LECTURER Three:March 12TH,
2019
LECTURE PLAN
Review of
Lecture 1 (5 Minutes)
i.
Definition of Philosophy
ii.
General and Technical Philosophy
Review of Lecture 2 (10minutes)
i.
History of Western Philosophy
ii.
Methods of Philosophy,
iii.
Epistemology and Axiology
Lecture Three
i.
Metaphysics- 10
minutes
ii.
Logic- 30minutes
iii.
The concept of
Education 20 Minutes
iv.
The concept of
Teaching 20 minutes
v.
African
Philosophy 30 Minutes
Review and Summary of Lecture Three
i.
Metaphysics- 5minutes
ii.
Logic- 5minutes
iii.
The concept of
Education 5Minutes
iv.
The concept of
Teaching 5minutes
v.
African
Philosophy 5 Minutes
Content of Philosophy Contn'd
iii. Metaphysics
What is Metaphysics?
1. This
term refers to what goes beyond the physics/nature.. It deals with questions,
things or concerns that lie after or beyond the physical world of sense
experience.
Subdivisions of Metaphysics
Metaphysics is
traditionally divided into four areas:
1.
Cosmology: the study of the universe
(cosmos). It has to do with the origin and nature meaning of the universe. This
is done rationally.
2.
Theodicy: rational investigation of the
supernatural. It belongs to the field of theology where religious concepts and
beliefs are assessed.
3.
Rational or philosophical psychology:
philosophy of the mind. It investigates into the intricate processes of
perceiving, imagining, remembering, feeling, understanding, willing. It
attempts to solve the mind/body problem; their composition, nature and
relationship e.g. can mind survive destruction of the body?
4.
Ontology[1]:
the philosophical study of ‘being’. What is the meaning of existence? What
comprises matter? What is man/woman? What is the essence of being? The meaning
of Being: Anything Whatsoever that is or exists. Modes of Being :
Physical/Material being, Spiritual being
First Principles of Metaphysics
1.
Principle of Non Contradiction: A thing X cannot
at the time be and not be
2.
Principle of Identity: Every being is determined in itself, is one with itself,
and is consistent in itself
3.
Principle of Intelligibility: Everything that
is, inso far as it is , is intelligible
4.
Principle of Causality: Whatever comes to be has
a cause
5.
Principle of Finality: Every agents acts //All
beings when acting tend to some definite effect
6.
Principle of the Excluded middle: There cannot
be an intermediate between contradictions
7.
Principle of Sufficient Reason: Everything that
exists has sufficient reason for its existence
Principles
of Being: Causality and
Participation: causality is that from which something else proceeds with
dependency in being. participation; structural dependence of many beings on the
one being. it means to receive a part of
what belongs to another fully and so merely sharing in it.
Types of
causes
1. Efficient cause: That
by which any change is brought about in order of execution in order of
execution.
2. Material cause; That
out which a new being arises-matter in regard to form
3.
Formal
cause: The act by which a material substratum is determined towards a new being
4.
Final
cause: That because of which some is or becomes
Essence and Existence: Existence is the act whereby a thing is present in nature or in mind. Essence is mode or manner according to which really might be fashioned
Potency and
Act: Potency is the aptitude in a being to receive some or perform an act . Act is the fully present realization of Potency.
Substance and Accident
iv. Logic
It refers to the
study of correct reasoning. It deals with the structure and principles of sound
arguments. On our daily basis, individuals are engaged in various forms of
arguments, where premises/statements are made and conclusions drawn. In most
cases, wrong conclusions are arrived at involving wrong premises and undue
generalizations. Logic is essential because it stipulates how arguments should
be constructed and how fallacies (erroneous beliefs or myths) can be detected
and avoided. Within logic, two forms of reasoning can be distinguished:
deductive and inductive.
'
Preliminary
a.
Definitions
i.
Mental Operations
1. Apprehension:
Deals with Conception (simple mental
grasp of an object-without further
operation),
2. Judgment
: Mental sentence or proposition(Affirm or deny)
3. Reasoning:
Argument( Drawing Inferences, dealing with premises and conclusion)
ii.
Reasoning : Mind's movement from one or more propositions which act as evidence
for a final proposition which calls for
proof.
iii. Propositions: A proposition is any
statement with truth value i.e. it can be proved to be true or false. e.g.
Stones are cats. Propositions are never assessed in terms of validity. Its
either True orFalse.
iv. Arguments: Is a set of Premises(evidential
propositions) and Conclusions(Claiming
propositions).
v. Quarrelling: Not same as arguing-
some of the statements in an quarrel are not propositions. Quarrelling is more
of a psychological activity than it is a
Philosophical activity.
vi. Some symbols used in logic:
1. > If......then...(symbol for Biconditionality)
2. v Either.....or....(Symbol of disjunction)
3. ^ Both.....and.....(Symbol of Conjunctionality)
4.
≡ ....If and only if...(Symbol of
Biconditionality)
5. ( ){ }[ ] Brackets are used to separate collective Propositions
vi. Dimensions
of Mordern logic
In
modern philosophy, logic is expressed in two main dimensions:
Symbolic
logic involving mathematical symbols – application of symbols to explain
phenomena e. g a + b = 4: b= 4 – a
1.
Analytic
logic – prevalently used by analytic philosophers who emphasize the logical
analysis of language to arrive at clear meanings of terms/concepts.
2.
Students
studying science, arts or education should be familiar with the basic rules of
logic so as to enable one reason correctly and use language meaningfully.
b. Forms of Reasoning/ Types of arguments
i. Reductive Reasoning( Reductio ad
absurdum)
Reducing
a statement to its opposite or absurdity
P>-P then -P
If it is not raining then assume it's not
raining
ii. Abductive Reasoning
Reasoning from
the best possible explanation
ABD1
Given evidence E
and candidate explanations H1,…, Hn of E,
infer the truth of that Hi which best explains E.
ABD2
Given evidence E
and candidate explanations H1,…, Hn of E,
infer the truth of that Hi which explains E
best, provided Hi is satisfactory/good enough qua
explanation.
ABD3
Given evidence E
and candidate explanations H1,…, Hn of E,
if Hi explains E better than any of the other
hypotheses, infer that Hi is closer to the truth than any of
the other hypotheses.
iii. Dialectical Reasoning:
Synthesis from a Thesis and Anti thesis. No contradictions
iv. Deductive Reasoning
This involves
reasoning from general to particular instances. In this case, a conclusion is
inferred or deduced from general premises/statements/propositions.
Properties
of a Deductive argument
1.
Validity-(
A deductive argument is valid if the conclusion necessarily logically affirms
the premises. It is invalid if and only if it has all true premises and a False
conclusion)
2.
Soundness:(A
sound Deductive argument is one which
has all actually/factually true premises and
true conclusion)
Examples
1. All
PGDE students are untrained teachers
John is a PGDE student
John is an untrained teacher
2. All
human beings are liable to make mistakes
Mike is a human being
Mike makes mistakes
3. All
human beings have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God
Mary is a human being
Mary has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God
4. All
numbers ending with 5 and 0 are
divisible by 5
1,964.5
Ends with 5
conclusion?...........
Further examples
Private schools
perform well in national exams
All Kikuyus are
thieves
All
Luos are proud
All
university students are immoral
Teachers
are hard working
All
Philosophers are idiots
All
cats are dogs
The above
reasoning has been expressed in syllogism form: the first two statements
need to be stated before the third can follow logically. This type of reasoning
is prevalent in philosophy, religion and mathematics.
How
to determine validity of a deductive
argument.....(To be continued)
v. Inductive reasoning(Continue Editing)
It involves general laws/conclusions being
inferred from particular instances. It is the reverse of deductive reasoning.
In this type of reasoning, various instances of a given specimen are observed
over a period of time. The observation leads to general conclusions/laws being
established with some level
of probability. This type of reasoning is applicable with empirical
sciences.
Example 1: P1. Most Kenyans are corrupt
P2. Otieno is a Kenyan
..............................................................................
Therefore
probably Otieno is corrupt
Example 2: P1. There
are 100 mangoes in the basket
P2. 70 of the mangoes
picked are rotten
...............................................................................
Probably all the
100 mangoes are rotten
Properties of Inductive reasoning
1. Strength:
An inductive argument is said to be strong when it is when it is such that when the premises are assumed or granted to
be true the its conclusion is most likely to be true.
2. Cogency:
An argument is Cogent when it is both strong and has actually true premises
c. Fallacies
