A charming book that a friend recommended as an introduction to philosophy. Part fictional that escapade through existential landscapes and part exposition of the beliefs and theories of philosophers from the early Greeks through to the 21st century, it’s an ideal introduction for teenagers and adults alike. Just what I was looking for to get an overview of the different schools of philosophical thoughts.
I started a few of my own notes from various sources but only got through the old greeks!
philosophy = greek words philo and sophia = to love wisdome
Inscription over the temple of Apollo seat of thepriestess Pythia, the oracle of Delphi: know thyself!
Pre socrates: one concept applied to everything, called natural philosophers: concerned with the natural world and it’s processed
Thales, greek 619 BC from Miletus
Founder of the mylecian school
first rationalisation of cause and effect, defined everything by its unchanging essence, everything made from water
Anaximandee from Miletus – our world is only one of a myriad of worlds in the ‘boundless’
Anaximenes – 570 to 526bc, everything’s NG made from air
Xenophanes – said myths of God’s were stories: Men have created the gods in their own image. Aimed to find natural explanations for the supernatural.
Heraclitis 540_480bc
played alot of dice, anti social, paradoxical writing, universal cosmic, opposites are the related part of the same flux, day and night, hot and cold, everything in constant change and flux. “you can never step in the same river twice”. Power of opposites no wellness without illness etc.
Universal Logos – reason
Democratis 460-370bc materialist
stuff made of atoms and empty space,, premises: nothing can change, nothing comes out of nothing, nothing ever lost. Lots of different types of attoms that hook together to make everything we see. like attracts like eg individuals in a species
true born knowledge based on reason and bastard knowledge based on senses. Souls are made of soul atoms and disperse when a person dies and can be used in a new soul, ie no immortal soul or spiritual existence.
Fatalism: a belief that whatever happens is predestined
Greek historians: Herodotus 484-424bc, Thucydides 460-400bc
Hippocrates founder of medicine from Cos, c460bc
Zenos paradox
traveling a distance first half then half again, never getting there
Pythagoras
Pythagorians
Universe is made of perfect units, numbers, mathematical proofs, “number is the ruler of all forms”
Cult leader from ancient greece, love of math, music and astronomy (and relations between them), potentially taught by mylecian school. Revelation about musical intervals and ratios observing blacksmiths hammering on anvils. Vegetarians, believed in reincarnation aiming to end it to achiece bliss. Reason over senses.
c500bc in Elea, southern Italy the ‘Eliatics’
Parmenides 540bc to 480bc
Deductive reasoning, wrote in hexemic verse. What is is, and what is not is not. This lead him to believe that the universe must have always existed. Nothing can change and nothing can move.
Empedicles or Empedocles
4 elements earth wind water fire, 2 forces love and strife in competition, ideas of survival of the fittest animals, jumped into a volcano to prove he was immortal
Socratic philosophy moves from a focus on the natural world to a focus on individuals and their place in society
Socrates and the Sophists
Sophists were teachers of wisdom and rhetoric potentially early versions of lawyers in athens to teach people to defend themselves in court, largely hated for getting people off who were guilty through strong rhetoric
sophist Protagoris 485-410bc said ‘man is the measure of all things’: questions of right or wrong should always be measured relative to a persons needs. Natural state vs societal norms…
Socrates 477-399bc born in Athens, limited writings. Tried for disbelieving in the gods and sentenced by a jury of 500 citizens to die by drinking Hemlock. Method was to ask questions and then use reasoning and logic on the answers to uncover contradictions. Inductive reasoning… continual probing questions of the teacher, in a concerted effort to explore the underlying beliefs that shape the students views and opinions. (His mother was a midwife and he saw his role similar with the birthing of ideas and truth). A form of cooperative argumentative dialogue between individuals, based on asking and answering questions to stimulate critical thinking and to draw out ideas and underlying presupposition
Why do you say that?
What do you mean by…?
How does this relate to our discussion?
What do you think is the main issue?
Could you expand upon that point further?
The Socratic method is a method of hypothesis elimination, in that better hypotheses are found by steadily identifying and eliminating those that lead to contradictions. The Socratic method searches for general commonly held truths that shape beliefs and scrutinizes them to determine their consistency with other beliefs
Knowing what you don’t know ‘one thing only I know, and that is that I know nothing’
‘he who knows what is good will do good’
Dialectical method, refers originally to dialogue between people holding different points of view about a subject, but wishing to arrive at the truth through reasoned argumentation. Dialectic resembles debate, but the concept excludes subjective elements such as emotional appeal and rhetoric. based upon dialogue of arguments and counter-arguments, advocating propositions (theses) and counter-propositions (antitheses). The outcome of such a dialectic might be the refutation of a relevant proposition, or of a synthesis, or a combination of the opposing assertions, or a qualitative improvement of the dialogue.
The Socratic dialogues are a particular form of dialectic known as the method of elenchus (literally, “refutation, scrutiny”) whereby a series of questions clarifies a more precise statement of a vague belief, logical consequences of that statement are explored, and a contradiction is discovered.
The method is largely destructive, in that false belief is exposed and only constructive in that this exposure may lead to further search for truth. The detection of error does not amount to a proof of the antithesis.
Plato 428-347bc is Socrates pupil, influenced by pythagorians, points to the heavens a perfect world of abstract reason, maths, geometry, “perfect forms”, innate knowledge. What is eternal and what flows.
Plato writes 27 treates, often as dialogues involving Socrates.. After Socrates executed in athens he travels for 12 years before returning to establish the Academy, (named after hero Academus) which lasts for 900 years. It teaches philosophy, mathematics and gymnastics!
His book Apologies – describes Socrates trial
The Symposium – a dinner party discussing love. How we seek immortality: children, great deeds or a bidy of work that will last. Our souls are immortal and can see true ideal forms, our senses only the shadows of those true forms
Platonic love love of a perfect form of beaity
perfect or ideal forms or ideas of concepts and objects, a world of forms “theory of forms”, allegory of the cave with prisons viewing shaddows on walls created by fire but not seeing the real puppets
our soul perceives the world of forms
ideal form of government/ society
consists of
workers
guardians
leaders
forms of goverments
1. aristocract ruler with love of knowlege, philosopher king, no ego
2. themocracy driving force is acquisition of honour, own property, military dictatorship eg. sparta
3. oligarchy desire of honour power and money – rich rule the poor – class warfare leads to democracy
4. democracy – ruled by the masses, freedom is supreme group, people focused on short term pleasure
5. tyranny – abandonig of laws, a tyrant eventually takes charge
Aristotle 384-322bc – born in Macedonia,, son of a physician, platos student but different approach, rejected Plato’s ideal forms and said the video of the thing and the thing were the same, understanding here on earth, focused on nature, biology eg. classifications similarities between things.
All our ideas start with our senses, none are innate as per Plato
Everything has substance and form, form
living vs non living, categories.
aristotle has 4 causes when considering an object
1. material what is it made of
2. what is it form
3. efficient cause: how is it brought into being
4. final cause: what is the purpose of it? the last can also then define what is good or bad, does it achieve its purpose?
Eg rain: 1 material = moisture in the clouds, 2. form = water drops falling, 3. efficient cause = moisture condenses to form droplet, 4. Final cause = purpose eg. Because plants and animals need rain water
developed a form of logic called a sylogism: 3 things in question and
if x and y then z follows.if all men are mortal and socrates is a man then socrates is mortal
His classifications: living (which have the potential to change on their own)/non living (cannot change without external force), living breaks into plants and creatures, creatures in humans and animals.
What does it take to love a good life? Man can only achieve happiness by using all his abilities and capabilities. 3 forms of happiness 1. Pleasure 2. Life as a responsible citizen, 3. Life as a thinker and philosopher: we need all three to be properly happy. A harmonious life, Body and mind must both be in balance, always seeking balance in the golden mean: neither cowardly nor rash but courageous, neither miserly nor extravagant but liberal.
Forms of state (good and bad forms of each): monarchy/tyranny, aristocracy/oligarchy, polity, democracy/mob rule
Aristotle is Tutor to Alexander the great 356-323bc, king of Macedonia, conquors the Persians, Egypt Syria, Babylonia, and orient as far as India under Greek control 300 years of Hellenism. Merger of cultures – of religions: syncretism, fusion of creeds. Athens centre of philosophy but Alexandria centre of science, library, astronomy, mathematics, biology, medicine.
Until 50bc when Rome comes to dominate, Late antiquity.
Key philosophical question: what is true happiness and how is it achieved
Cynics: Diogenes happiness lies in not depending on anything (in a barrel lewdish, Alexander the great asked him if there was anything he could do for him he replied, “stand to the side, you are blocking my sun”)
Stoics founded by Zeno 300bc. Everyone part of universal common sense Logos, natural law (see Heraclitus) every person microcosmosreflects a greater macrocosmos, no difference in spirit vs matter (monism, rejected dualism), cosmopolitan, engaged in politics, all that happens follows unbreakable laws of nature, therefore accept your destiny, nothing accidental, accept fate both bad and happy unperturbed by emotions, Stoic calm, enduring pain
Cicero 106-43bc – humanism, life has the individual as it’s focus
Seneca 4-bc-65ad ‘to mankind, mankind is holy’
Marcus Aurelius 121-180ad
Epicurian, started by Socrates pupil Aristippus, focused on highest sensory pleasure and avoiding pain, Epicurius 341-270 pleasure ethic of Aristippus plus Atom theory of Democritus, garden philosophers, pleasure results must be weighed against consequences: 4 medicinal herbs: Gods are not to be feared, death is nothing to worry about, good is easy to attain, fear is easy to endure, uninterested in politics
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