Reflection in Philosophy | Essays (high school) Philosophy

Department of Education

Republic of the Philippines

Region IX – Zamboanga Peninsula

Division IX- Pagadian City

ZAMBOANGA DEL SUR NATIONAL HIGH

SCHOOL

SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL

Subject: Introduction to the Philosophy of the Human Person Week:

DO NOT WRITE ANYTHING ON THIS ACTIVITY SHEETS!

FOR EMODULE STUDENTS: Write your answers in a clean white paper. Use only black ink ball pen. Take a photo of your

answers and send it to [email protected] with a subject line ActivitySheetsW1_FamilyName (Ex.

ActivitySheetsPhiloW1_Galleto). You may use MSWord and send your answers with file name format:

ActivitySheetsW1_FamilyName (Ex. ActivitySheetsPhiloW1_Galleto).

FOR MODULE STUDENTS: Write your answers in a clean yellow paper. Make sure your writing is legible.

LESSON OBJECTIVES

At the end of the week, you should be able to:

1. Distinguish a holistic perspective from a partial point of view

2. Realize the value of doing philosophy in obtaining a broad perspective on life 3. Do a philosophical

reflection on a concrete situation from a holistic perspective.

ACTIVITY 1

Directions: Research on the meaning and background of Philosophy. Do not copy and paste answers directly from sources

(internet/other references) to avoid plagiarism (criminal act). After your research, do the requirement below:

Share your concepts about the importance of philosophy. Give examples of these in politics, sports, law and daily life.

Rubric for Scoring (Essay):

Content and Originality 10 points

Organization of ideas 5 points

Evidence (examples) 5 points

Total 20 points

When we hear a word philosophy,

one that crosses our minds are the people in

ancient times who were philosopher and it

speaks and shows intelligence.In this

modern days,when we know someone who

studies philosopy,we think of it as boring

subject and all of it does is reading book and

making essays from essays,which is actually

true but not absolutlety boring because

when we learn and seek deeply on it,it tells

and shows everything.What we have now

and what we are experiencing are the

results of philosophy.

Philosophy comes from the greek

work philosophia which means “love of

wisdom”. It is a study that seeks nature of

truth and knowledge,what is basic values

and importance of life,relationships

between humanity and nature,and also

between individual and society. .All of the

people has an ability to think but few are

looking and seeking answers in depth.Long

time ago and even up to this day,most

people depends on

superstitions,beliefs,traditions, and

religions,but the greek philosophers in the

old time think of it as unreliable.Having a

philosophical thought is an inescapable part

of human existence because from time to

time,you would question more over as

world is changing.You can’t avoid to ignore

the existence of things in the world and

even out of the world. It also have many

Partial preview of the text

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Department of Education

Republic of the Philippines

Region IX – Zamboanga Peninsula

Division IX- Pagadian City

ZAMBOANGA DEL SUR NATIONAL HIGH

SCHOOL

SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL

Subject: Introduction to the Philosophy of the Human Person Week: 1

DO NOT WRITE ANYTHING ON THIS ACTIVITY SHEETS!

FOR EMODULE STUDENTS: Write your answers in a clean white paper. Use only black ink ball pen. Take a photo of your answers and send it to [email protected] with a subject line ActivitySheetsW1_FamilyName (Ex. ActivitySheetsPhiloW1_Galleto). You may use MSWord and send your answers with file name format: ActivitySheetsW1_FamilyName (Ex. ActivitySheetsPhiloW1_Galleto). FOR MODULE STUDENTS: Write your answers in a clean yellow paper. Make sure your writing is legible. LESSON OBJECTIVES At the end of the week, you should be able to:

Distinguish a holistic perspective from a partial point of view
Realize the value of doing philosophy in obtaining a broad perspective on life 3. Do a philosophical reflection on a concrete situation from a holistic perspective. ACTIVITY 1 Directions: Research on the meaning and background of Philosophy. Do not copy and paste answers directly from sources (internet/other references) to avoid plagiarism (criminal act). After your research, do the requirement below: Share your concepts about the importance of philosophy. Give examples of these in politics, sports, law and daily life. Rubric for Scoring (Essay): Content and Originality 10 points Organization of ideas 5 points Evidence (examples) 5 points Total 20 points When we hear a word philosophy, one that crosses our minds are the people in ancient times who were philosopher and it speaks and shows intelligence.In this modern days,when we know someone who studies philosopy,we think of it as boring subject and all of it does is reading book and making essays from essays,which is actually true but not absolutlety boring because when we learn and seek deeply on it,it tells and shows everything.What we have now and what we are experiencing are the results of philosophy. Philosophy comes from the greek work philosophia which means “love of wisdom”. It is a study that seeks nature of truth and knowledge,what is basic values and importance of life,relationships between humanity and nature,and also between individual and society. .All of the people has an ability to think but few are looking and seeking answers in depth.Long time ago and even up to this day,most people depends on superstitions,beliefs,traditions, and religions,but the greek philosophers in the old time think of it as unreliable.Having a philosophical thought is an inescapable part of human existence because from time to time,you would question more over as world is changing.You can’t avoid to ignore the existence of things in the world and even out of the world. It also have many

branches such as Metaphysics,Epistemology,Logic,Ethics,and Aesthetics. Philosophy is significant and has importance in our life,example of it is the Philosophy of Law,which is also called “jurisprudence” that means legal system, is the study of the nature of law and distuingishes law from the other system of norms,especially in ethis and political philosophy.Philosophy could be applied in law,when the county’s supreme legislative body needs a philosophical knowledge about the nature of law before making and submitting a bill that requires some assistance with the legal systems of the cities and states. In Philosophy of Politics,the study of liberty,justice,property,rights,and law..It also can be distinguished from political science which seeks a positive analysis like voting behaviors and balance of power..Philosohy could be applied in politics when the society has a democratic country,the people has a free choice to choose for themselves of who should they vote and elect based on their philosophical inquiries of who could lead the society and bring country’s improvement. In Philosophy of Sports,the study of nature of sport,it addresses to the metaphysical questions concerning the sports,ethics for the moral of the player,aesthetics of sport as an art and many others..Philosophy could be applied in sports in example,each player and coach on a play have to come up with a philosophical strategy on how to claim the victory on the game. Philosophy in daily life, the process to explore different aspects in life.Philosophy could be applied in a sense that we need a philosophical inquiries and thoughts to endure the pain and anxiety of earthly existence. Thinking about our life and the life around revolves about philosophy.The process of having a philosophical question has the power to transform not just the way of our thinking,but even the way of our living.Without philosophy, we wont know the means of anything.

In our everyday attempts to understand the world in terms of appearance and reality, we try to make things comprehensible by simplifying or reducing the mass of things we call appearance to a relatively fewer number of things we call reality. For instance, for Thales, a Greek philosopher, everything is water. He claims that everything we experience is water—which we all “reality”. Everything else is "appearance”. We then set out to try to explain everything else (appearance) in terms of water (reality). Clouds, for example, or blocks of ice do not look like water, but they can be explained in terms of water. When water evaporates, it becomes a cloud, and when water freeze it becomes ice. Both the idealist and the materialist metaphysical theories are similarly based on unobservable entities: mind and matter. We can see things made of matter such as a book or a chair, but we cannot see the underlying matter itself. Although we can experience in our minds thoughts, ideas, desires, and fantasies, we cannot observe or experience the mind itself that is having these thoughts, ideas, and desires. It is tendency to explain the observable in terms of the unobservable that has given metaphysics a bad name to more down-to-earth philosophers. Plato, Socrates' most famous student, is a good example of a metaphysician who draws the sharpest possible contrast between reality and appearance. Nothing we experience in the physical world with our five senses is real, according to Plato. Reality, in fact, is just the opposite. It is unchanging, eternal, immaterial, and can be detected only by the intellect. Plato calls these realities as ideas of forms. These are meanings which universal, general terms refer to, and they are also those things we are talking about when we discuss moral, mathematical, and scientific ideals. B. ETHICS How do we tell good from evil or right from wrong? Ethics is the branch of philosophy that explores the nature of moral virtue and evaluates human actions. Ethics is generally a study of the nature of moral judgments. Philosophical ethics attempts to provide an account of our fundamental ethical ideas. Whereas religion has often motivated individuals to obey the moral code of their society, philosophy is not content with traditional or habitual ethics but adopts a critical perspective. It insists that obedience to moral law be given a rational foundation. In the thought of Socrates, we see the beginning of a transition from a traditional, religion-based morality to philosophical ethics (Landsburg 2009). Reflections, Meditations, and Conversations that Rocked the World: What Constitutes a Human Person? For Socrates, to be happy, a person has to live a virtuous life. Virtue is not something to be taught or acquired through education, but rather, it is merely an awakening of the seeds of good deeds that lay dormant in the mind and heart of a person. Knowing what is in the mind and heart of a human being is achieved through self-knowledge. Thus, knowledge does not mean only theoretical or speculative, but a practical one. Practical knowledge means that one does not only know the rules of right living, but one lives them. Hence, for Socrates, true knowledge means wisdom, which in turn, means virtue. The Greek word arete , which we translate as virtue, seems originally to have been associated with valor in battle and may be connected with the name of the Greek god of war, Ares, whom we know better under his Roman name, Mars. Both Greek word arete and its English equivalent, virtue, have connotations of machismo and manliness. When Socrates came to define virtue, he thought of courage as one of its prime components, and he came up with the proposition that courage, therefore, as virtue is also knowledge. REFLECTION TIME. Directions: Answer the questions briefly.

_1. Do you agree to Socrates’ stand that living a virtuous life leads to happiness? Why or Why not?

How do you understand the line that “Virtue is not something to be taught or acquired through education, but rather, it is_ merely an awakening of the seeds of good deeds that lay dormant in the mind and heart of a person”? ACTIVITY 3 Draw, in a short bond paper, your own interpretation of Socrates’ view: “To become happy, a person must live a virtuous life.” Rubric for Scoring (Essay): Content and Originality 10 points Organization of ideas 5 points Evidence (examples) 5 points Total 20 points Rubric for Scoring (Drawing): Originality 10 points Coherence of Content 15 points Overall Aesthetics 5 points Total 30 points C. EPISTEMOLOGY Specifically, epistemology deals with nature, sources, limitations, and validity of knowledge (Soccio 2007). Epistemological questions are basic to all other philosophical inquiries. Epistemology explains: (1) how we know what we claim to know; (2) how we can find out what we wish to know; and (3) how we can differentiate truth from falsehood. Epistemology addresses varied problems: the reliability, extent, and kinds of knowledge; truth; language; and science and scientific knowledge. How do we acquire reliable knowledge? Human knowledge may be regarded as having two parts:
On the one hand, he sees, hears, and touches; on the other hand, he organizes in his mind what he learns through the senses. Philosophers have given considerable attention to questions about the sources of knowledge. Some philosophers think that the particular things seen, heard, and touched are more Important. They believe that general ideas are formed from the examination of particular facts. This Plato Socrates Aristotle

method is called induction , and philosophers who feel that knowledge is acquired in this way are called empiricists (e.g., John Locke). Empiricism is the view that knowledge can be attained only through sense experience. According to the empiricists, real knowledge is based on wha our sight, hearing, smell, and other senses tell us is really at out there, not what people make up in their heads.

Other philosophers think it is more important to find a general law according to which particular facts can be understood or judged. This method is called deduction ; its advocates are called rationalists (e.g., Rene Descartes). For instance, what distinguishes real knowledge from mere opinion, in the rationalist view, is that real knowledge is based on the logic, the laws, and the methods that reason develops. The best example of real knowledge, the rationalist holds, is mathematics, a realm of knowledge that is obtained entirely by reason that we use to understand the universe (Soccio 2007). A newer school, pragmatism, has a third approach to these problems. Pragmatists, such as William James and John Dewey, believe that value in use is the real test of truth and meaning. In other words, the meaning and truth of an idea are tested by its practical consequences. D. LOGIC Reasoning is the concern of the logician. This could be reasoning in science and medicine, in ethics and law, in politics and commerce, in sports and games, and in the mundane affairs of everyday living. Varied kinds of reasoning may be used, and all are of interest to the logician. The term “logic" comes from the Greek word logike and was coined by Zeno, the Stoic (c.340-265BC). Etymologically, it means a treatise on matters pertaining to the human thought. It is important to underpin that logic does not provide us knowledge of the world directly, for logic is considered as a tool, and, therefore, does not contribute directly to the content of our thoughts. Logic is not interested in what we know regarding certain subjects. Its concern, rather, is the truth or the validity of our arguments regarding such objects. Aristotle was the first philosopher to devise a logical method. Aristotle understood truth to mean the agreement of knowledge with reality; truth exists when the mind's mental representations, otherwise known as ideas, correspond with things in the objective world. Logical reasoning makes us certain that our conclusions are true, and this provides us with accepted scientific proofs of universally valid propositions or statements. Since the time of Aristotle, the study of lies or fallacies has been considered an integral part of logic. Even before the time of Aristotle down to the present, the study of logic has remained important. We are human beings possessed with reason. We use it when we make decisions or when we try to influence the decisions of others or when we are engaged in argumentation and debate. Indeed, a person who has studied logic is more likely to reason correctly than another, who has never thought about the general principles involved in reasoning. E. AESTHETICS When humanity has learned to make something that is useful to them, they begin to plan and dream how to make it beautiful. What therefore is beauty? The establishment of criteria of beauty is the function of aesthetics. Aesthetics is the science of the beautiful in its various manifestations—including the sublime, comic, tragic, pathetic, and ugly. To experience aesthetics, therefore, means whatever experience has relevance to art, whether the experience be that of the creative artist or of appreciation. As a branch of philosophy, students should consider the importance of aesthetics because of the following:

It vitalizes our knowledge. It makes our knowledge of the world alive and useful. We go through our days picking up a principle as fact here and there, and too infrequently see how they are related. It is the part of a play, a poem, or a story to give us new insight, to help-us see new relationship between he separated items in our memories.
It helps us to live more deeply and richly. A work of art—whether a book a piece of music, painting, or a television show—helps us to rise from purely physical existence into the realm of intellect and the spirit. As a being of body and soul, a human being needs nourishment for his higher life as well as his lower. Art, therefore, is not something merely like craft or applied arts, but something of weight and significance to humankind. It is what Schopenhauer meant when he said, "You must treat a work of art like a great man. Stand before it and wait patiently until it deigns to speak”. (Scruton et al. 1997)
It brings us in touch with our culture. Things about us change so rapidly today that we forget how much we owe to the past. We cannot shut ourselves off from the past any more than we can shut ourselves off geographically from the rest of the world. It is difficult that the great problems of human life have occurred over and over again for thousands of years. The answers of great minds in the past to these problems are part of our culture.

HOLISTIC VS PARTIAL PERSPECTIVE

Holistic Perspective One of the greatest needs of anyone seeking “wisdom” is a genuine sympathy and an understanding of all the most diverse points of view (holistic perspective). A narrow provincialism of mind, limited to the ideas and outlook of a single party or a single age (partial perspective), is wholly incompatible with the real philosophical attitude. Holism comes from the Greek word “ holos ,” meaning literally everything, whole. Holism is a way of thought which preserves the interdependence of factors with other causalities agencies. In other words, a certain structure or component cannot alone determine the properties of a particular phenomenon or system (e.g., philosophical, biological, psychological, emotional, spiritual, social, political, and linguistic). In the study of Philosophy, one should endure a holistic perspective to attain the virtue of wisdom.

Reflection in Philosophy, Essays (high school) of Philosophy

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Partial preview of the text

Download Reflection in Philosophy and more Essays (high school) Philosophy in PDF only on Docsity!

Department of Education

Republic of the Philippines

Region IX – Zamboanga Peninsula

Division IX- Pagadian City

ZAMBOANGA DEL SUR NATIONAL HIGH

SCHOOL

SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL

DO NOT WRITE ANYTHING ON THIS ACTIVITY SHEETS!

HOLISTIC VS PARTIAL PERSPECTIVE