Value of Philosophy Flashcards
This is a necessary question to consider since there are people concerned in ___________ who are doubting whether philosophy is just a useless study delving on matters in which knowledge seems ________.
practical affairs, impossible
The ____________, as this is often used, is one who recognizes only material needs, who realizes that men must have food for the body, but is oblivious of the necessity of providing food for the mind.
practical man
It is exclusively among the ____________ that the value of philosophy is to be found, and only those who are not _________ to these goods can be __________ that the study of philosophy is not a waste of time.
goods of the mind, indifferent, persuaded
It is true that this is partly accounted for by the fact that, as soon as ____________ concerning any subject becomes possible, this subject _________ to be called philosophy, and becomes a separate science.
definite knowledge, ceases
However slight may be the hope of discovering an answer, it is part of the business of philosophy:
- ___________________________
- ___________________________
- ___________________________
- To continue the consideration of such questions.
- To examine all the approaches to them
- To keep alive that speculative interest in the universe (Note: this is killed by confining ourselves to definitely ascertainable knowledge)
Hence, once more, the value of philosophy must not depend upon any supposed body of definitely ____________ knowledge.
ascertainable
The man who has no ____________ goes through life imprisoned in the __________ derived from common sense, from ____________ of his age or his nation
tincture of philosophy, prejudices, habitual beliefs
To such a man, the world becomes _________, ________, and __________
definite, finite, obvious
These result in the thinking that ______________ rouse no questions and ________________ are contemptuously rejected.
common objects, unfamiliar possibilities
Philosophy, though unable to tell us with certainty what is the _____________ to the doubts which it raises, is able to suggest many possibilities which ______________________ and free them from the ________________.
true answers, enlarge our thoughts, tyranny of custom
It removes the _________________ of those who have never travelled into the region of ______________, and it keeps alive our _____________________ by showing familiar things in an ___________________.
arrogant dogmatism, liberating doubt, sense of wonder, unfamiliar aspect
There is freedom from ___________ and ___________ aims resulting from this contemplation.
narrow, personal
In such a life there is something ______________ and ________________, in comparison with which the philosophic life is ______ and ______.
feverish, confined, calm, free
Unless we can so enlarge our interests as to include the ______________________, we remain like a _________ in a __________________, knowing that the enemy __________ escape and that ultimate surrender is _________.
whole outer world, garrison, beleaguered forest, prevents, inevitable
In such a life there is _____________, but a constant strife between the ___________ of desire and the _________________ of will. In one way or another, if our life is to be _____________________, we must escape this _______ and this ________.
no peace, insistence, powerlessness, great and free, prison, strife
Philosophic contemplation does not,
in its widest survey, _________ the universe into two hostile camps – friends and foes,
helpful and hostile, good and bad – it views the whole ____________.
divide, impartially
All acquisition of knowledge is an ______________ of the _____, but this enlargement is best attained when it is not directly _________. It is obtained when the desire for knowledge is alone _________, by a study which does not wish in advance that its _________ should have this or that character but _______ the ______ to the characters which it finds in its objects.
enlargement, Self, sought, operative, objects, adapts, Self
___________________, in philosophic speculation as elsewhere, views the world as a means to its own ends; thus it makes the world of less account than Self, and the Self sets bounds to the ____________ of its goods.
In contemplation, on the contrary, we start from the ______________, and through its greatness, the boundaries of Self are _____________; through the infinity of the universe, the mind which contemplates it achieves some share in ___________.
self-assertion, greatness, Not-self, enlarged, infinity
[Anthropocentrism, Egocentrism] This view, if our previous discussions were correct, is untrue; but in addition to being untrue, it has the effect of robbing philosophic contemplation of all that gives it _________, since it fetters contemplation to ________.
value, Self
[Anthropocentrism, Egocentrism] What it calls knowledge is not a union with the _______________, but a set of ___________, _________, and __________, making an impenetrable veil between us and the world beyond.
The man who finds pleasure in such a theory of _____________ is like the man who never leaves the domestic circle for _______ his word might not be ______.
not-Self, prejudices, habits, desires, knowledge, fear, law
The true philosophic ________________, on the contrary, finds its satisfaction in every enlargement of the ___________, in everything that magnifies the objects contemplated, and thereby the subject contemplating.
contemplation, Not-self
Everything, in contemplation, that is _________ or
____________, everything that depends upon habit, self-interest, or desire, distorts the object and hence impairs the _______ which the intellect seeks.
personal, private, union
The ______________ will see as God might see, without a here and now, without hopes and fears,
without the __________ of __________ beliefs and traditional prejudices, calmly, dispassionately, in the sole and exclusive desire of knowledge – knowledge as __________, as purely _____________, as it is possible for man to attain.
free intellect, trammels, customary, impersonal, contemplative
It will view its __________ and ___________ as parts of the whole, with the absence of insistence that results from seeing them as ___________________ in a world of which all the rest is unaffected by any one man’s deeds.
purposes, desires, infinitesimal fragments.
Thus ______________ enlarges not only the objects of our ________ but also the objects of our __________ and our affections: it makes us _________ of the universe, not only of one walled city at war with all the rest. In this citizenship of the universe consists of man’s true freedom and his ____________ from the thraldom of narrow hopes and fears.
contemplation, thoughts, actions, citizens, liberation
Philosophy is to be studied, not for the sake of any _________________ to its questions since no definite answers can, as a rule, be known to be _______, but rather for the sake of the questions themselves; because these questions __________ our conception of what is possible, __________ our intellectual imagination and _____________ the dogmatic assurance which closes the mind against speculation.
definite answers, true, enlarge, enrich, diminish
Philosophy is ordinarily conceived as a discipline without value. Why?
- No knowledge is possible in the matters it is concerned with.
- There is a misconception of the kinds of goods it seeks and the ends of life.
- It is thought to attempt to answer pointless questions.
Give 3 Characteristics of the Physical Sciences
- Result-oriented
- Have tangible products
- Has a direct effect on the lives of those who study it and other people
Give 3 Characteristics of Philosophy
- Process-oriented
- Have no tangible products
- Has an indirect effect on the lives of those who study it and other people
Virtues are ________________.
self-effacing
Give 3 Characteristics of a Practical Man
- Instinctive man
- They recognize material needs
- They strive for the goods of the body or bodily pleasures.
Give 3 Characteristics of a Philosopher
Rational or intellectual men
They recognize the need to feed the mind
They strive for the goods of the mind or intellectual pleasures.
The Function of Uncertainty
Why is uncertainty important in philosophy?
- It fuels our curiosity and drives us to ask more questions.
- As soon as definite knowledge becomes possible, philosophy ceases to be itself. It becomes a separate science. (Philosophy deals with residual or left-over questions)
- With certainty, the act of wonderment dies out. (The highest of knowledge for Socrates is to know oneself – To know that you do not know anything at all.)
Philosophers have the ability to provide answers but the answers they give are not the sort that the sciences produce.
• The answers philosophers provide are not ______________ true. They are neither __________ nor _____________.
• Separate science emerges when questions have been ____________.
• Philosophic _______________ is a continuous effort.
ascertainably, falsifiable, verifiable, answered, contemplation
Knowledge or wisdom is the union of the Self and the not-Self. It is the kind that gives ________ and ____________ to the sciences and that which results from a critical examination of our ____________, ___________, and _________.
unity, system, consciousness, prejudices, beliefs
The union is best attained through a kind of philosophizing that is not _______________ or _____________ but ____________.
anthropocentric, egocentric, biocentric
Give 3 Characteristics of Egocentrism
- Man is the measure.
- An idea that does not fit the schema of the self is rejected right away.
- Belief is egocentric.
Give 3 Characteristics of Biocentrism
- Man is not the measure.
- An idea that does not fit the schema of the self is embraced.
- Belief is fluid and open as reason demands.
The value of philosophy is found in…
1. The _________ effects of it upon the lives of
those who study it.
2. The ___________________ that it seeks.
3. The greatness of the object it ____________.
4. Its ________________ which opens us up to vast
possibilities and frees us from dogmatic assurance
and thinking.
indirect, goods of the mind, contemplates, liberating capacity
