Introduction to Philosophy

2. The Six Blind Men and the Elephant

3. 1. In the context of the elephant story, what do you
think is a holistic perspective?
2. What is a partial point of view?

5. ✓ Holistic thinking refers to a perspective that considers large-scale patterns in
systems. A holistic perspective requires an individual to have an open mindset and
ability to get the general sense or impression regarding a situation.
✓ Partial thinking focuses on specific aspects of a situation. The partial view is an
important component of analytical thinking, as an individual focuses on certain
areas or aspects of a problem in order to understand it.

7. The word philosophy comes from two Greek words: philos (love) and
sophia (wisdom). The ancient Greeks used this term to refer to “love of
wisdom”.
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental questions about
existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language.
Philosophy is the study of humans and the world by thinking and asking
questions.

8. 1. Socrates – He emphasized the idea that the more a person knows, the greater his or her ability
to reason and make choices that will bring true happiness.
“The unexamined life is not worth living”
“Nothing will change unless you make the change yourself”
“There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance”
2. Plato - his teacher is Socrates
“I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.”
“You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation”
“The beginning is the most important part of the work.”

9. 3. Aristotle – student of Plato
- - Aristotle’s intellectual knowledge spanned every known field of science and arts, prompting him to
idealize the Aristotelian syllogistic, a belief that logical argument applies deductive reasoning to arrive at a
conclusion based on two or more propositions assumed to be true.
“Happiness is the highest good”
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit”
4. Lao-Tzu
-developed a theory that is strongly connected to Taoism
"Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they
become habits.”
“If you are depressed you are living in the past.”
“New begginings are often disguised as painful endings.”

10. 5. Confucius - He also established Confucianism, which is a school of belief revolving around personal ethics and
morality
-His social philosophy was based on the principle of ren—loving others—and he believed this could be
achieved using the Golden Rule: “What you do not wish for yourself, do not do to others.”
6. Voltaire - French Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher, who attacked the Catholic Church and
advocated freedom of religion, freedom of expression, and separation of church and state.
“Common sense is not so common.”
“If you want to know who controls you, look at who you are not allowed to criticize‘’
“Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do.”
“Don’t think money does everything, or you’re going to end up doing everything for money”
“The pursuit of what is true and the practice of what are the two most important objects of philosophy”
7. Heraclitus The Greek philosopher Heraclitus is credited with the idea that the only constant in life is change.
“One cannot step twice in the same river”

11. “He, who has a why
to live for, can bear
with almost any
how.”
- Viktor Frankl