The document explores various branches of philosophy including metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, and aesthetics, highlighting the nature of reality and knowledge. It discusses key philosophical concepts such as Plato's allegory of the cave, dualism, and the roles of rationalism and empiricism in understanding existence. Additionally, it addresses the value of philosophy in fostering open-mindedness and critical thinking against dogmatic beliefs.

1. Philosophy Proper
Metaphysics – Inquiry into reality; ask what is reality? What is
the nature of reality?
Epistemology – Inquiry into knowledge; asks how do we know
what we know?
Ethics – inquiry into morality/right and wrong (virtue and vice).
Logic – inquiry into propositions and language
Aesthetics – inquiry into beauty and the good
Religion – inquiry into religious experience and the nature of
religious symbols.
Political and Social Philosophy – inquiry into society and the
role of the individual in society.
Worldview - way in which a person/community takes up the
world.
· Norms – customs, traditions: Socially accepted ideas, beliefs
of what should and should not be done.
· Value(s) – instrumental; sentimental; intellectual; moral
· Symbols/Symbolic Imagination
· No pure experience qua experience. All experience is
mediated under certain symbols.
Epistemological Starting Point tend to be more “naturalistic”;
empiricist (knowledge grounded in experience).
Metaphysical starting point tend to be more “rationalistic”;
knowledge is based on ideas. More open to traditional
THEISM.
Allegory of the Cave
Plato (459 BCE) – Early Athens/Greece
Platonic Metaphysics
· Emphasis is on Education
· What is education?
· Knowledge of the Good/Forms.

2. · Forms/Universal Ideas already in the Soul
· Soul exists in the world of Forms prior to being born in the
world of Flux.
· Two Worlds Thesis
· Heraclitus - Empiricism
· World of Flux – Life inside the Cave- unenlightened
· Impermanence
· Nothing stays the same
· World around us is real
· Parmenides - rationalism
· World of Forms – Life outside the Cave-Enlightenment
· Ideas are real
· Plato Marries these two perspectives
· Sides more with Parmenides
· Ideas are real; eternal; unchanging.
· World of flux is more illusionary.
· Plato is more rationalist than empiricist
· Dualism – marrying of two opposing views
· Metaphysical
· Two dimensions/realms of reality in which positive value is
assigned to one and negative value is assigned to the other.
· Allegory of Cave is example of this
· Substance
· Object has two substances one opposing the other; positive
value is assigned to one substance and negative value is
assigned to the other.
· Flesh vs Spirit is an example of this
· Knowledge of the Good is “Good”
· Ignorance is Evil
· Is there such a thing as altruism? Or are people really just
egoistic/self-centered and only out for their own good?
· If the latter, Socrates argues there are no good people.
· His position is that there are good people. Good people are
those who have cultivated proper habits of excellence and do
good regardless of external circumstances.
· Leads to Either/Or Thinking

3. · Argument by Analogy
Value of Philosophy
Bertrand Russell
· No definite answers
· What can be known
· About questions rather than answers
· Living with a Sense of possibility
· Faith
· Imagining the way the world can be
· Only based on the way the world is.
· Sense of time (time consciousness – past, present, future).
· Dogmatic assurance – this is the enemy.
· Attitude
· Being RIGHT!!
· Others are Wrong
· Enemy because
· Completely closes conversation
· Impediment to good reasoning
· Laziness in thinking
· Intellectual imagination
· Philosophy opens us up to “the more” of experience.
· Unity with the Universe
· Being a part of the more; a part of something larger.
· Dogmatist in the end is solitary
· No desire to be tolerant an open minded
· Misunderstands the point of Argument analysis
· Has misconceptions of Truth and Rationality
· Ultimately, uses argument stoppers rather than engaging in
discourse.
· Examples of argument stoppers.
· “Who’s to say ….?”
· “That’s subjective.”
· “I would prefer not to think about what you said.”
· “I’m going to believe what I’ve always believed.”