Seven General Points about Philosophy

1 How does Philosophy get started?
With questions. Being astonished. Not taking things for granted.

2 Philosophy is a systematization of question

3 Interdependence of Philosophizing and History of Philosophy
Need for both aspects: The questioning, critizising, asking your own questions and the study of the history of philosophy, exact reading of philosophical texts.

4 Systematization of Philosophy with Immanuel Kant
Every philosopher will give another account of organizing the field of philosophy. Kant's systematization provides a short and clear account:
i) What can I know? - Epistemology
ii) What should I do? - Ethics, Social and Political Philosophy
iii) What may I hope for? - Philosophy of Religion
iv) What is man? - Anthropology
For Kant, answering the first three question will answer the fourth one. In the Ateneo syllabus question iv) is tackled before ii) and iii)
What might be the explanation for that?

5 Method of Philosophy - Analysis of Concepts

6 Philosophy arises from the "Lebenswelt"
Philosophy, as well as science in general, arises from concrete questions in a particular historical, cultural and social context. Although aiming at universal truth, the perspective of the question is embedded in a certain culture. This has to be kept in mind when reading philosophy.(E.g. the rise of bioethics in the Western World from the 70s onwards would be an example of the cultural relatedness of science )

7 "Sapere Aude!" (Kant) - Dare to know!
Kant writes in "Answer to the Question: What is Enlightenment?":
"Enlightenment is man’s emergence from his self-incurred immaturity. Immaturity is the inability to use one’s own understanding without the guidance of another. This immaturity is self-incurred if its cause is not lack of understanding, but lack of resolution and courage to use it without the guidance of another. The motto of enlightenment is therefore: Sapere aude! Have the courage to use your own understanding.”