PHL243H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Teleology, Ope, Yang Yin
Document Summary
Characterizing philosophy #1: how philosophy is like and unlike religion, like religion, its aim is to understand things in general, and the place of humans in the universe, unlike religion: Yet is not so much an object/subject of study in itself; not a topic so much as a way of thinking about thinking (much like anthropology is a way of thinking about a topic) Philosophy deals in arguments, not texts: historical texts are important, but not at all like religious texts in the way in which they are studied. For philosophy, nothing is sacred: texts least of all, can"t question religious text, definitely meant to question philosophic texts, philosophy is not authoritative. Characterizing philosophy #2: how philosophy is like and unlike science: like science, it proceeds by argument and is always open to refutation, its central attitude is skeptical. Skep = skop = scop = to examine.
