2. Philosophy
• Philosophy is a human engagement to understand man’s existence in the
world, which may lead to the open-ended human craving to understand the
whole or part of the existence of the object of inquiry.
• A philosophical perspective, in particular, begins in response to questions
such as “who am I?” and “from where has the world come to be?” “does god
exist?” “how do I know?” “is there a difference between good and bad?”
and the like?
• A philosophical perspective is a thinker’s point of view about a general
human concern related to exploring knowledge, truth, reality, god, soul,
values, nature, etc.
• A philosophical perspective may be applied to enhance our understanding of
real-life issues such as World Poverty, Euthanasia and Abortion that we may
confront during the course of our living in the world.
• Accordingly, the questions that we may begin with within our philosophical
inquiries are raised explicitly in the context of the issue itself; for example,
why should I give my hard-earned money to the poor?
3. A Chronological Survey of
General Philosophical Perspectives
• From Thales to Jean-Paul Sartre – from the
problem of substance to the problem of
human existence…
5. Some Philosophical Points
• Reflect as a human for an observer’s expanded view
• Rely on your sensory experience
• Rely on your reason
• There may be a substance or substances of nature
• Nature is subject to constant change
• There are innate ideas
• Human beings may discover ideas
• Ideas exist on their own
• A human being uses his reason to capture ideas
• There are only perceptions that humans are capable of acquiring and possessing.
• Practice unconditional openness in one’s viewpoint
• To be ethical, rationally assess your act to maximize overall happiness
• To be ethical, be rational to universalize and treat human beings as ends
• A human being may rationally infer a new claim from the given claim(s)
• A human being has an influential unconscious mind
• A human being is free to choose
6. Applied Philosophy - Themes
• Moral Dilemmas
• Social Justice and Equality
• Social and Value Dimensions of Technology
8. Social Justice and Equality
• Society and Freedom of Expression
• Crime and Punishment
• Politics and the Problem of Dirty
Hands
• War and Peace
• Case Studies
9. Social and Value Dimensions of Technology
• Society and Internet Crimes
• Impact of Information Technology
on the Quality of Life
• Democratic Values and the Internet
• Case Studies
11. Moral Dilemma
• “Moral” refers to good or bad, right or wrong in human character
or conduct.
• Moral concerns affect other human beings, but some thinkers like
Aristotle would consider this approach too narrow and include the
well-being of the self and the other.
• In ordinary non-technical usage, a dilemma is a situation in which
a person must make a difficult choice between two alternatives.
• It may be said in a logical form that a moral dilemma is a situation
in which
– One moral requirement A conflicts with another moral requirement B;
– Neither takes precedence over the other;
– It is possible to comply with either A or B;
– It is impossible to comply with both A and B.
12. Moral Dilemmas
• We may encounter various moral dilemmas in different situations, such as
those relating to…
– World Poverty
– Euthanasia
– Abortion
• To begin with, these dilemmas may occur to us in the form of questions such
as:
– Why should I give my hard-earned money to the poor?
– What are the causes of poverty?
– Do I accept that doctors may kill people in the name of euthanasia?
– What are the arguments for and against euthanasia?
– Does anyone have the right to abort unwanted pregnancy?
– How far should a husband, a society or a state intervene in a woman’s
decision-making regarding whether to abort?
• These questions also get responded to in the form of philosophical
discussions. We shall take up such philosophical discussions one after the
other in the next part of this course.
