What is Philosophy? Introduction Definition of Philosophy There is no unanimity among philosophers as to the exact meaning or definition of philosophy. This is so because the nature of philosophical problem is such that philosophers cannot but disagree. The world itself is one diverse phenomenon exhibiting disorder and perpetual conflict. Philosophy as an attempt to comprehend reality in its entirety cannot but exhibit varieties of viewpoint because it is not possible for a single philosopher to embody everything that we need to know about the universe. Philosophy as a Search for reality Some philosophers see philosophy as the search for reality This is the attempt to know the basic stuff i.e. reality out of which everything is made. Thales identified the basic stuff as water Anaximenes identified reality as air Anaximanderidentified reality as something that is limitless, boundless and infinite 3 Philosophy as a rational explanation of nature Philosophy is also regarded as the rational explanation of nature The Ancient Greek philosophers like Thales, Anaximenes and Anaximander relied heavily on human reason to understand the world This is rational explanation of nature that is devoid of religious myths, faith and dogmas. Note that they cannot engage in rational explanation of nature that will completely get rid of religious and supernatural ideas in their thinking. Rather, they refuse to accept purely religious as adequate explanations of empirical conditions of things in the universe Philosophy as the formulation of Metaphysical Systems Philosophy is also conceived as the formulation of metaphysical systems This has to do with the understanding of the nature of every distinct object in the world and their relationships to one another Philosophy as the critical/logical analysis of language This conception of philosophy started at the beginning of the 20th century This conception was championed by philosophers in the West, especially in Britain and United States of America. They complained that philosophy has come into some sort of obscurity because the language in which philosophical theories are formulated make use of spurious entities and expressions These philosophers see the central task of philosophy as that of explaining, clarifying and marking out the logical as well as the semantic implications of our language So philosophy lays emphasis on the clarity of terms, on consistency in argument The belief here is that once our language of expression is clear, unambiguous and systematic, we will be in a better position to know exactly we are talking about. This clarity greatly enhances the possibility of reaching some consensus on important matters both of everyday life and philosophy Philosophy as a Search for the Ideal Life The lead proponent of this conception of philosophy is Socrates For Socrates, philosophy is the search for the ideal life and how to live it. Socrates demonstrated this when he was in jail in Athens.

1. What is Philosophy?
Introduction
Definition of Philosophy
There is no unanimity among philosophers as to the exact
meaning or definition of philosophy.
This is so because the nature of philosophical problem is such
that philosophers cannot but disagree.
The world itself is one diverse phenomenon exhibiting disorder
and perpetual conflict.
Philosophy as an attempt to comprehend reality in its entirety
cannot but exhibit varieties of viewpoint because it is not
possible for a single philosopher to embody everything that we
need to know about the universe.
Philosophy as a Search for reality
Some philosophers see philosophy as the search for reality
This is the attempt to know the basic stuff i.e. reality out of
which everything is made.
Thales identified the basic stuff as water
Anaximenes identified reality as air
Anaximanderidentified reality as something that is limitless,
boundless and infinite
3
Philosophy as a rational explanation of nature
Philosophy is also regarded as the rational explanation of nature

2. The Ancient Greek philosophers like Thales, Anaximenes and
Anaximander relied heavily on human reason to understand the
world
This is rational explanation of nature that is devoid of religious
myths, faith and dogmas.
Note that they cannot engage in rational explanation of nature
that will completely get rid of religious and supernatural ideas
in their thinking.
Rather, they refuse to accept purely religious as adequate
explanations of empirical conditions of things in the universe
Philosophy as the formulation of Metaphysical Systems
Philosophy is also conceived as the formulation of metaphysical
systems
This has to do with the understanding of the nature of every
distinct object in the world and their relationships to one
another
Philosophy as the critical/logical analysis of language
This conception of philosophy started at the beginning of the
20th century
This conception was championed by philosophers in the West,
especially in Britain and United States of America.
They complained that philosophy has come into some sort of
obscurity because the language in which philosophical theories
are formulated make use of spurious entities and expressions
These philosophers see the central task of philosophy as that of
explaining, clarifying and marking out the logical as well as the
semantic implications of our language
So philosophy lays emphasis on the clarity of terms, on
consistency in argument
The belief here is that once our language of expression is clear,
unambiguous and systematic, we will be in a better position to

3. know exactly we are talking about.
This clarity greatly enhances the possibility of reaching some
consensus on important matters both of everyday life and
philosophy
Philosophy as a Search for the Ideal Life
The lead proponent of this conception of philosophy is Socrates
For Socrates, philosophy is the search for the ideal life and how
to live it.
Socrates demonstrated this when he was in jail in Athens,
condemned to death for allegedly leading the youths against the
state
His friends came in the night ready with plans for his escape.
Socrates refused the offer and answered that a good citizen
always obey the laws of his society
Since running away from prison and invariably from his
condemnation to death amounts to a disobedience to his state,
Socrates said he would do no such thing.
Philosophy as the Concern with Human Existence
This is the view of the existentialists like Martin Heidegger,
Soren Kierkergaard, Albert Camus, and Karl Jaspers
They refused to see philosophy as the abstract speculations
about reality or the objective world.
Rather, they see philosophy as dealing with man, his goal of
living and his position in the scheme of things.
They see man as the determinant and discoverer of truth
For the existentialists, what constitutes truth is human interest,
his harmonious relationship with others, his experience and his
reason
Things to Note
None of these definitions can be completely ignored by a

4. practising philosophers
The important thing to note is that philosophy is a discipline,
the nature and scope of which is a problem in itself
Philosophy is a critical discipline which does not exempt itself
from its own criticism but applies its critical tool to itself
The very disagreement among philosophers about the nature of
philosophy is, ironically, part of philosophy
Summary of these Definitions
Philosophy is a rational search for answers to the questions that
arise in the mind when we reflect on human experience
Philosophy is a rational search for answers to the basic
questions about the ultimate meaning of reality as a whole and
of human life in particular (Omoregbe, 2005)
From the above definitions, the following could be understood
with regard to the definition of philosophy
Philosophy is a search, a continuous search for meaning, for
intelligibility and for answers. It is a search that never ends
Philosophy is a rational search. The philosophical inquiry is
purely rational inquiry
Philosophy does not accept dogmatic answers that would put an
end to any further questioning
The questions asked in philosophy are not questions of a
particular nature but of a general nature. For example,
philosophy does not ask questions about any particular man but
about man in general.
Philosophy arises from reflection on human experience i.e.
man’s experience of his own being and of reality outside him
The Truth about Philosophy
Literally, philosophy means the love of wisdom.
Etymologically, it is derived from two Greek words philos,
which means love and Sophia, which means wisdom.
The hallmark of philosophy is argument

5. Philosophy is out to clarify concepts
It also analyzes, and tests propositions and beliefs
Most importantly, it analyzes and constructs arguments.
It deals with the nagging problems of life
It is also a reflection on human experience
Methods of Philosophy
The question that has often been asked by new students of
philosophy is whether philosophy has a method of its own
The answer to this question, just like the attempt to define
philosophy, has remained controversial to a certain extent
Basically, critical reflection is the method of philosophy
However, it is pertinent to stress the fact that philosophy
depends on a combination of methods in order to achieve its
ultimate goal.
The Socratic Method
This is one of the ancient methods of philosophy and it
sometimes goes under the name dialectics
Dialectic is a process of reasoning or intellectual conversation
in which argument and counterargument, or thesis and counter-
thesis, are continually juxtaposed in order to discover the truth
of a matter.
This was particularly the way that Socrates conducted his
exposition of philosophical truths, through co-operative inquiry
by the interplay of opinions
In his philosophical career, Socrates frequently insisted that he
was not a teacher. Rather he merely possessed an intellectual
skill that he liked to the role of a midwife, which enabled him
to help others to bring their thoughts to birth.
Thus, the high point in this method is that it presupposes that
truth is in-born, and by the technique of proper questioning the
individual is helped to give birth to ideas within his own mind.

6. However, the socratic method of philosophy has been criticized
by scholars who do not believe in the idea of innate knowledge.
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Method of Deduction
This method of philosophy is popularly referred to as
Aristotle’s method
It is called so because he was the first to elaborate the rules of
deductive reasoning
In deductive reasoning inferences or conclusions are deduced
from general statements
It is an argument meant to give logically conclusive support to
its conclusion.
An example of deductive argument is as follows:
All men are mortals
James is a man
Therefore, James is a mortal
It is important to note that a deductive argument the conclusion
follows logically and validly from the premises irrespective of
the truth or falsity of the major premise.
Method of Induction
This is a method in which the premises do not give conclusive
evidence or information for the establishment of the conclusion
It is an argument meant to provide probable support to its
conclusion.
An example of inductive argument is as follows:
John is a student and he is stubborn
Mary is a student and she is stubborn

7. Therefore, all students are stubborn
This philosophical method is usually criticized on the grounds
that it leads to hasty generalization since all possible instances
of the state of affairs cannot be verified
Truths based on inductive method are highly probabilistic
15
Existential Method
This method of philosophy states that one should place
himself/herself in the truth only by an act of his will
This implies that it is not by deliberation of the mind but a
decision of the will that one comes to know the truth
This method upholds that the individual has a determinant role
to play in the quest for truth
The limitation of this method lies in the fact that it advocates so
much of personal conviction.
This makes it susceptible to relativism where one’s belief or
feeling becomes the test for truth.
Analytic Method
This is most popular method of philosophy
This method was championed by Ludwig Wittgenstein who
believed that philosophical puzzles could be solved by analysis
and clarification of language.
Wittgenstein emphasized the important role that the rules of
language plays in ordinary language expressions
Another version of the analytic method emanated from the
views of the logical positivists.
The logical positivist movement is also called the Vienna circle
In their opinion, for a statement to be meaningful it must be
either analytic or else verifiable
For them, other statements like those of metaphysics, which

8. cannot be verified directly or indirectly are meaningless.
This verification principle has also been criticized by some
scholars on the grounds that the principle itself is not
empirically verifiable.
Phenomenological Method
This method was developed by Edmund Husserl
The method consists essentially in an intellectual observation of
the given object
This method has three major approaches, namely,
The first one is that one must adopt a purely objective
standpoint focusing attention singlemindedly on the object
Second, all theoretical knowledge derived from other sources
must be avoided so that only the given object will be admitted
Third, tradition has to be down played in terms of what others
have thought about the object
This is basically why phenomenological method is said to be
free from all presuppositions because it allows the bare facts of
one’s experience speak for themselves.
We can deduce from the foregoing that the phenomenological
method seeks to give a purely neutral description of one’s
awareness of the world before he/she ever begins to think about
it reflectively.
Traditional Main Branches of Philosophy
Philosophy in the West is traditionally divided into four main
branches, namely, metaphysics, epistemology, ethics and logic.
It must be noted that some scholars see logic simply as a tool of
philosophy i.e. philosophy’s instrument of action.
Metaphysics is the search for the ultimate causes of things.
Metaphysics takes one beyond appearance to the reality behind
it.

9. Epistemology is the study of human knowledge, the study of the
nature of human knowledge, its origin, its limits, its
justification, its reliability or unreliability, its certainty or
uncertainty.
This is the branch of philosophy which deals with the morality
of human actions. In other words, it studies the norms of human
behaviour. It can also be defined as the systematic study of the
fundamental principles of the moral law. It is the normative
science of human conduct.
Logic is the study of arguments, or correct reasoning
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Periods in Philosophy
Ancient Greek Period
Medieval Period
Modern Period
Contemporary Period
Federal Contracting Class Discussions: (This week’s readings
are linked below)
Learning Activity #1
Part of this week's reading requirement is DoD guide on
creating a competitive environment. With the advent of the FAR
in the mid-1980s Sealed Bidding, once the preferred Federal
Acquisition method, has fallen out of favor and is seldom used.
But it remains part of the FAR and is allowable. What are some
of the advantages of Sealed Bidding over other acquisition
methods?
Learning Activity #2
Part of the reading included different contract types. Select a
contract type and discuss the pros and cons of its use.

10. This week’s readings:
The Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR)
· Part 14 Sealed Bidding
· Part 15 Contracting By Negotiation
· Part 16 Types of Contracts
Learning Activity #3
FAR 5 requires that Government contracting encourages
competition and small business participation. Go to Federal
Business Opportunities FedBizOpps.gov and look up
solicitation W15QKN-17-Q-1072. Discuss how this solicitation
does or does not meet this requirement of the FAR.
Learning Activity #4
Inherently Governmental functions are a constant concern in
Federal Contracting. It is important that a Contracting Officer
ensure that they do not issue a contract that violates this
requirement. In addition a CO must be wary that performance of
a contract issued does not "drift" into an IG violation over its
life. While the FAR list specific IG violations but also notes
some things which may be apparent violations. List three of
these functions and discuss why they may be possible
violations.
New Venture Planning Class Discussions:

11. Learning Activity #1: Financial Planning:
Regarding capital formation, discuss the three basic types of
capital acquisition, working capital, fixed capital and growth
capital, describe the advantages/disadvantages of attaining such
funds via equity or debt sources, and how best to apply the
capital mix to your potential or ongoing business venture.
Learning Activity 2: "Housing Market and New Venture
Development"
A traditional source of capital acquisition for a new small
business venture has been borrowing against home equity, either
as collateral or for liquid assets. Consider the current economic
state of the overall US and your own local residential housing
market, the tightening of credit and "subprime" credit (for
borrowers with less than optimal credit histories) and the
challenges and limitations of home equity, and how these can
impact new venture development and access to capital.
Learning Activity #3: Ethics and Social Responsibility:
In reference to this week's Module and scheduled readings,
please describe and explain a business' ethical and social
responsibilities regarding employees, clients, investors, and the
community at large, and consider how these factors would be
incorporated to the Executive Summary of your Business Plan
term projects. Post your responses in Week 1 "Learning
Activities" herein.
Learning Activity #4: "Immigration and Entrepreneurship"
Please refer to the two reference articles, "A Small
Business Barometer in Queens"
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/09/nyregion/09astoria.html?pa
gewanted=all
and "Big Thoughts Early On",
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/07/jobs/hearsay-socials-chief-
on-thinking-big-at-a-young-age.html
Bearing in mind the themes of ethics and social responsibility

12. cited above, and post responses in Week 1 "Learning Activities"
herein. Feel free to site additional researched material or
personal experiences, if any.