Philosophy, its areas of study and functions

1.

Kazakh-American University
Hand-Out No.1
3-rd semester
Philosophy
Credits 2
Department of Humanities
Associate professor Begaliev N.
The outlines: Topic No.1. Introduction.
1. Subject matter of Philosophy.
2. Philosophy, its areas of study and functions.
3. Philosophy in the Cultural and Historical context.

2.

As for the origin of the word “Philosophy” it is
the composition of the two Greek words Philo
(wisdom) and Sophia (Love). Being linked into one
piece it means “Love of Wisdom”.
The birthplaces of Philosophy are Ancient Greece,
India, China and Near East. It is believed to have come
into being some two and a half thousand years ago.
The first to put the word philosophy into the turn-over
was Pythagoras.
What were the concepts of the world and human self
consciousness?

3.

Mythology is the stage of the human evolution when he is an integral
and dependent part of the nature. There is no other way but
describing the natural phenomena and perceiving the way they come
out. The objective and subjective visions coincide absolutely – the
tribal and personal identity (syncretism).
Religion is the next and somewhat advanced stage of evolution. It is
based on the gift of imagination and fantasy with the focus on the
spiritual aspects of the divine being with the God as the creator of the
Reality. The universal religions are Christianity, Buddhism and Islam
with the worldwide impact.
Philosophy comes out at the point when a human gets to the point of
self-reflection and self-standing determination. A human has to deal
with the questions like – What am I here for?, What should I do to
change my life and make it better? How can I respond the challenges
outcoming from the nature and the surrounding world?

4.

So, the subject matter of Philosophy are the extremely
general issues of being, the world as the whole entity, the
role of the human in it as well as the universal regulations
of being and thinking.
Through the history of this omnibus phenomenon we can
trace different approaches and treatment of Philosophy.
G.Hegel stated that Philosophy is a met science (super
science). There were some other views of Philosophy
confined as a genre of Arts. All the above mentioned
opinions are correct to a certain extent as it is extensive
with great caliber of address to all the issues inclusive of
the variety of scientific and esthetical reflection of the
entire world which is in permanent motion.

5.

What is the fundamental issue of Philosophy? Apart from all
the other sciences it has the key issue which is the “relation of
the consciousness to matter, spirit to nature, psychic
phenomena to the physical ones”. Respective to the solution
of these issues with regard to the priority all the philosophers
are streamed into the two divisions. Those who believe that
nature (matter) comes first are materialists. On the contrary
those who believe that spirit existed long before the physical
objects are idealists.
The idealists are subdivided into the two groups: Objective
idealists and subjective ones. The objective idealists believe
that God is the only creator of the entire world and the life is
driven by its will. The subjective idealists suppose that the
extreme edges of the world are real exclusively to the extent
achievable by the organs of the perception.

6.

There is also a group of philosophers who accept the
combined source of origin and believe in the combination of
matter and spirit - dualism.
There is the other part of this fundamental issue which is to
what extent can the world be cognizable.
What are the functions of Philosophy? They are:
General outlook
Cognitive
Axiological
Methodological
Ethical

7.

Philosophy is the historically dynamic system of the
theoretical knowledge of some key and fundamental
ideas with the theoretical vehicle of explaining of the
human attitude to the world in its maximum capacity
and the guideline to the reasonable social actions.
Issues to be consolidated:
What are the ways of the spiritual cognition known to
you.
How different is the philosophic look into the knowledge
from the mythological and religious ones.
How different are the Philosophic views with regard to
the issue of the acquisition of the world.
What is the status of Philosophy in the structure of
knowledge?