Introduction to Philisophy and Ethics (NWIFFIL100)
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Lecture notes on Introduction to Philosophy and Ethics
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Course
Introduction to Philisophy and Ethics (NWIFFIL100)
Institution
Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen (RU)
This 13 page document includes lecture notes of all lectures given in the course Introduction to Philosophy and Ethics (Radboud University KWI-FFIL100, 3 EC)
The lecture notes can be used as tools to make the essays requires in the course.
Introduction to Philisophy and Ethics (NWIFFIL100)
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Philosophy & Ethics
Three group assignments no exam. The assignments will consist in writing a short essay (ca. 500
words) in which the course content has to be applied to a concrete example from your own field of
study. Literature on BS for knowledge for the assignments. Lectures, Q&As and discussions.
Inhoudsopgave
Lecture 1................................................................................................................................................1
What is philosophy............................................................................................................................1
Difference between philosophy and science.....................................................................................1
History of Greek philosophy..............................................................................................................2
Lecture 2 Philosophy of science.............................................................................................................2
Lecture 3 Philosophy of biology.............................................................................................................5
Lecture 4 Philosophy of neuroscience...................................................................................................8
Lecture 5 Ethics......................................................................................................................................9
Lecture 6 Ethics part 2.........................................................................................................................11
Lecture 7: Science and values..............................................................................................................12
Lecture 1
What is philosophy
Doubt, the will to know, wonder. A love, desire or longing for wisdom/true knowledge not illusory
knowledge or opinions. Socratic (= self-aware) ignorance.
Philo = to love, fia = wisdom. From Greece, turkey and south of Italy.
What is truth/time/space/matter/life/freedom (essence)
Questioning the presuppositions of our thinking/reasoning. Our senses, the knowledge about
cosmos (= everything) and is the human free of will.
What can I know (science), what must/may I do (ethics), what may I hope (religion) what is man
(anthropology)?
Difference between philosophy and science
Science: examines one specific domain of object. Object is already understood and given in a certain
way. Based on theoretical presuppositions. Hypothetical. Empirical-theoretical.
Philosophy: examines being in it totality and as such. Object is questioned in its way of being.
Examination of these theoretical presuppositions. Problematizing. Reflexive-theoretical.
Onto-logy = about being and reality what is true/real/existence?
Epistemo-logy = about knowledge and the different methods of gaining knowledge.
Ethics = good vs bad
Aesthetics = beauty in art and nature
, History of Greek philosophy
Mythological understanding to Logos (= rationality/reasoning/language) understanding that’s how
philosophy originated.
First philosopher = Thales of Milete. In the beginning is water (origin of everything). Other
philosophers say everything is a number (Pythagoras) or infinite is no element.
Parmenides: there is only being no becoming. Change is impossible because something cannot
originate from nothing. The changing world is an illusion
Heraclitus: there is only becoming, everything flows. There is only movement. War is the father of all
things. Nature loves to hide.
Physis = nature
Empedocles introduced the 4 elements. Everything around is composed of those.
Democritus: concept of the atom (atomos= you cannot cut again).
Plato (founder of the academy, place to think of the truth)
Aristotle (pupil of Plato, invented most sciences (psychology, politics, ethics, aesthetics, biology,
invented books with paragraphs, everything can be categorized (10 categories) based on its form
and matter) etc.). There are only 4 causes: material cause (wood), formal cause (design), efficient
cause (carpentry by humans) and final cause (dining). Soul (psyche) 1. Vegetative soul = metabolism
(plants). 2. Sensitive and animate soul (animals). 3. Intellectual/rational soul (humans).
Physis: nature (that which has its principle of movement and rest within itself)
Techne: technics (that which has its principle of movement and rest in something else: the human)
Modalities of being:
- En-ergeia (energy): being at/in (en) work (ergon). Reality of a thing. Today: energy.
- Dynamis: possibility, potentially
- Ananke: necessity
Hyle: matter
Morphe: form
Arche: ground, principle (archeology = beginning/first thing of which something comes)
Aitia: that which is responsible for something (ethiology in psychiatry)
Ousia: essence (what something most fundamentally is)
Lecture 2 Philosophy of science
Science is
Broad conception: a way in which human beings acquire knowledge of the world around them.
Narrow conception: a research practice that emerged in early-modern Europe.
Epistemology: what is the fundamental source of knowledge, how can we acquire it and achieve
certainty.
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