Introduction to Philosophy

Achieve Test Prep: Philosophy

• Ethics: Involves the study of moral values and principles. This branch looks at the principles that govern our relationships with other people, the way we should behave, and the rules and standards that we should employ in the choices we make (How should we treat other people? Is there a good life for humans?). Ethics is the study of moral value, right and wrong. Ethics is involved with placing value to personal actions, decisions, and relations. Important ethical issues today include abortion, sexual morality, the death penalty, euthanasia, pornography, and the environment. • Political and social philosophy: Involves the study of social values and political forms of government. This branch explores the various ways in which people should organize and govern themselves. This branch focuses on analyzing the values in which society should be based and the role of social justice and individual rights (What is the nature of justice? What is the most enlightened form of government?). • Aesthetics: Involves the study of beauty and art and analyzes efforts to establish for beauty in all of its various manifestations (What is the nature of beauty? What is art?). • Logic and critical thinking: Involves the study of correct reasoning, clear understanding, and valid arguments. Logic is the study of right reasoning. It is the tool philosophers use to study other philosophical categories. Good logic includes the use of good thinking skills and the avoidance of logic fallacies. Bertrand Russell Bertrand Russell was a British philosopher and known as one of the founders of modern logic. He is credited with advancing the view that all mathematics can be derived from logical premises. Russell believed philosophy was to be studied, not for the sake of any definite answers to its questions. This is because no definite answers serve as a rule known to be true. No, instead, we should study philosophy for the sake of the questions themselves because these questions enlarge our conception of what is possible, enriches our intellectual imagination, and diminishes the dogmatic assurance which closes the mind against speculation. Russell believed that the greatness of the universe which philosophy contemplates also renders the mind great. The mind becomes capable of a union with the universe which constitutes its highest good. The practical man does not understand that the goods of the mind are at least as good as the goods of the body, meaning the practical man recognizes only material needs food for the body but is oblivious to the necessity of providing food for the mind in order to produce a valuable society. Since the study of philosophy is so abstract, Russell recognized our problems with understanding it. Russell believed that one reason philosophy does not provide definite answers to its questions is that as soon as definite knowledge concerning any subject becomes possible, the subject ceases to be called philosophy and becomes a separate science. Another reason why philosophy does not provide definite answers to its questions is that many of its questions must remain insoluble to the human intellect unless its powers become of quite a different order from what they are now.

Page 13 of 125

©2017

www.achievetestprep.com