PHI2010 Week 1 Notes Read Talk With Me What Is Philosophy The Critical Examination of Life Whether there s good reason to have these beliefs What is Reasonable A reasonable belief has reason A reasonable belief is a belief where a good reason can be given Reasonable belief are reasonably justifiable A belief is logically justifiable when it doesn t contradict itself NO CONTRADICTIONS IN PAPERS What is the source of Beliefs Faith Religion Facts Evidence Teachers School Childhood Parents Society Observations of our beliefs aware Are we Gender career This IAT often reveals a relative link between family and females and Age Young Old IAT This IAT requires the ability to distinguish old from young between career and males faces This test often indicates that Americans have automatic preference for young over old Philosophical Beliefs A General fundamental belief that underlies many other beliefs Free Will Liberties are not absolute Governments have the right to deprive citizens of their liberties under certain conditions To ask whether a philosophical belief is true it to ask a philosophical question Philosophical Thinking Thinking about the truth of a philosophical belief Occurs when someone has reached one or more general or fundamental beliefs by the way of questioning the reasonableness of ordinary beliefs Metaphilosophy Philosophy or philosophy Other intellectual disciplines or human practices are uncontroversial in their value to its Value of Philosophy Natural question to ask practitioners and society Sciences Biology Chemistry Physics Medicine Engineering Philosophy Has No Value Skeptics about value of philosophy Some Scientists Steven Hawking Most of us don t worry about these questions most of the time But almost all of us must sometimes wonder Why are we here Where do we come from Traditionally these are questions for philosophy but philosophy is dead Philosophers have not kept up with modern developments in science Particularly physics Maybe they might have the wrong concept of what is good about philosophy and Are the skeptics right what is important in life Philosophy HAS Value Beardsley Beardsley 1965 1 2 3 Increase clearness in your beliefs Increase assurance that your beliefs are reasonable Increase consistency in your beliefs Bertrand Russell 1872 1970 1 Philosophy is a good of the mind good for the one studying it 2 Asks questions that don t admit of definite answers 3 Valuable to contemplate big questions Read What is Knowledge A J Ayer