Білет 1

The nature of philosophical knowledge.

Two answers are frequently given to the question ‘What is philosophy?’ One is that philosophy is an activity rather than a subject – in othe words, you do philosophy rather than learn about it. The other is that philosophy is largely a matter of conceptual analysis – it is thinking about thinking. Both these suggestions contain more than a germ of truth but are unsatisfactory, giving little or no idea of the content of philosophy. It is all very well to say ‘Philosophize’ or ‘Analyse concepts’, but philosophize about what and in what sorts of ways; analyse what concepts and how? The most direct way of seeing what philosophy is about is to look at the sorts of questions that philosophers think are important and how they go about answering them. What is common to all such questions is that they are questions that can be answered only by reasoning. In other disciplines, there are various ways of finding out answers to questions . The Nature of Philosophy nature or ancient manuscripts, by conducting experiments or surveys, by building a piece of apparatus or a model or by running a simulation on a computer. By and large, these are what can be termed ‘empirical investigations’. The outcomes of these investigations – new discoveries, new data will often be relevant to philosophy, but empirical investigations cannot provide the answers to philosophical questions.

Білет 2. Philosophy as the theoretical basis of worldview

Philosophy as the theoretical basis of worldyiew.

“Worldview comes from the German word ‘weltanschauung’ meaning a ‘look into the world.’ It refers to a wide world perception. It constitutes the framework through which an individual interprets the world and interacts in it” (Worldview, 2006, p. 1). Nash (1996) stated that the writings of philosophers identify assumptions about the make-up of reality or how the world works, conceptual schemes, or patterns of ideas or values and organizes them to form a worldview. In the same manner, religions offer a scheme for interpreting the world and, therefore, are recognized as worldviews as well (Nash, 1996). A worldview is used to interpret and make sense of the world. Perceptions of the world and reality can greatly differ between people or cultures since their assumptions of what is important and true differ. There are many types of worldviews vying for supremacy. These include religious systems (formal philosophic systems such as modernism or postmodernism), less formal systems including large group perspectives such as a particular culture, or personal systems.

Білет 3.Philosophy as General Methodology.

Philosophy as the general methodology.

Methods originate in practical activity as generalized devices that conform with the properties and laws of reality, with the objective logic of the things at the transformation of which human activity is directed. The methods of practical activity thus reflect the historically formed and socially consolidated modes of man’s sensuously objective interaction with the world. This was the basis for the formation of cognitive and later theoretical methods – sets of devices and operations directing the mind towards the path leading to the truth. Philosophy is a universal method, its subject matter being the most universal principles of thought of all cognition. Philosophical methods do not determine unambiguously the course of the creative search for the truth. In the final analysis the decisive factor here is practical life. The universal methods of philosophy are the necessary condition for the solution of various concrete tasks they do not replace the special scientific methods – rather they are given concrete form in these methods. Philosophical methods are devices for the study of objects with the aim of discovering in them the universal laws of movement and development manifested in specific ways in accordance with the specificity of the object.

Білет 4.Philosophy in its various representations.

representation - That which stands for, refers to or denotes something or the relation between a thing and that which stands for or denotes it. See distributed representation,symbolicism, dynamic

systems theory. A representation (the noun) can be any physical object or state that is somehow made to stand-in for (i.e. 're-present') some other physical object or state (or extremely complex disjunction of states or objects -- including abstract objects, such as numbers). Representation (the verb) is a relation between such representations and the things they are said to represent.

Cummins (1989) distinguishes two main problems in philosophy of mind and cognitive science. He calls them the Problem of Representations and the Problem of Representation (no 's'). The former is the problem of determining which states or objects are used by minds or cognitive systems to represent. The latter is the problem of defining the relation between representations and what they are representations of. Cummins claims that the the Problem of Representations is a scientific one, and the Problem of Representation (no 's') is a philosophical (metaphysical) one.

Білет 5 The worldview. Historical forms of worldview.

worldview - a system of views on the objective world and place itman on man's relation to the reality surrounding him and the veryitself, as well as established on the basis of these views beliefs, ideals,principles of cognition and action, the value orientation. Indeed,man does not exist except in a certain respect for others,family, team, nation, in some respect nature, to the world in general.

Historical types of worldview: mythology, religion, philosophy

mythological worldview - whether to the distant pastor date, it is we call such a world, whichnot based on theoretical arguments and reasoning.

Historically, the first form of ideology is mythology. Sheoccurs at a very early stage of social development. Then mankindin the form of myths, that is, the legends, traditions, trying to answer suchglobal issues as the origin and structure of the universe as a wholethe emergence of the most important phenomena of nature, animals and people.

At the early stage of human history, mythology was not the onlyideological form. In the same period there, and religion. And whatsame relationship was mythology and religion.

Білет 6. The basic functions and the significance of philosophy.

There are several diverse branches of philosophical investigation,

"The following branches are the main areas of study:

Metaphysics is the study of the nature of being and the world. Traditional branches are cosmology and ontology.

Epistemology is concerned with the nature and scope of knowledge, and whether knowledge is possible. Among its central concerns has been the challenge posed by skepticism and the relationships between truth, belief, and justification.

Ethics, or 'moral philosophy', is concerned with questions of how persons ought to act or if such questions are answerable. The main branches of ethics are meta-ethics, normative ethics, and applied ethics. Meta-ethics concerns the nature of ethical thought, comparison of various ethical systems, whether there are absolute ethical truths, and how such truths could be known. Ethics is also associated with the idea of morality. Plato's early dialogues include a search for definitions of virtue.

Political philosophy is the study of government and the relationship of individuals and communities to the state. It includes questions about justice, the good, law, property, and the rights and obligations of the citizen.

Aesthetics deals with beauty, art, enjoyment, sensory-emotional values, perception, and matters of taste and sentiment.

Logic is the study of valid argument forms. Beginning in the late 19th century, mathematicians such as Frege focused on a mathematical treatment of logic, and today the subject of logic has two broad divisions: mathematical logic (formal symbolic logic) and what is now called philosophical logic.

Philosophy of mind deals with the nature of the mind and its relationship to the body, and is typified by disputes between dualism and materialism. In recent years, there has been increasing similarity between this branch of philosophy and cognitive science.

Philosophy of language is inquiry into the nature, origins, and usage of language.

Philosophy of religion is a branch of philosophy that asks questions about religion.

Most academic subjects have a philosophy, for example the philosophy of science, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of logic, the philosophy of law, and the philosophy of history. In addition, a range of academic subjects have emerged to deal with areas, which would have historically been the subject of philosophy.