and understand
philosophy in order to comprehend and interpret the other sciences that we need to study
to complete our goals as students. Furthermore, reading philosophy would help
understanding our own thinking and how our decision-taking works.
2. Explain the Socratic Method of Teaching. Is this a useful way for students to learn?
Socrates was a controversial philosopher whose theories have to remain to throw the ages
thanks to his students that wrote about his thoughts and about the way he saw things. The
Socratic method was about asking some broad questions that would make the student think
and reason to find a particular solution or answer for that dilemma. The Socratic Method of
Teaching is one of the oldest and most powerful; is a great way for students to learn because
it develops critical thinking and makes the students evaluate arguments to generate
conclusions and organize ideas related to a particular topic. When people use this method, it
helps them to put their thoughts in order.
3. Explain how critical thinking can be used to analyze a philosophical issue.
There are several areas of philosophy, but critical thinking is one of the most useful
strategies to analyze issues in this field. This fact is related to the typical organization of
the philosophical issues or arguments that frequently present them as multiple premises
and a conclusion. The profound evaluation and deliberation of the cases result in
developing hypothesis investigating facts and reasons that force the student to think
2
abstractly and rationally. The premises support by representing evidence to confirm and
to prove the truth of the main conclusion. It is more abstract and it involves full
engagement of the thinker in rational deliberation, and evaluation of arguments.
4. Compare and contrast induction, abduction, and deduction.
When analyzing philosophical arguments, there are three main types of reasoning methods
such as induction, abduction, and deduction. The deduction process consists on the reasoning
of a single or diverse premises that derive in an absolute logical conclusion. The statements
that make up the premises must be valid to support the full deduction and preventing it from
presenting a lack of sound or sense. As a consequence, logical premises develop a stable
structure to support the conclusion, making it firmly credible. In contrast, other methods such
as inducing do not provide a conclusion that is one hundred percent assertive. In the inducing
process, the premises serve as evidence but not as an absolute proof of the supported
conclusion because those are frequently related to prior knowledge, experiences, and
observations. On the other hand, it is assumable that the weakest outcome would be
generated by the abducting method. When a conclusion is abducted, the premises or
statements that are used to support the main arguments are based on what people see devising
theories about fundamental observations. The interpretation or supposition of the premises
that support the conclusion is merely inclined to the best explanation.
5. Explain some of different areas of philosophy which will be discussed in this course.
Some different areas belong to the philosophy field and embrace every different aspect of life
and thinking processes. In some cases, those areas are closely related to specific sectors such
as politics, ethics, and religion, et cetera. Metaphysics, for instance, analyses the primary
human existence and create extensive explanations about what is real and what is not. This
area of philosophy linked to ontology is where philosophers study which entities exist in the
world. Another area discussed in this course is epistemology, the area that searches the
explanation of knowledge and its funding to justify common beliefs. In this area,
philosophers use rationalism and empirics as methods to aboard conclusions. Aesthetics is
another field of philosophy based on the complementation and the judging of the arts and the
beauty. It appreciates the different beauty concepts and its fundaments. In addition, the
3
philosophical area that analyses what is considered wrong and right it is known as Ethics.
This commonly used area evaluates human action and judges its outcomes. Moreover, there
are some philosophical areas related to controversial socio-cultural aspects such as politics
and religion. Political philosophy studies the purposes, reasons and origins of the thoughts
concerning governments and the link to the philosophy of law. Also, philosophy of religion
examines the existence of many different religions and each corresponding divine entity and
god. This area also analyzes the various religious institutions, systems and the impact on the
human being.
6. Compare and contrast various views on substance such as materialism, dualism and
idealism.
According to the area of metaphysics, that is the study of the nature of existence; there are some
different views about the substance and the nature of being. These views represent the various
points of view concerning what is real and the influence and relation of science in philosophy.
For instance, the materialist view considers that the reality consists of just the things that are
concrete, touchable and viewable such as objects and its components. On the other hand, the
idealism view states that reality is everything besides the material. Nevertheless, the substance
dualism view adapts materialism and idealism views supporting both theories and saying that we
can experience content in daily objects, but we can also experience immaterial objects such as
thoughts, feelings, and emotions.
7. Evaluate the 4 views as to the nature of universals and particulars.
In the philosophy area of Metaphysics specialist explore the relationship between universals, and
Universals can be thought of ideas or various objects and is considered another term for objects
or individual things we can experience. Addressed by four different points of view this two
concept keep a close relationship between words.
The extreme or Platonic Realism is the view developed by the philosopher Plato where he
explains the theory of the independent existence of ideas and the form that he explains that is the
essence of a thing. In his view, Plato explains that these ideas have a transcendental reality. On
the other hand, Aristotle has a different view of this issue. He addressed this argument with the
exaggerated realism view where he claims that objects and forms are in same reality. Another
4
common view of the nature of universal and particulars is the conceptualism. This view argues
that the ideas exist but those are strictly dependent on a mind or a thought and that the universals
or forms are just created by the minds analyzing particulars. Otherwise, extreme nominalism
states not only that the inexistence of universals but only individual objects do have existence.
8. Explain and evaluate the views of Anaximander regarding the nature of substance.
Anaximander was a western philosopher from the city of Miletus, Turkey where with other
philosophers such as Thales and Anaximenes, they analyzed different theories about primary
substances and its nature. He stated that the Primary Substance is boundless, or infinite; he
doubted that any fundamental element would exist in a pure observable form.
9. Explain and evaluate the views of Pythagoras regarding the nature of substance.
Pythagoras was a philosopher that is now best known for his mathematical influence with
the theorem that currently carries his name. However, he also supports the issue
regarding the nature of the substance. In this particular view, he examined the theory
about a primary substance and its nature. The input funded by Pythagoras was that the
reality was constituted by numbers because they are exact, impossible to falsify and the
main argument was the fact that they are verifiable with mathematic analysis, and there is
a single and correct outcome. He thought that to understand the nature of substance and
reality; someone must know or comprehend the numbers and its complexity.
10. Explain Aristotle’s 4 causes.
Aristotle was a student of the famous philosopher Plato that analyzed for years his
theories complimenting those with more premises and arguments. However, he did not
always agree with his mentor. Aristotle explained with his four causes that the reality
must be in forms, but the fact that is was right there in a matter way. To formulate his
theory, Aristotle based and organized his thoughts in four questions that analyze what it
was, the primary substance, who made it and the crucial what was the purpose of it. That
questions were intended to use the reasoning to find not only those answers but to
comprehend and organize thoughts about the particular idea.
11. Compare and contrast rationalism and empiricism.
5
In the philosophical area of epistemology, philosophers study the foundation of
knowledge, more precisely, the several ways of reaching knowledge. One method is the
rationalism, based on the means of thinking logically and reasoning. In this view, the
knowledge is “created†by our minds founded in the conjunction of our thoughts and our
prior experience. On the other hand, empiricism is a method of knowledge acquiring
based on the experience, observation, and inquiry. The main difference between these
two views is the issue of if we need or not need the experience to gain knowledge.
12. Explain the difference between A priori and A posteriori knowledge.
Epistemologist claims that there are two different concepts of knowledge. A posteriori
knowledge is knowledge obtained after some experience and is examples of synthetic
knowledge. On the contrary, a priori knowledge is defined as a certain and necessary
knowledge that was achieved with no experience and also considered examples of analytic
knowledge.
13. Compare and contrast Foundationalism and Coherentism.
There are several theories concerning some epistemology philosophy issues such as
knowledge. One of the most influential modern philosophers, Rene Descartes, proposed
the foundationalism, an epistemic theory that claims that fundamental real personal
beliefs support the knowledge that we gain and that those beliefs provide the basement of
all knowledge. Descartes also stated that to have the knowledge a rational method was
fundamental. On the other hand, the coherentism claims the inexistence of an underlying
foundational belief. This epistemic theory based on the thought that every idea was based
and justified by other previous convictions.
14. Compare and contrast pragmatic theories of truth with the correspondence theory of truth.
When analyzing knowledge, philosophers were forced to think about theories of truth. Two
main theories were formulated to comprehend the philosophical issue. The pragmatic
theories of truth claim that truth is relative to the individual, the science or the society. On the
contrary, the correspondence theory of truth argues that the truth of a belief depends only on
the existence of a relation of that belief with something that exists in the world.
6
15. What are some of the implications of Gödel’s Theorem?
Kurt Gödel was a mathematician and a significant influence on the philosophical field that
was recognized of his famous incompleteness theorem that showed truths related to the
relationship of mathematics and logic with the universe. In one of Gödel’s theorem, he
analyzes the impossibility for a machine or another type of artificial intelligence system to
get over the powerful human minds. Gödel also stated in one of his most complex theories,
the fact that certain evidence cannot prove some truths. However, he considered that there
was a way of knowing the truth after being previously accepted creating an internally
consistent mechanism which has no contradictions to be complete.