DEPARTMENT OF LETTERS AND HUMANITIES

COURSE MATERIAL (Video Transcript)

First Term, AY 2020-2021

Course Code UTS

Course Description Understanding the Self
Prerequisite None
Credits 3 units; 54 hours (Lecture)
Mode of Delivery Online
Week Number 2 lesson 1
Lesson/Topic The Paradigm of the Old
Micro-Learning At the end of the lesson, students must be able to:
Outcomes • define Philosophy as a field, and
• identify the various view on Philosophy.
Assessment Measures Know-Want-Learn worksheet
Video Transcript Hi, everyone! Good day. I am Cedrix Von Alesna from the
Department of Communication and Humanities. Thank you for
participating in our course orientation and overview. Our first
lesson introduces you to The Paradigm of the Old.

The Paradigm of the Old will cover ideas from the ancient times.
<Slide 2> In this lesson we will be talking about philosophers like
the Sophist, Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, and the Stoics.

<Slide 3> In ancient Greece, the Sophist were known to be teachers

of rhetoric, music, arithmetic and physical training.1 Protagoras,
one of the supporters of sophistic thought strongly believed that
“Man is the measure of all things”. This quotation of his, can be
understood into two ways, first is the analysis that “Man” is
translated into humankind. That when we look into the world,
standards, and values are dictated by us humans. Gold is more
valuable than bread because we see shimmering stones more
important than life giving bread. We see wealth as an ideal to chase
rather than being contented with what we have. The second way
to analysis the quote is to translate “Man” into “I”. I am the
measure of all things; this quotation embodies the selfish and self-
centred desire to be the meter stick of what is good. Beauty is in
the eyes of the beholder, I am the standard, what is good for me
may not be good for you.

Thrasymachus, another Sophist, has his own take on humanity.

For Thrasymachus, in society justice is nothing but the advantage
of the strong; “Might is right”. Society always favours the people
with power and influence, and even if we say that we are all equals

Ethics | Overview of Philosophy 1

 but at the end of the day interactions are still influenced by the
person position and might.

If the Sophist placed highlight on human’s interaction with

society, Plato on the other hand shifted to, what really is a Human?
Plato believed that Humankind is composed of a body and a soul
Video Transcript but humans are souls imprisoned in a body. For Plato, the body
(contd.) and soul are not equals, the body is imperfect and the soul is a
perfect and when the perfect soul is imprisoned in the imperfect
body we become slaves to the body’s wants. However, Plato also
speculates that even if we have a body and a soul the best image
of a human is a charioteer with a black horse and the white horse.
The charioteer is our reason, it is our ability to think and to
rationalize our action. While the black horse symbolises our
appetite and craving, and the white horse symbolises passions.
Our body craves and is driven by passions, but Plato believes that
the reason should guide them, without reason, we will be driven
to situations that would endanger ourselves. The body’s needs are
blind and irrational, and reason should enlighten them and guide
them to the right direction. But for the charioteer to be successful,
it also needs to gain harmony with the horses. We cannot survive
with only reason; we need to feed ourselves and be passionate of
what we pursue. That is why Plato believes that reason is the
guiding light but without the energy of the horses, the chariot can
never reach its destination.

Aristotle a student of Plato disagreed to the idea of a perfect soul

and an imperfect body. For Aristotle the body and soul are equals
and has function to our humanity. Aristotle sees that in the world
everything has a body, a plant has a structure, animals have limbs,
and humans have arm. The body functions as our extension in this
world and not everything with a body has a soul. But what makes
plants, animals, and humans different are the functions the soul
has. For Aristotle there are three types of souls, first, the vegetative
soul which can be found in plants have the function of growth,
nutrition, and reproduction. Second, the sentient soul which can
be found in animals have the function of movement, external sense
which are the five senses and internal senses which are memory,
imagination, and common sense. And third, Rational soul which
has the function of reason. Aristotle also posits the idea of the
hierarchy of souls; vegetative soul as the lowest followed by the
sentient soul and at the highest is the rational soul. As long as a
body have a soul, it will always have life and maintain its
functions.

Epicurus throws the idea of body and soul out of the window. For
Epicurus what we need to focus is Now, and in the Now what we
have is a body. A body that feels pain and pleasure and with this

Understanding the Self | Paradigm of the Old 2

basic concept, Epicurus believed that in whatever we do, we
pursue pleasure because it is good and avoid pain because it is
bad. However, Epicurus does not end his philosophy in an idea of
hedonism, instead what he wanted to highlight is the idea of
moderation. Not all pleasurable thing makes us happy and not all
the painful experience end up bad. Epicurus believed that we can
fulfil happiness with moderation. I eat because I want to be full,
but eating something cheap and something expensive meets both
goals. Studying or working are difficult things, it is tiring but it is
truly bad. Too much pursuit of pleasure and too much fear of pain
will have its effects on us. Our love for fun and games, and fear for
responsibilities will put us to the wrong situation. Moderation is
the key for Epicurus, because beyond the struggles we experience
and joy we treasure are stories that are yet to unfold.

Epicurus we always remind us of Moderation, but for the Stoics,

they strongly believe that we do not control anything in this world.
The Stoics view of the world is like a river that flow freely. It has
its purpose and reason to how it flows and where it goes. Because
of this, the Stoics believed that whatever unfolds in our life, we can
not fully control it. If we are going to be late, needless of our efforts,
even if we try to wake up early, if the motion of the world is for us
to be late, we are going to be late. What happens will happen. That
is why, what we can control is what we feel and how we see things.
The Stoics wants to teach us that things will occur and it will occur
but what we feel about such experience depends on us. Are we
going to cry over what happens or are we going to smile and
continue the journey? In the eyes of the stoics, we can only control
ourselves and not the world.

With all of these, the next question we are going to ask ourselves
is did the view of humanity changed through the modern era? And
that is where we are heading the next time, we see each other. For
now, we have learned about the sophist view of human’s in
society, Plato’s Allegory of the Charioteer, Aristotle’s view on
souls, Epicurean Moderation and the Stoics view of life. I hope you
learn something from this lecture-discussion video. For
enrichment, feel free to study Handouts via LMS or communicate
with your instructors for questions. Likewise, please be reminded
of the due date of your activity worksheet available and accessible
via LMS or other platforms provided by your instructors. Enjoy
learning and keep safe everyone!
-end of video transcript-

Department of Letters and Humanities

Understanding the Self | Paradigm of the Old 3