Lawrence The Value Of Philosophy

D) Philosophy can be defined as a search for an ultimate Truth, one that is universal to all of humanity. It uses logic and reasoning to create arguments, and these arguments are then analyzed to prove whether or not they are tenable.

A) Philosophers study those things we cannot know about. This makes sense as Russell Lawrence in “The Value of Philosophy” notes that when a field becomes definite and provable, it becomes its own field, whereas those things that still remain in philosophical study are not known.

A) Socrates died as he asked questions that directly opposed the Athenian government. He was accused of brainwashing and corrupting the Athenian youth. Socrates had been asking questions that directed contradicted the ruling government, and he questioned

At one point, subjects such as math and biology were considered a part of philosophy, however as these subjects grew more definitive they became their own sciences.

D) Metaphysics is best described as “the search for the basic structure of reality”. The word metaphysics comes from the Greek “ta meta ta phusika”, meaning “after physics”.

C) Epistemology is the study of knowledge. This branch of philosophy asks questions about how we know what we know; for example, a question that epistemology would ask is “how can we know that what our senses tell us is correct?”.

C) Ethics can be defined best as “how we should live our own lives and treat others”. Philosophers ask questions regarding ethics frequently; an example of a question on ethics would be “are our values relative, or are there absolute values for everyone to follow?”.

D) The best starting point for philosophic studies is a good question. This is due to the fact that a good question can generate arguments for and against it, which makes it worth studying. An example of a good philosophical question would be “is God