SELECTED GREAT THINKERS AND THEIR

PHILOSOPHICAL CONTIBUTIONS

Experience is that marvelous thing that enables you to recognize a mistake when
you can make it again.

- F.B Jones

Introduction

Great men leave behind them legacy to remember them after their lives on
earth. Historians give us the story of man’s exploits, struggles, failures and successes.
Writers invite us to find delight in things, places or people, with their stories of pleasant
or unpleasant experiences which may be true or simply imaginative in nature.
Scientists contribute amazing discoveries and inventions. Philosophical thinkers share
their thoughts which are precious contributions to shape man’s mind in pursuit for
deeper meaning.

The Great Thinkers of the World

With political philosophy believed to have properly begun with Greece this
chapter starts with famous philosophers of the early times. There were three renowned
figures that pioneered and introduced many ideas.
I. EARLY PERIOD

 SOCRATES (469-399 B.C)

 PLATO (429-347 B.C)

 ARISTOTLE (384-322 B.C)

 SOCRATES (469-399 B. C.)

“Wisdom begins in wonder”

Describe as a prophetic mentor of his time, his influence in his students was
really great and significant. He was the main character in most of Plato’s Dialouge in
Apology, Crito and Phoedo. This were mainly about the dialogue and final speeches
during his trial and death his Socratic method is a style of teaching which involves
active discussion between the teacher and his pupil. Another name to this method is
dialectic which is the opposite of rhetoric. The former simply means the development
of the art of arguments by the question and answer type while the latter is through
persuasion to arrive at the truth.

The father of this man was a sculptor and his mother was a midwife. His favorite venue
for discussion was the market place where he spent time discussing and exchanging
ideas with the people particularly the young men of that time. As a result of this activity
he was wrongly accused of being a bad influence to the youth. Such act of discussion
was thought to be corrupting the minors. He was arrested, convicted, and finally
sentence to death. Another offense was his refusal to pay worship to the gods of state.

His contribution to the humanities consist of:

-Man as both universal and rational
-True wisdom is properly caring for the soul.
- Know thyself which means knowing what is right in order to do what is the best and
proper.
-The world is unknowable
-Unexamined life is not worth living.

A Greek philosopher whose philosophical theory, had pioneered the transition from
the materialist naturalism to idealism. He live and was edified by many of his students
in Athens including Plato, Antisthenes, and Aristippus. Socrates wrote nothing and
most of his philosophical doctrine was transmitted through Plato’s and Aristotle’s
writings. The anatonomical structure of the world and physical nature of things are
transcendental, beyond human knowledge, what we can know only is ourselves. The
comprehension and the goal of his hypothesis were fully exclaimed by Socrates in the
formula: “know thyselve”.

Knowledge according to Socrates was the construct and attribute of the

universal. The construct is revealed through explanations and accounts through
induction. Definition of a construct is anteceded by conversation, in the course of
which question relinquishes contradictions in the minstrels’ thinking. The revelation
of contradictions contributes to the eliminations of assumed knowledge, while the
state of agitation created in the mind arouses the search for the real truth. Socrates
method “question and answer” reasoning, which posted a critical disposition to
dogmatic assertions, is known as “Socratic irony”
 Plato (429-347 B. C.)

“All politics was morally corrupt”

He was the famous disciples of Socrates who descended from an aristocratic

family and whose ancestors were early Athenian noblemen. His father was believe to
come from the line of kings. He witness the death of his mentor that left his
hometown and traveled to Italy, Sicily and Egypt.

His contribution to society were:

-Knowledge is concrete and practical.
-Doctrine of Platonism means theory of general terms such as justice, peace
and knowledge.
-Social justice pertains to giving credit where credit is due.

He believe in goodness. His core of philosophy is a theory of form of idea.

This explains that knowledge is innate. Anything in this world has a corresponding
form. The highest form is goodness. Therefore goodness is absolute, permanent,
and unchangeable. There is no such thing as man is relatively good or bad. He is
either good or bad in himself.

Plato was a Greek philosopher, and one of the disciples of Socrates. He is the
author of ore than 30 philosophical dialogues. (Sophistes, Parmenides, Theatietus ,
Republic and others. And the founder of objective idealism. Plato was so active
defending the idealistic world outlook against the teachings of Materialism during his
time.

He widely utilize the pedagogies of Socrates, the Phytagoreans, Parmenides

and Heraclitus. He formulated the theory of existence of the immaterial form of objects,
which he called as “forms” or “ideas” and associated them with being. To see these
“ideas” Plato counterbalance non-being associated with matter and space. According
to him, the sensible world, which is product of “ideas” and “matter”, occupies an
intermediate position. The “ideas” are eternal: they neither arise not perish, they are
irrelative and do not depend upon time and space. Sensible objects are transient,
relative and they depend upon time and space.

Authentic knowledge is possible only with true existent “forms”. The source of
all knowledge is the immortal human soul’s reminiscences of the world of ideas,
contemplated before its incarnation of the mortal body. We cannot have knowledge of
sensible things and phenomena, but only probable “opinion” between “ideas” and
sensible things, Plato placed the mathematical objects accessible to rational
knowledge. The method of cognition is “dialectics”, which he understood as a two way
process: ascending by degrees of generalizing concepts up to the highest kinds and
descending again from the most general concepts to those of lesser and lesser
generalization.
 ARISTOTLE (384-322 B.C)

“Man is by nature a political animal”

Known as the greatest thinker of all time , an ancient Greek philosopher. At the
age of 17 he went to Athens to study. He enrolled at the famous Academy directed by
philosopher Plato. He was a pupil of Plato who wrote about logic, ethics and
metaphysics. Plato call him “mind of the school”. He stayed there for 20 years. 2 yrs
of studying Marine biology in Lebos. He returned to Macedonian and became the
mentor of the greatest world conqueror, Alexander the Great.

His contributions to mankind were:

- Virtue is a state of mind.

- God is the First Cause, and the Source of change.
- Reality and Performance are the highest functions.
- The goal of human life is happiness.
- The greatest good for human being is the exercise of rational faculties.

Knowledge according to Aristotle comes from perception. One has to experience

something in order to acquire knowledge. Example is feeling one’s aversion towards
something to conclude that he dislike that thing. Or it may mean having a particular
inclination or a liking towards an activity like painting to accept he is learning to like
sketching a person’s face. The delight he derives from doing it is knowledge.

He was acclaimed as a Greek philosopher and encyclopedic scientist, founder of

the science of logic and other branches of special knowledge. He was born in Stagira,
Thrace and was educated in Athens at the school of Plato. He criticized Plato’s theory
of disembodied forms (“ideas”) but was unable to overcome Plato’s idealism
completely wavering between idealism and materialism. He founded his own school
(Lyceum) in Athens in 335 B.C. Athenians called his school Peripatetic (meaning ‘to
walk about’). His most important contributions was defining and classifying the various
branches of knowledge. In philosophy Aristotle distinguished.

1. the theoretical aspect as dealing with being, its components, causes, and origin,
2. the poetic as dealing with creativity

Aristotle recognized prime causes:

1. matter, or the passive possibility of becoming,

2. form, (essence, the essence of being), the reality of that which in the matter is
only a possibility.
3. the beginning of motion, and
4. aim. (Murad, 1984:27)

Aristotle was not only known as a philosopher but also a scientist, as astronomer
and a political theorist.

Aristotle considered all things, all nature as sequential conversion from “matter”
to “form” and vice-versa. In matter, nevertheless, Aristotle construed only the inactive
principle and ascribed all actions to constitute, to which he reduced the beginning of
motion and its aim. The ultimate source of all motion is God. Nonetheless, Aristotle’s
objective idealist theory of “form” is, in many respects, more objective than the idealism
of Plato, hence Aristotle comes very close to materialism.

In cosmology Aristotle refused the theory of Pythagoras and formulated a

Ptolemaic (having the earth as the center) or geocentric system that fascinated all
minds until the time of Copernicus, the mastermind of the heliocentric system, This
theory asserted that the Earth, while rotating on it axis, is one of many planets orbiting
around the sun, which is contradictory to the geocentric theory for its start that the
Earth was immovable and comprised the centre of the Universe, that the Sun, Moon,
planets and stars revolved around the earth.

And in Metaphysics which originally refers to the book written by him after his book
on Physics. Meta=after physics=book of physical things. But nowadays term denotes
more than its original, it has to do with matters that go beyond (meta). Where in
Metaphysics he states that it is a branch of science which investigates being as being
and attributes which belong to this virtue of its own nature.
THE EARLY MEDIEVAL PERIOD

 ST AUGUSTINE, THE BISHOP OF HIPPO

(Nov. 13, 354-Aug. 28, 430)

 ST ANSELM OF CANTERBURY (1033-

1109)

 ST THOMAS AQUINAS (c. 1225- Mar. 7,

1274)
 ST. AUGUSTINE, THE BISHOP OF HIPPO (Nov.13,354-Aug.28,430)

“Better to have loved and lost, than to have never loved at all…”

The famous Catholic theologian and philosopher came from a prominent family.
His father was a government official and his mother was a pious woman who was later
canonized as the Church’s saint for the godly life.

Augustine have a very good education but grew up to be a very worldly man.
believed to a sinner he became a devout Catholic through the relentless effort of his
mother. He became a priest and was later named as Bishop of Hippo. His worldly
outlook had a well-defined fideist character based on the principle “Where there is no
faith there is no knowledge, no truth.” His views constituted one of the sources of
scholasticism. In his De Civitate Dei Augistine developed the Christian conception of
the world history comprehended fatalistically, as pre-ordained by God. He
counterposed his “City of God”, the universal rule of the church, to Cavitas terrena, the
City of Earth, the “sinful” secular state. This doctrine played an important part in the
struggle of the Papacy against the feudal lords. His contentions helped to shape the
western thoughts on the Catholic faith:
St. Augustine Contributions:

 Natural evil is due to Satan’s misuse of his free will (Adams,1990:107).

 All men are born in sin and redemption is possible with the grace of God
(Stohes, 2002:45).
 Man is a great mystery.
 He advocated the figurative interpretation of the bible.
 Devotion of God is the greatest devotion.

In "The City of God", he conceived of the church as a heavenly city or

kingdom, ruled by love, which will ultimately triumph over all earthly empires which
are self-indulgent and ruled by pride. He emphasized the church's
strict independence from, and its superiority over, the civil state. Begun in the
aftermath of the sacking of Rome by the Visigoths in 410, it was to some extent
written as a defence against those who blamed Christianity for the fall of Rome, and
to restore the confidence of his fellow Christians.
 ST. ANSELM OF CANTERBURY (1033-1109)

He was an Italian theologian ang philosopher. He was also a priest who became the
Archbishop of Canterbury. He, too, avhieved sainthood. Like St. Augustine his
influence is significant in the study of western thoughts. He believed, that God exist by
priori argument. God exist in reality and in the understanding of men but not physically
(Double, 1999:264).

To him natural theology and science have no connection. God's existence is not to
discover God's existence by reason but just to use reason to understand what one
believes in (Stumpf, 1999:153). Human mind is too limited to contain God's profundity.
It is sufficient to accept there is God.

Ansel maintained that faith must precede reason, one must believe in order to
understand, faith, however, can be based on reason. For Christian dogmas were
indisputable truth, he, however, held that they should be rationally understood, so as
to stengthen the believer's faith. In this way his rationalism was subordinated to
fideism.

His contributions :

- Monologion (Sololiguz) and Proslogion (Discourses), these are various arguments

proving God's existence.

- Quality of perfection is an only attribute that applies to God (Staches, 2002:49).

 ST. THOMAS AQUINAS (c. 1225 – Mar. 7, 1274)

“No superior may use a subordinate for his advantage”

He was known as the Angelic Doctor who belonged to the thirteen century, the
supposed Golden Age of the Catholic Church. He received education at nearby abbey
of Monte Cassino and attended University of Naples at 16 years old. This angelic
theologian was an Italian by nationality and from the order of the Preachers. Albert
Magnus was the one who introduced Thomas to the works of Aristotle, so he set
himself the task of harmonizing Aristotle’s teaching with Christian Doctrine. He wrote
the “Summa Theologica”, his great work which remained unfinished due to his death.
Together with St. Augustine of Hippo and St. Anselm of Canterbury he believed and
supported their contention that the greatest of all devotions is the devotion to God.
Like St. Augustine, he was also named as one of the Doctors of the Church.

Among others here are his contributions: (Cruz, 1995:55-56)

- A distinction between philosophy and theology.

- There are no innate ideas but knowledge must proceed from senses.
- The dependence of the universe on a Supreme God.
- Reason and faith can lead to truth.

The idea of the Unmoved Mover introduced by Aristotle 1,600 years ago was
supported by St. Thomas Aquinas. He argued that the motion we have today is
traceable to an initial motion originator, who is none other than the Supreme God.
(Double 1995:251)
Further, St. Thomas claims that the law is directed to the common good. Beside human
made laws must be in harmony. (Barcalow, 1992: 386)
THE LATE MEDIEVAL PERIOD

 NICCOLO MACHAVELLI (1469-1527)

 RENE DESCARTES (1536-1650)

 IMMANUEL KANT (Apr. 22,1724- Feb.

12, 1804)
 NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI (1469-1527)

He was born in Florence during the period of great awakening, the Renaissance.
There was the rebirth of the human spirit of which political criteria had such
tremendous influnce. A political adviser, he was exiled when the Republic fell

His work, the 'Prince' exposed the ruthless strategy to obtain, maintain, sustain and
extend power. It was a straightforward approach of a leader to manipulate people to
get them to work and support him in power. Some of his recommended principles are
:

- Never show humility, arrogance is more effective. A leader according to this principle
does not and must not admit mistake when he commits one but has to still keep his
firm stand of defiance to hold the people to his power. To admit one's fault is a
character of the weak.

- Morality and ethics are for the weak. Powerful people feel free to lie, cheat and
deceive to serve their purpose. One in power is licensed to tell lies, to hide the truth,
to keep on cheating his followers to preserve harmony which is his purpose.

- It is better to be feared than to be loved. (Grienberg, 1995: 106) A leader has to rule
with an iron fist. His mere presence commands respect and blind submissiveness from
his subjects.

To him principles of religion make man feeble and an easy prey for evil minded people.
(Curtis, 1981:227)
 RENE DESCARTES (1536-1650)

“I think; therefore I am” (Cogito ergo sum)

He was born in France and was educated in Jesuits Schools. A Philosopher

and a mathematician, he introduced analytical geometry. He made epistemology the
pivotal issue for subsequent philosophers. He was famous for his Evil Genius

Hypothesis. In other words, he distinguished spirit from matter (Cruz, 1995:57).

He believed in the necessity of method in order to harness one’s power of mind.

He added that the rule of method provides a clear and orderly procedure as well as
the proper operation of the mind.

Descartes Contributions:

 He discovered the low of refraction in optic.

 Meditation, a work on epistemological scepticism.

René Descartes is often credited with being the “Father of Modern Philosophy.” This
title is justified due both to his break with the traditional Scholastic-Aristotelian
philosophy prevalent at his time and to his development and promotion of the new,
mechanistic sciences. His fundamental break with Scholastic philosophy was twofold.
First, Descartes thought that the Scholastics’ method was prone to doubt given their
reliance on sensation as the source for all knowledge. Second, he wanted to replace
their final causal model of scientificexplanation with the more modern, mechanistic
model.
 In the Second Meditation, Descartes tries to establish absolute certainty in his
famous reasoning: Cogito, ergo sum or “I think, therefore I am.” These Meditations are
conducted from the first person perspective, from Descartes.’ However, he expects
his reader to meditate along with him to see how his conclusions were reached. This
is especially important in the Second Meditation where the intuitively grasped truth of
“I exist” occurs. So the discussion here of this truth will take place from the first person
or “I” perspective. All sensory beliefs had been found doubtful in the previous
meditation, and therefore all such beliefs are now considered false. This includes the
belief that I have a body endowed with sense organs. But does the supposed
falsehood of this belief mean that I do not exist? No, for if I convinced myself that my
beliefs are false, then surely there must be an “I” that was convinced. Moreover, even
if I am being deceived by an evil demon, I must exist in order to be deceived at all. So
“I must finally conclude that the proposition, ‘I am,’ ‘I exist,’ is necessarily true
whenever it is put forward by me or conceived in my mind”. This just means that the
mere fact that I am thinking, regardless of whether or not what I am thinking is true or
false, implies that there must be something engaged in that activity, namely an “I.”
Hence, “I exist” is an indubitable and, therefore, absolutely certain belief that serves
as an axiom from which other, absolutely certain truths can be deduced.

In the preface to the French edition of the Principles of Philosophy,

Descartes uses a tree as a metaphor for his holistic view of philosophy. “The roots are
metaphysics, the trunk is physics, and the branches emerging from the trunk are all
the other sciences, which may be reduced to three principal ones, namely medicine,
mechanics and morals” (AT IXB 14: CSM I 186). Although Descartes does not expand
much more on this image, a few other insights into his overall project can be discerned.
First, notice that metaphysics constitutes the roots securing the rest of the tree. For it
is in Descartes’ metaphysics where an absolutely certain and secure epistemological
foundation is discovered. This, in turn, grounds knowledge of the geometrical
properties of bodies, which is the basis for his physics. Second, physics constitutes
the trunk of the tree, which grows up directly from the roots and provides the basis for
the rest of the sciences. Third, the sciences of medicine, mechanics and morals grow
out of the trunk of physics, which implies that these other sciences are just applications
of his mechanistic science to particular subject areas. Finally, the fruits of the
philosophy tree are mainly found on these three branches, which are the sciences
most useful and beneficial to humankind. However, an endeavor this grand cannot be
conducted haphazardly but should be carried out in an orderly and systematic way.
Hence, before even attempting to plant this tree, Descartes must first figure out a
method for doing so.
 IMMANUEL KANT (Apr. 22, 1724 – Feb. 12, 1804)

“Humanity should be treated as an end and never as a means”

He came from Germany. He was an epistemologist a moral philosopher. He

believed the Gospel as the proper guide to life. He had a high regard for moral duties
and human dignity. Moral responsibility is a common knowledge (Van et al, 1983:206).
He created a link between the idealists – (those who thought that all reality was in the
mind) , materialists (those who thought that the only reality lay in the things of the
material world). His most famous work was “Critique of pure reason” (published on
1781) he tried to set up the difference between things of the outside world and actions
of the mind.

Further, he pointed out clearly that acting from duty is distinct from acting out of
duty. The first explains that performing a task has to be done for it is one’s duty to do
so. The second tells that out of dedication, commitment or motive one responds to a
task. (Gripaldo, 2000:28)

1. His ‘Deontological Theory’ says that moral obligation lies in recognizing the
rights and importance of the individual.
2. His ‘Principle of Ends’ maintains the humanity should be treated as an end and
never as a means.
 A German philosopher and scientist, he was the founder of the classical German
idealism and founder of “critical” or “transcendental” idealism. In the “pre-critical”
period (prior to 1770). Kant formulated hid cosmogonic hypothesis, according to which
the planetary system arose and developed out of a prime “nebula”. At the same time
Kant advanced the hypothesis about the existence of a Great Universe of galaxies
outside our Galaxy, developed the theories of the retardation of the Earth’s rotation by
tidal friction and the relativity of motion and rest.

These studies, united by the materialist idea of natural development of the

Universe and the Earth, played an important part in shaping dialectics. In the
philosophical works of the “pre-critical” period under the influence of the empiricism
and skepticism of Hume, Kant noted the difference between real and logical causes,
introduced in philosophy the concept of negative magnitudes and ridiculed the
predilection of his contemporaries for mysticism and “spiritualism”.

According to Kant, an irrepressible striving for absolute knowledge is inherent in

reason. Under the pressure of this striving, man’s reason seeks to solve the problem
of the finite or infinity of the world in time and space, the possibility of the existence of
individualistic elements of the world, the nature of the processes taking place in the
world, and of God as the absolutely essential being. Kant held that opposite solutions
can be equally demonstrable: the world is finite and is infinite; invisible particles
(atoms) exist and there are processes (actions) that occur freely: an absolutely
essential being exist. Thus, reason is by its nature antinomic, i.e. is divided by
contradictions, according to Kant are merely seemed. A solution of the enigma lies in
limiting knowledge in favor of faith, in differentiating between a “things-in-themselves-
“ and “phenomena”, In recognizing that “things-in-themselves” are unknowable. Thus,
man is simultaneously not free (as a being in a world of phenomena) and free (as a
subject of the unknowable pretersensual world); the existence of God is
undemonstrable. (for knowledge), and as the same time it is the necessary postulate
of faith, on which our conviction of the existence and moral order in the world rests.
This teaching on the antinomic nature of reason, why served as the basis for dualism
of the “things-in-themselves” and “phenomena” and for the agnosticism, gave impetus
to the development of positive dialectics in classical German idealism. (Murad,
1984:209)
The contemporary world has a quite a
number of philosophers namely:

 ROSS, WILLIAM DAVID (1877-1904)

 JEAN PAUL SARTRE (1905-1980)

 KARL POPPER (1902-1904)

 ROSS, WILLIAM DAVID (1877-1940)

“Productivity of maximum good is not what makes all right actions right…”

He was a British moralist and a famous proponent of Aristotle’s ideas. He

claimed that intuitions enable people to recognize prima facie duties unless a supreme
one overrules them. He maintained that our moral insights provide us accurate
information to stand on something.

Why does Ross think that producing maximum intrinsic goodness is not always
what makes actions right?

 Common sense tells us in some situations that an action (e.g., keeping a

promise) is right, not because of its consequences, but because of what has
happened in the past (e.g., the making of the promise).

 Common sense also tells us in some situations that we have more than one
duty and that one duty (e.g., relieving distress) may be “more of a duty” than
another duty (e.g., fulfilling a promise).

 Ina situation in which two alternative actions producing equal net amounts of
intrinsic goodness differ only in that one would fulfil a promise and the other
would not; one’s moral obligation would be to perform the action that would fulfil
the promise.
 Many believe that Ross's work in this area is his most valuable contribution to
philosophy. However, his main writings in moral philosophy are of lasting if not equal
value. His The Right and the Good is arguably one of the most important works of
moral philosophy published in the twentieth century. Although Ross's view appeared
to suffer at the hands of critics in the middle and late parts of the last century, recent
interest in normative and meta-ethical intuitionism has sparked a renewed respect for
and admiration of his unique contribution to ethics, which is the focus of this entry.
 Jean Paul Sartre (1905-1980)
“Man is not a sum of what he has already, but rather the sum of what he does
not yet have, of what he could have”

He was a French philosophical thinker who expounded on existentialism which

tells that man has a radical freedom to create himself. He also claimed man is
responsible not only for himself but for men. He further believes that one can only have
political freedom. If he enjoys political liberty. One has to recognize in himself this
freedom, the capacity to decide like freedom to vote and freedom to worship.

His political views were contradictory. They were a peculiar combination of

ideas of Kierkegaard, Husseri and Sigmund Freud. While emphasizing the progressive
nature of Marxist philosophy. Sartre sought to “complement” Marxism by basing it on
existentialist anthropology and psychoanalysis. However, as a whole, conception of
Sartre was electric. It sought to middle way between idealis and materialism, in an
attempt to transcend both. Proceeding from the main precept of existentialism –
existence precede essence - Sartre built his ”phenomenological ontology” on a radical
antithesis of being and consciousness the separation of being from consciousness
leads to dualism. Sartre called his concept dialectical. But used dialectics as a method
for substantiating indeterminism. His dialectic contention was purely negative. It’s
sphere was confined by consciousness, and it has completely banished from nature.
 KARL POPPER (1902-1904)

He was an influential philosopher and political thinker. He, too, was an anti-
authoritarian believer. For him, science should proceed from trying by disconfirming
its hypothese than by trying to confirm them.

His contributions to mankind were :

- "Those who promise us paradise on earth never produce anything but a hell."

- Our knowledge can only be finite, while our ignorance must necessarily be infinite.

- "We must plan for freedom, and not only for security, if for no other reason than that
only freedom can make security secure."

CONCLUSION

This chapter deals with philosophical thinkers who came in different times. A group
composed of Socrates, Aristotle and Plato belong to the early period. St. Augustine,
St. Anselm and St. Thomas Aquinas composed the Early Medieval Period while
Machiavelli, Descartes and Kant belonged to the Late Medieval Age. Ross, Sartre and
Popper belong to the contemporary time. Each in his own way contributed in shaping
the thoughts of mankind in his own time.

CLASS DISCUSSION

1. What are the significant contributions of the early thinkers?

2. Select one significant contribution of each and explain to the class.

3. Explain St. Anselm's statement about God.

4. Discuss Machiavelli's contributions to mankind.

REFLECTION

As a rational animan, what are your qualities that believe will contribute much to make
this world a better place to live in.