HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF PHILOSOPHY

1. Pre-Socratic Period (Ancient Period)

a. Before Socrates
b. Where did everything come from? Why am I here? Who am I?
c. Concerned themselves with the nature and origin of the world.
i. Cosmocentric
d. Proponents 1: Ancient Philosophy
i. Thales (first philosopher c570BC)
1. everything must have come from WATER
2. “The principle behind all things is water. For all is water and
goes back to being water”
3. Pack it up Poseidon stan
ii. Anaximander
1. Student of Thales
2. Everything must have come from an “original stuff” calls the
APEIRON or the indeterminate boundless
3. APEIRON - indeterminate, boundless
a. The world is composed of opposites: earth and water,
(dry and wet), fire and air (hot and cold)
b. Not just water
c. The earth is composed of Apeiron: dry and wet, cold
and hot
iii. Anaximenes
1. Everything must have come from AIR
2. The earth floats on air
3. The sun is blocked by the higher parts of the earth
4. Flat earther beat
iv. Pythagoras
1. Made the Pythagorean theorem
2. Everything comes from NUMBERS
3. Numbers are permanent
v. Heraclitus
1. Everything is in constant flux
2. Everything CHANGES
3. Everything is temporary </3
4. Ugh breakup king who hurt you
 5. “Everything changes but change itself. Everything flows and
nothing remains the same...You cannot step twice into the
same river, for other waters and yet others go flowing ever
on.”
vi. Parmenides of Elea
1. Opposed Heraclitus
2. ALL IS ONE
3. Change is an illusion, everything is PERMANENT
4. There is forever
5. Everything that happens is permanently done
6. Go back and start again because the starting point is
permanent
7. The world consists of one indivisible thing
a. ONE: motionless and perfect
2. Socratic Period (Ancient Period)
a. A shift in discussion in the history of philosophy
b. Main focus: KNOWLEDGE
c. The most flourishing period in ancient times
d. Two new schools of thought: Rationalist and Imperialist
e. Examination of selves
f. Happiness is up to you
i. Socrates
1. He wrote nothing
2. We know about him because of Aristophanes and other
students
3. He died
4. Was arrested for two charges
a. Corrupting the youth
b. Denying the gods and introducing new gods
5. Not a sophist
a. Sophist >> teacher, sharer of wisdom
b. He asked for money to share the wisdom
6. Continuous search of higher wisdom
7. ETHICAL WISDOM
a. Not academic
b. Recognition of the fundamental importance of the
ethical life of a person
c. Doing good deeds as the basic principle
d. For the person to be wise >> Know thyself
 8. Formulated the Socratic method
a. To understand ourselves easily
b. “Elenchus”
c. Process of DIalogue
d. Ask and clarify
e. Giving questions until the person who is asking is able
to answer their own question
9. Main focus: HUMAN SOUL
a. Socratic concept of Human Soul
b. Psyche >> Intelligence and Character
c. Humans are reflective thinkers
d. Knowledge is inborn
10. It is not enough to know what is good, wisdom is when you
do what is good
a. To know the good is to do the good
b. Knowledge = Virtue
c. Evil is a result of ignorance
i. Criticism: If knowledge is inborn then we
already know what is right vs what is wrong
then that means there is no such thing as
ignorance
d. Knowledge is not theoretical, it is right living
e. Happiness can be attained by good knowledge and
virtue not physical pleasure
f. Validity of an idea or action. Hence, what is true. X
i. It is widely believed
ii. Denounced by a majority
iii. Dictate of public opinion
g. Validity of an idea or action. Hence what is true >>
i. Proper reasoning
11. Knowledge therefore should make the person realize the
good, which eventually lead to fulfillment
ii. Plato
1. Rationalist
2. Concepts or the idea is the only TRUE REALITY
3. Student of Socrates
4. Founded a school known as Academy
5. Produced many written works: the republic, symposium,
apology, Crito, Parmenides, etc.
6. His real name is Aristocles
a. Changed name to Plato
b. Plato > “Broad”
c. Because of his style in philosophy
7. Influenced by the political situation of his time
8. The trial and death of Socrates affected him
a. Did not accept the charges
9. Plato realized that what happened to Socrates was detached
from wisdom and self-restraint
10. DUALIST
a. Knowledge is also inborn
11. On the multiplicity of things: ISSUE
a. Being/One/Perminent
i. Parmenides
b. Becoming/Many/Change
i. Heraclitus
c. Plato wanted to fix this issue
i. He leaned towards Parmenides
ii. Changing things are not real
iii. Being = Permanent
iv. There is no such thing as becoming
1. Becoming is a lower rank of what is real
12. The Allegory of the Cave
a. Speaks of ignorance of humanity trapped in the
conventional ethics formed by society
b. Covers both the fallen and risen state of mankind,
from the phase where the mean is in the search of
truth, and once he is made aware, all he wants to do
is share it with others and free them from the bondage
of ignorance
c. The human being is imprisoned by opinion
13. Soul = Mind
a. Dualist
b. “No one gives what he does not have”
c. The soul is imprisoned in the body
d. The soul is dragged down by sensations and pleasure
i. A person is unhappy because they are
imprisoned and cannot skip from that reality
e. The soul cannot see what is true reality
 f. Soul and body are not one, they are separate
14. True reality: core, ideas
15. Concept of a Human Person
a. Sensation (Aethesis)
i. Material things
ii. The lowest level of the soul
b. Opinion (Doxa)
i. The second level of the soul
ii. The step by which the soul may lead to the
aspiration to see the ideal world
c. Mind or intellect (Nous)
i. Highest level of the soul
ii. The immortal part of the human soul that gives
us the capacity to truth and wisdom
1. Soul has a tendency towards good
16. Concept of morality
a. Good life > Overcome the state of Sensation and
Opinion
iii. Aristotle
1. Student of Plato
2. Founded the school named Lyceum
3. Tutored Alexander the Great
4. He is not a dualist
a. Body and soul are inseparable
b. The human mind is a “tabula rasa” or a blank sheet
i. Knowledge is NOT inborn
5. The idea of a human person
a. Biography
b. Body and soul
i. The human person is BOTH body and soul
c. Function
i. Ergon
1. Function
ii. Arete
1. Excellence and Virtue
iii. Every person is destined to a particular end or
purpose
1. All actions aim towards an END
2. Instrumental end
 a. Acts that are done as a means to
another end
3. Intrinsic end
a. Acts that are done for its own
sake
iv. Aristotle’s reaction to the concept of change
1. Actuality
a. The perfection of a being
2. Potentiality
a. The capability of a being
d. Happiness
i. DESIRE
ii. Right action is the one that promotes
iii. The ultimate good is happiness
iv. Happiness is not pleasure but it is a Life of
reason and contemplation = self-sufficient
6. The world of Perception and Things
3. Medieval period
a. Focused on faith and reason
b. Faith and reason are inseparable
c. Theocentric
i. Philosophy - Sense, Experience, and Reason
ii. Theology - Faith in God
iii. You can’t take theology if you dont have the background of
philosophy
d. Gods existence
e. Philosophers
i. St. Thomas of Aquinas
1. Italian Dominican friar and Catholic priest
2. Follower of St Francis de Assisi
3. Aka Doctor Angelicus and Doctor Communis
a. Angelicus - philosophers who thoroughly explain
doctrines of the church, highest degree given by the
church as a philosopher
4. Before he was born, it was predicted that he would be a
Doctor Angelicus and Doctor Communis
5. His vocation was very strong
6. The nature of the human person
 a. To look for the source of our ultimate beginning and
end, God
b. The good which a person yearns in and manifests is
anchored in
i. Synderisis
1. It is the intellectual habit or disposition
(in general) rooted in the principles of
morality - do good and avoid evil
ii. Conscience
1. It is the conscience particular judgment
a person knows what he or she ought to
do
c. Morality is not an arbitrary set of rules or behavior, it is
rooted in human nature which is good
3 Determinants of Moral Action (all three
must be checked to be determined as good moral
behavior)
i. Finis Operas
1. Object or end of an action
ii. Circumstantie
1. Circumstances
iii. Finis Operantis
1. The intention of the Agent
iv. EVERY ACT MUST BE ALIGNED W THE
HUMAN NATURE
The threefold inclination of the human
person
v. Self-preservation
1. To take care of ourselves is natural
vi. Just dealings with others
vii. Propagation of species
1. To breed LMDFPISJOAIODJOAJ
7. Explains The nature of God
a. God is the first (prime) mover
b. God is the first cause (uncaused cause)
c. God is the necessary being
d. God BRUHSKJHSH
e. God
ii. St Anslem
 1. He quoted from Psalm 4:1
a. The fool says there is no god
2. Ontological argument
a. Ontology is the study of existence
b. A priori, it comes before the evidence and relies on
reason, e.g. platos forms
c. “I believe in order to understand”
3. Anselm’s Proslogion
a. Definition of God: God is that in which nothing greater
can be achieved
b. AND: that which exists in reality is greater than that
which exists in the mind
c. The Argument
i. God is TTWNGCBC
ii. A being which exists in reality is greater than a
being which exists only in the intellect
iii. Therefore the concept of God is surpassed by
an existent God
iv. So God must exist
d. Second version
i. God is TTWNGCBC
ii. God must be necessary
iii. God must exist - necessarily
e. Contingency and necessity
i. Contingent means it relies on other things to
exist
ii. Necessity means it relies on nothing in order to
exist
iii. St. Augustine
1. Was a sinner
2. Came from a wealthy family
3. The argument by analogy
4. Solipsism
a. Only one’s own existence is the only thing is real
5. The Augustinian philosophy of the human person
a. Focused on happiness
b. Happiness can be found in love alone
c. God is the perfect image of love who created
everything because of love
 d. Human being the apex of God’s creative work
because human is imago Dei (an image of God)
e. Morality is rooted in love and love leads to humans
imitation of god
f. Love is the principle of unity, completion, and meaning
g. All things in the world are good bc they come from
God who is good
h. When a person loves, happiness and compassion
6. If everything is created by a good God, why is there evil?
f. Problems of knowledge
i. Empericism
1. Human senses
ii. Rationalism
1. Reason
iii. Rene Descartes
1. From metaphysical inquiry to epistemological inquiry
2. “Cogito ergo sum” I think therefore I am
3. Father of modern philosophy
4. A rationalist
5. A dualist = cartesian dualism = mind and body (instead of
soul)
6. First modern Philosopher
7. Cartesian Method/Methodic Doubt
a. The process of calling into question any judgement or
preposition
b. Process of questions
c. You can't just accept everything you have to question
d. Think things over if knowledge that comes into mind
are true
e. You have to doubt judgement based on sensation
f. We need to DOUBT EVERYTHING including our
existence
g. In order to obtain certitude, descartes began to doubt
everything even his own existence
h. However, while doubting, it cannot be denied to ng
i. Therefore “i think therefore I am” He Exists
8. Human is Mind by Nature
9. What is the body?
a. A machine or automation
 b. Wo the operations of the mind, the body will not work
iv. John Locke
1. More on science, practicality
2. He would hate philosophy
3. “Tabula Rasa”
4. One of the most influential people in England
5. Father of liberal philosophy
6. “TABULA RASA”
a. There is nothing in the mind except was first in the
senses
b. Our mind is blank but the senses are what fill it
c. The human mind receives knowledge and forms itself
based on experience alone
d. Human persons' identity is based on their experiences
and sensory perceptions of the outside world
v. Immanuel Kant
1. Tried to explain/solve the problem of the modern period
2. Influential in ethics
3. German philosopher
4. Rationalist
5. Knowledge is a PRIORI
a. A priori knowledge: knowledge that is acquired
independently of any particular experience, as
opposed to posteriori knowledge
b. We have it already
c. Everything that is said and thought is based on a
priori knowledge
6. Transcendental thinking
a. Things exist because i think it
b. Bro…...im zoning out
vi. Karl Marx
1. Influential in politics
2. Influenced by william hegel and later critiqued his teacher’s
philosophy
3. Humans Relation to Society
a. There are no persons wo society
b. The starting point of marx is the experience of the
laboring human
 c. The time of his philosophy was when capitalism was
high, his father and his life being subject to it
d. Human is separated by the demands placed upon
him/her in a capitalist society
e. Natural for humans to work
4. Marx on religion
a. Humans should emancipate
b. Human beings just created god and religion
c. Worshipping god only diverted human beings from
their own powers