Philosophy Unit 1

• Classical World View


  5th century BCE-5th century CE, reached its peak in Athens, Main thinkers: Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Beliefs: there's a supreme intelligence(s) in the universe, There are many paths to knowledge, True knowledge can be gained through reason and empiricism (scientific observation), The search for truth must be self critical
• Medieval World View


  5th century-15th century, Dominance of the Catholic Church in Europe, Monotheism: there's one supreme God, Knowledge of the universe can only be found through the Church's interpretation of the Bible, Philosophical ideas that conformed to Christianity were accepted easily
• Modern World View


  15th century-20th century, The Modern world view was a product of the Renaissance and the Scientific Revolution, Science replaced religion as the authority on the nature of the physical world, The modern God established the material universe and then withdrew known as deism, Knowledge is gained through reasoning and empiricism (scientific observations) alone
• Richard Tarnas: 'Within the span of a single generation, Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Raphael produced their masterworks, Columbus discovered the New World, Luther rebelled against the Catholic Church and began the Reformation, and Copernicus hypothesized a heliocentric universe and commenced a Scientific Revolution. Compared with his medieval predecessors, Renaissance man appeared to have suddenly vaulted into virtually superhuman status.'
• The Trial of Galileo, 1633


  Italian astronomer Galileo was forced to renounce his heliocentric theory that the Earth revolved around the sun, The trial represents the moment when the tension between reason and faith within the Church snapped
• In the Modern Age, science replaces the Church as the primary means of understanding our universe
• Empiricism and rationalism replaced faith as a source of true knowledge
• Secularism


  Religion is the "opiate of the masses." It is an "illusory happiness" designed to placate the oppressed working class - Karl Marx
• In 1859, Charles Darwin published the Origin of the Species on human evolution
• Man was not God's special creation, but the product of the random and brutal struggle for survival
• Sigmund Freud


  He criticized religion as an obsession and people are better off without it, He thought religion was an illusion it's a way for people to cope with hardships in the world
• Friedrich Nietzsche: 'God is dead and we have killed him.'
• For many philosophers the loss of a religious world view represented a profound crisis, Humans were now alone in the universe devoid of meaning
• Postmodern Age


  Postmodern philosophers challenged science's claim to true knowledge, Human reasoning is questioned, The human mind is not an accurate judge of reality, Our understanding of the world is shaped by a number of subjective factors (culture, gender, language)
• Religion in fact does not seem to be dying
• Philosophy and Science


  Were not originally separate, they were "born together" in the beginning of the 6th century B.C.E and they both involved a transition from a theistic (godly) toward a natural (scientific) way of thinking about the world
• The Natural Philosophers


  • Had 2 main concerns: 1) Was nature in a constant state of flux/change? 2) What was the basic substance underlying everything?
• Very little writings of these thinkers have survived, most of the information we have about them comes from Aristotle
• Arche


  The underlying substance the natural world is composed of
• These philosophers were NOT scientists - theorists, but many methods they used are still used today in the scientific method - close observations etc.
• Thales


  Thought water was the primary substance, felt changes of this basic substance is the source of all living things, states of water (ex. liquid, vapour and solid)
• Thales travelled widely and visited Egypt where he learned how to calculate the height of the pyramids by their shadows, believed the Earth was a disc with water above it and below it, to explain earthquakes he stated that it was tremors in the water upon which it floats
• Anaximander


  Thought the primary substance was constantly changing, undefined - apeiron, disagreed with Thales' water theory, doubted if any fundamental substance would exist in an observable pure form, introduced a basic cosmology, the Earth as the centre of the universe circled by the sun and planets, developed a primitive theory of evolution, where higher animals derived from lower animals and living things came from water and the way the sun acted upon the water gave rise to new species
• Anaximenes


  Thought the basic substance was air, when condensed became water, condensed more to become Earth, fire was low pressure air
• Pythagoras


  "numbers" held truth in that mathematics cleared the mind, can understand reality via numbers as the basis of all things
• Democritus


  Father of atomism, believed physical world is composed of indivisible components known as atoms and voids (empty space), atoms tiny, indestructible, indivisible, invisible, uncreated, how they combine and recombine to form types of matter and everything that exists, appeared in ancient Greek and Indian philosophies
• Without the aid of modern technology Democritus developed the atom theory 2500 years before it was shown to be correct, his logic: everything did change, then everything must consist of blocks which couldn't change, but which could fit together, combine, dissemble and recombine to create the appearance of change
• The work of the Natural Philosophers led to the big three: Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, in the wealthy, flourishing city of Athens these philosophers gave rise to the foundations of Western Philosophy
• Socrates


  "The unexamined life is not worth living", Greek thinker who laid early foundations for Western philosophical thought, "Socratic Method" - asking questions in a give and take manner eventually leads to the truth, spent years in public places in Athens encouraging people to self analyze, didn't write down his ideas
• Socrates' ideas didn't sit well with those in power, at 70 he was put on trial, charged with heresy and corruption of youth, convicted he carried out the death sentence by drinking hemlock (poisonous plant), one of Western history's earliest martyrs of conscience
• Plato


  "Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something", student of Socrates, founded the Academy in Athens - hotbed of philosophical and scientific discussions - one of the earliest universities in the western world, most writings take the form of "dialectics" - knowledge is revealed as two characters ask each other questions (Socrates was often one of the characters)
• Aristotle


  "It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it", student of Plato, spent 20 years in Plato's Academy - as a student and later teacher, famous student was Alexander the Great, started his own school the Lyceum, known for his careful detailed observations about nature and the physical world, laid the groundwork for biology
• Logic


  Area of philosophy that studies correct reasoning and sound judgement
• Philosophers don't care about opinions, only justifiable statements
• Aristotle's 3 laws of thought

  • Law of noncontradiction
  • Law of the excluded middle
  • Law of identity
• Law of noncontradiction


  • My mom is 45
  • My mom is 25
  • My mom can't be 45 and 25 at the same time!
• Law of identity


  • Tom is Tom
  • Sasha is Sasha
  • Tom is not Sasha
• Arguments


  Never start with a question or demand, must state facts
• Premises


  Factual statements/propositions
• Conclusion


  Can be correct or incorrect