GNED 08

• Philosophy

  Love of wisdom
• In Athens of Ancient Greece, approximately 600BCE, marked the birth of Philosophy as it influenced Western thought and still has until today
• Questions centered on the universe and what possible role man may play in it
• Greek philosophers in Miletus

  • Sought natural explanations to events and phenomena instead of seeking supernatural explanations from the gods
  • Observed changes in the world and wanted to explain these changes by understanding the laws of nature
• Another group of philosophers shifted their search and focused on man. They sought to understand the nature of human beings, problems of morality and life philosophies
• Socrates


  A stonemason with a sharp mind, who wanted to discover the essential nature of knowledge, justice, beauty and goodness
• Socratic/dialectic method


  1. Search for the correct/proper definition of a thing

  2. Asking questions and engaging the person in a discussion

  3. Acting as if he did not know anything and getting the other person to clarify their ideas and resolve logical inconsistencies
• Plato

  • Established a school known as 'The Academy'
  • His metaphysics is known as the 'Theory of Forms'
• Plato's Theory of Forms


  • The Forms are ageless and eternal
  • The Forms are unchanging and permanent
  • The Forms are unmoving and indivisible
• Plato's Dualism

  • The Realm of the Shadows is composed of changing, 'sensible' things which are lesser entities and therefore imperfect and flawed
  • The Realm of Forms is composed of eternal things which are permanent and perfect. It is the source of all reality and true knowledge
• Plato's view of the human soul

  • The Reason is rational and is the motivation for goodness and truth
  • The Spirited is non-rational and is the will or the drive toward action
  • The Appetites are irrational and lean towards the desire for pleasures of the body
• Plato's Allegory of the Cave


  • What people in the cave see are only shadows of reality which they believe are real things and represents knowledge
  • The Forms are what real knowledge is
• Plato's Theory of Being


  • To know the truth is to become the truth
  • Each individual has in his immortal soul a perfect set of Forms that he can recall which constitutes true knowledge
• Plato's Theory of Love


  • Love is the force that paves the way for all beings to ascend to higher stages of self-realization and perfection
  • Love is the way of knowing and realizing the truth
• St. Augustine's view of human nature


  • Man is capable of knowing eternal truths through the existence of the one eternal truth which is God
  • The cause of sin or evil is an act of man's freewill
• St. Augustine's view of love

  • Love of physical objects leads to the sin of greed
  • Love for other people is not lasting and excessive love for them is the sin of jealousy
  • Love for the self leads to the sin of pride
  • Love for God is the supreme virtue and only through loving God can man find real happiness
• Descartes

  • Known as the "Father of Modern Philosophy"
  • Introduced the Cartesian method and invented analytic geometry
• Descartes' system

  • Truths are arrived at using a step by step process
  • Ideas discovered this way do not rely on some experiences because they are innate in the human mind
• Descartes' view of human nature

  • 'I think, therefore I am'
  • The cognitive aspect of human nature is his basis for existence of the self
• Descartes' mind-body problem

  • The soul/mind (also the self) is a substance that is separate from the body
  • The body is like a machine that is controlled by the will and aided by the mind
• John Locke

  • Believed that knowledge results from ideas produced a posteriori or by objects that were experienced
  • The mind at birth is a 'tabula rasa' (i.e. blank slate)
• Will

  Controlled by the mind
• Locke's interest

  Workings of the human mind, particularly the acquisition of knowledge
• Locke's view on knowledge

  • Results from ideas produced a posteriori or by objects that were experienced
  • Involves sensation (experiencing objects through senses) and reflection (mind looking at experienced objects to discover relationships)
• Locke's view on innate ideas

  Mind at birth is a 'tabula rasa' (blank slate), ideas are not innate
• Locke stated "nothing exists in the mind that was not first in the senses"
• Simple ideas

  Raw materials from which knowledge begins
• Complex ideas

  Result of repeating and comparing simple ideas
• Locke's view on morals, religious and political values

  Must come from sense experiences, not innate
• Locke's three laws

  • Law of Opinion (actions that are praiseworthy are called virtues, those that are not are called vice)
  • Civil law (right actions enforced by authorities)
  • Divine law (set by God, the true law for human behavior)
• Hume's view on the mind

  • Receives materials from the senses and calls it perceptions
  • Two types of perceptions: impressions (immediate sensations of external reality) and ideas (recollections of impressions)
• Hume's view on words

  Meaningful if and only if they can be traced to impressions and ideas or ideas that copy impressions
• Hume's three principles on how ideas relate

  • Principle of Resemblance
  • Principle of Contiguity
  • Principle of Cause and Effect
• Hume's view on cause and effect

  The idea of cause and effect arises only when people experience certain relations between objects, it cannot be a basis for knowledge
• Hume's view on the self

  There is no permanent/unchanging self, the self is a product of the imagination
• Kant's view of the mind

  • Not just a passive receiver of sense experience, but actively participates in knowing the objects it experiences
  • The external world conforms to the mind, not the other way around
  • Knowledge is a result of human understanding applied to sense experience
• Kant's view of the self

  • Implies a unity of the self without which there would be no knowledge of experience
  • The self sees an object and remembers its characteristics, applying the forms of time and space
  • The true nature of things, including the self, is altogether unknown and unknowable
• Kant's view on God

  The kingdom of God is within man, God is manifested in people's lives, it is man's duty to move towards perfection
• Freud's therapy techniques

  Free association and dream analysis to help the person recognize repressed thoughts and achieve emotional stability
• Freud's topography of the mind

  • Conscious awareness (tip of the iceberg)
  • Unconscious/subconscious mind (majority of the iceberg)
  • Serves as repository of past experiences, repressed memories, fantasies and urges