Week 1 — What Philosophy Is: Socrates and the Examined Life

Why this matters

A nursing student asking what consent to treatment really requires and a juror weighing what counts as reasonable doubt both need the same habit: asking what a word means and testing the answer with one honest case.

In plain language

This week is about what philosophers do and why it is worth doing. Philosophy (thinking through the biggest questions with reasons instead of taking someone's word for it) is a skill you can learn, not a set of opinions to memorize. You will meet its six main branches, from questions about what is real to questions about what is beautiful. You will meet Socrates, who was put on trial in Athens in 399 BCE, through one line from Plato's Apology in Benjamin Jowett's English translation (a version of a text in another language, in the translator's words). And you will learn the Socratic method (asking what a word means and testing the answer with a case it gets wrong), the first tool every later week uses.

• This week: what philosophy is, the six branches, the trial of Socrates, Q1 and its translator, and the Socratic method.
• How they connect: this is the foundation; every later week uses these tools.
• Where we're going next: Week 2, Arguments and Thought Experiments.

Focus

What does philosophy examine, and how do you test a definition the way Socrates did?

By the end of this module, you should be able to:

• [ ] name the six branches with one question each
• [ ] credit Q1 to Plato's Apology in Jowett's translation
• [ ] test a definition with a counterexample, then revise it

To-do

Plan your week

1. Read Chapter 1 (~25–35 minutes), then the lecture and slides.
2. Work the lecture tutorial (60–90 minutes).
3. Work the practice set (15–25 minutes).
4. Do the Philosophy Workshop (about 90 minutes), the discussion, and the assignment.
5. Take the quiz.

This week's checkpoint: test one definition with a counterexample and say whether it is too broad or too narrow.

You've got this

Take it in order, and ask your instructor if a step snags.

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