PHILOSOPHY
PHILOSOPHY
PHILOSOPHY
PHILOSOPHIZING
• to think or express oneself in a philosophical manner. It
considers or discusses a (matter) from a philosophical
standpoint.
Phenomenology: on Consciousness
• Founded by Edmund Husserl
• Focuses on careful inspection and description of
phenomena or appearances, defined as any
object of conscious experience, that is, that
which we are conscious of (Johnston 2006).
• Husserl’s Logical Investigations: argued against
psychologism
• Psychologism - the thesis that truth is
dependent on the peculiarities of the human
mind, and that philosophy is reducible to
psychology
• Husserl continues to develop phenomenology –
a method for finding and guaranteeing the truth
• Phenomenon – came from the Greek word,
“pawépevov, phainömenon,” meaning,
“appearance.”
• Immanuel Kant used tis word to refer to the world of
our experience
• According to Husserl, where the trouble starts, when
one supposes that what one experiences is not or
might not be the truth (Solomon & Higgins 2010).
• It does not imply a contrast between the appearance
and some underlying reality, between the
phenomenon and a linoumenon" or "thing-in-itself."
PHENOMENOLOGY
• the scientific study of the essential structures of
consciousness
• entails a method or a series of continuously
revised methods which consciousness does its
work of knowing the world
• Husserl’s phenomenology is intentional
• Every act of consciousness is directed at some
object or another, possibly a material object or
an “ideal” object
• A phenomenologist can distinguish and describe
the nature of the intentional acts of
consciousness and the intentional objects of
consciousness both of which are defined
through the content of consciousness
• The phenomenologists describes a highly varied
sorts of experiences and phenomena
• Example:
– Time consciousness, mathematics, and logic;
perception and experience of the social
world; our experience of our own bodies; and
moral, aesthetic, and religious experiences
(Solomon & Higgins 2010)
• The following are several series of
phenomenological “reductions” formulated by
Husserl, which eliminate certain aspects of our
experience from consideration in order to
achieve phenomenological standpoint.
1. EPOCHE OR SUSPENSION
– In General Introduction to Pure
Phenomenology, the phenomenologist
“brackets” all questions of truth or reality and
simply describes the contents of
consciousness
– The ideas were borrowed from early Skeptics
and Descartes
2. INTUITION
– This eliminates the merely empirical contents
of consciousness and focuses instead on the
meanings of consciousness
– Some intuitions are eidetic, revealing the
necessary truths
SUMMARY
• Phenomenologists are interested on the contents of
consciousness
• The first one is our ordinary everyday viewpoint and the
ordinary stance of the natural sciences, describing things
and states of affairs
• The second is the special viewpoint achieved by focusing
not on things but our consciousness of things
• (Solomon and Higgins 2010)
B. Existentialism: On Freedom
EXISTENTIALISM
• Not primarily a philosophical method
• More of an outlook or attitude supported by diverse doctrines centered on certain themes:
– The human condition or the relation of the individual to the world;
– The human response to that condition;
– Being, especially the difference between the being of person existence) and the being of
other kinds of things;
– Human freedom;
– The significance and unavoidability) of choice and decision in the absence of certainty and;
– The concreteness and subjectivity of life as lived, against abstractions and false
objectifications
• Satre emphasizes the importance of free individual choice regardless
of power of other people to influence and coerce our desires, beliefs,
and decisions
• He argued that consciousness is always free to chose and free to
negate
• He tells us that one is never free of one’s situation but one is always
free to negate that situation and to try to change I
• To be human, to be conscious, is to be free to choose, and responsible
for one’s life
• (Solomon and Higgins 2010)
• Socrates concerned himself with the authenticity of the self – the
genuineness of thoughts and actions, the good of the soul, and
sought virtue, being true to oneself
• St. Augustine was concerned with the spiritual nature of the “true”
self as opposed to inauthentic demands of desire and the body
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau was adamant about the essential goodness
of the “natural” self in contrast to the “corruption” imposed by
society.
• (Baird & Kaufmann, 1997)
• Postmodernists believe that humanity should come at truth
beyond the rational to the non-rational elements of human
nature, including spiritual
• They believe that humanity should realize the limits of
reason and objectivism in order to arrive at truth
• They adhere to relational and holistic approach beyond
exalting individual analysis of truth
• They value our existence in the world and in relation to it
MODERNITY
• Came from the Latin word, “modo”, meaning, “just now.”
• Literally means, “after just now” (Appignanesi and
Garratt, 1995)
• Associated with other posts: post colonialism, post
structuralism
MODERN POSTMODERN
|_________________|___________________|
| | |
12 years old 14 years old 16 years old
Principle of Sartre’s Existentialism
• The person, first, exists, encounters himself and
surges up in the world then defines himself
afterward. The person is nothing else but that
what he makes of himself.
Draw a timeline. This exercise aims to examine the wackiest and worst times;
in search of meaning behind your life. Consider your childhood, formal education
experiences, and other.
What did you learn about the experience? What did you learn about the experience?
1. 1.
2. 2.
3. 3.
• the middle ground between objectivity and total
subjectivity
• encompasses multiple subjects and multiple
viewpoints, that are in themselves subjective,
but the combination of multiple viewpoints that
point to the same “truth” allows subjectivity to
not be completely subjective
Realize that Intersubjectivity
Requires Accepting Differences
and Not to Imposed on Others
• Martin Buber and Karol Wojtyla believed in the notion of
concrete experience/existence of the human person and also
think that one must not lose the sight of one's self in
concrete experience
• For Wojtyla, action reveals the nature of the human agent
• Participation explains the essence of the human person,
enabling to fulfill one’s self
• The human person is oriented toward relation and sharing in
the communal life for the common good.
• St. Augustine of Hippo said, "No human being
should become an end to him/herself. We are
responsible to our neighbors as we are to our
own actions."
• The human persons as subjects have direct and
mutual sharing of selves
• The human person is not just being-in-the-world
but being-with-others, or being-in-relation
Appreciate the Talents of Persons
with Disabilities (PWDs) and those
from the Underprivileged Sectors
of Society and Their Contributions
A. On PWD’s
• Negative attitudes of the family and community
toward PWDs may add to their poor academic and
vocational outcomes
• decide to restructure certain aspects of their lifestyle
in order to accommodate the communicative as well
as the educational needs of their child with disability
• Community sensitivity, through positive and
supportive attitudes toward PWDs, is also an
important component (Mapp 2004).
B. On Underprivileged Sectors of the Society