1. Introduction to Philosophy
Philosophy of Business
Introduction to Philosophy by
Yusri Abdilllah
Department of Business Administration
Faculty of Administrative Science
Universitas Brawijaya

2. 3 Definitions of ‘Philosophy’
‘Philosophy’ is used in a variety of ways. Indeed, dictionaries give multiple entries for ‘philosophy’. Roughly, these entries can be divided into 3 groups:
1. ‘Philosophy’ as an academic discipline
2. ‘Philosophy’ as a set of beliefs or worldview
3. ‘Philosophy’ as a study or inquiry

3. The Stereotype of Philosophy
Definition 1 merely states that philosophy is something that is done at a university, and does not say what philosophy actually is. This, however, easily leads to the common stereotype of philosophy involving two distinct elements:
1. Mental Masturbation (Intellectual activity that serves no practical purpose/ Thought process that only serve to satisfy oneself): Philosophy is done at a university, and at a university only. Indeed, philosophy is seen by many as a kind of intellectual exercise in futility: absent-minded, bearded, white guys discussing abstract topics having no practical use whatsoever.
2. Intellectual Bullying: Philosophers always seem to know better, and constantly plague us with questions.

4. Philosophy as a Set of Beliefs
Definition 2 defines ‘philosophy’ as a worldview or set of beliefs. Notice that we can say ‘a philosophy’ in this case. Indeed, there can be multiple philosophies in this sense of the word: ‘My philosophy in this regard is …’, ‘Plato’s philosophy’, ‘Eastern Philosophy’, etc.
Philosophies provide answers to difficult questions, and thus often serve as a kind of guide or compass to conduct life and navigate the world.
All ‘isms’ (and all religions) fall under this definition of philosophy: Buddhism, Capitalism, Mysticism, Existentialism, Dualism, etc.

5. Philosophy as Rational Inquiry
Definition 3 expresses philosophy as we are going to understand it in this class. Philosophy in this sense is (like definition 1, but unlike definition 2) an activity: it is something you do. In particular, doing philosophy is using our rationality in trying to figure out the answers to difficult questions (related to any subject matter).

6. What is Philosophy?
Logic deals with the relationships among ideas and is used to differentiate between valid and fallacious thinking.
Deductive reasoning – is a logical process in which a conclusion is based on the concordance of multiple premises that are generally assumed to be true, a top-down logic
Inductive reasoning – is a logical process in which multiple premises, all believed true or found true most of the time, are combined to obtain a specific conclusion, is often used in applications that involve prediction, forecasting, or behavior.
Critical study about human life and tought
Using fundamental concepts
Using logics
Study of general & fundamental problems
…those connected with reality, existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, language
“Knowledge of phenomena as resolved into or explained by causes and reasons, power and laws”

7. History of Philosophy
Ancient philosophy; 585 B.C; Socrates, Aristotle, Plato
Medieval philosophy; 4th – 14th A.D; Thomas Aquinas, St. Augustine and St. Anselm
Renaissance philosophy; ; Galileo Galilei, Machiavelli
Modern philosophy; ; Adam Smith, Isaac Newton
Contemporary philosophy; 20th century; Claude Levi-Strauss, Jacques Derrida
*Eastern philosophy, including Chinese, Persian, Indian
*Abrahamic philosophy, including Jewish, Christian, Islam

8. The Enterprise of Philosophy of Business
Philosophy of Business = Business Philosophy?
The philosophy of business considers the fundamental principles that underlie the formation and operation of a business enterprise; the nature and purpose of a business, and the moral obligations that pertain to it.
The subject is important to business and management, and is closely related to business ethics and political economy

10. The Generation and Evaluation of Ideas and Beliefs
Doing philosophy roughly consists of two parts:
The generation of possible ideas, concepts, views, beliefs, or answers with respect to some issue or question.
The evaluation of those generated beliefs in order to figure out which make sense and which don’t, which is true and which is false, which is good and which is bad, or which we should accept and which we should reject.

11. Creativity and Reason
The two steps show that the philosopher should be able to create as well as destroy ideas or beliefs. The philosopher thus must be both imaginative as well as reserved, liberal as well as conservative, ‘artsy’ as well as ‘nerdy’ (indeed, there are links from philosophy to literature as well as science), creative as well as rational. In sum, the philosopher should be open- minded but (as someone once nicely put it), not so open-minded that his or her brain is going to fall out!

12. Main Paradigm in Business & Economy

13. Weber’s model of capitalism development