What is philosophy?

1. What is philosophy? An exploration of ideas and their meaning.

2. An Introduction to PhilosophyThe purpose of these six sessions is to help you answer some of these basic questions: • What is philosophy? • Who are the great philosophers? • What are some of the main questions philosophers try to answer? • What are the main philosophical ideas that have influenced our society?

3. What is philosophy? • Philosophy – the word itself – literally means ‘love of wisdom’ (philo = love, sophia = wisdom). • The practice of philosophy is a way of thinking about the world, the universe and society. • Philosophers are the people who ask – and attempt to answer – the big questions of meaning about the world, the universe and society. • The ideas of philosophers inform the way we govern ourselves, make choices and live our lives.

4. Who are the great philosophers? • From ancient Greece to modern day, societies have all had philosophers to ask the big questions to help us find meaning. • We will look at a small handful of the some influential philosophers throughout history.

5. Here are just some of the great philosophers whose ideas we will explore. Aristotle Immanuel Kant Plato Karl Marx John Locke John Stuart Mill Adam Smith Noam Chomsky

6. What are some of the questions philosophers have asked? • What is the good life? • What is the common good? • What is beauty? • What is truth? • What has value? • What is knowledge? • Who can rule? • Can all ideas be expressed in language? • What makes economies work? Here are just a few…

7. We will also look at important ways that philosophical thinking influences our lives. • Each week we will take up a question, discuss it and consider real life scenarios in which to apply philosophical thinking. • I hope you will enjoy ‘the ride.’

8. glory happiness success power What is the good life? wealth pleasure fame

9. What happens when concepts of the good life conflict? Now we turn to the concept of… the COMMON good. How do we decide to live in a community of conflicting ideas of the good life?

10. Hi, my name is Plato, and I wrote a book called The Republic (4th C, BC); it gave me most of my street cred. In it I attempted to define ‘justice’ and how a just society should operate. It is structured as a series of dialogues between Socrates and others. (I am often depicted staring off to the right, and down a little. I don’t know why.) Conceptions of The Good Life

11. So what did Plato say about the good life? In, The Republic, Plato says, The good life is attained through perfect love and lack of desire. The good life is equated with happiness. Happiness is definable in three parts: Living in harmony with oneself (i.e. justice) Living in truth with oneself (i.e. integrity) Satisfaction associated with self-fulfillment The good life – happiness - is not just about virtue, but virtues in action.

12. I am Aristotle. Plato was my teacher at the Academy in Athens; I was his star pupil. I earned many brownies for my excellent work. I published – among many titles – two books: Politics, and Nicomachean Ethics. The ‘Ethics’ has come to be one of the most influential works of philosophy ever written. It influenced European law and theology. I wrote it. Just to remind you. I did that.

13. So what did Aristotle say about the good life? In Politics, he said: The good life, or happiness, is the proper end of the city-state The good life is a life consisting of noble actions The good life is different for each individual; it comes from living life according to one’s virtue. The good life is achieved through a state which causes citizens to act on their virtues. In Nicomachean Ethics, he said: There are three reasons for living: Enjoying refined pleasures Earning a good name for yourself in your community Appreciating and understanding the universe in which we find ourselves.

14. So, again, what do we do when concepts of the good life conflict? Well, we need to talk about moral order.

15. What is moral order? • A group's moral order is related to • its practices, • its patterns of thinking, and • its patterns of language. • As group members are socialized, they learn to center their judgments on values and procedures fundamental to their own common culture. • (Translation: As we are ‘socialized’ into a group, we learn to get along and agree on certain commonly held beliefs and practices.) • A group’s moral order (what it agrees is, say, right and wrong) provides the set of meanings (e.g. laws) through which they understand their experience and make judgments about what is valuable and important. • These patterns of meaning shape the way that individuals understand facts and issues and help them to develop a sense of identity.

16. What do we do when ways of life –understandings of the good life, or happiness – conflict? • When two groups have radically different ways of making sense of human life – that is, they have a different understanding of ‘moral order’ or a different definition of ‘the good life’– it is likely that actions regarded by one side as good and prudent will be perceived by the other as evil or foolish.

17. Finding this a little confusing?

18. Ok, let’s escape some of this philosophical mumbo-jumbo and ask some practical questions. • What are values that are important to Canadians? • List at least three values you think are important to Canadians. • What are groups within Canada whose values seem to conflict? • Provide an example of two distinct groups in Canadian society whose values conflict. • Describe some aspects of the conflict.

19. Remember what Aristotle said? • The good life is achieved through a state which causes citizens to act on their virtues. • How has Canada ‘caused’ its citizens to act on their virtues, so that when they conflict, there is still national unity?