1. Philosophy 101
Finding meaning in
Life

2. Philosophy is:
A search for meaning and truth
The general beliefs and attitudes of an individual or group

3. Philosophy is:
A search for meaning and truth
The general beliefs and attitudes of an individual or group

4. Philosophy is:
A search for meaning and truth
Suffering is an ineradicable part of life,
even as fate and death.
Without suffering and death,
Human life cannot be complete.”
- Frankel
“If there is a meaning in life at all, then there must
be a meaning in suffering.

5. Philosophy is:
A search for meaning and truth
The why or motivation behind the things
we think, say, and do
The body of principles underlying a branch of
learning or major discipline

6. Philosophy is:
Original Definition
“Love of Wisdom”
Definition was developed by Socrates
Knowledge of what is true or right
coupled with just judgment as to
action

7. Philosophy is:
Original Definition
Need good definitions of concepts
The asking of questions about the meaning of our
most basic concepts.
How do we obtain our philosophical beliefs?
Can our philosophical beliefs
be rationally justified?

8. Philosophy is:
The Study of
• Logic – How we ought to think
Everything…doesn’t think about different things…
Thinks about things differently
• Epistemology – the nature and source of knowledge
• Metaphysics – is physical reality all there is?
• Religion – questions about God, evil, and faith

9. Philosophy is:
The Study of
• Ethics – How do we decide what is right and wrong
Everything…doesn’t think about different things…
Thinks about things differently
• Political – is a government legitimate…just, and what
are its limits? How about freedom?
• Others – education, history, language

10. Philosophy is:
The Value of
• Motivation – why you hold them
Learning to present an argument or defense for
beliefs you hold
• Goals – what you want from them
• Coming up with creative answers to old questions
• Causes growth and maturity

11. Philosophy is:
Socrates
• Had a higher calling
• Pointed out the frailty (or depravity) of man
• Virtue was the source of success
The Philosopher is a person liberated by wisdom
• Most important thing was not success and wealth, but
the health of the soul.

12. Philosophy is:
Socrates
• What would make an idea dangerous?
• What ideas are uncomfortable, troubling, or
dangerous? Why?
• What ideas are worth living or dying for?
The Philosopher is a person liberated by wisdom
• How important is having a sense of mission?

13. Philosophy is:
Socrates
• The real danger in life is not death,
but living and evil life
• We should not be willing to say or do anything to
avoid death, thinking that by corrupting our souls we
have gained any advantage.
The Philosopher is a person liberated by wisdom

14. Philosophy is:
Socrates
• Find the issue
The Socratic Method
• Isolate a key philosophical term
• Profess ignorance and request help
• Gain a definition
• Ask questions to expose a weakness
• Produces second definition
• Face ignorance..ready to begin search for wisdom…or
find excuse to change subject

15. Philosophy 101
Finding meaning in
Life

16. Philosophy is:
Plato’s Allegory of the Cave
• Video
• Who are the Prisoners?
• Reality vs. Our assumptions
• What is enlightenment?
• What are the Shadows?
• Why don’t the chained prisoners understand their
freed friend?

17. Philosophy is:
Justice vs. Righteousness
• What is the difference between
Justice and
Righteousness

18. Philosophy is:
Justice vs. Righteousness
• Righteousness
• characterized by uprightness or morality:
a righteous observance of the law
• morally right or justifiable: righteous indignation
• acting in an upright, moral way; virtuous:
a righteous and godly person.

19. Philosophy is:
Justice vs. Righteousness
• Justice
• rightfulness or lawfulness, as of a claim or title;
justness of ground or reason:
to complain with justice.
• the moral principle determining just conduct.
• the principle that punishment should be
proportionate to the offence

20. Philosophy is:
Justice vs. Righteousness
• Justice
• to bring order to reality
• Righteousness
• conformity to an absolute standard
• external
• internal

21. Philosophy 101
Finding meaning in
Life

22. Philosophy is:
Descartes
• First Meditations:
• Method of Doubt
• Will not accept as true anything of which he cannot
be absolutely certain
• Practically everything seems open to doubt, even
the existence of the external world
• Malicious Demon – creating a virtual world

23. Philosophy is:
Descartes
• Second Meditations:
• “I think, therefore I am.”
• This “I” that exists is a thing that thinks
• Cannot be deceived if I do not exist
• If there is are material things (external world), its
essential nature would be an extension, grasped by
the mind and not the senses.

24. Philosophy is:
According to Descartes, we can know that
various propositions are true via pure reason.
• The Wax Argument has two stages:
Stage 1: The Argument from Change.
Stage 2: The Argument from Intellection.
• The Wax Argument stated:
Consider a piece of wax—call it ‘Bob’—sitting on the
mantle at some time t.
1. At t, Bob is cold, solid, orb-shaped, etc., whereas at
t+1, Bob is warm, liquid, non-orb-shaped, etc. (Call
these qualities sensory qualities.)

25. Philosophy is:
• The Wax Argument :
2. If an object O loses a property F and continues to
exist, then F is not part of O’s essence.
It follows that:
3. None of Bob’s sensory qualities are part of Bob’s
essence. So,
4. I do not know Bob’s essential properties via my
sense perceptual faculties (i.e., a posteriori).
5. I do know Bob’s essential properties—it is extended,
changeable, and flexible.

26. Philosophy is:
• The Wax Argument :
6. Now either I know Bob’s essential properties via my
faculty of imagination or via the intellect (i.e., it is
known a priori). Yet,
7. The wax can be extended, changed and flexed in
ways that I cannot accurately grasp via my faculty of
imagination. Accordingly,
8. I cannot know Bob’s essential properties via my
faculty of imagination. Therefore,
9. I know Bob’s essential properties via the intellect
(i.e., a priori).

27. Philosophy is:
Descartes
• Third Meditations:
• “Whatever I perceive very clearly and distinctly is
true.”
• The mind contains an idea of a infinite being
• Being merely finite, it could not have invented such
an idea
• The idea of an infinite being must have been placed
in the mind by the infinite being itself. Therefore this
infinite being (God) exists.

28. Philosophy is:
Locke
• Essay Concerning Human Understanding:
• Tabula Rasa – a blank slate
- rejects endowed innate principles
• Ideas are imprinted through experience
• All ideas arise through sensation or reflection
• Quality – the power by which an object can
produce an idea in our mind
Primary – resembles the object and really exist
in it, i.e. figure, extension, motion and rest
Secondary – don’t resemble or exist in it, i.e.
color, sound, or taste.

29. Philosophy is:
Quiz
• Epistemology
• Deals with questions concerning knowledge
• Questions
• Is it possible to have knowledge at all?
• Considers various theories of Knowledge
• Does reason provide us with knowledge of the
world independently of experience?
• Does our knowledge represent reality as reality is?

30. Philosophy is:
Mid-Term Paper
• Descarte and Nietzsche
• What were their philosophical views
• Paper
• 4-5 pages – double spaced
• What impact do they have on the way we think
• Bibliography – 3-4 sources other then the text book

31. Philosophy 101
Finding meaning in
Life

32. Philosophy is:
Nietzsche
• Video
• What does he believe?
• Truth and Absolutes
• According to Nietzsche what is the root cause of
truth?
• Does it affect how you think today?
• How about the “Will to Power”? The Madman

33. Philosophy 101
Finding God
Finding meaning in
Life

34. Philosophy is:
St Thomas Aquinas
• Video
• What is the First Cause Argument?
• What About Experience?
• Video
• 5 ways
• Where does reason fit in?

35. Philosophy 101
C.S. Lewis

36. Philosophy 101
Finding God
Finding meaning in
Life

37. Philosophy is:
Final Paper
• Morals and Ethics impact how we relate to each other
and operate within society
• Paper
• 4-5 pages – double spaced
• Show how the existence (or absence) of God, the
presence of evil, as well as Kantian Ethics influence
our individual and cultural ethics and morals
• Bibliography – 3-4 sources other then the text book

38. Kantian Philosophy is:
“The obligation to do our duty is unconditional. That
is, we must do it for the sake of duty, because it is the
right thing to do, not because it will profit us
psychologically, or economically, not because if we
don’t do it and get caught we’ll be punished. The
categorical imperative was Kant’s name for this
inbred, self-imposed restraint, for the command of
conscience within that tells us that the only true
moral act is done from a pure sense of duty.”
-- Admiral James Stockdale

39. Kantian Philosophy is:
WILL and the GOOD WILL:
- A power of self-determination via rational deliberation
- Not the same as desire or inclination (animals can not will)
- The only thing conceivable that can be taken as good
without qualification
- It’s virtue is completely separate from any end
MAXIM (intention)
- A personal rule on which we make our decisions
- The principle on which the actor sees himself or herself
acting

40. DUTY
- Inbred, Self Imposed
- The obligation required of us as rational beings
- In order for an act to be morally praiseworthy, it must
be done for the sake of duty
-Shopkeeper
- It is all about MAXIMS
Kantian Philosophy is:

41. Categorical Imperative
• Supreme Principle of Morality
- Motives are more important than
consequences
1. Universalization
2. The Formula of the End in Itself
3. Using Persons as Mere Means
4. Treating Person as End in Themselves
5. Intentions and Results
Kantian Philosophy is: