Branches of Philosophy Part II

Philosophy
1. Four Branches of Philosophy
Ontology, Epistemology, Axiology, Logic
a. Ontology
 Metaphysics also known as ontology. Meta – beyond or above. Meta + physics =
what comes after physics, what lies beyond nature.
 They deal with the most fundamental concepts: reality, existence, substance,
causality etc.
 Such an inquiry would lead to an understanding of the ultimate reality which lies
behind that which we confront in sensory experience. This understanding is not itself
based on sensory experience but on rational analysis or insights.
 These are questions which are not settled by science
Example:
1. Appearance and reality
2. Does God exist?
3. Do I have soul?
4. Are angles real?
b. Epistemology
2. Known as theory of knowledge.
3. A branch of philosophy that investigates the nature, source, limitation and validity of
knowledge.
 What is knowledge? (nature)
 How do human beings acquire knowledge? (source)
 Limits of human knowledge
c. Axiology
 Theory of value (nilai), including both moral and aesthetic values.
 Moral
 What is morality?
 What is good, what is bad?
 What is morally permissible or impermissible?
 Aesthetic
 What is beauty?
 What makes an object a work of art?
d. Logic
 Synonym to reasoning or argument. Example: ‘I disagree with his logic’ = ‘I reject his
reasoning’.
 The whole purpose of reasoning, of logic is to arrive at the truth.
 Ancient Greeks originate western logical thought. Their work summed up in
Aristotle’s treatises on logic. They relied on language to explain what they are doing.
Further advances in logic began in 19th century. Gottlob Frege (1848-1925) invented
symbolic logic: use of symbols (mathematics) to represent ideas.

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2. Empiricism and Rationalism
 Empiricism
 Empirical means relying on experiment or observation alone.
 Sensory experience is the only or the main source of knowledge.
 Using observation & experiment in Science: Physics, Chemistry, Biology.
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Rationalism
 The mind or intellect or reason alone, rather than the senses, is the only or main
sources of knowledge.
 Founder: Descartes – father of modern philosophy and scientific reasoning.
Mostly mathematician.

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Empirical Vs Mathematical Science in Western Scientific Revolution
 Empiricism: Practical & Experimental Science
 Founder: Francis Bacon (1561-1626) (Baconian Science)
 Flourished in England
 The Royal Society
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Mathematical Science (Rationalism)
 Mathematical & Abstract (classical science)
 Founder: Descartes (1596-1650)
 Flourished in France
 France Academy of Science, do not have experimental science. Geometry,
astronomy & mechanics were under mathematical division.

Both Tradition (Mathematical & Experimental)
 Newton (1642-1727) in England wrote Principia Mathematica (mathematical) and
Optics (experimental).
 Mathematical & Experimental Science in German (mid 19th century). Example:
Einstein.
 Logical Positivism: Combining the resources of modern mathematical logic
with an empiricist epistemology. Members of Vienna Circle: eg. Carnap. Mostly
scientist and mathematician.

3. Scientism
 The belief that the methods of the natural sciences are applicable in all inquiry,
especially in human and social sciences.
 Scientific description of reality is the only truth there is. With the advances of
science, there has been a tendency to slip into scientism and assume that any claim
can be authenticated if the term ‘scientific’ is used to describe it.
 The belief that science is the only method for obtaining knowledge. The
unwarranted idolization of science as the sole authority of truth and source of
knowledge.
 The slavish imitation of the method and language of natural science, especially by
social scientists.

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4. Scepticism

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Doubt whether it is possible to attain perfect certainty of knowledge.
Nothing can be known with certainty; that at best there can only be some private
probable opinion.
Example: Hygiene hypothesis in allergist. A medical mystery. Is it too much
cleanliness or environmental pollutants? Someone who suffered a parasitic worm
infection, had no allergies. Someone who suffers hay fever, had no worms.

5. Phenomenalism
 If I look at an object, the object as experienced by me is a phenomenon (appearance).
The object as it is in itself is called noumenon (reality).
 Empiricist theory of human knowledge: all that we know about the external world
are data conveyed to us by sense-experience. So, we can only know the
phenomenon or appearance of a thing. We cannot know thing as it is, or the
reality of a thing.
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Example:
1. A table appears to be solid. In reality it is in state of continuous flux. The lifeduration of a table does not last two atoms of time because they are constantly
perishing (fana’). The reality of a particular existent (table, man etc) is perceived as
enduring (sentiasa ada), because of God’s continuous dynamic and constant
activity of re-creating, not the same but a similar thing after its every
annihilation (fana’).
2. An atom appears to be solid. In reality, is it really solid?
3. In science, we can only know what appears to us, what we can observe.
The thing as it is, the reality of the thing, we cannot know.

6. Ockham’s Razor (Law of Parsimony)
 William of Ockham (1285-1347)
 Known as the Law of Parsimony or Law of Economy.
 “Entities should not be posited unnecessarily.” or “Entities are not to be multiplied
beyond necessity”. Meaning: The best explanation is the simplest one that works.
In the course of trying to work out an explanation of something, assume the
minimum we need to assume.
 Of two alternatives explanations for the same phenomena, the more complicated is
more likely to have something wrong with it, and therefore other things being
equal, the more simple is the more likely to be correct.
 The belief in Simple Laws. Example:
1. Thales: Water is the basic element of all matter.
2. Aristotle: Basic elements are earth, water, air and fire.
3. Copernicus explanation of planet orbiting the sun in circular orbit is simpler than
Ptolemy System of Epicycles.
7. Materialism
 The view that matter constitutes the basis of all that exists in the universes.
Everything is made up of matter.
 The materialists holds that nothing but the physical exits – matter, energy and the
void.

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Denial of the existence of minds, spirits, divine being, ghosts etc (non-material).
Thought, feeling and wishes (other mental phenomena) – states and processes of the
body (nervous system or the brain). The mind is also material.
The modern version is often called physicalism.

8. Idealism
 The view that mind is the ultimate reality of the world.
 Everything that exists is not material but mental.
9. Theories of truth in western philosophy
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Correspondence theory
 True beliefs correspond to the facts.
 A true belief is that the belief corresponds to reality. A false belief is that the
belief fails to correspond to reality.
 Example: True belief: This is a car.

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Coherence theory
 A true belief is that the belief coheres with, or ties in with other beliefs.

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Individual coherence theory: Truth is relative to the individual in question.
Example: Skirt. True to Elizabeth because it fits in with her beliefs.

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Group coherence theory: A belief is true to if it fits in with the collective beliefs
of the group.
Example: Skirt in TV3: True belief because it fits in with the collective beliefs of
the TV3. Wearing bikinis in a swimming pool in a hotel.

Pragmatic theory
 True beliefs are those which work or useful, if accepting it bring success.
 Politics: Mahathir Vs Anwar Ibrahim, Mahathir Vs Abdullah Badawi.
 Business: Islamic Banking System practice by CitiBank

10. Pragmatism: “An idea is true if it works in daily life”: William James

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11. Socratic Method
 He establishes dialectic, the method of seeking truth by a process of question
and answer.
 He established the method of trying to get at truth by persistent questioning.
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Socrates was known as ‘The Masterly Interrogator’.
He went around Athens raising the basic questions of morality and politics with
anyone who would listen to him. People gathered around him wherever he went,
especially the eager young.
Ask fundamental questions to our lives. What is good? What is right? What is just?
What is friendship? What is courage? What is religious piety?
He would challenge a person who thought he knew the answer, and then subject that
answer to examination by asking the person a series of searching questions about
it.
Although Socrates seldom came up with any final answers himself, he stimulated an
excited interest in the problems he raised, and made people appreciate more fully
than they had before the difficulties involved in trying to solve them.
Everything must be open to question-there can be not cut and dried answers,
because answers, like everything else, are themselves open question.

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A way of getting people to re-examine what they think they already know.

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It is used particularly as a teaching method, though not equally appropriate for
all forms of teaching, (eg. Not a good way of imparting pure information).

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