1. What is philosophy
This is a course note for the Introduction to Philosophy provided by University of Edinburgh hold on Coursera.
definition:
$the\ activity\ of\ working\ out\ the\ right\ way\ of\ thinking\ about\ things.$
So we need to stick in and do it to understand philosophy
1.1. relation with other subject
we need to do philosophy by the challenges or results that other subjects throw up
e.g.
- Physics
- Normal physics: getting the way subject move
- philosophy of physics: asking questions to change the way how we think physics, like “What is physical reality”
- Medicine
- Normal medicine: how to heal people according to current best medical theories
- philosophy of medicine: “what health and sickness is”
2. Philosophy is Difficult but Important
Philosophy question is raised anywhere because we can always step back and think about $Why$ and try to answer the questions.
Most philosophy aims at thinking clearly about the things that matter most to us.
- Our current thinking might be wrong, so we need to step back and examine our thinking.
3. How to do Philosophy
Trying to think about things in the right way is something we do all the time.
3.1. Think about arguments do a good job of establishing their conclusion
e.g. Should I go to the cinema tonight? what we should do to make decision?
- Looking for evidence
- Thinking about the evidence gives you reasons to do or not
- Coming to a conclusion
Valid argument: if the premises are true, the conclusion have to be true
Sound argument: valid argument with true premises
Philosophy needs vision and argument
- We need to keep a big picture in mind
- do we free will? We should not only focus the conclusion given by the premises, but try to understand what it means for us when we say “free will”
- Not only arguments,
4. How do we know Philosophy works?
4.1. Hume’s idea
The most important constrain: the way world works should be the same as we think
Our experience tells us much less about the world than we usually think
- Causation, we just see a series of things
- Ourselves, we just feel some feelings or emotions
So we can not find answer to questions that related to the term above
4.2. Kant’s idea
We need to prove that philosophical thinking could put us in touch with the world
He thinks Causation are true in our mind and true in real world
If the world is not work in this way, we can not image in such way either.