Welcome to Philosophy

What is Philosophy? 1. Love and pursuit of wisdom by intellectual means and moral self- discipline. 2. Investigation of the nature, causes, or principles of reality, knowledge, or values, based on logical reasoning rather than empirical methods. 3. A system of thought based on or involving such inquiry: the philosophy of Hume. 4. The critical analysis of fundamental assumptions or beliefs. 5. The disciplines presented in university curriculums of science and the liberal arts, except medicine, law, and theology. 6. The discipline comprising logic, ethics, aesthetics, metaphysics, and epistemology. 7. A set of ideas or beliefs relating to a particular field or activity; an underlying theory: an original philosophy of advertising. 8. A system of values by which one lives: has an unusual philosophy of life.

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Blah.

Who is a philosopher?  Thales  Lived in ancient Greece  Believed all things were made out of water

Who is a philosopher?  Pythagoras  Also live in ancient Greece (what was up with that place?)  Came up with some really cool math  Believed that you should not eat beans because they have souls

Who is a philosopher?  Hume  Lived in England  During his life time, was more famous for being a historian  Believed that one can not actually count on the sun rising tomorrow.

Things I now know about philosophers:  None of them look happy  They are all white  They believe some pretty ridiculous things

Who is a philosopher? Who in here has ever:  Asked yourself if God exists?  Wondered if the American government really helps people or not?  Questioned if love is a real thing?  Thought to yourself “Why am I here, anyway?”

Who is a philosopher? YOU

What do philosophers do all day?

Seriously Way back when, there really was not much to do all day… No Facebook, no TV, no Play Station… So what types of things did they think about?

Metaphysics The study of the nature of reality  What is real?  What is permanence and change?  What are things made of?  Do we have free will?

Epistemology The study of knowledge  How do we gain knowledge?  What can we know?  What is knowledge?  Where is knowledge?

Ethics The study of moral judgments  What is morally good?  How do you define right and wrong action?  What is virtue?

Political Philosophy The study of social institutions  What is an ideal society?  What is justice?  What is the justification for government? You know some of this, right? Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau – all philosophers.

What else do philosophers think about? Other cool things they ponder…  Is there a God?  If there is a god, why do bad things still happen?  What is beauty?  Can I still exist even after my body dies?

So….what? Let’s try some philosophical thinking and see what it looks like.

Poor, poor Sam Sam is a healthy man without family or loved ones. Would it be ok to painlessly kill him if his organs would save five people, one of whom needs a heart, another a kidney, and so on? If not, why not? (Discuss for 2 minutes with your partner. Be prepared to report out….)

Ok…..then? Consider another case: you and six others are kidnapped, and the kidnapper tells you that if you shoot dead one of the other hostages, he will set the remaining five free, whereas if you do not, he will shoot all six. Either way, he will release you. Do you do it? Is this different from poor Sam? (Discuss)

You are in the cab of a runaway Green Line train and see five people tied to the track ahead. You have the option of sending the train on to the track forking off to the left, on which only one person is tied. What do you do?

So in the kidnapping scenario and the train scenario, we determined it was justified to kill one in order to save five people…. But then why not kill Sam?

This is the Mayflower….or is it?

The Mayflower  Many years ago, they began to renovate it, replacing rotted out boards and broken planks….  Replaced the old boards with new boards  Just yesterday they replaced the final board – the entire Mayflower is now made of replacement boards, with no originals remaining.  Is this still the Mayflower? Why or why not? (Discuss….)

Ok, so…  My dad is a builder in Middleboro  As they threw out the old boards, he collected them and pieced them back together in their original form  Now there are two ships…which one is the real Mayflower – the one in Boston or the one in Middleboro?

 Can one ship exist in two places?  Does the ship in Middleboro cause the ship in Boston not to exist?  At what point in the reconstruction does the Mayflower cease to exist?  What about our bodies? Do we exist?  My head hurts.

You have officially philosophized  Ethics – right and wrong (poor Sam)  Metaphysics – what is real? What exists? (the Mayflower)