PARADIGM 2 History of Philosophy

Common Matter
Second course

J. by Echano Basaldua
Professor of Philosophy at the IES “Camilo José Cela” from Pozuelo de Alarcón (Madrid)

x. Marti Orriols
Professor of Philosophy at IES “Terra Alta” of Gandesa (Tarragona)

AND. Martínez Martínez

Professor of Philosophy at the IES “Great Captain” of Madrid

Q. Montarelo Sanz
Professor of Philosophy at the IES “Andrés Laguna” from Segovia

1. Navlet Armenta
Professor of Philosophy at IES “Guadarrama” of Madrid

PRESENTATION

• Given the importance of knowing the historical background of our civilization for
understanding the keys to the present, the history of philosophy appears as an essential tool
to achieve that goal.

• If in PARADIGM 1 , a thematic approach to the main philosophical problems was

offered, in PARADIGM 2 , it proposes a historical approach to them, taking into account
their genesis and subsequent evolution, as well as their impact on current society.

• It consists of seventeen units structured in four blocks that correspond to: ancient
philosophy, medieval and Renaissance philosophy, modern philosophy and contemporary
philosophy.

• Each of these units, focused on the study of a philosophical stage or current, is based on
the specific historical context in which each philosopher appears, to then develop the most
important ideas of one or several authors, emphasizing their most accessible texts. . As a
complement to the basic information of the text, multiple expansion documents, diagrams
and synoptic tables are offered, as well as a dossier that allows updating or synthesis of what
is discussed in the topic. Finally, the comprehension, application and text comment activities
allow students to verify their learning and practice the basic procedures and skills of the
subject.

INDEX

YO. GREEK PHILOSOPHY

1. The origins of philosophy: from the physis to the polis

1. From myth to logos. 1. The mythical explanation: Homer and Hesiod. 2. Towards a
rational explanation. II. The first philosophers: the search for the arche. 3. Sociocultural
environment of pre-Socratic Greece. 4. Physis and arché in the first philosophers: the School
of Miletus. 5. The problem of change in nature: Heraclitus and Parmenides. 6. The
mathematization of nature: the Pythagoreans. 7. The pluralist philosophers: Empedocles,
Anaxagoras and Democritus. III. The anthropological turn of philosophy: the sophists and
Socrates. 8. Sociocultural environment of the sophists and Socrates. 9. The sophists:
masters of areté. 10. Socrates: the reaction to the sophists.

2. Plato or political ideals

1. Sociocultural environment. 1. The Peloponnesian War and the totalitarian regime of the
Thirty Tyrants. II. Platonic political theory. 2. Social organization and justice. 3. The training
of guardians and rulers. 4. Relationships between ethics and politics. III. The theory of ideas.
5. "The world of ideas", true reality. 6. Concept and characteristics of ideas. IV.
Anthropological theory. 7. The doctrine of the soul. V. The theory of knowledge. 8.
Knowledge as memory. 9. Knowledge as an ascent towards good. 10. The degrees of
knowledge.
3. Aristotle or the search for scientific knowledge
1. Sociocultural environment. 1. Consequences of the Peloponnesian War. 2. The
preponderance of Macedonia. II. The Aristotelian model. 3. Characteristics of the Aristotelian
model. 4. Science Clasification. III. First philosophy. 5. The concept of being. 6. Being in act
and being in potential. IV. The explanation of nature. 7. The concept of cause. 8. Movement
analysis. 9. The universe according to Aristotle. V. The human being. 10. The theory of the
soul. SAW. Theory of knowledge. 11. Sensitive knowledge. 12. Intellectual knowledge. VII.
Ethics and politics. 13. The ethical theory. 14. Political theory.

4. Hellenistic philosophy
I. Sociocultural environment. 1. Historical context of Hellenistic culture. 2. The novelty of
Hellenistic culture. II. Philosophical movements of Hellenism. 3. The precursors of Hellenistic
philosophy. 4. Stoics: conformity with nature. 5. Epicureans: happiness as pleasure. 6.
Skeptics: doubt and knowledge.

II. MEDIEVAL AND RENAISSANCE PHILOSOPHY

5. Towards a Christian philosophy: Saint Augustine

1. Sociocultural environment: the emergence of Christianity. 1. From persecuted religion to
official religion. 2. Elaboration of a Christian thought. 3. The Apologists. 4. The Fathers of the
Church or patristic philosophy. II. Saint Augustine: enlightened reason. 5. Towards an official
Catholic doctrine. 6. The Confessions and the origin of his thought. 7. Knowledge and truth.
8. The human compound. 9. Moral conduct. 10. The meaning of history. 11. Political theory.
12. God, creation and the problem of evil.

6. The culmination of medieval philosophy: Saint Thomas Aquinas

1. Sociocultural environment of the Middle Ages. 1. The new spirit of medieval culture. II.
Medieval scholasticism. 2. Christian scholasticism. 3. Islamic scholasticism. 4. Jewish
scholasticism. III. The heyday of scholasticism: Saint Thomas Aquinas. 5. The faith-reason
relationship. 6. The Thomistic universe: being and beings. 7. Natural theology: the science of
God. 8. The human being in Saint Thomas. 9. Human knowledge. 10. Thomistic ethics and
politics.

7. The crisis of scholasticism: William of Ockham

1. Sociocultural environment of the late Middle Ages. 1. The 14th century, a century of crisis.
2. Philosophical currents of the 14th century. II. William of Ockham. 3. The absolute freedom
of God. 4. Ockham's universe: only the individual is real. 5. Theory of knowledge. 6. Politics:
autonomy of the two powers. III. Medieval science. 7. The Oxford School. 8. The School of
Paris.

8. Philosophy in the Renaissance: Machiavelli

1. Sociocultural environment of the Renaissance. 1. Changes in European society. 2.
Renaissance Humanism. 3. Reformation and Counter-Reformation. 4. The recovery of
classical authors. 5. The philosophy of nature. II. The new Renaissance science. 6. The
explanatory models. III. Origins of modern political theory: Machiavelli. 7. Machiavelli's
political realism. 8. The utopian critique of politics.

111. MODERN PHILOSOPHY

9. Rationalism: Descartes, Spinoza and Leibniz

1. Sociocultural environment of the 17th century. 1. General characteristics of the time. II.
Descartes: the passion for the method. 2. The unity of knowledge. 3. The search for true
knowledge. 4. The Cartesian mechanism. 5. Provisional morality. III. Spinoza: pantheistic
rationalism.
6. The substance in Spinoza: God-Nature. 7. Spinozian ethics. IV. Leibniz: sufficient reason.
8. The theory of knowledge. 9. Reality: monads and harmony.

10. Empiricism: Locke, Berkeley and Hume

1. Sociocultural environment. 1. The new political circumstances. 2. Economic and social
development. 3. The development of sciences. II. Locke: the value of experience. 4.
Knowledge in Locke. 5. Criticism of the concept of substance. 6. Social origin of moral
principles. III. Berkeley: idealist empiricism. 7. The criticism of material substance. IV.
Hume: a moderate skeptic. 8. Human nature and knowledge. 9. Analysis of the concept of
causality. 10. The concept of substance in Hume. 11. Moral emotivism. 12. Utility, purpose of
society.

11. Political philosophy in the Modern Age: from Hobbes to Rousseau

1. Sociopolitical context. 1. Politics and society in the 17th and 18th centuries. 2. Criticism of
the theory of divine right. 3. The theory of the social contract. II. Hobbes or absolutism. 4.
The state of nature. 5. The social contract. 6. The Leviathan or absolute State. III. Spinoza:
the ideal of tolerance. 7. The state of nature. 8. The social pact. 9. The ideal of tolerance. IV.
Locke: the liberal state. 10. The state of nature. 11. The social pact. 12. The civil state:
parliamentary monarchy. 13. About tolerance. V. Rousseau: popular sovereignty. 14. The
state of nature. 15. The general will. 16. Towards the democratic State.

12. Enlightened reason: Kant

1. Age of Enlightenment. 1. Sociocultural environment. 2. Reason, supreme authority. 3. The
French Enlightenment. II. The culmination of Enlightenment thought: Kant. 4. Overcoming
Rationalism and Empiricism. 5. Kantian Criticism. 6. The justification of science: the trials. 7.
The theory of knowledge. 8. The practical use of reason. 9. Kantian moral theory. 10. The
end of history: perpetual peace.

IV. CONTEMPORARY PHILOSOPHY

13. Philosophy in the 19th century (I): Idealism and Liberalism

1. Sociocultural environment. 1. The romantic movement: the exaltation of freedom. 2.
Revolutions: the rise of the bourgeoisie. II. German idealism: Fichte, Schelling and Hegel. 3.
Subjective idealism: Fichte. 4. Objective idealism: Schelling. 5. Absolute idealism: Hegel. III.
Utilitarian liberalism: J. S. Mill. 6. The genesis of liberal thought. 7. The liberalism of J. Stuart
Mill.

14. Philosophy in the 19th century (II): Marxism and Vitalism

1. Sociocultural environment. 1. The revolutions of 1848 and their consequences. II.
Historical materialism: Marx. 2. Philosophy as praxis. 3. Alienation and its forms. 4. The
critique of ideology. 5. The anatomy of civil society.6. The materialist interpretation of
history. 7. Towards a communist society. III. Nietzsche's vitalism. 8. The tragic vision of life.
9. The relativity of knowledge. 10. Criticism of Western culture. 11. The values of the new
civilization.

15. Philosophy in the 20th century (I): philosophy of language and philosophy of
science
1. The analytical movement. 1. Scientific context. 2. Development of the analytical
movement. II. Philosophy as analysis of language: Wittgenstein. 3. The analysis of formal
language: first Wittgenstein. 4. The analysis of ordinary language: second Wittgenstein. III.
Logical positivism. 5. The analysis of scientific propositions. 6. The verifiability of the
propositions. IV. The philosophy of science. 7. Popper's critical rationalism. 8. The new
philosophy of science.

16. Philosophy in the 20th century (II): from philosophies of existence to

postmodernity
1. Sociocultural environment. 1. Political aspects. 2. Cultural and scientific aspects. II.
Philosophies of existence. 3. Deep crisis of conscience and values. 4. General characteristics
of Existentialism. 5. Heidegger: concern for being. 6. Sartre: the commitment to freedom.
III. From the critique of reason to the search for meaning. 7. Freud's psychoanalysis. 8. The
Frankfurt School. 9. Hermeneutics: search for meaning. 10. Structuralism.

17. Spanish philosophy in the 20th century: Ortega y Gasset

1. Sociocultural environment of Spain between the 19th and 20th centuries. 1. Social
transformations.
2. The crisis of '98. II. Unamuno's Existentialism. 3. The man of flesh and blood. 4. The
problem of immortality. 5. The primacy of the will. III. The ratiovitalism of Ortega y Gasset.
6. The problem of Spain, a problem of culture. 7. The function of philosophy 8. Life and its
attributes. 9. The vital reason. 10. The historical reason. IV. Spanish philosophy in the
second half of the 20th century. 11. Ortega's heirs. 12. The current panorama.