Western Philosophy

Socrates Predecessors •Human beings have lived on this planet for hundreds of thousands of years. We, of course, doesn’t know all the experiences and thoughts of our ancestors or the earliest people.

•For us to know how this world was formed, our ancestors thought about it, whether they were unique, compare to animals, or whether there was a world beyond the earthly surrounding them.

•When we look at the earliest writings, we find various regions had their own speculative tradition.

•The story of Western philosophy, begins in a series of islands and colonies during the 6th century .

•In our lives., we have so many questions to ask for, just what others thinkers from the past centuries, they had to asked, what are things really like? and how can we explain the process of change in things?. This are some of the question that some thinkers wanted to give solutions about on these different puzzles were shortly thereafter dubbed, what we call “PHILOSOPHY”. •Philosophy was defined as the love of wisdom, wherein it gives these speculations on what is the recognition that things are not exactly what they seem to be.. •These facts raised the questions of how things and people came into existence, at different times and pass out of existence only to be followed by other things and persons. •Greek philosophy was the seaport town of Miletus and was located across the Aegean sea from Athens, on the western shores of Ionian Asian minor.

Three milesian philosophers Thales Anaximander Anaximenes

•These three great philosophers though in terms of traditional mythology with human-like gods, philosophy among the milesians began as an act independent thought. •What important thing to keep in mind, though, is that Greek philosophy from the start was an intellectual activity. •It was not a matter only of seeing or believing but of “thinking”

What is permanent in existence? •Thales of Miletus was a contemporary of Greek king Croesus and statesman soloh. •He apparently solved the difficult logistical problem of enabling the Lydian's king army to cross the wide river Halys river. •He was the one who worked out to measure the height of the pyramid, using his solution to use the simple procedure of measuring a pyramid’s shadow. •He urged sailors to use the constellation Little bear as the surest guide for determining the direction of the north. •Thales became famous not for his general wisdom or his practical shrewdness, but because he opened up a new area of thought for which he has rightly earned the title to be the “first philosopher of western civilization.”

•He inquired concerns about the nature of things, wherein he formulated to asked “What is everything made of, or what kind of stuff goes into the composition of things? •He was trying to account for the fact that there are many different kinds of things, such as earth, clouds, and oceans. •He’s contribution to thought, was despite of the differences between various things, there is still a basic similarities between them all. •“The many "are related to each other by “the one”. •He assumed that some single elements, some stuff, a stuff which contained its own principle of action or change lay at the foundation of all physical reality. •To him this “one” or the stuff he mentioned was the “WATER”

•All thought there is no record on how Thales came into conclusion that water is the cause of all things Aristotle said that Thales may derived it from observation of simple events, or seeing that the nutrient of all things is moist and that heat is generated from the moist and kept alive by it. •But Thales analysis of the composition of things is far less important than the fact that he raised the question concerning the nature of the world. •Admittedly, Thales also said that "all things are full of God”. •So, we tried to explain the power in things, such as magnetic powers in stones, he shifted the discussion from a mythygical base to one of scientific inquiry.

Anaximande r

•He was a pupil of Thales of Miletus

•On what had Thales done, Anaximander agreed on it that there is some single basic stuff out of which everything come from. •He was the one who said that those basic stuff is either a water nor any other specific element. •The primary substance out of which all these specific things comes he argued on a boundless realm, and on the opposite sides there is what he also calls intermediate boundless. •His explanation about the intermediate boundless is that, it originates and destructible primary substance of things, yet he believes, it also has eternal motion.he root of all things • In contrast on this motion, the various specific elements come into being as the separated off from the original substance. •The eternal motion that was mentioned is which the heavens came to be. •First is the warm and cold were separated off, and these two came the so called moist: and from these the earth and air was formed.

•Anaximander said that the origin of life, come from a sea and that, living things came out of the sea to dry land •Anaximander also thought that there were many worlds n many systems of universe existing all at the same time. •All of them die out and there is a constant alternation between their creations and destructions.

NOTE:

“From what source things arise, to that they return of necessity when they are destroyed: for they suffer punishment and make reparation to one another for their injustice according to the order of time”

Anaximen es

•He was the third and last melesians philosophers, and was a young associate of Anaximander. •He agreed o what had Anaximander had answer to a question concerning about the composition of natural things, but he was not satisfied with what had Anaximander theorized with it. •Boundless as being a source of all things was simply too vague and intangible, •That is why anaximenes chose Anaximander notion over Thales notion that water is the cause of all things. •This boundless could explain the “ infinite background to the wide variety of finite and specific meaning for anaximenes and he therefore chose to focus upon a definite substance the way Thales did. •As he mediate the two views of his predecessors, he designated “AIR” as the primary substance from which all things come. •He chose air because air is definite substance and we can readily see it at at the root of all things. •For example. Human beings cannot survive In this world unless if he breath, so even air is invisible, it holds us together and air encompasses the whole world. •To explain how air is the origin of all things, anaximenes argued that things are what they are by virtue of how point he introduced the important new idea that differences in quality caused by differences in quantity.

•Although, these milesian philosopher proceeded with scientific concerns and temperaments they did not form their hypothesis the way of what scientist do, instead the performed any experiments to test their theories •But we must remember that the critical questions concerning to nature and limits oh human knowledge had not yet been raised. •What ever they had theorized certainly raises this questions into a problem. •Whatever maybe the usefulness of their specific ideas about WATER, AIR AND BOUNDLESS, as the primary or source of all things, the real significance of milesians is, they are the first time to raised this questions about the ultimate nature of things and made the first halting but direct inquiry into what nature really consists of.

The mathematical basis of all things •Pythagoreans said that things consists of NUMBERS. •Although this was a quite strange, the difficulty of this theory is greatly overcome when we consider why pythagaoras became interested in numbers and what his conception of numbers was. •His originality consists partly in his conviction that the study of mathematics is the best purifier of the soul. •He was also the founder of religious sect and a school of mathematics. •Pythagoreans were also clearly concerned with the mystical problems of purification and immortality. •He has also a special practice of counting and writing numbers and thus may have facilitated their view that all things are numbers .

Heracli us

•His theory in philosophy are: •Flux and Fire •Reason as the universal law •The conflicts of opposite 

On his theory about the flux and fire, he assumed that there must

be something which changes and he argued that this something is fire. He chose fire as the element in things was that fire behaves in such a way as to suggest how the process of change operates. When therefore, Heraclitus fastened about fire as the basic reality, he do not only identified that something which changes, but though he had discovered the principle of change it self. 

On his example, if gold is exchanged for wares, both then gold an

the wares still continue to exist, although they are now in different hands. This example given by him proves that all things continue to exits although they are being exchange their form from time to time.



Another theory that he contribute is about the Reason of universal

law.. 

On this theory of reason cane from Heraclitus’ religious conviction

that the most real of all is the soul. And the souls’ most distinctive and important attribute is wisdom or thought. For him there is only one basic reality namely fire . 

These rational principles constitute the essence of law- the

universal law immanent an all things . This account of our rational would only mean that the thoughts of a man is the thoughts of God since there is a unity between the one and the many and between God and human beings.



Lastly, his theory about the conflict of opposites . Although human

beings can know the eternal wisdom that directs all things, we do not pay attention to this wisdom, instead we therefore proves to be uncomprehending of he reasons for the way things happen to them.



The conflict that we see in this world is not a calamity, but simply the

permanent condition of all things. According to Heraclitus, if we could visualize the whole process of change we would see that war is common and justice is strife and that all things happens by stifle and necessity.



Therefore. This reasons says that people do not know how hat is at

variance agrees with itself. Thus, in the one, the way up and the way down is the same, such as good and ill , quick and death, young and old and wake to sleep.

Parmenid es

The logic of Parmenides theory begins with the simple statement that something is, or something is not. For example, cows exist but unicorns do not exist. Though Parmenides realizes that we can only assert the first part above statement that something is. The reason is that, we can only conceptualize and speak about things that exist but are in able to do this things that do not exist. According to Parmenides we must reject any contention that implies that something is not. First he argues that nothing ever changes, there we have seen that everything is in constant change.

We first say that the tree for example is not, then it is, then once again it is not. Logically speaking, we are forced to reject this kind of thoughts of process of change. Thus, nothing ever change.

Z eno

Zeno’s main strategy was to show that the so-called commonsense view of the world led to conclusions even there's ridiculous than Parmenides’ view. He concluded that our senses have deceived us. For either, there is a sound when the single seed falls or there is not a sound when the many seeds fall. So to get at the truth of things it is more reliable to go by way of thought than by way of sensation. Zeno’s four paradoxes are: •The racecourse- according to this paradox of motion, a runner crosses a series of units of distance from the beginning to the end of the racecourse.. •Achilles and the tortoise- this paradox is similar to the racecourse Illustrations. This only explain that no matter what Achilles started ahead .of the tortoise he can never reached it. •The arrow- This paradox, argued the reality of space and therefore its divisibility, would have to say that he moving arrow occupy a particular position in space. •The relativity of motion- This paradox, explain the the opposite directions t the same time.

Empedo cles

The concepts of his theory are: •Hate •Love

Empedocles assumed that there are in nature two forces, which he called “love and hate”. These are the forces of love cause elements to attract to each other and built up into some particular form or person. The force of hate causes the decomposition of things. The four elements then mix together or separate from each other depending on hoe much love or hate are present. In fact, Empedocles believe that there are cycles within nature that manifest Love and Strife in differing degrees at different times.

Anaxagoras

“The concept of his theory is that all things are governed by man” According to Anaxagoras. The nature of reality is best understood as consisting of Mind and Matter. Before mid has influence the shape and behavior of matter, matter exists as a mixture of various kinds of material substances, all uncreated and imperishable. According also to Anaxagoras, separation is the process by which this matter formed into various things, and such separation occurs through the power of mind. Specifically, mind produced a rotary motion, causing a vortex which spread out so as to encompasses more and more of the original mass of matter. This forces a separation of various substances. This rotary motion originally caused a separation of matter into two major divisions, one mass that contained the warm, light, rare, and dry, and a second mass that contained the cold, dark, and moist. This process of separation, is continuous and there is a constant progress in the process of separation.

•

The sophists and Socrates

The first Greek philosophers focused in nature: the Sophists and Socrates shifted the concerns of philosophy to the study of human. They instead asked questions that more directly related to moral behavior. They proposed inconsistent interpretations of nature and here appeared to be no way of reconciling them.

•

For example, Heraclitus said that the nature consists of a plurality of substance and that everything is in a process of constant change.

To

Parmenides, took the opposite view arguing that reality is a single, static substance- the one- and that motion and change are illusions cast on our senses by the appearances of things. •

As it was the controversy over the ultimate principle of things had generated an attitude of skepticism about the ability of human reason to discover the truth about nature.

•

This question was further aggravated by cultural differences between various races and societies . Consequently, the question about truth became deeply entwined with the problem of goodness.

The sophists The three most outstanding Sophist who emerged in Athens during the fifth century were: • Pythagoras • Gorgias • Thrasymachus They were part of a group hat came to Athens wither as traveling teachers or, in the case of Hippias of Elis, as ambassadors. Pythagoras -was the oldest and, in many ways the most influential. He is best known of his statement that, “ man is the measure of all things, of the things that are, that they are, and of things that are not, that they are not. Therefore, to say that our knowledge is measured by what we perceived, if something within us makes us perceive things differently, there is then no standard for testing whether one person’s perception is right and another person’s perception is wrong.

Gorgias -

He took as a radical view regarding truth that he eventually gave up philosophy and turned instead to the practice and teaching of rhetoric. He propounded the extra ordinary notions for example he argued that we communicate with words are only symbols or signs and no symbols can ever be the same as the thing it symbolizes.

-

Upon abandoning philosophy, gorgias turned to rhetoric and tried to perfect it as the art of persuasion.

Thrasymachus -He portrayed as the sophists who asserted the injustice is to be preferred to the life of justice. Thrasymachus considered the unjust person as superior in character and intelligence. Indeed he said, that injustice pays not only at the meager level of the pick-pocket but especially for those who carry injustice to perfection and make themselves masters of whole cities and nations.

Socrat He was attempting to discover esthe foundation of the good life. As he pursued his mission he devised a method for arriving at truth; he linked knowing and doing, so that to know the good is to do the good. That was the golden rule mentioned by Socrates This golden rule only explain that. What you do not want others do unto you don’t do to other.

.Socrates Life -Socrates wrote nothing. Most of what we know about him has been preserved by three of his famous younger contemporaries , and they are, Aristophanes, Xephanon, and most importantly Plato. From Aristophanes, he depicts Socrates as a strutting waterfowl, poking fun at his habit of rolling his eyes and referring impishly to his pupil and thinking shop. To Xephanon, he portrait of a loyal soldier who had a passion for discussing the requirements of morality and who inevitably attracted younger people who sought his advice.

Socrates as a Philosopher •

Our most extensive sources of his thought are the dialogues of Plato, in which he is the leading character. Plato’s dialogues cannot identify whether his dialogues were reporting of what had Socrates actually thought, or he was just expressing his own ideas using the figure of Socrates.

•

On this view, Plato, would get credit only for the literary form he devised for preserving and elaborating on, and lending precision and color to Socrates thought. On the other hand, Aristotle distinguished between the philosophical contributions made by Socrates and Plato. Aristotle gave credit to Socrates, for inductive arguments and universal definitions and to Plato he ascribed the development of the famous theory of forms. The notions that the universal archetypes exist independently of the particular things that embody them.

•

For Socrates the key point in this conception of the soul concerns our conscious awareness of what some words means. To know that something contradict to others- for example, that justice cannot mean harming others- is a typical example of what the soul can discover simply by using its ability to know.

Socrates theory of knowledge: Intellectual Midwifery

•

On his method which he called” dialectic”, is a deceptively simple technique. It always begins a discussion of the most obvious aspects of any problem. Through this process of dialogue, in which all parties to the conversion are forced to clarify their ideas, final outcome of the conversation is a clear statement of what is meant. Although the technique appeared simple, it was not long before anyone upon whom Socrates employed it could feel its tense rigor, as well as the discomfort of Socrates irony.

•

We find a good example of Socrates method in Plato’s dialogue. Like what he mentioned Euthyphro. Young euthyphro arrives on the scene and explains that he plans to bring charges of impiety against his own father.

•

Euthyphro answers Socrates by defining piety as prosecuting the wrong doer, and impiety as not prosecuting him.

Socrates moral thought For Socrates knowledge and virtue were the same thing. If virtue has to do with making the souls as good as possible, it is first necessary to know what makes the soul good. Therefore, goodness and knowledge are closely related. But Socrates said more about morality than simply this. He in fact identified goodness and knowledge saying that to know the good is to do good, that knowledge edge is virtue. By identifying knowledge and virtue, Socrates meant also to say that vice, or evil, is the absence of knowledge. Just as knowlegde is virtue, so, too, vice is ignorance.

•

To equate virtue and knowledge Socrates had in mind a particular

conception of virtue. For him, virtue means, fulfilling

one’s function. .This inner well-being this, making the soul as goo as possible can be achieved only by certain appropriate types of behavior.

•

Because we have a desire for happiness which acts or what behavior will produce happiness? Socrates knew that some forms of behavior appear to produce happiness but in reality do not.

•

We may feel to be happy but there are still time that we feel said. We cannot control our feelings, but it just give us our emotional ability on what to feel.

Socrates trial and death •

Convinced that the care of human

soul should be our greatest concern,

Socrates spent most of his time, examining his own life, a well as he lives and thoughts of the other Athens. •

His defense as recorded by Plato’s apology is a brilliant proof of his intellectual powers. Is I also a powerful exposure of his accusers motives and the inadequacy of the grounds for their charges.

•

His defense is a model of forceful argument, resting wholly on a recitation of facts and on the requirements of rational discourse.

•

To the end, his friends tried to make possible his escape, but Socrates would have none on it.

•

He was already growing cold and spoke for the last time. Crito, he said, I owe a cock to Asclepius: do not forget to pay it. Such was the end… of our friend a man, I think, who was of all the men of his time, the best, the wisest, and the most just.

Plato The earliest Greek philosopher, the Milesians were concerned chiefly with the constitution of physical nature. Plato's great influence stems from the manner in which he brought all these diverse philosophical concerns into a unified system of thought.

Plato’s life •

Plato was born in Athens in428/27 BCE, one year after death of Pericles and when Socrates was bought 42 years old.

•

Plato’s family was one if the distinguish in Athens, his early training included the rich ingredients of that culture in the arts, politics, and philosophy.

•

Plato learned much about public life and developed at an early age a sense of responsibility for public political service.

•

Plato lectured at the academy without having a notes.

•

Because his lectures were never written down, they were never published, although notes by his students were circulated.

•

An idealistic and rationalistic philosopher.

If the world is not perfect, it is not because of God but because the raw materials were not perfect. Separates the ever – changing phenomenal world from the true and eternal ideal reality. Idea or ideal and phenomena. Phenomena are illusions which decay and die.

 

Ideals are unchanging, perfect.

Phenomenal world strives to become ideal, perfect, and complete.

There’s the body which is material, mortal and ‘moved’ then, the soul which is ideal, immortal and ‘unmoved’.

Plato’s three theories of Soul   3 souls: (levels of pleasure)    appetite – mortal and comes from the gut.  spirit/ courage – mortal and lives in the heart.  reason – immortal and resides in the brain.

Aristotle

Aristotle • Born in 384 BCE in the small town of Stagira on the northeast coast of Thrace • Went on Athens to enroll in Plato’s Academy, where he spent the next twenty years as a pupil and a member. • He wrote many dialogues in a Platonic style, which his contemporaries praised for the “ goldenstream” of their eloquence • Aristotle was born in Stageira, a Greek colony in Macedonia, in 384 BC. Generations of Aristotle's family including his father, Nichomachus, had served as physicians to the Kings of Macedonia.

• His parents died when he was about ten years old and he was taken in by foster parents: Proxenos and his wife. • He moved to Athens at the age of seventeen, and he remained there for some twenty years. • This is where he got his first taste of the sciences and actively became a teacher. • He studied under Plato , whose influences are most apparent in Aristotle's theoretical and practical philosophies. • He greatly admired Plato all the way to his death, despite the fact that he later opposed some of his most important points. • Aristotle was married twice, first to the foster daughter of his noble friend Hermeias, named Pythias.

• After her death he married Herpyllis, who came from his birthplace, Stageira. • There was some controversy surrounding this marriage because Herpyllis did not have as high a social position as his first wife, Pythias. • Herpyllis gave birth to his son Nichomachus and was entrusted with the care of his daughter from his first marriage. • After the death of Alexander the Great, Athens was taken over by people who didn't like Alexander. • They suspected Aristotle of sympathizing with Alexander, and he was exiled from Athens. • Aristotle died in 322 BC at the age of sixty-two in Chalkis on the island of Euboea, which had granted him refuge when he was exiled from Athens.

Aristotle's Logic • Aristotle's logic, especially his theory of the syllogism, has had an unparalleled influence on the history of Western thought. • It did not always hold this position: in the Hellenistic period, Stoic logic, and in particular the work of Chrysippus, took pride of place. • However, in later antiquity, following the work of Aristotelian Commentators, Aristotle's logic became dominant, and Aristotelian logic was what was transmitted to the Arabic and the Latin medieval traditions, while the works of Chrysippus have not survived.

Aristotle's Logical Works: The Organon The ancient commentators grouped together several of Aristotle's treatises under the title Organon ("Instrument") and regarded them as comprising his logical works: 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

Categories On Interpretation Prior Analytics Posterior Analytics Topics On Sophistical Refutations

• In fact, the title Organon reflects a much later controversy about whether logic is a part of philosophy (as the Stoics maintained) or merely a tool used by philosophy (as the later Peripatetics thought); calling the logical works "The Instrument" is a way of taking sides on this point. • Aristotle himself never uses this term, nor does he give much indication that these particular treatises form some kind of group, though there are frequent crossreferences between the Topics and the Analytics. • On the other hand, Aristotle treats the Prior and Posterior Analytics as one work, and On Sophistical Refutations is a final section, or an appendix, to the Topics). • To these works should be added the Rhetoric, which explicitly declares its reliance on the Topics.

The Subject of Logic: "Syllogisms" • All Aristotle's logic revolves around one notion: the deduction (sullogismos). A thorough explanation of what a deduction is, and what they are composed of, will necessarily lead us through the whole of his theory.

Induction and Deduction • Deductions are one of two species of argument recognized by Aristotle. • The other species is induction. • He has far less to say about this than deduction, doing little more than characterize it as "argument from the particular to the universal".

Some of the differences may have important consequences: • 1.Aristotle explicitly says that what results of necessity must be different from what is supposed. • This would rule out arguments in which the conclusion is identical to one of the premises. • Modern notions of validity regard such arguments as valid, though trivially so.

• 2.The plural "certain things having been supposed" was taken by some ancient commentators to rule out arguments with only one premise. • 3. The force of the qualification "because of their being so" has sometimes been seen as ruling out arguments in which the conclusion is not ‘relevant’ to the premises, • e.g., arguments in which the premises are inconsistent, arguments with conclusions that would follow from any premises whatsoever, or arguments with superfluous premises.

Aristotle's Metaphysics • The first major work in the history of philosophy to bear the title “Metaphysics” was the treatise by Aristotle that we have come to know by that name. • But Aristotle himself did not use that title or even describe his field of study as ‘metaphysics’; the name was evidently coined by the first century C.E. editor who assembled the treatise we know as Aristotle's Metaphysics out of various smaller selections of Aristotle's works.

What is Substance? • In the seventeen chapters that make up Book Ζ of the Metaphysics, Aristotle takes up the promised study of substance. • He begins by reiterating and refining some of what he said in that ‘being’ is said in many ways, and that the primary sense of ‘being’ is the sense in which substances are beings. • he explicitly links the secondary senses of ‘being’ to the non-substance categories. • The primacy of substance leads Aristotle to say that the age-old question ‘What is being?’ “is just the question ‘What is substance?’” • One might have thought that this question had already been answered in the Categories.

Motion • Because motion or change (kinêsis) is mentioned in the definition of nature, any discussion of nature will need to rely upon the explanation of motion. •

One might—erroneously—think that this is an easy task, because Aristotle's categories (as listed in the Categories and also elsewhere) do contain two related types of entities, action and passion. • Aristotle's discussion of motion in the Physics, however, starts out in a somewhat different manner. • When he submits that there is no motion besides the categories , he does not assign motions to the categories of action and passion. • After mentioning that the entities in the categories come in oppositions, Aristotle submits a few lines later that there are as many kinds of motion and change as there are kinds of being.

Classical Philosophy After Aristotl

Epicur us

EPICURUS •Son of Neocles and Chaerestrate, was an Athenian from the district of Gargettus district, of the Philaidae clan, as Metrodorus reports in his book On Noble Birth.  •Other sources, including Heraclides in his Epitome of Sotion, report that he grew up in Samos, after the Athenians divided up the land for colonization •He came to Athens at age eighteen, when Xenocrates lectured at the Academy, and Aristotle in Chalcis.  • But when Alexander of Macedon died, and the Athenians at Samos were evicted by Perdiccas, Epicurus left Athens to join his father in Colophon. 

Physics •In physics Epicurus founded upon Democritus, and his chief object was to abolish the dualism between mind and matter which is so essential a point in the systems of Plato and Aristotle. •All that exists, says Epicurus, is corporeal; the intangible is non-existent, or empty space. •If a thing exists it must be felt, and to be felt it must exert resistance. •But not all things are intangible which our senses are not subtle enough to detect.

•

The fundamental postulates of Epicureanism are atoms and the void.

•

Space is infinite, and there is an illimitable multitude of indestructible, indivisible and absolutely compact atoms in perpetual motion in this illimitable space.

•

These atoms, differing only in size, figure and weight, are perpetually moving with equal velocities, but at a rate far surpassing our conceptions

•

as they move, they are for ever giving rise to new worlds; and these worlds are perpetually tending towards dissolution, and towards a fresh series of creations.

•

This universe of ours is only one section out of the innumerable worlds in infinite space

The Gods •This aspect of the Epicurean physics becomes clearer when we look at his mode of rendering particular phenomena intelligible. •His purpose is to eliminate the common idea of divine interference. •That there are gods Epicurus never dreams of denying. •But these gods have not on their shoulders the burden of upholding and governing the world. • They are themselves the products of the order of nature a higher species than humanity, but not the rulers of man, neither the makers nor the upholders of the world

Augusti ne

Augustine's Life • Aurelius Augustinus was born on November 13, 354, in the Numidian town of Thagaste in Roman North Africa (located in the present-day Algeria). • His parents were Romans citizens of modest means; his father, Patricius, was a pagan, and his mother, Monica, a Christian. • The first nine, of thirteen, books of his Confessions are autobiographical, dramatically recounting the first third of a century of his life to his second birth by baptism, in 387. • The Confessions are mostly a narrative, addressed to God, of his painful, troubled search for spiritual fulfillment.

Faith and Reasons • From the apologetics of the patristic period through the medieval period, philosophers tried to understand the proper mix of the two faculties of reason and faith in a person’s life. •

Which of the two should someone use to understand the world? According to Augustine, philosophy must include both.

• Augustine believed that reason can never be religiously neutral. •

Reason is not one independent approach to the truth while faith is another.

• Reason is a function of the whole person and is affected by the orientation of your heart, your passion, and your faith. • As he puts it, “Faith seeks, understanding finds; whence the prophet says, ‘Unless ye believe, ye shall not understand.’”

• The faith and reason issue also applies to moral knowledge. • Contrary to the Socratic dictum that “Virtue is knowledge,” and that knowing leads you to pursue the truth, Augustine maintained, as a result of his own moral struggles, that knowledge does not produce goodness.” •

According to Augustine, “Faith goes before; understanding follows after.”

• Augustine used reason to work out his own doctrines and to agree with or refute the doctrines of others. • He was also a man of faith. As a philosopher, however, he had to inquire and pursue the truth. • True philosophy had to join faith and reason, he thought. • But according to Augustine, faith was primary.

Ontology and Eudaimonism

• In the Confessions, where Augustine gives his most extensive discussion of the impact of the books of the Platonists, he makes clear that he regards his previous thinking as having been dominated by a common-sense materialism • It was the books of the Platonists that first made it possible for him to conceive the possibility of a nonphysical substance, providing him with a non-Manichean solution to the problem of the origin of evil. • In addition, the books of the Platonists provided him with a metaphysical framework of extraordinary depth and subtlety, a richly textured tableau upon which the human condition can be plotted.

Philosophical Anthropology

• With respect to Augustine's desire to find a viable alternative to the awkward and intractable moral dualism of the Manicheans, there can be little question that his embracing of Neoplatonism is a positive development. • Not only does it allow him to account for evil without substantializing it, but it also provides him with a unified account of the moral drama that constitutes the human condition. • Even so, this metaphysical architectonic is prone to tensions of its own, some of which lend themselves to a kind of moral dualism not altogether unlike that of the Manicheans. • For Augustine, the individual human being is a bodysoul composite, but in keeping with his Neoplatonism, there is an asymmetry between soul and body.

Philosophy in the Early Middle Ages

Boethi us

Boethius’ Life • Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius was born in or near Rome around the year 480 A.D. • Orphaned young, he was brought up in the household of one of the richest and most venerable aristocrats of the time, Symmachus •

He married Symmachus's daughter and pursued a typical career for a senatorial scion of the time, alternating between ceremonial public office and private leisure.

• In two ways, however, Boethius was unique. • He was far and away the best educated Roman of his age: indeed, there had been no one like him for a century, and there would never be another (the senate, long since ceremoniously inane, disappeared forever by the end of the sixth century). • He had a command of the Greek language adequate to make him a student, translator, and commentator of the Platonic philosophies of his age (to which we give the name Neoplatonism, to distinguish their opinions from the original doctrines of Plato himself). • Boethius may in fact have studied in the Greek east, perhaps at Athens, perhaps at Alexandria, but we cannot be sure. • At any rate, he undertook an ambitious project of translating and interpreting all the works of both Plato and Aristotle and then -- he opined -- demonstrating the essential agreement of the two.

Anselm's Ontological Argument • Anselm's ontological argument purports to be an a priori proof of God's existence. • Anselm starts with premises that do not depend on experience for their justification and then proceeds by purely logical means to the conclusion that God exists. •

His aim is to refute the fool who says in his heart that there is no God.

• Anselm's goal is to show that this combination is unstable. Anyone who understands what it means to say that God exists can be led to see that God does exist.

• What follows is an attempt to clarify the argument as it is presented in Chapter II of the Proslogium. • After you have worked through this page, you might try to produce a similar gloss on the second argument. • This will not be easy: the argument is notoriously complicated. • But you might find it a useful exercise nonetheless.

Aquinas and His Late Medieval Successors • Thomas Aquinas brought together the insights of Classical Philosophy and Christians Theology which pertains to the study of nature of God and some religious truth. • According to him, Classical philosophy and Christian Theology are related to each other • Augustine blends the philosophy and theology by combining the Christian Faith with the Plato’s philosophical thoughts. • On the other hand, the medieval thinkers were not agree to Aquinas and Augustine.

Aquinas’s Life -He was born in 1225 near Naples -His father hopes that someday he will enjoy a high ecclesiatical position which pertains ton the position in the church. -He recognized the significance grounding Christian faith

philosophy and science for

-He concluded that Christian thinker must philosophical and scientific learning in all its forms

master

-He used Aristotle’s philosophical thoughts creatively and systematically -He died in a monastery at the age of 49

Philosophy and Theology • Aquinas is a theologian and he seems like a Christian because of his thoughts • He brought together the idea o f philosophy and theology • He describes the boundary between faith reason although he bring that together, philosophy and theology were not the same as because there are things that the philosophy provide but cannot provide by the theology

and still it is can

Faith and Reason -Faith pertains to theology and reason pertains to philosophy -Aquinas noticed the difference among them although they both pertains to the truth -Philosophy can tell us about the existence of God but it doesn’t pertains to what God gives us or the creatures of God by means of reflecting, the theology can tell us that

Proofs of God’s existence Aquinas formulated some proofs of God’s existence 1.The first proof is motion, all of us in this world was able to move and we re all movers. Each and ever y one of us is the reason why there is a motion -If there is a motion, there is also life -Motion is one of the proof of God’s existence because God is the reason why we are all able to move

According to Aquinas, there are 4 kinds of law: 1.)Eternal Law- This law refers to the fact that the whole community of the universe is governed by divine reason. 2.)Natural Law- Consists of broad general concepts, it reflects on God intentions for people in creation. It represents our rational knowledge of the good. 3.)Human Law- A law made by the human to make the country peaceful and it is based on human reason. 4.)Divine Law- A kind of Law that can direct us to that supernatural end. It is not the product of human reason unlike the human law. It is gave to us through God’s grace.

HUMAN NATURE AND KNOWLEDGE  Human beings are a unity of body and soul. In other words, our body is not just a body but it has soul which gives form in our body.  Our body is the reason why we have senses and we can use our sense to gain knowledge.  The unity of our body and soul is very important.

Philosophy During Renaissance •Humanism and Italian Renaissance art during the middle Ages was filled with religious symbolism and they make use of it for teaching biblical stories.

Pico Pico Della Mirandola is the most vivid representative of Renaissance humanism •His most famous piece is the oration on Human Dignity, a brief speech and the philosophical context of this is the classic theory of the great chain of being. •He begins his oration b y asking what makes humanity so special and the answer to this is that God created us uniquely below the angels and above the animals.

According to him:  God in fact filled every conceivable niche in the chain of being with some kind of creature  God saw that every slot was already occupied by something  God’s solution was to allow people to select their own spot within the great chain.

Machiavelli •He was a product of Italian Renaissance •Savonarola was his great preacher •Savonarola taught Machiavelli an early lesson about the relative power of good and evil forces in society. •Machiavelli composed two books: (1) The Discourses and (2) the Prince in 1513 but it was published after his death •The one that he write which is the Discourses expressed enthusiasm or the great interest for self government and liberty emphasis •While the Prince is about n the need for an absolute monarch •-He thought that all people are evil because he found corruption at every level of political and religious government and even the popes of his day wer e of such bad repute •According to him, corrupt society needs a strong government •He believed that monarchy or rule by a single person was the most preferable form of government

Luther •He was deeply influenced by two great medieval philosophers- Augustine and Ockham. •Augustine argued that sin rests in the bondage of the human will not in ignorance, therefore faith not reason that overcomes our sinful predicament. •According to Luther, things that seem impossible to reason are possible to faith. •Ockham argued that we cannot discover God through the mere use of reason and so-called proofs for his existence •We gain knowledge of God trough faith, Luther adopted this position wholeheartedly and rejected Aquinas’s natural theology •According to Luther, the problem with human reason is that being finite, it tends to reduce everything to its own limited perspective.

Erasmus •Desiderius Erasmus was an important figure both as as humanist and for the Reformation. •He was born in Rotterdam in 1466 •He sought to uncover the pure and simple elements of Christianity that had been overlaid and obscured by the excessive rationalism. •When he study at the College Montaigue in Paris, his enthusiasm for classical literature was stimulated. •He began his first book entitled the: Adagiorium Chiliades •He made several contributions to the spirit of renaissance. •He saw a close similarity between Plato’s philosophy and the teachings of Jesus. •He mainly wished to harmonized the church’s teachings with the new humanistic learning.

Montaigne •He expressed the captivating version of classical Skepticism. •He discovered a new way of viewing daily life. •He saw himself as a n unpremeditated philosopher- one who was not confined intellectually to some rigid set of ideas within which his thought and life must be expressed. •For him Skepticism o r the doubting attitude was a liberating force. •According to him, contentment is possible only when we achieve tranquility of mind or being calm of the mind. •A good place to begin is with one’s own personal experiences. •He saw in Skepticism a source for a positive affirmation of all facets of human life.

Pascal •Blaise Pascal was another who was strongly influenced by the resurgence of Skepticism •He was renown as a mathematician and scientist •He laid the foundations of infinitesimal calculus and integral calculus •When he was 31y/o, he underwent a deep religious experience which influenced the rest of his life as thinker although he devoted himself to his deep faith to God. •The formula for his new way of thinking is found in his famous statement “The heart has its reasons which the reason does not understand. This is quite true because if we are falling in love, our hearts has its reasons why we love that person but we are unable to identify and understand the reason behind why we really love that person.

Bacon •He assigned himself the task of reforming the philosophy and science of his day •According to him, knowledge is power. It is true that our knowledge will serves as our power because knowledge is the thing that we can really keep and we can use it wherever and whenever we want to use it. •He was destined to live, work, and think in a style befitting one of high social rank •He was born in 1561 •Through the succeeding years, he was honored by Queen Elizabeth and King James I as a member of Parliament, the House of Lords, and in time became Solicitor General and Lord Chancellor •His philosophical works are as significant as they are monumental. •The Bacon principal objective was: the total reconstruction •Of the sciences, art s and all human knowedge

Distempers of Learning •Bacon attacked past ways of thinking, calling them “distempers of learning”, to which he offered a cure. •He named three of these: fantastical learning, contentious learning and delicate learning.-In fantastical learning people concern themselves with words, emphasizing texts, languages and styles and hunt more than matter. •Contentious Learning is even worse he said, because it begins with the fixed positions or points of view taken by earlier thinkers and these view are used as the starting point in contentious argumentation. •The delicate learning wherein earlier authors who claim more knowledge can be proved.

IDOLS OF MIND Bacon refers to four idols which he metaphorically calls the Idols of the Tribe, the Cave the Market Place and the theatre 1.)These idols, of false phantoms are distortions of the mind. The idols of tribe involve our preoccupation with opinions following from the false assertion that the sense of man is the measure of things. Simply looking at things is no guarantee that we will see them as they really are. 2.)The idols of the Cave were taken by Bacon from the Platonic allergy and again suggest the limitations of the untrained mind. 3.)The third class of Idols is aptly designated as the idols of the Market Place since it stands for the words people use.

Hobbes •He was born in Westspot near Malmesbury, England •His education at Oxford stirred in him a fascination for classical literature whereas his exposure to Aristotelian Logic left him bored. •In England, Hobbes was much admired by Bacon who as, chancellor, enjoyed conversations with him to translate Thucydides. •In his early forties, his interest shifted to mathematics and analysis with his discovery of Euclid’s Elements- a book that made him in love in Geometry.

INFLUENCE OF GEOMETRY UPON HOBBES’S THOUGHT •His initial fascination with mathematics came from his encounter with Euclid. •He joined that small but eloquent company of thinkers who saw in geometry the key to the study of nature. •He assumed that no mattered what the object of the study was, he could gain exact knowledge through the method of observation. Sometimes our observations can really provide us reliable knowledge. •Hobbes called the father of modern totalitarianism although not accurate •He describes the relation between citizen and sovereign in such severe terms that it is no wonder he brought upon himself widespread criticism.

Mechanical View of Human Thought •The human minds works in various ways , ranging from perception, to imagination to memory, to thinking. All types of mental activity are fundamentally the same because they are all motions in our bodies. •Physical or mental activity happened in our body cause motion •When we at the object, we will see what Hobbes called phantasm. •Phantasm is the image within us caused by an object outside of us. •For him, perception is not the sensation of motion or the sensation of the exact qualities that an object actually possesses. •One of his concept was the retention of the image within us after the object is removed is what Hobbes means imagination. •Thus, thinking is something quite different from sensation and memory. •In sensation, the sequence of images in our mind is determined by what is happening outside of us, whereas thinking we seem to put ideas together whichever way we wish. •On the other hand, he proved that there is still difference between the mind of an animal and the mind of the human being, even though both of them have a sensation and memory and because of the fact that everyone of them has its own capacity to function.

Ratinalism On The Continent • •

•

•

• •

Rene Descartes is the founder of Continental Rationalism and he initiated the Modern Philosophy Descartes, Baruch Spinoza, Gottfried Leibniz fashioned a new vision for philosophy. Influenced by the progress of science, they attempted to provide philosophy with the exactness of mathematics. The rationalists assumed that what they could think clearly with their minds did in fact exist in the world outside their minds. Descartes and Leibniz even argued that certain ideas are innate in the human mind, and, given the proper occasion, experience would cause these innate truths to become selfevident. Spinoza proposed a monism, saying that there is only a single substance, namely, “Nature”. Leibniz was a pluralist, saying that there are different kinds of elemental substance which make up the world.

Descartes -Descartes studied in the Jesuit college of La Fleche, where his curriculum included mathematics, logic, and philosophy. -He wrote his principal philosophical works, including his Discourse on Method , Meditations on First Philosophy, Principles of Philosophy and The Passions of the Soul. -He went to Sweden in 1649 to instruct Queen Christina in his philosophy. From there, he encountered bitter cold that made him easy prey to illness. -With a few months, he suffered an attacked of fever, and in February, 1650, at the age of 54, he died. THE QUEST FOR CERTAINTY -Descartes was chiefly concerned with the problem of intellectual certainty. -Looking back on his studies, his study shows that ancient literature provided him with charming fables that stimulated his mind.

•He thought that by exposing himself to people of the world he would discover more exacting reasoning , since in practical life, as compared with scholarly activity, a mistake in reasoning has harmful consequences. • Descartes decided to believed nothing too certainly of which had only been convinced by example and custom. • He broke with the past and gave philosophy afresh start. • He was determined to discover the basic of intellectual certainty in his own reason. • He gave philosophy afresh start by using only those truths he could know through his own powers as the foundation for all other knowledge. • His goal is to arrived at a system of thought whose various principles were not only true but connected in such a clear way that we could move easily from one true principle to another. • He was not finding only the truth but the essence of a particular principle.

DESCARTES’S METHOD • His method consists of harnessing the abilities of the mind with a special set of rules. He insisted on the necessity of method and on systematic and orderly thinking. • The Example of Mathematics • Descartes looked to mathematics for the best example of clear and precise thinking. In accordance to this, numbers never lies since he is searching for the truth, that’s the reason why his specialization is mathematics because numbers always shows what’s the truth. • He wanted to make all knowledge a sort of “universal mathematics”. • He was convinced that the mathematical certainty is the result of a special way of thinking. • Geometry and Arithmetic are only examples of his new methods. • In addition, mathematical reasoning showed how we progress in an orderly way from what we do know to what we don’t know.

RULES OF METHOD -This Rule is done to provide a clear and orderly procedure for the operation of the mind. -It begins with a simple and absolutely clear truth and must move step by step without losing clarity and certainty along the way. The following are the most important rule: Rule III: When we propose to investigate a subject, our inquiries should be directed, not to what others have thought, nor to what we ourselves conjecture . But to what we can clearly and perspicuously behold and with certainty deduce. Rule IV: This is a rule requiring that other rules be adhered to strictly for if a person observes them accurately, he shall never assume what is false as true, and will never spend his mental efforts to no purpose. Rule V: We shall comply with the method exactly if we “reduced involved and obscure propositions step by step to those that are simpler, and then starting with the intuitive apprehension of all those that are absolutely simple, attempt to ascend to the knowledge of all others by precisely similar steps. Rule VIII: If in the matters to be examined we come to a step in the series of which our understanding is not sufficiently well able to have a intuitive cognition, we must stop short there.

Spinoza -Baruch Spinoza was among the greatest of Jewish philosophers. -His refusal to accept the chair of philosophy at Heidelberg was further evidence of his desire to preserve his freedom to pursue his ideas wherever the search for truth might lead him. -He was born in Amsterdam in 1632 in a family of a Portuguese Jews who had fled from persecution in Spain -He was influenced by Descartes' rationalism. Their interest is similar but Spinoza was not a follower of Descartes. Spinoza only add new philosophical thought about continental rationalism.

SPINOZA’S METHOD -He thought that we can achieve exact knowledge of reality by following the method of geometry. -Descartes and Spinoza has the same principle that numbers symbolizes truth and it is exact, Spinoza add some philosophical thoughts with regards with this.

KNOWLEDGE, MIND AND BODY -Spinoza distinguished between three levels of knowledge and describes how we can move from the lowest to highest. -”The more we understand individual things, the more we understand God”- by refining our knowledge of things, we can move from (1) Imagination (2) reason (3) intuition) • At a level of imagination, our ideas are derived from sensation. -We find to get/create new ideas by using our sense and from there, we can be able to create an imagination. 2. The second level of knowledge goes beyond imagination to reason. This is a scientific knowledge. -From the idea that we had, we can know if our idea is reliable by reasoning. -3. The third and highest level of knowledge is intuition. Through intuition, we can grasp the whole system of Nature.

Leibniz -Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz showed unmistakable signs of a brilliant mind. -He developed infinitesimal calculus and published his results three years before Sir Isaac Newton had released his manuscript to the printers. -Leibniz was born at Leipzig in 1646 and entered the University there at the age of 15. -At Leipzig, he studied philosophy. SUBSTANCE -Leibniz was dissatisfied with the way Descartes and Spinoza had described the nature of substance. -Spinoza’s monism was a pantheism in which God was everything and everything was part of everything else. In part of this, God is everything because he is the one who created the universe and all the things in this world is created by God.

EXTENSION VERSUS FORCE -According to Descartes and Spinoza extension implies three dimensional size and shape. -Descartes assumed that extension refers to a material substance that is extended in space and is not divisible into something more primary. -Observing that the bodies or things we see with our senses are divisible into smaller parts.

MONADS -Democritus and Epicurus, argued that all things are atoms but Leibniz rejected this notion of atoms, because Democritus had described these atoms as extended bodies, as irreducible bits of matter. -Leibniz argued that the truly simple substances are the monads and these are “the true atoms of nature……… the elements of things” -Leibniz wanted to emphasized that substance must contain life or a dynamic force -A monad is a point, not a mathematical or a physical point but a metaphysically existent point. -Each monad is independent of other monads. -Leibniz was saying that monad are logically prior to any corporeal forms

EVIL AND THE BEST OF ALL POSSIBLE WORLDS -The harmony of the world le Leibniz to argue not only that God had preestablished it but also that in doing this God created the best of all possible worlds. -Leibniz was aware of the fact of evil and disorder but considered it compatible with the notion of a benevolent creator. -The source of evil is not God but rather the very nature of things God creates, for as these things are finite or limited, they are imperfect.

FREEDOM -According to Leibniz, freedom does not mean volition – it is the power of choice. -Freedom means the power of choice, we consider ourselves free because we are able to do what we want and that is our choice.. -Freedom in this sense, means the ability to become what we are destined to be without obstructions. -Although we are determine ton act in specific ways, it is our own internal nature that determines our acts.

KNOWLEDGE AND NATURE -For Leibniz, to know the subject is already to know certain predicates, -Leibniz distinguished between truths of reason and truths of facts. -According to him, truths of reason is purely by logic and the truths of fact is by experience. -Mathematics is a striking example of the truth of reason, since its propositions are true when they pass the test of the law of contradiction. -The truth of fact are known through experience and they are not necessary a propositions.

Utilitarianism and Positivism Utilitarianism according to this theory, moral actions are those which produce the greatest number of people. it is the belief that utility of actions determines moral value. it is about a person’s act where all members will benefit.

Positivism according to this theory, we should reject any investigation that does not rest on direct observation.  it is the belief that if things are not observable or existing then it is not knowable. believes that authentic knowledge is scientific knowledge.

Bentham and Mill argued that moral goodness involves achieving the greatest amount of pleasure and minimizing the greatest amount of pain for the greatest number of people. According to them, moral goodness is the additional virtue of scientific accuracy.

Hobbes had already tried to construct a science of human nature and turned his back on traditional moral thought, emphasizing instead people’s selfish concern for their own pleasure.

Hume ethics for him has something to do with our experiences of sympathetic pleasure.

Jeremy Bentham Life: born 1748 in Red Lion Street, Houndsditch, London. showed early signs of intellectual abilities. at age 4, he was already studying Latin grammar. at age 8, he was sent off to Westminster School. at age 12, he entered Queen’s College in Oxford. 1763, he took BA degree in Lincoln’s Inn returned to Oxford because of William Blackstone. with deep concentration, he had observed the fallacy respecting natural rights. formulated the ‘rhetorical nonsense – nonsense on stilts’. tried to bring order and moral defensibility into what he considered the deplorable state of both the law and the social realities that the law made possible. “A Fragment on Government” (1776), his first book that was an attack on Blackstone. remained as a powerful public figure until his death 1832, age of 84.

The Principle of Utility

nature has placed mankind whether under pain or pleasure. each person only concern on gaining and maximizing happiness and in people’s life not only pleasures but also pains gives the real value of actions taking place. Sanctions sources of pleasures and pains which may also be called as causes of behavior. • Physical • Political • Moral • Religious

The Pleasure – Pain Calculus

*Lots – mathematical units for pleasure or pain. - the value depends on pleasure’s intensity, duration certainty and propinquity or nearness. - According to Bentham, in balancing the sum of the values of pleasures on the side and the sum of the values of pains on the other side, the act is good if it be on the pleasure side while if it be on the pain side, the act is bad.

Law and Punishment

use of the principle of utility.

The Object of Law *Legislation – (Bentham’s method) to measure the ‘mischief of an act’ consisting consequences that the act which produces pain or evil must be discouraged. *Law – eliminates and discourage evil doings for the sake of giving total happiness of the whole community.

Punishment “all punishment is in itself evil” (Bentham) because it causes pain and suffering. since the object of law aims to augment total happiness in the community, punishment done must be useful in order to attain the goal of having totality pleasure. according to Bentham, punishment should not be inflicted in the following situations: 1. when punishment is groundless 2. when punishment is inefficacious 3. when punishment is unprofitable or too expensive 4. when punishment is needless

Punishment should be:

variable to fit the particular case equable so as to inflict equal pain commensurable that punishment of different crimes be proportion frugal so as not to be excessive reformatory in order to correct behavior disabling to discourage future offenders compensatory to the sufferer capable of remittance for sufficient cause and should have popular acceptance

Bentham’s Radicalism

*Philosophical Radicals – utilitarian group who eagerly attempted to reform the evils in the society. aims to achieve the greatest happiness of the greatest number. they thought of putting the government in the hands of the people to prevent self- interest and abuse or misuse of power.

John Stuart Mill born in 1806. between ages 3 and 4, he was the object of a rigorous ‘educational experiment’. at the age of 20, he fell into a dull state of nerves because of the intense learning that took its toll on young Mill. married with Harriet Taylor (1807 – 1858), an acclaimed philosopher in her own right. system of logic (1842), Priciples of Political Economy (1848), the essay On Liberty (1859), the essay On Utilitarianism (1861) are some of his literary achievements. his father, James Mill, became a huge influence to him together with other philosophers like Bentham where he got ideas on its literary works. when Bentham died, Mill was 26 years old and started his own philosophy on utilitarianism where to distinguish his approach from that of Bentham’s in significant way.

Mill’s Utilitarianism

writes his ideas and thoughts about utilitarianism that is different from his father and Bentham.

Qualitative versus Quantitative Approach

Bentham uses quantitative approach to pleasure by using analogies like pushpin and that of a thermometer according to him just as a thermometer measures the different degrees of heat, so also a ‘moral thermometer’ could measure the degrees of happiness or unhappiness. On the other side, Mill alters these ideas and use qualitative approach to pleasure. The qualitative aspect of pleasure, Mill thought, was as much an empirical fact as was the quantitative element on which Bentham placed his entire emphasis. Higher happiness, then, is the aim of all human life, a life ‘exempt as far as possible from pain, and as rich as possible in enjoyments’.

Liberty Mill argued that the sole end for which mankind are warranted, individually or collectively, in interfering with the liberty of action of any of their number, is self – protection. Three conditions under which the Government should not interfere with: 1. Government should not interfere when private individuals can perform the action better. 2. Governments should not interfere when it is desirable for the individuals to do it for their development and education. 3. Government should not interfere when there is danger that too much power will unnecessarily accrue to the government. Mill is pointing out here that the government should discourage the use of liberty if people harm other people but not when their selves only. It is better to exercise our own liberty and put ourselves at risk for the sake and benefit of others.

Comte •Auguste Comte is the founder of positivism, a philosophical and political movement which enjoyed a very wide diffusion in the second half of the nineteenth century. It sank into an almost complete oblivion during the twentieth, when it was eclipsed by neopositivism. •Comte's decision to develop successively a philosophy of mathematics, a philosophy of physics, a philosophy of chemistry and a philosophy of biology, makes him the first philosopher of science in the modern sense, and his constant attention to the social dimension of science resonates in many respects with current points of view. •His political philosophy, on the other hand, is even less known, because it differs substantially from the classical political philosophy we have inherited.

1824- he published a series of books of which his Systeme ae Politique Positive 1851-1854- his second Le systeme de politique positive 1852- Catechisme positiviste 1856- Synthese subjective 1857- His career ended when he died at the age of 59 His objective: was the total reorganization of society. But he was convinced that this practical objective first required the reconstruction or at least reformation of the intellectual orientation of his era.

The Law of the Three strategies Each stage representing a different way of discovering truth   First stage is THEOLOGICAL, people explain phenomena in reference to divine causal forces. Second stage is METAPHYSICAL, replaces human centered concepts of divinity with impersonal and abstract forces. Third stage is POSITIVISTIC, that only the constant relations between phenomena are considered and all attempts to explain things by reference to beings beyond our experience are given up.   He believed that this law is at work in the history of ideas, in science, and in the political realm.    

Nietzsche •Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche was a 19th century German philosopher and classical philologist. •He’s influence remains substantial within and beyond philosophy, notably in existentialism and postmodernism. •His style and radical questioning of the value and objectivity of truth have resulted in much commentary and interpretation, mostly in the continental tradition, and to a lesser extent in analytic philosophy. •His key ideas include the interpretation of tragedy as an affirmation of life, an eternal recurrence, a rejection of Platonism and a repudiation of both Christianity and egalitarianism.

•He calls himself an "immoralist" and harshly criticizes the prominent moral schemes of his day: Christianity, Kantianism, and utilitarianism. •He did not want to destroy morality, but rather to initiate a re-evaluation of the values of the Judeo-Christian world. •He indicates his desire to bring about a new, more naturalistic source of value in the vital impulses of life itself. •He presents master-morality as the original system of morality — perhaps best associated with Homeric Greece. •Value arises as a contrast between good and bad, or between 'life-affirming' and 'life-denying': wealth, strength, health, and power (the sort of traits found in a Homeric hero) count as good; while bad is associated with the poor, weak, sick, and pathetic (the sort of traits conventionally associated with slaves in ancient times).

God is Dead • According to him, recent developments in modern science and the increasing secularization of European society had effectively 'killed' the Christian God, who had served as the basis for meaning and value in the West for more than a thousand years. • He claimed the 'death' of God would eventually lead to the loss of any universal perspective on things, and along with it any coherent sense of objective truth. Instead we would retain only our own multiple, diverse, and fluid perspectives. This view has acquired the name "perspectivism". • Developing this idea, Nietzsche wrote ‘Thus Spoke Zarathustra’, therein introducing the concept of a value-creating Ubermensch.

Will to Power •This provides a basis for understanding motivation in human behavior. • He suggests that the will to power is a more important element than pressure for adaptation or survival. •According to Nietzsche's concept, the will to power applies to all living things, suggesting that adaptation and the struggle to survive is a secondary drive in the evolution of animals, less important than the desire to expand one’s power. •Nietzsche eventually took this concept further still, and transformed the idea of matter as centers of force into matter as centers of will to power. •Nietzsche wanted to dispense with the theory of matter, which he viewed as a relic of the metaphysics of substance

Marx •He was a philosopher, political economist, historian, political theorist, sociologist, communist and revolutionary, whose ideas are credited as the foundation of modern communism. •He summarized his approach in the first line of the first chapter of The Communist Manifesto, published in 1848: “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.” •He argued that capitalism, like previous socioeconomic systems, will inevitably produce internal tensions which will lead to its destruction. •He believed socialism will, in its turn, replace capitalism, and lead to a stateless, classless society called pure communism.

• He assumed that human nature involves transforming nature. To this process of transformation he applies the term "labour", and to the capacity to transform nature the term "labour power." • He sees transformation as a simultaneously physical and mental act. • Marx's analysis of history focuses on the organization of labor and depends on his distinction between: 7. the means / forces of production, literally those things (like land, natural resources, and technology) necessary for the production of material goods; and 8. the relations of production, in other words, the social relationships people enter into as they acquire and use the means of production.

ragmatism and Process Philosop Pragmatism was more of a method of solving problems than it was a metaphysical system of the world. mediated between two traditions, one on Darwin’s theory and Descartes rationalistic philosophy.

Process philosophy did not offer a specific vision of the nature of things.

Pierce Charles Sanders he was born in 1839. He was educated in mathematics, science and philosophy at home under his father’s discipline. at ages 16 and 20, he studied at Harvard College. Received an MA in mathematics and chemistry and work for 3 years at Harvard Observatory. Little of his total literary output appeared during his lifetime because of resistance from publishers.

Theory of Meaning  Pragmatism comes from the Greek word ‘pragma’

meaning act and deeds which implies that words derive their meaning to actions.  Pierce is that our idea of anything is our idea of its sensible effects. Thus, a word has no meaning if it refers to an object about which no practical effects can be conceived.  Meaning are not individual or private but social and public because we derive meaning from our experiences.

Elements of Meaning:

1. Method of science requires that we state not only what

truth we believe but also how arrived at it. 2. Method of science is highly self – critical. 3. Method of science requires a high degree of cooperation among all members of the scientific community.

James William James born in 1842 and came from a cultured family. Receives his MD from Harvard Medical School. Moved from psychology and philosophy, producing the famous principles of psychology. Died in 1910 at age of 68. Had fashioned a new approach and philosophy and managed to communicate his pragmatic principles to an unusually wide audience.

Pragmatism as a method assumed that human life has a purpose and that rival theories about human nature and the world to be tested against this purpose. pragmatism takes its cue from the newly discovered facts of life.

The Pragmatic theory of Truth *Truth – essentially an inert static relation.

According to James, when you got your true idea of anything, there’s an end of the matter because as well as all believe. Life is a never ending search for truth throughout our lives and if a certain truth have been found, then, that’s the end of it. Truth then lives on a credit system because it is said that for one truth process completed, there are million in our lives that function in this state of nascency. He also distinguish the difference between tough- minded and tender minded approaches to truth • Pragmatist would look only at more specific kinds of successful behavior. • Pragmatists would consider less scientific behavior in the truth process.

Free Will *Will – relates solely to the existence of possibilities. In the issue about whether human will is free or determined, James uses pragmatic approach and different ideas arises. He believes that what makes us different is our consciousness. For one thing, we are capable of judgments of regrets. Not only do we make judgments of regrets but we make moral judgments of approval and disapproval. It is said that determined will is simply not a choice. For James, free will is more true because it better accommodates judgments of regret and morality.

The Will to Believe when reason is truly neutral on an urgent issue, we may rightfully believe based solely on our feelings, agues James on his essay “The Will to Believe”. his pointing out that the will of a person to believe in an issue where in the reason is neutral just like the question about God’s existence, the person tends to use his feelings to choose what he wanted to believe. Three conditions that determine when emotionally based beliefs are justified: 1. The belief must be a live option. 2. The choice must be forced in the sense that we may either accept or reject the conception. 3. The issue must be momentous or a major concern. In general, when reason is neutral in matters that are genuine options, we can decide the issue based on our hopes and feelings according to what James believes.

Empiricism in Britain •Empiricism is a theory of knowledge which asserts that knowledge arises from experience. - emphasizes the role of experience and evidence, especially sensory perception, in the formation of ideas, while discounting the notion of innate ideas. •John Locke who was the founder of empiricism in Britain, aimed at the more modest objective of “clearing the ground a little, and removing some of the rubbish that lies the way knowledge”. •The scope of our knowledge is limited to our experience. It simply means that if ever we do not experience anything we are lack of knowledge but if we experience many thing we are said to be full of knowledge. •Without challenge the general view that we can attain certain knowledge, so long as we use the proper method.

Locke •John Locke was born at Wrington, a village in Somerset, on August 29, 1632. He was the son of a country solicitor and small landowner who, when the civil war broke out, served as a captain of horse in the parliamentary army. "I no sooner perceived myself in the world than I found myself in a storm," he wrote long afterwards, during the lull in the storm which followed the king's return. But political unrest does not seem to have seriously disturbed the course of his education. •1646-He entered Westminster school •1652-passed to Christ Church, Oxford, as a junior student •1684-deprived of his studentship by royal mandate •1659-he was elected to a senior studentship •1666- he declined an offer of preferment •1668- he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society •May 1689- He was made commissioner of appeals •1696 to 1700-he was a commissioner of trade and plantations at a salary of L1000 a year •October 28, 1704- his death

Locke’s Theory of Knowledge •He determined the limits of knowledge and can decide what constitutes intellectual certainty. •He also said that all our ideas come to us through some kind of experience. This means that each person’s mind is in the beginning like a blank sheet of paper upon which experience alone can subsequently write knowledge. •  •No innate ideas: means Ideas or concepts that we allegedly acquire or possess prior to experience can be called a priori. Belief in innate ideas is one form of nativism. • 

Primary and Secondary Qualities   •Primary Qualities- those that really exist in the bodies themselves. It refers to the solidity, figure and number that belong to the object. •Secondary Qualities- produce ideas in our minds that have no exact counterpart in the object. Refers to colors, tastes, sounds and odors. •The importance of these qualities is that distinction between the appearance and reality.

The degree of knowledge •Knowledge is defines as nothing more than the perception of the connection of an agreement or disagreement and repugnancy of any of our ideas. •Intuitive knowledge- the clearest and the most certain that human frailty is capable of. From intuition we know that we exist. Experience can convince us that we have intuitive knowledge of our own existence. •Demonstrative knowledge – it occurs when our minds try to discover the agreement or disagreement of ideas by calling attention to still other ideas. •Sensitive knowledge- is not knowledge in the strict sense of the term it only passes under the name of knowledge.

Berkeley   George Berkeley or also known as Bishop Berkeley, he was an Anglo-Irish philosopher whose achievement was the advancement of a theory immaterialism. 1709-His earliest publication was a mathematical one but the first which brought him into notice was his Essay towards a New Theory of Vision, first published 1710-His most widely-read works are A treatise concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge 1713- Three Dialogues between Hylas and Phinolous 1734-he published The Analyst, a critique of the foundations of infinitesimal calculus, which was influential in the development of mathematics.

God and the Existence Of things •  •He did not deny the existence of things or their order in nature, it was necessary for him to explain how things external to our minds exist even we don’t perceive them and how they achieve their order. And because all human minds are intermittently diverted from things there is an omnipresent eternal mind which knows and comprehends all things and exhibits them to our view in a manner to such rules as he himself has ordained and are us termed the Laws of Nature. •The existence of things depends on the existence of God and God is the cause of the orderliness of the things in nature.

Hume •David Hume was a Scottish philosopher, economist, historian and a key figure in the history of Western Philosophy and the Scottish Enlightenment. •He is the son of Joseph Home of Chirnside, advocate, and Katherine Lady Falconer, was born on 26 April 1711 in a tenement on the north side of the Lawnmarket in Edinburgh. •He changed his name in 1734 because the English had difficulty pronouncing 'Home' in the Scottish manner. Throughout his life Hume, who never married, spent time occasionally at his family home at Ninewells by Chirnside, Berwickshare. •Hume was politically a Whig.

Kant

•Immanuel Kant was the last influential philosopher of modern Europe in the classic sequence of the theory of knowledge during the Enlightenment beginning with thinkers John Locke, George Berkeley, and David Hume. In terms of influence, it is often said that there are only three towering figures in western philosophy, namely, Plato, Aristotle, and Kant. •He was born in the East Prussian city of Königsberg, studied at its university, and worked there as a tutor and professor for more than forty years, never travelling more than fifty miles from home. •Although his outward life was one of legendary calm and regularity, Kant's intellectual work easily justified his own claim to have effected a Copernican revolution in philosophy. Beginning with his Inaugural Dissertation (1770) on the difference between right- and left-handed spatial orientations, Kant patiently worked out the most comprehensive and influential philosophical programme of the modern era. His central thesis—that the possibility of human knowledge presupposes the active participation of the human mind —is deceptively simple, but the details of its application are notoriously complex.

Kant’s Critical Philosophy and His Copernican Revolution •Kant’s answer to the question is complicated, but his conclusion is that a number of synthetic a priori claims, like those from geometry and the natural sciences, are true because of the structure of the mind that knows them. • “Every event must have a cause” cannot be proven by experience, but experience is impossible without it because it describes the way the mind must necessarily order its representations. We can understand Kant’s argument again by considering his predecessors. •Kant’s crucial insight here is to argue that experience of a world as we have it is only possible if the mind provides a systematic structuring of its representations.

Analytic Philosophy  One of the dominant philosophical movement in the English speaking world during 20th century.  Analytic philosopher during this time has a big difference to other ordinary philosopher because of their unique methods for addressing issues.  It aspires for a very high level of clarification and the precision of formulation and argument.

Positive Side  Clarify that the new assumption was that philosopher can render a genuine service by carefully unraveling complex problems whose origin rests in the imprecise use of language.  It only support the idea that analytic philosophers required clarification.  For them, philosophy function as the proofreader of the scientists’ expressions, checking the literature of science for its clarity and logical meaningfulness.

Negative Side:  Stated that the philosopher does not formulate philosophical propositions meant for the early analysts that there must be imposed limits on the scope of philosophical activity.  Said that philosophers have a great task and role in finding a more deeper solution on a problem.  They are not involved in finding a nature of reality but it is the scientists tasks.

Russell's Mission  One of the Hegelian philosophers who engaged in the idealist task of system building.  He was a brilliant mathematician, trained in precise thought, and in comparison with the language seemed to him loose and obscure.  He tried to analyze the “facts” for the purpose of inventing a new language, namely, logical atomism.

Logical Atomism  “the kind of philosophy that I wish to advocate, which I call logical atomism, is one which has forced itself upon me in the course of thinking about the philosophy of mathematics” said Russell.  Russell set out first to analyze certain “facts” which he differentiated from “things”.  His basic assumption was that facts, since they have components, must be in some sense complex, and hence must be susceptible to analysis.  According to Russell, language is consists of a unique arrangement of words, and the meaningfulness of language is determined by the accuracy with which these words represents facts.  Atomic fact is a term when a fact is of its simplest kind.  Atomic propositions are propositions that state atomic facts.

Logical Positivism  A dominant philosophy of science.  19th century positivists were disposed to reject metaphysics as outdated by science.

The Principle of Verification  Accordingly, the logical positivists formulated the verification principle.  If a statement passes the stringent requirements of the verification principle, then it is meaningful, and if a statement fails to do so, then it is meaningless.  It offers a two-pronged test. A statement is meaningful if it is either: 9. Analytic which means that it is true by definition. It derived meanings based on the definitions of their words and symbols. It also has a formal meanings and comes from mathematics and logic. 10.Empirically verifiable which means that the statement is one whose truth rests on some kind of empirical observation. Logical positivists believed that we actually verify the truth or falsehood of a given statement.

Carnap’s Logical Analysis  Eminent positivists of Vienna Circle and wrote the book Philosophy and Logical Syntax.  He said that the only proper task of philosophy is Logical Analysis.  The function of logical analysis is to analyze all knowledge, all assertions of science and of everyday life, in order to make clear the sense of each assertion and the connections between them.  Its purpose is to discover how we can become certain of the truth or falsehood of any proposition.  One of its principal tasks is to discover the method of verification of that proposition.  According to Carnap, the method of proposition's verification is either direct or indirect which are central to the scientific method.

Quine’s Critique of empiricism  He attempted to expose a more fundamental problem with empiricism that applied not only to logical positivism but to all traditional accounts of empiricism.  He addresses this in his 1951 essay “Two Dogmas of Empiricism.”  The first dogma is the long-standing assumption that statements neatly divide between those that are analytic and those that are synthetic.  The other dogma is that of reductionism, which holds that every meaningful statement can be translated into a statement about immediate experience.  Quine believed that science and logic are important conceptual schemes and useful tools.

Wittgenstein's Road to Philosophy 



   



Born on April 26,1889, the youngest of eight children of one of the wealthiest and high-placed families in AustroHungarian empire. He went to Manchester to study aeronautics but he can’t deny the powerful inner drive to pursue his interest in philosophy. He suffered from strains of deciding between the two professions of philosophy and engineering. He was encouraged to study under Bertrand Russell. Russell believed that Wittgenstein has been a great event of his life. He is the young moan ones hope for. He devoted himself to his analysis of the problem of logic. He finished his manuscript and enter a university as a lecturer. His book Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus was the only book published.

The New Wittgenstein  He now somewhat believed that language has many functions besides simply picturing objects.  It occurred to Wittgenstein that the assumption that all language states facts and contains a logical skeleton was derived not from observation but from thought.  He therefore shifted his plan of analysis from preoccupation with logic and the construction of a “perfect” language to the study of ordinary usages of language.

Clarifying Metaphysical Language  Wittgenstein did not reject the statements of metaphysics outright instead, he considered metaphysician as a patient instead of a criminal.  Philosophy does not provide us with new or more information, but instead adds clarity by a careful description of language.  If metaphysics displays resistance or a prejudice that obscures the ordinary usage of words, Wittgenstein concedes that this is not a stupid prejudice.

Phenomenology and Existentialism  Phenomenology set asides questions about the so-called objective nature of things.  Existentialism adopted phenomenology’s subjective approach and further developed practical issues of human experience.

Hussel’s Life and Influence  He was born of Jewish parents in the Moravian province of Prossnitz in 1859.  He studied physics, astronomy, mathematics and found time to attend lectures on philosophy.  He earned his PhD in the University of Vienna for his dissertation on “Contributions to the Theory of Calculus of Variations.”  His early interest was in logic and mathematics, and next he developed an early version of phenomenology that focused chiefly on theory of knowledge.  Husserl’s philosophy should have had a variety of influences on different scholars at various times such as Martin Heidegger who was an assistant. Together with Husserl, they prepared an article on phenomenology for the encyclopedia Britannica. Other scholars influenced were Sartre, and Marleau-Ponty.

 Husserl believed that the essence of consciousness is intentionality. He means that any object of consciousness- a pleasure, a number, a house , another person – is something meant, constructed, constituted and intended.  For Husserl, too, intentionality is the active involvement of the self in creating our experience. It is both the structure of consciousness itself and the fundamental category of existence.

Phenomena and Phenomenological Bracketing  Husserl argues that phenomena are ultimately contain in the very subjective act of experiencing something.  By focusing on the phenomena of a thing available to our consciousness, we actually have a more enlarged description of it. For it now includes the real object, our actual perception of it, the object as we mean it, and the act of intentionality.  We can best understand the elements of our experience by discovering the active role of consciousness in intending and creating phenomena.  Husserl's said that we must put aside or bracket ay assumptions about external things. He calls this process phenomenological epoche’ where the term epoche’ is Greek for bracketing. He writes that this method involves detachment from any point of view regarding the objective world.

Heidegger’s Life  Martin Heidegger was an extraordinary thinker whose reputation had spread among students of German universities.  As a teacher, he did not develop a set of ideas or a system of philosophy. He produced nothing in the way of a neat structure of academic ideas that a student could quickly understand and memorize.  He set out to explore the deepest nature of our thinking when we are thinking as existing human beings.  He was able to publish his manuscript in 1927 entitled, “Being and Time”.  He was drafted into the “People’s Militia,” having been declared in 1994 the “most expendable” member of the Freiburg faculty.

Dasein as Being-in-the-World  Heidegger takes a similar approach in Being and Time and attempts to understand Being in general by first understanding human beings.  Throughout the history of philosophy, definitions of human beings have tended to resemble the definition of things.

 To clearly separate Heidegger's views of human beings from traditional theories, he coined the German term Dasein, meaning simply “being there”.  The basic state of human existence is our being-in-the-world. Consider, first our ordinary daily experiences, what Heidegger calls “average everydayness.”  The central feature of our being-in-the-world is that we encounter thing as “gear,” as what they are for.  Dasein possesses a threefold structures that makes possible the way that we project the world. 1. Our understanding, by which we project contexts and purposes to things. It is through these projected interrelationships that things derive meaning. 2. Our mood or approach, which affects how we encounter our environment. These are not merely attitudes; instead, they describe our manner of existence and the way the world exists for us. 3. Our discourse wherein only something that can be formulated in speech can be understood and become subject to our moods.

Jasper  Karl Jasper was a professor in Heidelberg who wrote in several areas including psychology, theology and political thought.  He was influenced by Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, and Husserl, and his philosophical works develop phenomenological and existentialist themes.  His quest is for the reality that underlies the human life-a reality that he simply calls Existence.  He does not reject the technical knowledge of science but he insists that the practice of life requires that we bring to this knowledge some additional reality.  The main task of existence philosophy, then is to deal with existence, and to do this philosophers must consider their own immediate inner and personal experiences.  According to Jasper, existence philosophy is the manner of thought through which we seek to become ourselves. It is a way of thought that does not restrict itself to knowing objects but rather elucidates and makes actual the being of the thinker.

Sartre  Jean-Paul Sartre was born in 1905.  He was attracted to philosophy by Henri Bergson.  He spent 1 year of his study to Husserl’s phenomenology.  He says, “that morality is a simple superstructure, but rather that it exists at the very level of what is called infrastructure.”  He met Simone de Beauvoir, with whom he enjoyed a lifelong companionship.  Sartre lived simply and with few possessions, finding fulfillment in political involvement and travel, and needing only a small apartment.  He died at the age of 74, on April 15,1980.

Existence Precedes Essence  Sartre views were best known from his brief lecture Existentialism Is a humanism.  He later reject this piece and present his classic formulation of the basic principles of existentialism : Existentialism precedes essence.  Sartre argues that we cannot explain human nature in the same way that we can describe a manufactured article.  Each person, is a particular example of the universal conception of Humanity. In short, we all possess the same essence, and our essence precedes our individual concrete or historical existence.  Sartre believed that if there is no God, then there is no given human nature precisely because there is no God to have a conception of it.  People exist, confront themselves, emerge in the world, and define themselves afterwards, as stated by Sartre.

Freedom and Responsibility  Sartre analysis as an amoral subjectivism now turns out to be an ethics of accountability based on individual responsibility.  He says that even though we create our own values and thereby create ourselves, we nevertheless create at the same time an image of our human nature as we believe it ought to be.  People must choose and make decisions, and although we have no authoritative guide, we must still choose and at the same time ask whether you would be willing fro others to choose the same action.  The act of choice, is one that all of us must accomplish with a deep sense of anguish, for in this act we are responsible not only for ourselves but also for each other.  Sartre says that freedom is appalling. This is precisely because there is nothing forcing us to behave in any given way, nor is there a precise pattern luring us in the future.

 Sartre agrees with Husserl that all consciousness is consciousness of something, which means that there is no consciousness without affirming the existence of an object that exists beyond, that is, transcends, our consciousness.  Consciousness shifts us from being-in-itself to being-foritself, where consciousness dramatically differentiates the objects of the world from the conscious self as subject.  The activity of consciousness is at this point twofold. 4. Consciousness defines specific things in the world and invests them with meaning. 5. Consciousness puts a distance between itself and objects and in that way, attains freedom from those objects.  The activity of consciousness is what is usually called “choice.” We choose to undertake this project or that project, and the meaning of things in the world will depend to a considerable extent on what project we choose.

Ponty  Maurice Merleau-Ponty was born in 1908.  He broke with the Catholicism as he worked through his version of phenomenology in his first work, The structure of Behavior.  He and Sartre unfolded as a stormy relationship during which they would be alternately friends and enemies. They published Les Temps Moderne, a journal aimed at a political commentary.  A few years later, Merleau-Ponty wrote a book, Adventures of the Dialectic, in which he included a chapter analyzing in detail Sartre’s relationship with communism.

The Relativity of Knowledge  Merleau-Ponty says that, “in the final analysis every perception takes place within a certain horizon and ultimately in the world.”  That follows the fact that perception results from a person’s bodily presence in the world.  Ponty tries to solve the problem by using the concept of an “a priori of the species.”  “What I see be seen by you also,” said Merleau-Ponty.

Perception and Politics  Merleau-Ponty rejects the lofty claims of abstract theories of political, justice and morality.  Universal political values were imposed by people who themselves had not participated in creating those system of government.  Ponty argues that things are not all that we encounter through perception.  Perception provides us with the important element of meaning.  He held that it is possible to perceive in actual society the developing consciousness of the working class.

Recent Philosophy  Philosophy is more on multicultural now than it has ever been.  Philosophy now is driven less by the thoughts of great individual minds and more so by great issues and movements within the discipline.  It also recognizes the philosophical contributions of nonwestern cultures.

The Mind Body- Problem  It is one of the oldest and most explored areas of philosophy.  Descartes attempted to explain how are spiritual minds interact with our physical bodies.  The dominant issue is not one of how our spiritual minds interact with our physical brains, instead the concern is with how our mental experiences can be best explained in terms of brain activity.

Ryle’s Ghost in the Machine   

Ryle contends that the official doctrine of mind is unsound and contradicts virtually everything we know about human mentality. Because this traditional theory completely isolates the mind from the body, and this is termed as “dogma of the Ghost in the Machine.” He says that people who are perfectly capable of applying concepts are nevertheless liable in their abstract thinking to allocate those concepts to logical categories to which they do not belong.

Identity Theory and Functional Existentialism  



Ryle’s behaviorism presumes that we can explain everything there is about mental events by looking solely at sensory input and behavioral output. Identity theory is the view that mental states are identical to brain activity. It attempts to bring the whole issue of human consciousness under the umbrella of science – specifically, neuroscience. The most common criticism of identity theory is that it fails a principle called Leibniz’s law. Leibniz argued that two things are truly identical, then properties asserted about the one thing must also be assreted about the other.

Searle’s Chinese Room Argument   

John Searle is a former student of John Austin at Oxford University. Searle was bothered by grandiose claims of computer scientist that a computer program could interpret stories the way humans do. Searle counters the view with a picturesque through experiment. Suppose that I, or some other non-Chinese speaking person, am put in a room and given three sets of Chinese characters.  A large batch of Chinese writing constituting the structure of that language.  A story, and  Questions about the story.  According to Searle, it is quite obvious that “I do not understand a word of the Chinese stories. I have inputs and outputs that are indistinguishable from those of the native Chinese speaker, and I can have any formal program you like, but I still understand nothing.”  For Searle this scenario goes against both of the above claims of strong artificial intelligence.

Rorty’s Analytic Philosophy  Richard Rorty is an American philosopher who stated that analytic philosophy did not usher in a major change in the assumptions of philosophy.  What is new in analytic philosophy, Rorty says, is the conviction that knowledge is presented by what is linguistic and not by what is mental.  We still have in analytic philosophy,  “knowing subject,”  a “reality out there,” and  A “theory of representation” It describes how reality is represented to the knowing subject.

Virtue Epistemology  Epistemology-the study of knowledge-focuses on the ways that we acquire knowledge and the standards that we use for maintaining that we know things.  Virtue epistemology, though, shifts the emphasis from the properties of my belief to the properties of me the person.  Virtue responsibilism is a bolder version of virtue epistemology which maintains that the mental abilities that are truly important for knowledge are good intellectual character traits.  Aristotle maintained about moral virtues, these epistemological virtues are acquired through practice and eventually become habits of thinking.  According to Zagzebski who is a proponent of this approach, there are two features present when we act upon epistemological virtues.  Our virtuous motivation wherein other intellectually virtuous people would rather perform the same act in similar circumstances.  Reliable success wherein through our virtuous counduct we arrive at truth.

Structuralism  





  

It began in the early 1900s as a theory explaining the nature of language. Ferdinand de Saussure was bothered by standard 19th century linguistic theories that presumed to find some commonality between various foreign languages. He argued that each language is a closed formal system – an entity unto itself – with no significant connection to other languages or even to the physical objects to which the words presumably refer. Saussure realized that his theory had implications beyond language and in fact could apply to other systems of social convention. The two key components of the structuralist movement, then, are The meaning of a thing is defined by its surrounding cultural structures. The system has a coherent structure that is reflected in paired opposites.

Post-Structuralism Appeared in the 1970’s which is both an expansion on and refutation of structuralism. It has branched out into several disciplines, perhaps most notably in the field of literary criticism. In philosophy, post-structuralism is most associated with the French philosopher Jacques Derrida. He target philosophy books and argues that throughout the history of Western thought philosophers have built their theories around key opposing concepts. Derrida believes that these philosophical concepts are also suspect. Through a technique that he calls deconstruction, he attempts to show that all of these paired opposites in philosophy are in fact self-refuting. According to Derrida, one of the more central dichotomies underlying philosophical discourse is that between speech and writing. He stated that both speech and writing involve basic elements of language such as conventional use of symbols and strict rules of grammar.

Postmodernism Postmodernism is not a single philosophical theory; to be so would be self-defeating. Instead, it is an umbrella movement that covers a variety of critiques of the modern conception of things. Post-structuralism is perhaps the most dominant of these, and for this reason the terms postmodern and poststructural are often used interchangeably. However, much of the recent philosophy targets modernism and thus would also count as postmodern. Much of postmodernist discussion extends well beyond the discipline of philosophy, which is only one manifestation of modern culture. Postmodernists writers, musicians, and artists thus attempt to break the traditional molds of their respective genres.

Prepared by: NR – 22 “Philosophy of Man”

Leader:

Eloise Pateño Asst. leader:

Members:

Hannah Kaye Bacani Aina Boydon