Philosophy: From Everyday Language to Metaphysics

Posted on Mar 4, 2025 in Philosophy and ethics

Everyday Language: Philosophy as Ideology

Everyday language: Philosophy is synonymous with ideology. A systematized set of ideas that give a vision or interpretation of reality.

Etymologically: Philo (friend) sophia (wisdom). The philosopher is in an approach between ignorance and wisdom, but not wise. A sage has reached a full solution of knowledge, and philosophers do not have any issue. They ascertain that it is what they wanted to have. True ignorance is proper to animals, and, in effect, wisdom, possessing the knowledge and the solution of the problem, is proper to divinity.

Philosophical Attitude

  • Conformist (Religious/Credulous/Reassuring): Taking reality as things are, as our tradition, general opinion, or an actor tells us.
  • Nonconformist (Philosophical/Disturbed/Suspicious): Problematizing reality; not conforming with the solutions given. It is, therefore, a critical attitude towards reality.

Philosophy and Science

They are not entirely different, as both show a critical attitude.

Differences in Seeking True Knowledge: Science uses a method (hypothetical-deductive), is expressed in a mathematical mode, enables manipulation in nature (this allows for technique), and is divided into plots.

Philosophy as a Discipline (Kant and Questions)

  1. The Problem of Knowledge: What Can I Know?

    Human knowledge leads us to two types of problems: the problem of reality and the problem of how it is accessed.

    • What is there? The discipline responsible for studying this is called ontology (treaty of being). Realists consider that there is something independently of our representations. Other philosophers consider the only evident thing is the existence of the self and its representations or ideas (idealists).

    • How do I know? This is studied by epistemology, the theory of knowledge. Philosophers in history have provided two solutions to access knowledge:

      • Rationalists: Use reason (mind) as the only way to access reality.
      • Empiricists: Opine that the mind is like a blank paper; we need experience to have knowledge.

  2. The Problem of Action: What Should I Do? The discipline is ethics.

  3. The Religious Problem: What Can I Expect? Discipline: Theology (God) (Justice). It attempts to demonstrate the existence of God, not to engage in divine characteristics. Theology of the existence of God is assumed by faith; in its characters, it tries to find this (as is God?).

    Etymologically, Metaphysics: It is beyond the physical, beyond all natural reality.

  4. The Problem of Man: Who Am I? The old branch that has tried to speculate on the life of man is psychology, going around the soul. Now, it studies the complexity of his conduct or nervous system. Likewise, it can also be understood as a form of anthropology that studies man, from fossil remains and some primitive cultures. Philosophy, speculating in its dialectical character, has a second step: to criticize and try to improve what someone said before.

Origin of Philosophy and Science: Myth to Logos

Mythical Explanation

  1. The causes of all phenomena in nature are in a supernatural world.
  2. These events depend on the gods.
  3. These explanations are maintained by tradition.

Logos Explanation

  1. Things are in the same natural world.
  2. The physical world is governed by fixed laws.
  3. It is maintained because it avoids the endorsement of experiences and/or reasoning.

What is the arche?: A simple explanation for a complex phenomenon (understood as change, movement, and diversity).

Monistic Philosophers

They say the arche is a single element.

  • Thales of Miletus: Water. He observed that solids dissolve in water, interpreting that these have become the principle and that they were in it.
  • Anaximander: Apeiron (indeterminate material elements).
  • Anaximenes: Air (the experience of water from a bucket).

Pluralist Philosophers

The material is explained by several factors.

  • Empedocles: Water, air, earth, fire.
  • Anaxagoras: Seeds; everything has these types of seeds for things to change.
  • Democritus: Atoms: invisible particles move randomly and collide with each other, and from these collisions, things emerge.