REVEALING THE WHOLE

PHILOSOPHY
• At its simplest meaning ….Greek word Philo
meaning love and sophia meaning wisdom…
• Philosophy is love of wisdom
• As used originally by the ancient Greeks, the
term "philosophy" meant the pursuit of
knowledge for its own sake, and comprised
ALL areas of speculative thought, including the
arts, sciences and religion.
• Philosophical questions (unlike those of the
sciences) are usually foundational and
abstract in nature.
• Philosophy is done primarily through
reflection and does not tend to rely
on experiment, although the methods used to
study it may be analogous to those used in
the study of the natural sciences.
 A. DISCOVERING PHILOSOPHICAL
Why
am I REFLECTION
here?

• To reflect philosophically is to think about an

important question that does not have a
definite or ready answer.
• No amount of research would be able to
provide a definite and conclusive answer to
some questions that puzzle us. What is the
purpose of my
Why love, existence?
What if there when you
is no after-life? get hurt?
• Difficult questions that do not have
definite answers like the ones we
have been describing are significant.
• They are the questions that matter
to us for they reflect our desire to
understand or at least make sense of
our experiences.
• The answers we find directly affect the way we
go through life.
• These sort of questions are called
philosophical.
• When we ponder on a philosophical question,
we are engaged in a philosophical reflection.
• PHILOSOPHY allows us the freedom to ask
even those questions that others believe to
already have a definite answer.
• Movies, songs, and literatures are examples of
creative ways of asking a philosophical
question.
• When we ask a philosophical question, we do not
simply inquire about a specific question that is
triggered by certain situations.
• A philosophical question always contains a bigger
problem
• Such questions are not only personally significant,
they are also all encompassing.
• The answer one finds will determine his/her
choices in life.
• Not to ask a philosophical question is to go
through life confused and lost. There are
things we encounter in this world that are
simply puzzling and unsettling.
 Sample Questions
1. Why does man work at the expense of
health?
2. Why is love complicated?
3. Why do people have to die?
4. Why can’t my parents understand me?
5. Why do people say that ‘forever’ is not
altogether real in love and relationship?
The UNIVERSAL AND THE PARTICULAR
• Particular refers to a part of the whole
• Universal pertains to the whole

WHY AM I
HERE?
• Part of the reason why we ask this question is
due to some challenges or struggles we
encounter daily….
• Purpose is like a thread that is woven through
everything that happens.
I. Martin Heidegger (1889-1976)
German philosopher

• Responsible for the term “hermeneutics of facticity”

which simply means that people interpret things as
they encounter them in different ways.
• According to him, a scientific question is always
confined to the particular, whereas a philosophical
question “leads into the totality of beings” and inquires
into the whole.(The Essence of Human Freedom, 2002)
• Beginning with a particular question that
unavoidably goes to the roots, a philosophical
question eventually becomes a revelation
about the whole of reality.

• https://ndpr.nd.edu/news/232277-the-
essence-of-human-freedom-an-introduction-
to-philosophy-and-the-essence-of-truth-on-
plato-s-cave-allegory-and-theasetetus/.
• What we ask about the essence of human
freedom, the problem is not limited to man
and freedom.
• Instead, we find that we cannot avoid asking
about the essence of man, the essence of the
world, and the essence of God.
• When we ask philosophically about freedom,
we venture into an inquiry about the whole.
• It is no longer a particular problem, but a
universal problem.
• After a philosophical question is raised, how
does one proceed to finding an answer?
• Philosophy has its own methods and criteria
of proceeding with its inquiries.
• such procedures make up the various
traditions and movements in the history of
philosophy as you will see in the next lessons.
• Those who engage in a philosophical
reflection must recognize that possible
answers to philosophical reflection require
adequate justification or rational basis.
• Answers that sound right or seem right will
simply not do.
II. Plato (427-347 B.C.E.) warned
as early as 360 B.C. that there
were things that deceive, confuse
or misled in this world.
• To know what is real requires much
intellectual effort and rational ability.
• A person is responsible for the answers he/she
hold on to.
• This means we are to blame in case we are
fooled into believing a falsehood.
• How do we guard against deceptions?
• God did not give us a life manual, but He
gifted us with intellect or mind (faculty or
reason) to figure things out on our own.
• In doing so, we are given dignity and
autonomy.
 C. Truth and Dialectics
• Philosophers rely on the human faculty of
reason as they philosophize.
• Through this rational capacity, they arrived at
a technique to resolve philosophical
questions. This is called dialectics.
• Dialectics is an art of refutation that dates
back to the ancient Greek. Philosophers wrote
dialogues.
• Philosophical discovery is seen as the result of
collaboration with partners in dialogue or
conversation.
• Dialogues illustrate how dialectics is an
effective means of examining and evaluating
truth claims.
• A claim or proposition requires sufficient
proof and logical argument to be regarded as
true.
• One has to give good reasons as basis for any
claim and the claim must be able to withstand
further scrutiny and examination.
III. Socrates (469-399 B.C.E.)
is most noteworthy in his
use of dialectics.
• His famous advise – “Know thyself.”
• His method of question and answer illustrates
how views need to be defended with
consistency and clarity.
• The series of questioning and answering he
subjected Athenians into was effective in
drawing out underlying assumptions.
• The dialectics of the ancients later developed
in the modern ear into thesis, antithesis, and
synthesis.
• The exchange or confrontation between
differing positions (one as thesis and the other
one is antithesis) culminates to a synthesis
that is a resolution of opposing views.
 GERMAN PHILOSOPHERS
G.W.F. Hegel (1770-1831) Karl Marx (1818-1883)

Introduced the
He belongs to the
concept of
period in philosophy
“historical
known as “German
materialism,” which
idealism” which
embodies his theory
shared Plato’s view
that societies rise
that ideas are real as
and fall as a result of
opposed to matter.
class struggles.
• Hegel and Marx proposed that there is a
dialectical pattern even in history as reflected
in resolutions of contradictions through time.
• Thus, the interplay of opposing views is
necessary for progress.
• Confrontations of this kind must not be
avoided at all. We need this exchange of ideas
so we can grow.
• Dialectics is indispensable since it lead us
closer to truth.
• Finding the truth, in a way, involves a kind of
“truth-ing,” and dialectics is one of its earliest
and tested forms.
• Philosophy teaches us to be open as we strive
to know better. Debating amiably (that is, a
confrontation without aggression) with
someone allows us to discover many things.
• It reveals our believes and challenges us to
defend those beliefs.
 REFLECT ZONE
#1. Remember your philosophical question,
What is the bigger context of which it is a part?
What aspects of human experience are
inevitably connected to your inquiry?
THANK YOU FOR LISTENING!!!
QUIZ # 1……TRUE or FALSE:

•Write your FIRST NAME

if your answer is TRUE.
Write your SURNAME if
your answer is FALSE.
____ 1. Synthesis is a result of thesis and
antithesis. TRUE
____ 2. To philosophize is to think about an
important question that have a definite or ready
answer. FALSE
____ 3. The problem of freedom includes the
concept of world, aside from man and God.
TRUE
____ 4. By way of analogy, with philosophy as a
bird, ultimately, one will know which way to go
and what to do. FALSE
____ 5. Philosophy is an irrational activity that
teaches us to search for truth and hold on to
beliefs we can defend. FALSE
____ 6. Dialectics are ancient German’s
technique of arriving at truth through systematic
exchange of opinions. FALSE
____ 7. G.W.F. Hegel shared Plato’s view that
ideas are real as opposed to matter. TRUE
 Identification: Identify who/what is
being referred to in each item:
8-9. The whole is attributed to __________
while ___________ is part of the whole.
10. It is the best tool humans have in dealing
with problems and in their pursuit of truth and
meaning. ___________
11. He engaged Athenians in the marketplace
with his series of questions. _________
12. He is known for introducing the concept of
historical materialism. ___________
13. The philosopher who warned us of
deceptions of this world. ___________
14. The philosopher who claimed that a
philosophical question inquires to the whole.
____________
15. It is when people understand things as they
see them in different ways. ___________
 Essay:
What philosophical question/questions have
you asked in the past or are you asking yourself
right now? How significant your question/s is in
your life?
 Quiz 1

•Identification: Identify
who/what is being
referred to in each item:
1. The problem of freedom includes this
concept aside from man and God.
2. It is the best tool humans have in dealing
with problems and in their pursuit of truth
and meaning.
3. By way of analogy, with philosophy as
__________, ultimately, one will know which
way to go and what to do.
4. It is a result of thesis and antithesis.
5. To _____________ is to think about an
important question that does not have a definite
or ready answer.
6-7. The whole is attributed to ______________
while ______________ is part of the whole.
8. The philosopher who warned us of
deceptions of this world.
9. Ancient Greek’s technique of arriving
at truth through systematic exchange
of opinions.
10. The philosopher who claimed that a
philosophical question inquires to the
whole.
11.He engaged Athenians in the marketplace
with his series of questions.
12.He is known for introducing the concept of
historical materialism.
13. A rational activity that teaches us to search
for truth and hold on to beliefs we can
defend.
14. It is when people understand
things as they see them in different
ways.
15. He shared Plato’s view that ideas
are real as opposed to matter.
 Key answer:
1. Synthesis
2. Reflect Philosophically
3-4. universal/particular
5. World
6. Reason/mind/intellect
7. Light
8. Socrates
9. Karl Marx
10. Philosophy
11. Plato
12. Dialectics
13. Martin Heidegger
14. Hermeneutics of facticity
15. G.W.F. Hegel