Unit 1st. What is Philosophy?

UNIT 1st. WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY?

INDEX

1. APPROACH TO THE CONCEPT OF PHILOSOPHY

1.1. Definitions of philosophy.
1.2. Origins of the term “philosophy”.
1.3. Origins of philosophy: the transition from myth to logos.
1.4. Branches or specialties of philosophy.

2. HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY
2.1. Ancient philosophy.
2.1.1. Presocratics.
2.1.2. Sophists and Socrates.
2.1.3. Plato and Aristotle.
2.1.4. Hellenistic philosophy.
2.2. Mediaeval philosophy.
2.2.1 Patristics: Saint Augustine.
2.2.2. Scholasticism: Saint Thomas.
23. Modern philosophy.
2.3.1. Renaissance.
2.3.2. Baroque.
2.3.3. Illustration.
2.4. Contemporary philosophy.

3. PHILOSOPHY AND OTHER DISCIPLINES

3.1. Philosophy and science.
3.2. Philosophy and religion.
3.3. Philosophy and art.

4. MEANING AND NECESSITY OF PHILOSOPHY .

4.1. The scandal of philosophy.
4.2. Value and actuality of philosophy.
4.3. The new philosophical practices.

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1. APPROACH TO THE CONCEPT OF PHILOSOPHY

Philosophy addresses questions that sciences cannot answer.

1.1. Definitions of philosophy.

What is the origin of the Universe? Will it have an end? Is there something after death? What is
the sense of my life? Why am I the way I am and what distinguishes me from the rest of the world? Why
do I have to obey the rules? How can I tell right from wrong? If you have ever asked yourself any, or
many, of these questions, then philosophy is not going to be something strange to you. And it is that,
despite its fame as dark, philosophy can be considered a natural activity of the human being.
Strictly speaking, the term "science" refers to the empirical sciences (natural and social), based
on observation and experimentation, and the exact sciences (mathematics and logic), based on deductive
reasoning. In a broad sense, "science" would be all rational and critical knowledge. Philosophy would not
be a science in the strict sense, but it would be in the broad sense. There are various definitions of
“philosophy”:
-1) A knowledge that addresses issues that, due to their complexity, generality and impossibility
of quantification, cannot be studied by sciences. For example, philosophy asks questions about the
meaning of existence, the origins of all things or the nature of goodness and beauty. These are questions
about the “whys” or ultimate reasons for things: “why does the universe exist?”, “why am I me?”, “why
are there good actions and beautiful beings”? These types of questions are very general and go beyond
the fields of study of particular sciences: for example, the question “is reality real or is it an illusion?”
cannot be investigated by any of the particular sciences, since they all take it for granted. They also refer
to things that cannot be quantified (cannot be measured or weighed), and therefore cannot be
submitted to experimentation in a laboratory.
-2) A knowledge about the unknown. Philosophy is a knowledge about those questions for which
we still do not have a definitive answer and are a mystery to us. Instead, science is a knowledge about
questions that we know and for which we have definitive answers. This definition is somewhat
paradoxical, for how can there be knowledge of the unknown? For Bertrand Russell, philosophy stands
in a no man's land between science and religion, exposed to continuous attacks from both. Some critics
hold that philosophy is a kind of “science fiction”, a “speculative or hypothetical science” that by means
of thought goes into uncharted territories and opens avenues of investigation for experimental scientists
to follow.
-3) A “supreme science”. For Aristotle, philosophy is a synthesis of all existing knowledge, both of
particular sciences (physics, biology, history, etc.), as well as artistic, political, religious knowledge, etc.
The goal is to build a worldview, that is, a general vision of the universe. Philosophy tries to put together
the puzzle of the various particular knowledge, integrating them into a higher unit: a kind of "Science of
the Whole".
-4) A thoughtful way of life. For Epicurus, philosophy is "a knowledge whose goal is to provide
the greatest happiness with the greatest degree of lucidity". Philosophy is therefore a practical wisdom
that offers advice on how to behave in everyday life in order to be reasonably happy and avoid

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unnecessary suffering. In this sense it is very close to psychology, and in fact psychologists use some of
the philosophical wisdom to help their patients and other people.
Finally, it is possible to make the difference between worldly philosophy and academic
philosophy. Mundane philosophy is the vision of the world, life and oneself that any person has, even if
they have never studied philosophy or read a philosophy book. Academic philosophy is the philosophy
made by professionals, and it is based on two pillars: on the one hand, all currently existing knowledge
(scientific, technological, artistic, religious, etc.); on the other hand, the History of Philosophy, that is, the
thought of all great philosophers, which for the most part is still valid today or, at least, has not been
refuted. In general, throughout this course, when we speak of “philosophy” we will refer to academic
philosophy.

1.2. Origins of the term “philosophy”.

Origins of philosophy in Greece.

To clarify a little more the meaning of "philosophy", we will see what the etymology of the term
is, and how philosophy arose in ancient Greece, as an overcoming of the previous pre-rational thought.
The word philosophy comes from the Greek and literally means “love (philo) of wisdom (sophia )”. Thus,
etymologically, philosophy consists of the desire to know. Almost all cultures share this desire. However,
when we talk about philosophy, we talk about a peculiar way of knowing: the one that is rational,
systematic and critical. And this, according to scholars, has not existed forever and anywhere, but has a
date of birth.
It is traditional to place the birth of philosophy in very specific coordinates: Ionia (a Greek colony
in Asia Minor), 6th century BCE. At that time and place, human beings observes what surrounds them,
amazed and surprised, but for the first time convinced of the existence of a rational explanation capable
of revealing the order and the hidden meaning of all this. At that time we can speak of the appearance of
philosophy.
Pythagoras is credited with being the first one to use the term "philosopher", comparing the
situation of the spectator of the Olympic games with the condition of the "lover of knowledge". Unlike
the athletes, who seek fame and glory, or the merchants, who go there motivated by profit, we find
those others, the spectators, who come to the games simply to watch, eager to know and understand
how much takes place in the arena.

With Plato, a century and a half later, the concept of "philosopher" will serve as a contrast with
that of "sage", an attribute that the so-called "sophists", outstanding experts in oratory (knowing how to
speak in public) and rhetoric (knowing how to discuss any topic and convince the audience) presumed to
have. Plato states that the philosopher is not a wise man, because a wise man is the one who has
achieved wisdom and therefore no longer wants to get it (because, for Plato, we only want what we do
not have). The philosopher is that person who wishes to attain wisdom, precisely because he is aware
that he does not possess it.

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Aristotle claims that philosophy arises from amazement at the universe (nature, seasons, moon,
stars and so on) and that, over time, amazement transforms into a greedy curiosity and the ability to see
in a different way everything around us.

1.3. Origins of philosophy: the passage from myth to logos.

Myths are one of the first attempts of human beings to explain and control nature and, also, to
understand who they are. This type of narration occupied an important place in the cultural evolution of
many cultures, including Greek, because it provided them with their first descriptions and explanations
of the world.
Let's look at some of the traits shared by myths:
-1) They resort to legendary characters, for example, gods and heroes of Olympus. In myth, the
forces of nature are personified and divinized (anthropomorphism)
-2) They are imaginative or fantastic stories. Their explanations are not rational, because they are
not justified or demonstrated. Myths do not resort to natural laws, but to the whimsical will of gods,
their disputes and loves. Thus, in archaic Greece the change of seasons was attributed to the moods of
Demeter (goddess of agriculture), motivated by the absence or
return of her daughter Persephone.
-3) The author of the myth is always unknown and collective,
contrary to what happens in scientific or philosophical theories.
Myths are not the result of the conscious and intentional creation of
a specific person, but are the consequence of a slow, spontaneous
and popular formation.
-4) They have a traditional and uncritical character. As myths
are anonymous and, in addition, they are usually not written down,
they are transmitted from parents to children. In this way, they are
not often reviewed or criticized. They are accepted and assumed as
given by tradition.
-5) They are disorganized, chaotic and incoherent. For
example, in Greek mythology it is said that Athena, goddess of
wisdom, was the daughter of Zeus and was born by parthenogenesis:
Birth of Athena. one day Zeus suffered a terrible headache, and immediately afterwards
Athena emerged from his head, already an adult and armed with a
helmet, a spear and a shield. One of the possible reasons for this strange incoherence of myths is that
they had their origin in dreams and the unconscious.
In this world where mythical and fantastic explanations of reality prevail, with its gods and
heroes, rituals are a way of facing up and relating to the world. Priests are the carriers of this hidden
magical knowledge, which allows them to deal with supernatural forces, from illness to natural events.
We can see in magic a way of manipulation of nature.

Philosophy or rational thought emerges as a type of knowledge other than mythological,

around the 7th-6th centuries BCE, with the thinkers of the Miletus school. For this reason, the origins of
philosophy are usually characterized by the expression passage from myth to logos (which means "word"
and "reason" in Greek). Some of the reasons why philosophy appeared in Greece, and not before or
elsewhere, were these:
- Greek polis were small independent city-states. The experience of democracy that arose in them
allowed freedom of thought and expression.
- Economic prosperity, stimulated by trade, allowed a middle-class elite to devote themselves to
the study of philosophy.
- Trade with other countries and cultures allowed Greeks to discover religions and worldviews
other than their own. This made them adopt a critical attitude towards all beliefs.

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- The popular use of a phonetic alphabet (where letters represent sounds), which allowed speech
to be reproduced in writing in an easy and comfortable way, produced a cultural outburst: numerous
books were written and read.

Recreation of ancient Athens in 'Assassin's Creed Odyssey'.

If myths explained reality through fabulous narratives, now the world phenomena are no longer
understood as a product of the will of gods and begin to be explained according to natural principles or
laws. Philosophy tries to analyze nature (physis) through logos, a new way of thinking that is
characterized by being:
-1) Rational, because logos is based on logical arguments and observations of experience, and
not on imagination, fantasy or obedience to authority.
-2) Systematic, since logos requires that all its statements be
related to each other and arranged in a hierarchy –from the least
important to the most important–, so that the explanation of particular
cases is based on that of more general aspects. In logos, knowledge is
organized, and within the system they make up, inconsistencies or
contradictions are not allowed (unlike myths).
For example, the statement "if we heat water in a pan it will
evaporate" is a specific case, less important than the general law "water
turns into steam at a temperature of 100 degrees". What is characteristic
of logos is that it forms a kind of pyramid of knowledge, at the base of
which are the concrete and particular cases, and at the top the general
laws and hypotheses. Also, the general law “water turns into steam at a
temperature of 100 degrees” is related to other general laws, such as the
law of gravity or the law of gas motion, and there is no contradiction
Water evaporates at 100 degrees between these laws.
-3) Critical, because ogos does not admit anything without a
rational examination, and maintains that all knowledge can be rejected if reasons are argued. This does
not mean that all knowledge that comes from tradition or authority must be rejected, but only that it
must be rationally examined before accepting it. Criticizing means sifting through what is valid and
acceptable from what is not.

It is important to point out that logos is the characteristic thought of both philosophy and
science. In fact, science was part of philosophy at least until the 16th century, and only then did the
various sciences (mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, etc.) begin to become progressively
independent of philosophy. That is why it is rightly said that philosophy is the “mother of sciences”.
Even today the "daughters" of philosophy -sciences- have not completely separated from their "mother",
but there is a wide overlap between science and philosophy.

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SCIENCE PHILOSOPHY

In this scheme we can see that science and philosophy are not two separate things without any
connection, but are closely related. Between the two of them there is an intermediate zone that is both
scientific and philosophical knowledge: this is where most of social sciences (psychology, sociology,
economics, history, etc.) are located, but also the most hypothetical and speculative part of natural
sciences (physics, biology). Furthermore, all sciences use philosophical concepts such as “reality”,
“infinity”, “cause”, “existence”, “truth”, etc.

1.4. Branches or specialties of philosophy

We already know that, compared to myths, philosophy –and science– is characterized by its
rational, systematic and critical attitude. But what does it deal with? What is its object of study? Due to
its universalist vocation, philosophy tries to deal with all of reality. However, this field is so broad that,
over time, philosophy has been specializing and dividing into different branches or specialties:
- Metaphysics: means "beyond (meta) physics" and designates the part of philosophy that deals
with the ultimate nature of reality. It deals with questions such as: why does the universe exist?, what is
the origin of everything?, does God exist?, is there an afterlife after death?, etc.
- Epistemology: It is also known as the theory of knowledge. It deals with questions such as what is
knowledge, how many types of knowledge are there, what is science, what is truth, what are the limits of
what we can know, etc.
- Logic: it receives the name from the Greek term logos (“reason”, “word”), and deals with the
reasoning expressed linguistically. It studies its form and its correctness, and establishes when an
argument is well done and, therefore, we can be sure of the validity of its conclusion.
- Ethics: this philosophical branch has moral behaviour as its object of study; to do this, it analyzes
our norms and moral codes, their foundation, validity and universality. One of its goals is to help us lead
a good life.
- Aesthetics: is the branch of philosophy interested in art and beauty in general. It deals with
questions such as: what is a work of art?, how can we distinguish art from what is not art?, is beauty
something objective or subjective?, etc.
- Political philosophy: is the branch of philosophy that studies how the relationship between
people and society should be. It deals with issues about government, laws, freedom, equality, justice,
rights...
- Philosophical anthropology: it is the philosophical study of the human being. It tries to identify
the essential characteristics of the human species and its specific position in the natural world.

In addition to these philosophical disciplines, due to its universalist nature, philosophy also deals
with the nature and foundation of other knowledge and activities. That is why there is an extensive list of
philosophy of ..., for example: philosophy of science, of physics, of mathematics, of culture, of religion, of
history, of law, of language, of video games, soccer, bullfighting, etc.
In the past, mathematics, physics, biology and social sciences were all branches of philosophy. By
becoming independent from philosophy, sciences ceased to be branches of philosophy.

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2. HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY

2.1. ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY.

2.1.1. The Presocratics.

Thales Anaximander Heraclitus Parmenides Pythagoras Democritus

Philosophy was born in the Greek colonies of Asia Minor and Italy in the 7th-6th centuries BC. Its
first representatives, the so-called pre-Socratic philosophers (because they were prior to Socrates),
wondered about the origin of nature (physis), and whether the multiplicity of things could be due to the
different ways of manifesting a single substance or element called arche. The arche, therefore, was the
original and constituent substance or element of all things. The pre-Socratic philosophers –who were
also the first scientists– were divided into two currents: monists, who defended the existence of a single
arche, and pluralists, who defended the existence of several arches.

-A) MONISTS:
-Thales considered asthe first philosopher and scientist, he argued that the arche is water.
Everything that exists in the universe is made of water, which is the origin of everything. For example,
rocks and mountains are solid water.
-Anaximander stated that the arche is a kind of mysterious and indeterminate matter, the
apeiron. He claimed, among other things, that the Earth is a rocky sphere floating in space and that
human beings evolved from lower animal species –such as fish.
-Heraclitus considered that "fire" or some kind of cosmic energy is the arche that originates all
the phenomena in the world. Heraclitus held that all things are in a continuous process of change or
"becoming", even the most stable in appearance. To clarify that, he stated that a person could not bathe
twice in the same river (because the second time he bathed, the river would no longer be the same).
Heraclitus also proposed the so-called “dialectics”: the universe is made up of pairs of opposing forces or
elements that, however, need each other to exist (chaos and order, light and darkness, wealth and
poverty, health and disease, etc.).
-Parmenides said that the objects in our world (including human beings) are only apparent and
illusory; they seem to exist, but they have no real entity. The only thing that really exists is “Being”, which
has the form of an unlimited, eternal and immutable sphere. He also said that "Being" cannot be known
by senses, but only through reason.

-B) PLURALISTS.
-Anaxagoras said that all matter is made up of “seeds” or spermata, tiny elements which are
infinite in number, each of them containing a portion of all the elements in the universe and having
existed since all eternity. The order that emerged at the beginning, out of the pre-existing chaos of these
"seeds", was produced by an "organizing intelligence" or nous.
-Empedocles claimed that all things are composed of four main elements or arches: earth, air,
fire and water. Two active and opposing forces, love and hate, act upon these elements, combining and
separating them in an infinite variety of ways.

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-Pythagoras argued that the arche is numbers --or mathematics. Numbers are the authentic
reality from which everything is made, and they produce all the proportion, order and harmony existing
in the cosmos. Pythagoras was the founder of mathematical sciences.
- Democritus claimed that the arche consists of infinite atoms. All things are made up of tiny,
invisible and indestructible particles of pure matter called "atoms," which spin forever in a vacuum.
Objects are created and destroyed when atoms come together randomly and collide with each other.

2.1.2. Sophists and Socrates.

The first substantial turn in the object of study of philosophy is carried out by the sophists (5th-
4th centuries BCE), who focus on the study of human being and especially on politics. The sophists are
the first philosophers who charge to teach, and above all they teach oratory and rhetoric to their
students so that they can be good politicians and lawyers and gain money and power. They maintain that
truth and goodness are a mere matter of opinion and taste, and that we should only care about what
brings us some benefit. For sophists, something is "true" or "good" only if the majority of people
consider it so. For example, murder and robbery are bad for Athenians, but if elsewhere people consider
murder and robbery to be right, then these acts will be good for them. In the words of Protagoras, one
of the main sophists, “man is the measure of all things”. This stance is known as relativism: truth is only a
matter of opinion.

Protagoras Socrates Plato Aristotle

Socrates rebukes the sophists for their attention to what is useful to the detriment of what is true
and good, and rejects their relativism. Socrates believes in a universal and valid truth and good for all
human beings –a position known as universalism– and thinks that we can only discover the truth through
dialogue. For this reason, he spends most of his life in the markets and public squares of Athens,
initiating dialogues and discussions with anyone who wants to listen to him, and to whom he usually
answers with questions (“what is good?”, “what is justice?”, etc.). In this way, he creates a method called
“maieutics” (or the art of “giving birth” to the truth) by which he makes his interlocutors discover the
truth for themselves.
Socrates leaves nothing written, and we only know his thoughts thanks to his disciple Plato, author
of a series of Dialogues in which Socrates is always the main character.

2.1.3. Plato and Aristotle.

Plato claims that, in addition to the material and changing "sensible world" where we live, there
is another dimension of being, outside of space and time, unchanging and perfect, where universal
concepts or ideas can be found (good, justice, beauty, human being, etc.). He calls this other reality
"intelligible world" or "world of ideas", and states that the sensible world is nothing more than a
reflection or a shadow of that other world. This metaphysical position of Plato is known as idealism.
Plato also defends a dualistic anthropology: the human being is divided into two distinct and
autonomous parts, although united in life: body and soul. Our soul, at the beginning of time, dwelt in the
world of ideas and contemplated them all, but later abandoned that world and fell into the sensible
world, joining a living body and beginning a chain of reincarnations. According to Plato, knowledge
consists in remembering such ideas, because when the soul enters the body in each new reincarnation,

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an amnesia occurs. And those who are able to remember ideas to a greater extent, that is, the wisest
ones, must become the rulers of the polis.
Like Socrates and Plato, Aristotle maintains a critical position towards the sophists and stand up
for the existence of universal and objective truths. But, unlike Plato, he claims that the sensible, material
and changing world is the only real one. Ideas do not exist in another world or dimension of being, but
are part of the objects in the physical or natural world: Aristotle refers to the Ideas as "forms". For
example, the idea or form of "horse" does not exist by itself in a separate world, but is found within each
and every one of the existing horses. Also, ideas are not innate in us but we acquire them through
experience. Aristotle's metaphysical position is known as naturalism, since he states that only the natural
or material world exists.
Aristotle also defends a monistic anthropology: he maintains that the human being is not divided
into several separate and autonomous parts, but is a single substance. For Aristotle, body and soul are
not two different things, but the soul is the vital function of the body. So when the body dies the soul
also dies.

2.1.4. Hellenistic philosophy.

Epicurus Pyrrho Zeno Seneca Epictetus Marcus Aurelius

After the death of Alexander the Great in 323 a. C. the age of Hellenistic philosophy begins,
where the transition from the polis (city-state) to the Empire will give rise to new schools. Epicureanism,
skepticism and stoicism will be the philosophical proposals that will achieve greater recognition. The
three of tyem will be characterized, among other things, by addressing the question of how we should
live to achieve a happier existence, advocating serenity (in Greek, "ataraxia") both in the face of good
fortune and adversity. These Hellenistic philosophical doctrines will continue in force in the Roman
Empire.
Epicurus, a follower of of Democritus’ atomism, holds that the source of happiness is pleasure,
which he defines as "the absence of pain in the body and suffering in the soul". To achieve happiness you
don't need money, but things that cost nothing and are within everyone's reach: simple food, freedom or
absence of tyranny, friends and rational reflection that erases fears and superstitions (such as the fear of
death and religious superstition).
Pyrrho of Elis is the highest representative of skepticism, according to which we cannot know
anything at all. Pyrrho often tells his disciples that all he has to teach them is that there is nothing to
teach. Therefore, the natural attitude is absolute indifference towards the world.
Zeno of Citium is the founder of Stoicism, a philosophical school that claims that every event, be
it good or bad, obeys strict natural laws and, therefore, we must consider all happenings with absolute
calm and serenity, without expressing any negative or extreme emotion. Stoicism is the official
philosophy of the Roman Empire, with such important thinkers as the Cordovan Seneca, the slave
Epictetus, and the emperor Marcus Aurelius. Epictetus is the predecessor of current cognitive
psychotherapy, very effective in treating psychological problems such as depression and anxiety
disorders. One of Epictetus's maxims was "we are not affected by what happens to us, but what we tell
ourselves about what happens to us".

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Rachel Weisz as Hypatia in 'Agora'.

It should also be noted that in the 3rd and 4th centuries AD, Neoplatonism acquired great
prominence in Egypt, where Plotinus and Hypatia of Alexandria stand out, who interpreted Plato's
doctrine from a mystical point of view. Hypatia, philosopher, mathematician and head of the Great
Library of Alexandria, defends the doctrine of the One as the Supreme Being from whom all the truth
and beauty of the cosmos emanate. With the death of Hypatia, murdered by a group of Christian fanatics
in the streets of Alexandria, ancient philosophy ends.

2.2. MEDIEVAL PHILOSOPHY.

2.2.1. Patristic: Saint Augustine.

With the end of the Roman Empire (5th century AD), and once
Christianity was cemented as the official religion of its ancient territories, the
so-called Middle Ages began. During this period, the function of philosophy is
basically to help clarify the meaning of Christian doctrine, considered the
unappealable truth. It must also be said that Christianity is at the origin of
current Human Rights.

The first school of medieval Christian philosophy is called Patristics,

and its main figure is Saint Augustine, bishop of Hippo. According to him, it is
necessary to “believe in order to understand”: faith and reason are called to
collaborate, but always starting from the subordination of reason to faith.
Now, to believe or to have faith is something reasonable, so that reason
Saint Agustine prepares the way for faith; and once faith is attained, reason helps to
understand Christian doctrine.
Saint Augustine is a follower of Plato's philosophy: he accepts the Platonic doctrine of an
intelligible world where there are perfect and eternal ideas, and of a sensible or material world that is a
mere shadow or reflection of the world of ideas. Now, Saint Augustine considers that the world of ideas
exists in the mind of God. And the human soul, having been created in the image and likeness of God,
carries inside many of the ideas that exist in the mind of God, such as the very idea of God and his
existence. For this reason, Saint Augustine claims that "the truth is within us", within our own soul, and
we must search inside to achieve knowledge.

2.2.2. Scholastica: Saint Thomas.

From the 6th century to the 10th century AD, Europe went through a dark age, where philosophy
was practically forgotten in the West. However, the works of ancient philosophers were preserved and
studied in the Islamic world, which reached a dazzling cultural development between the 9th and 12th
centuries; great Muslim philosophers such as Ibn Sina (Avicenna, in Latin) and Ibn Rusd (Averroes, in
Latin) stand out here. Starting in the 12th century, Aristotle's philosophy was reintroduced into Christian
Europe through translations and commentaries by Avicenna and Averroes, carried out mainly at the

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Toledo School of Translators. Aristotelian ideas such as those of the order and
purpose of nature are assimilated by Christian thought, and give rise to the
movement known as Scholasticism, whose main representative is Saint
Thomas Aquinas.
Saint Thomas, unlike Saint Augustine, does not accept that reason is
submitted to faith and claims that both are equally important. It presents five
ways to try to rationally demonstrate the existence of God, since it
understands that God can be reached both through reason and faith (which in
no case can contradict each other). One of these ways is the so-called
cosmological argument, according to which everything that exists in the
Saint Thomas universe has a cause, which in turn has another cause, and this one has
another cause and so on and so on.; as the chain of causes cannot be infinite,
there must be an Uncaused First Cause, which would be God. Saint Thomas considers that this is a
rational demonstration of the existence of God, and that even an atheist, if they understand it well, must
end up accepting the existence of God without the need of faith. However, there are other truths only
accessible through faith, such as the mystery of the Holy Trinity.
Saint Thomas, following Aristotle, agrees that innate ideas do not exist, but that all our ideas are
acquired through experience. For this reason, his demonstration of the existence of God starts from the
observation of the phenomena of nature –such as the fact that all these phenomena have a cause, or the
fact that there is an order and a purpose in all of them, that only may be due to a Creator or Designer.

23. MODERN PHILOSOPHY.

Da Vinci Copernicus Galileo Kepler Bruno More

2.3.1. Renaissance.
Modern philosophy begins with the Renaissance (15th-16th centuries), and ends with the
Enlightenment and the bourgeois revolutions of the late 18th century. From the 15th century, the
movement known as Renaissance, a current of cultural renewal inspired by the Greek and Latin classics,
became widespread in Europe. Although a Christian vision of the world persists, this period is
characterized by humanism: the human being is placed at the center of philosophical reflection, as a
natural and historical being that is realized through arts and sciences (which contrasts with the Middle
Ages, where the center of everything was God). Notorious among the leading humanists are the
theologian and writer Erasmus of Rotterdam, and the artist and polymath Leonardo da Vinci.
The new boom in empirical research (the one based on observation and experimentation) gave
rise to the scientific revolution led by Copernicus, Galileo and Kepler. The heliocentric theory of
Copernicus, which rejects the geocentric model of Aristotle and Ptolemy –where planets revolved
around a stationary Earth– and maintains that the Earth revolves around the Sun, marks the beginning of
modern science that will end up in Newton. Galileo, thanks to the improvement of the telescope, proves
without any doubt that the Earth revolves around the sun. Kepler discovers that the orbits of the planets
around the sun are elliptical, and calculates their laws of motion. With the scientific revolution, the Earth
ceases to occupy the center of the universe.
Giordano Bruno, a supoorter of Copernicus' heliocentric model, believes that the universe is
infinite, that there are infinite suns with infinite worlds full of living beings, that an infinite God is the soul

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of the universe, and that material things are nothing more than manifestations of a single infinite
principle. The Inquisition accuses him of heresy, and Bruno is burned alive at the stake in 1600.
The Renaissance is also a time of intense political reflection, with the creation of the genre
known as “utopia”. Thomas More is the creator of the word "utopia" --which means “a place that does
not exist"--, with the fantastic novel precisely entitled Utopia, which inaugurates a new literary and
philosophical genre. The term "utopia" refers to an ideal and perfect form of government, where all
citizens are happy and have all their material and spiritual needs covered. A second meaning will be
added later to the term: “unrealizable” (“utopian”). Like Giordano Bruno, Thomas More will be executed,
in this case by the English Protestant King Henry VIII.

Philosophy in Spain

Juan Luis Vives Huarte de San Juan Olivia Sabuco Suárez Gracián

In the Spanish Renaissance, the humanist Juan Luis Vives stands out, defending the need for state
social services to help all those people in need; Juan Huarte de San Juan, who recovered Aristotle's
monistic anthropology and created the first psychological tests in history; Olivia Sabuco, author of an
encyclopedia of philosophy that also recovers Aristotle's naturalistic metaphysics and anticipates
psychoanalysis; the philosopher and theologian Francisco Suárez, great continuer and innovator of the
scholasticism of Saint Thomas Aquinas, and defender of the right of rebellion of peoples against tyrants.
In the Baroque period Baltasar Gracián stands out, as a pessimistic and skeptical thinker who will have a
huge influence on Nietzsche and 20th century existentialism.

2.3.2. Baroque.
In the Baroque age (which expands from the beginning of the 17th century to the first half of the
18th century, although its limits are somewhat vague), two philosophical schools with different
approaches emerged: rationalist and empiricist. Some of these philosophers, such as Spinoza and Hume,
can also be considered as "enlightened".

Descartes Spinoza Leibniz Locke Berkeley Hume

Rationalism (Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz) upholds the superiority of reason over experience (our
five senses). According to rationalists, if science is limited to what can be perceived by our senses,
philosophy must go further, in search of the first principles of knowledge (for example, Descartes' "I

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think, therefore I am"), only attainable by means of reason. For rationalists, as for Plato, when we are
born our mind already has got too many contents or innate knowledge.
Empiricism (Locke, Berkeley, Hume) maintains the superiority of experience (our five senses)
over reason. Reason must always take the data of our senses as a starting point, otherwise nothing
guarantees that its speculations can be true. For empiricists, just as for Aristotle, when we are born our
mind does not have any knowledge, it is a blank slate; out of experience, we acquire the contents our
reason has to work with.
Philosophers such as Spinoza and Hume can also be considered as the first philosophers of the
Enlightenment. It should be noted that in the Modern Age being a philosopher is a risky profession:
together with the executions of Giordano Bruno at the stake and of Thomas More by beheading, we
must add the persecution of Descartes by the Inquisition (which led him to flee France, first to Holland
and then Sweden), the excommunication of Spinoza or Espinosa (Jewish philosopher of Spanish origin)
by the Jewish community and his assassination attempt, and Leibniz's continuing problems with
censorship. This is because these philosophers advocate brand new ideas that are highly controversial
for their time: Descartes rejects authority as the source of truth; Spinoza defends freedom of expression
and considers that God is a set of natural laws and not a person; and Leibniz puts forward the Multiverse
hypothesis (and also envisages the idea of digital computers that simulate human thought).

2.3.3. Illustration.

Diderot D'Alembert Voltaire Rousseau Kant Hegel

During the age of Enlightenment (18th century), many French Enlightenment philosophers were
involved in the writing of a monumental work, the Encyclopedie, the first modern encyclopedia, under
the direction of Diderot and D'Alembert, who would spend their whole lives in and out of jail for his
ideas. Montesquieu, Voltaire and Rousseau were also co-writers. This work offers a new vision of the
world, which breaks up with traditional beliefs and values, proposing three new values instead:
-a) Reason: it is embodied mainly in the new empirical or experimental science, which the
enlightened philosophers regard as necessary for education. School must be public, free and compulsory,
and it must include scientific contents. Likewise, enlightened philosophers criticize religion for
considering it irrational and obscurantist.
-b) Progress: enlightened philosophers consider themselves “progressive”, in the sense that they
are in favor of scientific, economic, social, political and ethical progress. This means opposing the Old
Regime and many traditional institutions and customs.
-c) Universal and secular ethics: it is a non-religious ethics, based on scientific knowledge and
valid for all human beings without exception.
The intention of the Enlightenment is to promote freedom of thought and critical spirit, as
reflected in the maxim of Kant, the main German enlightened thinker: Sapere aude ("dare to know"). The
enlightened thinkers stand up for the emancipation of man and their departure from the "minority of
age" in which tradition had plunged them; in its questioning of the Old Regime, the Enlightenment will
plant the seeds of future revolutions that will take place in the last third of the 18th century, such as the
American and French Revolutions. The motto of the French Revolution –“Liberty, Equality, Fraternity”–
reflects the fundamental principles of the Enlightenment philosophers.

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Already in the first half of the 19th century, German Romanticism entails an exaltation of
freedom and feeling against the rigid schemes of the Enlightenment, which only took reason into
account. Hegel is the most outstanding philosopher of German idealism, a philosophical school that tries
to mesh Enlightenment and Romanticism. Following the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus, Hegel
considers that all reality is dialectical, that is, it is made up of pairs of contradictory opposites (Being and
Nothing, Matter and Spirit, Subject and Object, Nature and Culture, Tyranny and Freedom, Good and
Evil, Reaction and Progress, etc.), which nevertheless need each other to exist and are so deeply
interrelated that they even come to be identified in the same unit. Hegel will have an enormous
influence on later thought. The liberal revolutions of the 19th century will be inspired by the
philosophical and cultural movement represented by the Enlightenment and German idealism.

2.4. CONTEMPORARY PHILOSOPHY.

Marx Nietzsche Freud Wittgenstein Russell

Despite the diversity of currents and trends, if any characteristic defines contemporary
philosophy, that would be its critical stance and its attitude of suspicion towards the great ideals of the
Enlightenment: reason, progress and universal ethics (although it does not reject them out of hand). This
attitude is especially evident in the great philosophical currents of the 19th and 20th centuries: Marxism,
Nietzsche's existentialism and Freud's psychoanalysis. But also, to a certain extent, in the opposite
current of analytical philosophy. In general, contemporary philosophy is divided into two great currents,
very different and opposed to each other, which continue to survive today:

-A) Continental philosophy: it begins with the so-called "philosophy of suspicion", which
mistrusts reason and submits it to criticism. Reality and the human being must be explained by resorting
to instances other than rationality, progress and ethics. This proposal is specified in three thinkers: Karl
Marx, Friedrich Nietzsche and Sigmund Freud. All three are considered philosophers of unmasking, since
they make clear the ultimate reality of human condition: Marx with economic conditions; Nietzsche with
the will to power; Freud with the repression of unconscious drives or instincts.
According to Marx, rich and developed societies are not like that on their own merit, but their
economic and material progress is based on the exploitation and plunder of many human beings, both
from their own country and other colonized countries. Thus, Marx is highly critical of the idea of
"progress."
According to Nietzsche, what moves us to act ethically is not moral duty but the "will to power",
that is, our desire to dominate and subject others to our control. Therefore, Nietzsche is very critical of
the idea of "ethics" or "morals."
According to Freud, in order to be rational we must repress our unconscious and irrational drives
and instincts (mainly of an aggressive and sexual nature), because it would be destructive to talk about
them or perform them publicly; but that repression inevitably generates a psychological malaise (or
neurosis). Thus, Freud is critical of the idea of human "reason" or "rationality".
Marx, Nietzsche and Freud unmask the falsehood of many Enlightenment proposals, which
defend the central role of reason, ethics and progress, revealing the dark hidden motives behind those
ideals. In the 20th century, the work of these three thinkers gave rise to various philosophical schools,
which developed in a tragic era signed by Nazi and Stalinist totalitarianisms, the Second World War and

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the tensions of the Cold War; these schools continue to exist today except for structuralism, which
dissolved into post-structuralism during the 1970s:
 Psychoanalysis (Lacan, Žižek) is based on Hegel and Freud. It claims that human behavior,
both individual and collective, is determined by the unconscious and that this one is
symbolic. The world we perceive is a virtual reality (as in the Matrix) built largely by the
unconscious.
 Phenomenology (Husserl, Ortega), based on Hegel and Nietzsche, arises as a reaction
against the scientism of the 19th century. It places the subject, the self, at the center of
knowledge and claims that philosophy must be a description of the phenomenal reality,
not the physical and quantifiable reality of science, but the one shown to consciousness.
 Existentialism (Heidegger, Sartre), a branch of phenomenology, is characterized above all
by the belief in the radical freedom and helplessness of the human being, as well as the
conviction that their anguished existence will only have the meaning that one decides to
give it.
 Frankfurt School or Freudo-Marxism (Adorno, Habermas) combines Freud and Marx. This
trend poses a radical critique of technology, consumerism, mass culture..., that is, of
everything that contributes to dehumanizing our society.
 Structuralism (Lévi-Strauss, Foucault) combines Marx, Nietzsche and Freud. It argues that
culture, language, history, etc. make up systems and that these must be studied by
analyzing their structure. It proclaims the disappearance of the human being within the
human sciences, as the human being is submitted to structures.
 Poststructuralism or postmodernism (Derrida, Vattimo) is a development of structuralism.
It maintains that all reality –including biological sex – is a social construct (also a bit like
The Matrix), of a linguistic or discursive kind. It also states that any text or speech has an
infinite number of possible interpretations, which eliminates objectivity.

-B) Analytical Philosophy (Wittgenstein, Russell): this trend is characterized by its clear
empiricist inspiration and its interest in natural sciences and logic. But above all it stands out for the
importance attributed to language. Many philosophical problems would be caused by a wrong use of
language; therefore, what philosophy must do is analyze and clarify language. For example, many
metaphysical problems are due to an incorrect use of the term "to be", by using it as a noun and not as a
verb, thus confusing it with a thing or object.
One of the two great schools of analytic philosophy is positivism, which considers science as
knowledge par excellence, and philosophy as an auxiliary methodology of science that allows scientists
to clarify concepts. Bertrand Russell and Karl Popper are the main exponents of this school in the 20th
century.
The other school of analytical philosophy is the so-called philosophy of language, which
considers common sense (and not science) as knowledge par excellence and philosophy as an auxiliary
methodology of common sense, which allows us to erase the wrong uses of daily language. Philosophy
would be a kind of language therapy. Ludwig Wittgenstein is the main representative of this trend in the
20th century.

Current philosophers: Slavoj Žižek (psychoanalysis), Byung-Chul Han (existentialism), Jürgen Habermas (Frankfurt School),
Judith Butler (post-structuralism), Daniel Dennett (positivism), Martha Nussbaum (philosophy of language).

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3. PHILOSOPHY AND OTHER DISCIPLINES

3.1. Philosophy and science.

Thales of Miletus (630-546 BCE), whom we have considered the first philosopher, is also the first
astronomer and mathematician, that is, the first scientist. Thales' case is not exceptional. We now
consider Pythagoras, Democritus, Aristotle, and Descartes to be scientists as well as philosophers.
Democritus was the one who first formulated the theory that all objects are made of atoms, infinitesimal
and indivisible particles that rotate in a vacuum; this theory would be accepted several centuries later by
modern science.
From the 6th to the 16th century BCE, there was no distinction between philosophy and science,
since in both cases: (a) they were rational, critical and systematic knowledge that sought to find universal
truths about the world; (b) similar questions were raised: what is the origin of the universe?, and what is
it made of?, how did life arise?, what is the human being and how do they differ from animals?, etc.
All sciences were part of philosophy for most of history. However, after the scientific revolution
of the 16th-17th centuries, the progressive independence of sciences from philosophy took place:
empirical sciences –astronomy, physics, chemistry– incorporated mathematical language and began to
use the hypothetical-deductive method (which involves experimentation in the laboratory to test
hypotheses). On the other hand, philosophy uses a non-mathematical language and has its own
methods: the dialectical method (consisting of the argued debate with opposing positions to try to
overcome and reinterpret them) and the analytical method (consisting of the rigorous definition and
clarification of concepts). Likewise, from the 16th century on, sciences deal with how things are and how
they work, and philosophy deals with why things are what they are.

Stephen Hawking and Democritus.

Although they can no longer be identified, the relationship between philosophy and science
remains very close for several reasons:
-a) Science and philosophy, although they are autonomous, are in communication with each
other and exchange theories and ideas. For example, a 20th-century philosophical theory, functionalism
–which equates the human mind to computer software– has been adopted by psychologists and
neuroscientists, and has made possible a huge advance in mind and brain research.
-b) There are highly speculative scientific theories –such as string theory or the theory of “virtual
nothing” in astrophysics– that, although expressed in mathematical language, can also be considered
philosophical.
-c) An important branch of philosophy, logic, is an exact science and mathematics is derived from
it. The programming languages of computer science and robotics are based on logic. Thus, we can say
that without philosophy –specifically, without logic– we would not have had computers, cell phones or
robots.
-d) Another part of philosophy, the so-called philosophy of science, deals with analyzing,
assessing and questioning the methods, reliability, limits of science and its implications. Many of the

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great philosophers of the 20th century have also been scientists (for example, Karl Popper was a
physicist and Ludwig Wittgenstein an aeronautical engineer).

3.2. Philosophy and religion.

The relationship between philosophy and religion has experienced its ups and downs: moments
of deep connection and moments of estrangement; but, despite this, what is certain is that there are
numerous coincidences and divergences between the two of them. The matches are:
-a) Similar interests: they share concerns and problems, such as the meaning of existence, the
transcendence of the human being, the existence of God... Both seek to answer the reason for
everything that exists.
-b) Practical dimension: they intend to teach us to lead a good life, so they offer us precepts or
rules of how we should act.

Also, the differences are:

-a) Philosophy is a rational and critical way of knowing that often involves uncertainty and doubt.
-b) Religion is a way of knowing based on faith and, therefore, is characterized by belief in
revealed truths.

Knowledge Basis Object Method

RELIGION Faith -Why of all things -Revelation
(Holy books).
PHILOSOPHY Reason -Why of all things - Dialectical method /
analytical method.
SCIENCE Reason -How things work. -Scientific-experimental
method.

Why does something exist insted of nothing? That is, why does the current Universe exist instead of
the most absolute Nothing? We will see below an example of a religious, scientific and religious
answer to this question.

A religious explanation of the origin of the Universe claims

that it was created by God, an all-knowing, all-powerful and
infinitely good personal being, as an act of His will. Other
religious explanations state that the Universe was created by
various gods or supernatural forces. Such explanations are
based on tradition and authority, expressed through sacred
books.

A generally accepted scientific explanation for the origin of

the Universe states that it occurred 13.8 billion years ago with
the Big-bang, the initial point at which matter, space and time
were formed. At that point, smaller than an atom, all the
matter in the Universe was compressed, and then burst into a
great explosion giving rise to chemical elements, stars and
galaxies. Some theories claim that before the Big Bang there
were the so-called "virtual particles”, with a half-life of one
trillionth of a second.

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One philosophical explanation, proposed by positivist

philosopher Robert Nozick, asserts that the Universe exists as
a matter of statistical probability. Imagine a bag filled with an
infinite number of white balls (representing the infinite
possible ways of being something) and a black ball
(representing Nothing, which can only have one possible way).
What is the chance of drawing a white ball from an infinite
number of black balls? It will be one divided by infinity, that is,
zero. Then the probability that nothing has existed is 0, and the probability that something has existed is
1. And for this reason something, that is, our Universe, has necessarily existed.

3.3. Philosophy and art.

Leaving aside aesthetic reflection, philosophy has maintained a close relationship with art and
has expressed itself through different artistic manifestations: literature, painting, sculpture, audiovisual
media... All fields of art have undertaken a historical dialogue with the problems that concern
philosophy, if not with the intention of giving an answer or reaching a solution, then at least as a way of
posing them and inviting the viewer to reflect on them.
In turn, many philosophers have resorted to artistic means to express their thoughts. Let us not
forget that the Platonic dialogues make up authentic literary works, that thinkers such as Schopenhauer,
Nietzsche or Kierkegaard have resorted to aphorism or literary rhetoric to compose their main works,
and that, since its inception, many of the problems of philosophy were raised in Greek tragedies.
Sartre's theatre, in which existence and the human being are reflected on, cinematographic
works such as The Sky over Berlin or Origin, the photography of Chema Madoz or the literature of Milan
Kundera, show how arts can be a vehicle to express philosophical problems.

Origin (2010)

4. MEANING AND NECESSITY OF PHILOSOPHY.

4.1. The scandal of philosophy.

There are several aspects that have led critics of philosophy to speak of a philosophical scandal.
Let's review some of the most forceful criticisms that have been made:
- The lack of agreement between the various theories. This explains the variety of currents and
philosophical schools.
- Its residual character. Although philosophy began as a universal type of knowledge that
encompassed all areas of knowledge, over time sciences emancipated from it: physics, biology,
psychology... For some thinkers, current branches of philosophy are future sciences that have not yet

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achieved enough maturity to become independent.

- The unsolvable nature of their issues. Despite the deep interest that issues such as truth,
afterlife, mind-body relationship, etc. imply for the human being, it seems impossible to give them a
satisfactory solution. Philosophy does not seem to achieve positive results like science; the questions
that are raised are always open and without a definitive solution.

4.2. Value and actuality of philosophy.

Despite this disagreement, there is something common in the philosophical approaches. It is
what has been called the philosophical attitude, which arises directly from the admiration and wonder at
reality.
For many people, philosophy has as much reason to exist today as it could have at any other
time. Philosophizing is part of us in an essential way, so the philosophical attitude continues to have the
same value and timeliness that it had in Greek culture. Let's look at some features of philosophy that
make this so:
- Problematic. The value of philosophy lies above all in the questions it asks; philosophy also
offers answers, but they are never definitive.
- Universalist and interdisciplinary. It is not limited to a single area, but tries to cover all of reality.
Philosophy also serves to establish relationships between the different sciences, between science and
everyday life, between science and ethics, etc.
- Critical. It supposes a radical investigation, since it attacks the root issues without taking
anything for granted. Philosophy questions everything that claims to be true. It tries to discover errors,
fallacies and ideological deceptions .
- Clarifier. Many problems are due to confusion created by a misuse of our language. For this
reason, for authors such as Wittgenstein, philosophy is an activity consisting of the analysis of concepts.
Its objective is liberating, since many conceptual errors trap us without us seeing the way out of them.
According to Wittgenstein, “we are trapped in the same way that a fly is trapped in a bottle”. The
function of philosophy is to help us get out of this prison.
- Practice. Its interest is almost always to guide us in life. That is why it has been said that
philosophy is an art of living and that, if it is not useful for life, it is useless. As we all want to be right in
our way of living, and thus avoid nonsense and misfortune, we need knowledge that does not take
anything for granted and can guide us.

4.3. The new philosophical practices.

In the last forty years, a growing number of philosophers are carrying out a series of activities,
which are not entirely new in philosophy, but which received this name from UNESCO at the congress
held in 2006 about Philosophy. A school of freedom.

Philosophical therapy.

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-Philosophical advice or therapy.

Although it was already practiced in ancient Greece and Rome, it began in the 1980s as a
professional activity. It consists of carrying out one or more sessions with a therapist philosopher, in
order to review in depth one's own philosophy of life. The objective is to make the client reflect critically
on his particular way of feeling and thinking, to examine together with him to what extent it works for or
against his interests and desires for happiness and personal fulfillment. The role of the therapist is,
therefore, to facilitate, through an open and respectful dialogue, that the client acquires a greater
knowledge of himself, thus improving his decision-making capacity and his personal autonomy.
Philosophical therapy is a complement to psychological therapy, not a substitute.

- Philosophical coffee.
Also called Socratic cafes, they are debates open to the general public, moderated by a
philosopher who usually, after a brief presentation, invites attendees to participate in the session
reasoning their own points of view on the subject of debate. They were initiated by Marc Sautet at the
Des Phares Café in Paris in 1992, and they spread to other cities and countries. Today they are held in
very diverse places, and the topics of debate are raised in such a way that specialized knowledge of
philosophy is not required in order to participate.

- Philosophy for children.

Following Epicurus' idea that "nobody is too young to start philosophizing", Philosophy for
Children is a program to introduce children from 4-5 years old into philosophical thought, based on
stories and various materials. Given the success of the program (which increases the linguistic and
logical-mathematical intelligence of children and improves their academic performance), more and more
Early Childhood and Primary Schools have embodied it. It was developed by the philosopher and
pedagogue Walter Lipman.

Walter Lipman philosophizing with children.

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