PhilosophyA General Introd

uction Objectives
To introduce the basic concepts of philosophy
To develop an appreciation of the processes of philosophical thought
To develop an understanding of the relevance of philosophy to the individual and
society
 The Origins of Philosophy
• The study of philosophy originated with the ancient Greeks.
• The term philosophia means “love of wisdom”.
• Philosophy has a variety of meanings
• Philosophy as a personal view of life
• Philosophy as reason and reflective thinking
• Philosophy as speculation
• Philosophy as logical and linguistic analysis
• Philosophy as issues and solutions to these issues.
Philosophy has traditionally been divided into
various fields to deal with basic philosophical
issues
• A. What is a person?
• This involves psychology and the study of human beings and includes social philosophy which
involves the study of interpersonal relationships.
• B. What is reality?
• This involves the study of metaphysics (studying the nature of reality)
• Ontology (Studying the nature of ultimate reality)
• Cosmology (studying the origin and development of the universe as an orderly system) and
• Teleology (studying the ends or purposes of existence)
• C. How does man know?
• This involves the study of epistemology (study of sources, nature, and validity of knowledge)
• Logic (study of the nature of thought and argument)
• Linguistic analysis (study of meaning of the principles and rules of language)
• D. What is worthwhile? Value Theory
• This involves the study of axiology (the general theory of value)
• Ethics (the study of moral conduct)
• Aesthetics (the philosophy of art)
• Political philosophy (the study of the state)
The need for philosophy in the modern wo
rld
• Philosophy does not always offer answers to questions.
Philosophy questions answers.
• Philosophy helps people understand the nature and history of
civilization
• Philosophy will influence human development and interactions in the
future
The transition from Mythological
understanding to Philosophical Reflection
• Essential Questions
• How did human thinking evolve from a mythological understanding of
the world to philosophical reflection of the nature of reality?
• How can we distinguish between mythology, technology and
philosophy?
 Myth and Mythology
• Myths are narratives (often considered sacred) they are unreflectingly
and uncritically transmitted orally from one generation to another.
• Mythology relies on stories dealing with the gods, demigods,
legendary heroes and personified or deified powers and events. They
often date from before a written historical record.
• Mythology acts to reveal a part of the world view of a group or
society and/or to explain a practice, belief, or natural phenomenon
and/or attempts to answer questions about the origin, meaning and
purpose of human beings and the world.
• Mythology acts as a model for much significant human activity
 Technology
• Technology refers to people’s effort to control their material
environment for their own sustenance and comfort through the use
of tools and the application of reason to the properties of matter and
energy.
 Philosophy
The love of, or striving towards wisdom
• Philosophy refers to people’s contemplation about the essential
questions of the nature and meaning of the world and human beings
• Philosophy is a systematic and logically justified procedure of
reasoning.
• Philosophy is not always limited by practical, religious, scientific or
ethical considerations or purposes
 The Political Condition
• The world’s first complex and organized urban civilizations with
complex economic systems and highly organized societies collapsed.

What are some examples of this?

 The Intellectual Condition
• People gradually lost faith in the ability of myths and early religions to
provide true and factual answers to basic questions.

• What might be the causes of this loss of faith?

• What might be the effects of this loss of faith?
 The Historical Condition
• Beginning in around 500 B.C.E (before common era) new ideas and religions began to emerge around the
world. These people and groups attempted to find new answers to questions about the nature of reality and
people’s place in the universe.
• New thinkers included (but were not limited to)
• China: Major influencers of thought
• Lao Tse
• Kung Fu
• India: Major influencers of thought
• Buddha
• Persia: Major influencers of thought
• Zoroaster
• Israel: Major influencers of thought
• The prophets
• Greece: Major influencers of thought
• Early Philosophers
 Essential questions

•What is real?
•What is first?
•What is in everything?
 The Ancient Greeks: the Pre-Socratic Philosophers
The Milesian School of Philosophers
• Many of the early Greek philosophers attempted to find answers to these questions they include but are not
limited to
1. Thales of Miletus (624-456)
Considered by some to be the “Father” of Western Philosophy, Thales deduced through observation that specific
weather conditions, not praying to gods or divine figures led to a good harvest. Predicting a large olive crop one
year, he apparently bought up all the local olive presses, and then made a significant profit by renting them out
to meet the increased demand. This led to Thales to develop a theory about the nature of reality.
• Theory
• All things are only varying forms of one primary and ultimate element
• Water is the ultimate element
• Everything is made of water
• Primary Significance
• Thales was first and foremost a teacher. He was the first of the Milesian School of philosophers. His student
Anaximander went on to expand upon Thales’s theories and he in turn became a mentor to Anaximenes. Many
scholars agree that Anaximenes may have taught Pythagoras an important philosopher who’s work in the field
of Mathematics and Music formed much of the foundational knowledge in those fields.
 The Ancient Greeks
• 2. Anaximander (610-545)
More Milesians
• Theory
• Like Thales Anaximander thought there must be a single basic substance from which
everything else evolved. Anaximander believed it would have to be infinite and eternal and
called this substance apeiron (“indefinite”).
• He believed that the manifold world evolved from “Apeiron” through the conflict of opposites.
Examples: Hot/Cold, Dry/Wet
• According to this theory life began in the wet element and life evolved from living in the water
to living on land.
• While Thales believed that the Earth was supported by a sea of water. Anaximander believed
that such a sea would have to be supported by something. Because there was not any
evidence of this support structure. Anaximander reasoned that the Earth was an object
hanging in space.
• Anaximander is also considered important because it is widely believed that he published the
first map of the world.
 The Ancient Greeks
Still more Milesians
• Anaximenes (which unfortunately sounds really close to Anaximander).
• Theory
• Anaximenes was like other Milesian philosophers searching for the fundamental substance the universe
was formed from.
• He believed that Air was the fundamental element and that the variety of different forms was due to
condensation and rarefication of air.
• This theory proposes that just as air supplies the human body with life there also exists a universal kind of
air that gives life to the cosmos.
• He believed that when cooled, things condense and when warm things expand. When air condenses it
becomes visible as mist then as rain. He thought that through further condensation it would ultimately
turn to rock and thus eventually created the Earth.
• Perhaps most importantly Anaximenes is the first philosopher on record who used observation to support
his ideas. He demonstrated pursing his lips to produce cold air and relaxing them to produce warm air.
• Anaximenes was looking for understanding in an empirical way, not bound by mythologically based
preconceptions
 The search of a principle of order and
harmony
The Pythagoreans
• Pythagoras
• Pythagoras life remains shrouded in mystery. He left no writings behind to
examine. Modern scholars think that he might have studied under the
Milesians and probably visited Egypt. He was deaply religious and
superstitious believing in both reincarnation and the transmigration of
souls. Pythagoras founded a religious cult with himself as the leader. The
Pythagoreans as his followers were known recorded his ideas including his
wife and daughters.
• He believed that the ultimate goal was to free one’s self from the cycle of
reincarnation by following a specific and rigorous set of rules and behavior
and through extensive contemplation (objective scientific thought)
 Pythagoras

• While examining geometry and mathematics Pythagoras found truths

that he viewed as divine revelation.
• He believed that these discoveries were more important than
observations. For example the Egyptians used triangles in their
architecture and discovered that a triangle whose sides had ratios of
3:4:5 always had a right angle. Pythagoras found the underlying
principle of all right-angled triangles (the square of the hypotenuse
equals the sum of the squares of the other two sides). This becomes
known as Pythagoras’s Theorem and was viewed by the Pythagoreans
as a divine revelation.
 Pythagoras
• Theory
• Pythagoras believed that the cosmos was governed by mathematical
rules . Number (numerical ratios and mathematical axioms) could be
used to explain the structure of the universe. Although Pythagoras
does not dismiss the Milesian concept that the universe is composed
of a single basic substance he moves the focus of inquiry from
substance to form. “The number is the ruler of forms and ideas”
• Perhaps Pythagoras’s most significant discovery was the relationship
between numbers: the ratios and proportions.
• It was Pythagoras who discovered the ratios of the consonant
intervals ( the number of notes between two notes that determines if
they will sound harmonious if played a the same time). He found that
the intervals were harmonious because they had a simple, precise
mathematical ratio. Thus the mathematics found in abstract
geometry also existed in the natural world.
 Pythagoras
• Pythagoras applied his theories to the universe applying math to describe the harmonic
relationship between the planets, stars and elements.
• Pythagoras’s theory that the elements are arranged harmoniously was further examined by the
English chemist John Newlands in 1865. He discovered that when the chemical elements were
arranged according to their atomic weight. The elements with similar properties occurred at every
eighth element, like notes of music.
• This led to the development of the Periodic Law of Chemical elements, which is still used today.
• Pythagoras is also responsible for developing the principle of deductive reasoning. Which involves
a step-by-step process of starting with an obvious truth (2+2=4) and building toward new
conclusions or facts.
• This process is further refined by Euclid and formed the basis of much early mathematical thinking.
• One of the most important long term contributions Pythagoras made to philosophy is the concept
that our ability to engage in abstract thinking a superior way to find truth than the evidence
presented to us by our senses.
• Plato’s theory of forms is based on the idea that abstract thinking is superior to the evidence
presented to us by our senses and is also the foundation of the philosophical method use by the
rationalists in the 17th Century.
 Heraclitus
• Heraclitus (535-475 B.C.E)
• Theory
• “Everything is Flux” (Panta rhei= everything flows)
• Heraclitus saw the universe as being governed what he called a divine
logos. This has been interpreted as argument or reason. Heraclitus
considered logos to act as universal laws that governed reality. This is
where everything came to be and also created a universe in constant
balance between opposites (like day and night) and that this balance
maintains cosmic unity.
• Heraclitus believed that because tension is constantly being generated
between these opposing forces the universe is in a constant state of change
or “flux”.
• This is a shift away from thinkers like Thales and Anaximenes who believed
that everything was made of one unchanging essence.
 Parmenides
• Parmenides (515-445 BCE)
• Theory
• “All is One”
• Like Pythagoras, Parmenides also used deductive reasoning to attempt to determine the physical nature of
the world. He opposed the view of the universe presented by Heraclitus.
• Based on the premise that something does exist (“it is”) Parmenides deduced that it could not
simultaneously not exist (“It is not”) as that would contradict logic, therefore a state of nothing existing
must be impossible.
• Parmenides concluded that something cannot have come from nothing, so it must always have existed in
some form.
• Parmenides further believed that because something that is permanent can not change into something else
without ceasing to be permanent fundamental change is impossible.
• From this Parmenides concluded that everything real must also be eternal and unchanging, further it must
have an indivisible unity “all is one”
• Thinking and being are the same and True Being can only be found through intellectual processes, not
human senses.
Parmenides
 ZenoThe Stoics
• Zeno (490-430 BCE)
• Theory
• Zeno believed that “movement is an illusion of the senses.”
• Motion is impossible, the whole of reality consists of a single
unchanging substance.
• He presented his arguments through a series of paradoxes, beginning
from the position he wanted to refute. For example: that movement
and therefore change is real, and then revealing contradictory
consequences that lead to the rejection of this notion.
 Zeno’s Paradoxes
• Zeno's paradoxes are a set of philosophical problems thought to have been
devised by Zeno of Elea to support his teacher Parmenides' theory that contrary
to the evidence of one's senses, the belief in plurality and change is mistaken,
and in particular that motion is nothing but an illusion.
• Some of Zeno's nine surviving paradoxes (preserved in Aristotle's writings) are
essentially equivalent to one another. Aristotle offered a refutation of some of
them. Three of the strongest and most famous of Zeno’s paradoxes are that of
Achilles and the tortoise, the Dichotomy argument, and that of an arrow in flight.
• Zeno's arguments are perhaps the first examples of a method of proof called
reductio ad absurdum also known as proof by contradiction. They are also
credited as a source of the dialectic method used by Socrates.
Zeno’s
paradoxe
s
 Empedocles
• Empedocles (490-430 BCE)
• Theory
• Empedocles believed much like Heraclitus that the world is ever-
changing, as opposed to Parmenides theory that everything is one fixed
entity.
• Empedocles believed that four elements: Fire, Water, Earth and Air
constantly combine in a finite number of ways to create the universe.
Proportion is the determining factor.
• Living beings are the result of chance combinations of the elements.
• In the struggle for existence the less fit die off.
 Anaxagoras
• Anaxagoras (500-428 BCE)
• Theory
• Anaxagoras believed that everything tangible was created of a small part of
everything else or else it could not have come into being.
• There are immeasurable indestructible elements that make up matter.
• Each element has its own distinctive form and sensory qualities.
• Each individual object compounds elements in a given relationship.
• Everything is infinitely divisible.
• The purposeful Mind/Reason (NOUS) causes motion according to the goals for
which the finished product was intended in the harmonious universe.
• He was sentenced to death for asserting that the sun was a fiery rock and fled
from Athens, he died in exile.
Anaxagoras
 Democritus (460-371 BCE) andLeucippus (Early 5th
Century BCE)
Democritus and Leucippus
•Theory
•Many of the early philosophers believed that the universe was composed of a universal fundamental
substance. Democritus and Leucippus postulated that everything in the universe was made up of tiny
unchangeable, indivisible particles, they called them atoms (this is from the Greek word “atomos”
which means un-cuttable) and believed they were similar but different in size and shape, but too small
to be perceived by human senses.
•They went on to claim that these atoms were separated by an empty space or void, which allowed
them to move around. If they collided they could form new arrangements which would cause objects to
appear to change.
•They also believed that though the number of atoms was infinite the number of new arrangements
that they could combine into was finite. This explained the appearance of the fixed number of different
substances that exist in the universe.
•Known as atomism, this theory was the first complete mechanistic view of the universe, without any
religious ideals incorporated into their theory.
Democritus

Leucippus
 The Sophists
• The Sophists are believed to be the first professional teachers of
philosophy, they required that students pay for their services.
• The base of the teachings of the Sophists was the relativity of truth
and knowledge.
• This led to skepticism.
• The Sophists focused on techniques that would enable their students
to win in a debate over an opponent regardless of the topic.
• Logical fallacies Still more Logical fallacies
• This focus led to much criticism of the sophists and the development
of the word sophistry defined in the Merriam Webster Dictionary
reasoning that seems plausible on a superficial level but is actually
unsound, or reasoning that is used to deceive.
 Protagoras of Abdera
• Protagoras (c. 490-420 BCE)
• Theory
• Man is the measure of all things
• Nothing exists. If anything did exist we could never know it, and if we
somehow cam to know it we would be unable to communicate it with other
people so it would remain a secret.
• Protagoras lived during the “Golden Age” of scholarship and culture in ancient
Greece. During this period the city of Athens had a type of democracy and an
established legal system. If an individual was taken to court they would be
required to defend themselves. This resulted in the development of advisors
(early lawyers) Protagoras was one of those advisors.
 Protagoras Continued
• Protagoras believed that any argument had two sides and that both
might be equally valid.
• Protagoras’s claim to fame was that he could “make the worse case
the better” That his intellectual ability to argue a point and his ability
to be persuasive was more important than the actual value of the
argument.
• Protagoras believed that believe is subjective and that the individual’s
own view or opinion of an issue is the measure of its worth.
• This method of reasoning was common in the legal and political
systems of the time, however it was new to philosophy.
 Still More Protagoras
• This way of viewing the world placed human beings at the center and continued the tradition of removing religion from
philosophical arguments.
• It differs from other early Greek philosophers and pre-Socratics because it shifted the focus of philosophy away from the
examination and understanding of the nature of the universe and began to focus on an examination of the nature of and
reasons for human behavior.
• Protagoras was essentially an early lawyer, therefore he was primarily concerned with the practical matter of winning
arguments.
• Speculating about the basic substance that forms the universe or arguing about the existence of Gods seemed to
Protagoras to be a useless endeavor as he considered these issues to ultimately be unknowable.
• Protagoras’s underlying premise “Man is the measure of all things” could also be interpreted that all belief is both
subjective and relative.
• Because Protagoras believed that the perception of reality is subjective and relative Protagoras rejected the idea that
there were any absolute definitions of things like justice, virtue or truth.
• Protagoras also applied these ideas to moral values like the concepts of what is right and what is wrong.
• According to Protagoras there is no absolute good. Things are only perceived as ethical or right actions because an
individual or a specific society believes them to be.
• Protagoras and the rest of the Sophists are important in the study of ethics because they were the original proponents of
the idea that there are no true absolutes and all judgments even moral judgments are in reality subjective and relative.
 Socrates
• Socrates (c. 469-399 BCE)
• Theory
• “The life which is unexamined is not worth living”
• Socrates believed that truth is objective in nature
• The doctrines of human behavior are also objective and valid
• Virtue and knowledge are the same
• Human beings achieve happiness through the accumulation of self-knowledge.
• Knowledge is a powerful enough motive for people to do good acts.
• People can be taught knowledge, therefore people can be taught how to live a good life.
• Unlike the Sophists, Socrates was not interested in winning arguments or making money in the Athenian
legal system. Nor was Socrates looking for answers or explanations of the nature of the cosmos (like
other early Greek philosophers) instead Socrates studied the basis of what constituted the concepts of
what was “just” or “good” and “bad”
• Socrates believed that understanding the nature of humanity was the first responsibility of philosophy
 Socrates Continued
• Socrates primary concern was to examine life in order to determine what made a
“good” life.
• In order to examine the basic nature of human existence Socrates went through a
rigorous process of questioning the meaning of concepts we use all the time, but
rarely actually think about.
• Through this process people are forced to examine the real meaning behind concepts
like “good” “bad” or “just” and examine their own level of knowledge or ignorance.
• Socrates was attempting to find out what constituted a “good” life.
• Socrates believed this could be achieved by gaining peace of mind through doing the
“right” thing. This meant not simply following the rules and laws of a specific society,
but rather through the process of rigorous questioning and examination in order to
determine what the “right” thing might be.
 Still more Socrates
• Unlike Protagoras Socrates did not believe that concepts like virtue (arête in Greek,
during Socrates life this word would have implied both fulfillment and excellence)
were relative.
• In Socrates philosophy virtue was “the most valuable of possessions” Socrates
believed that concepts like virtue were absolutes and applied not only to one society
or people, but rather applicable to everyone in the world.
• Moreover Socrates believed that no person really wanted to be evil. He believed that
when people committed acts of evil it would make them uncomfortable because they
would be acting against their conscience. Because he believed that people sought
peace of mind he believed that people would only commit evil acts when they lacked
wisdom and knowledge.
• Therefore Socrates concluded that “there is only one good: knowledge; and one evil:
ignorance.” Knowledge and morality are therefore inextricably bound together.
• Because of this we are obligated to continuously examine our lives.
 Even More Socrates
(He was really important)
• Socrates believed that gaining knowledge was the ultimate goal in
life. The acquisition of knowledge and understanding was more
important than acquiring wealth or social status.
• Gaining knowledge was not Socrates believed to satisfy our curiosity
or to entertain ourselves, rather gaining knowledge is the reason we
exist. Moreover all knowledge is ultimately self-knowledge because it
determines the person you are and how you interact with the rest of
the world.
• Socrates claimed that a life that was unexamined would lead to a
person who was “confused and dizzy, as if it were drunk” while the
wise soul devoted to the pursuit of wisdom would achieve stability.
 Socrates and the Dialectical Method
• Socrates used a new way to question ideas and concepts about how
the world worked. He began from the position of someone who did
not know anything. He said “I know nothing except the fact of my
ignorance.”
• In this way Socrates was able to expose contradictions in other
arguments and reveal gaps in knowledge and understanding that
eventually led to greater insight and understanding.
• Socrates thought that in order to truly understand the world a person
must first recognize the limitations of there own understanding and
to remove any preconceptions. Only after this could one hope to find
the truth.
 The Dialectical Method
• Socrates questioned topics like the nature of justice, loyalty and love.
• Socrates was attempting to explore the foundational ideas of
Athenian society through guided conversation.
• The conversation and questioning of assumptions and preconceptions
revealed flaws in reasoning and contradictions in previously held
truths and led people to new conclusions.
• Socrates’s method of examining reality is the first known example of
the use of inductive argument. Where a set of premises is first
established to be true and those conclusions are used as the basis for
a concluded universal truth.
 The impact of the Dialectical Method and
the fate of Socrates
• The Dialectical Method had a massive impact on the development of western
philosophy and the progress of the sciences
• Ultimately this concept would be expanded upon by Aristotle and then Francis
Bacon.
• Bacon further develop the Dialectical Method to form the basis of his scientific
method.
• Socrates Dialectical Method ultimately went on to form the beginning of both
Western Philosophy and all of the empirical sciences.
• During his own life however not everyone appreciated the questions Socrates
was asking.
• Many people do not like having their core beliefs questioned
 The fate of Socrates
• In Socrates attempt to question the nature of things like loyalty, love and
justice, some uncomfortable questions emerged.
• The people of his time began to allege that Socrates was dangerous and
indulging in a unsafe form of Sophistry.
• Ultimately this would lead to Socrates being accused of corrupting the youth
of Athens with his questioning of Athenian morality.
• Socrates was offered a choice between exile and death by the Athenian
authorities in 399 BCE. Socrates chose death. he was killed by being
administered a fatal dose of hemlock.
• Upon hearing the verdict of his death Socrates said “ I was really too honest a
man to be a politician and live.”
• Plato (circa 427-347 BCE)
Plato
• Theory
• Earthly knowledge is but a shadow.
• The essence of an object is constituted of the common elements in a group of related
objects.
• The idea of an object is the object’s perfect essence.
• The idea of the object is the perfect form of how that thing/object is manifest in the universe.
• The manifestation of the idea in the universe is only a shadow of the idea of the object.
• Ontological reality, or ontos is distinct from the manifestation of reality or phenomenon.
• Unlike the ontological world the phenomenal world is restricted to time and space.
 Plato’s Theory of Reality Continued
• Unlike the phenomenal world the ontological world (the world of the IDEA of
an object) is not bound by the constrictions of space or time and is therefore
eternal.
• The experiences that humans have that are based on the senses are
phenomenological.
• Knowledge gained through conceptual understanding is how to comprehend
the true nature of reality.
• The phenomenological world strives to form itself into a more perfect
reflection of the ideal world and that is what drives progress and
development in the phenomenological world.
 Plato Continued
• Plato was a student of Socrates. In fact none of Socrates writings remain,
everything we know about Socrates and his philosophies is based on the writings
of Plato.
• Plato begins with the Apology his retelling of the trial of Socrates.
• Plato’s later writings use Socrates as a character in a series of conversations or
dialogues. It is often difficult to determine which ideas in Plato’s writings are
attributable to Socrates and which are Plato’s own, however as his work
progresses he begins to examine not just the issues of morality that concerned
Socrates, but the nature of reality and the substance of the universe.
• Unlike earlier Greek philosophers Plato believed that there were absolute truths in
both nature and morality and society; that some things were unchanging universal
truths not dependant on time or location.
 Still More Plato
• In his work the Republic Plato uses Socrates as a character who questions the
moral concepts and what constitutes virtuous behavior in Athenian society.
Plato’s purpose is to create clear precise definitions of what the true nature of
morality and virtue is.
• One of Socrates’s famous quotes is “virtue is knowledge” this can be interpreted
to mean that in order to act justly one must first fully understand what “justice”
is.
• Plato believed that before a person could incorporate any moral concept or
reasoning into their thinking or reasoning they must first discover what we mean
by the concept and precisely what makes it what it is.
• Plato questions how we would identify the perfect form of anything. By this Plato
meant a form that was true for all societies and through all time periods. A
perfect concept of justice, or love would not just apply to ancient Athens it would
be equally applicable today.
More Plato: because we are not even close to
done with Plato!
• To explain his argument Plato talks about common objects like dogs and beds.
• When a person sees a bed they recognize that it is a bed. Furthermore we can
recognize all beds even though they may appear quite different from each-other.
• Dogs represent another example of this reasoning. When we see a dog we
recognize it is a dog, even though the appearance of dogs varies widely, all dogs
share characteristics of “dogginess” something that we are all able to identify and
allows us to know what a dog is.
• Plato further argues that it is not just that there is a shared understanding of
“doginess” or “catiness” that exists, he argues that in our minds is an idea of a
perfect dog, cat or bed which we use to recognize dogs, cats and beds as they
manifest in the physical world.
 Plato uses math to explain his theory
• Plato believed that true knowledge and understanding of reality is
reached through reasoning and not through our physical senses.
• The fact that the square of the hypotenuse of a right-angled triangle
is equal to the sum of the squares of the other two sides, or that the
sum of the three interior angles of any triangle is always 180 degrees
can be worked out through logical reasoning. No perfect triangle
exists in the natural world, however we can perceive the perfect
triangle, or circle in our minds through the use of reason.
• Plato extends this example and asks if perfect forms can exist
anywhere.
 Plato’s World of Ideas
• Plato believed that there was a world of Ideas or “Forms” that was
completely separated from the tangible world.
• It is in the world of Ideas that the perfect cat, dog or triangle exists.
• Plato believed that human beings could not truly observe this place
and could only perceive it through the use of reason
• Plato thought that this world of ideal forms was in fact reality and the
perceptible material world was only a reflection of this world of ideas.
• Plato illustrates this idea with what has become a famous allegory
• The allegory of the cave
 The Allegory of the Cave
• In order to explain his idea of the nature of the material world Plato said to imagine
a cave where people had been trapped since birth. Humanity is forever facing the
back wall of the cave in darkness the only light source a fire behind them.
• The fire casts shadows on the wall. There is a path between the fire and the people
facing the wall and people walk along it with objects, the shadow of those objects
is cast on the wall the prisoners face.
• These shadows are all the prisoners know of reality.
• Plato believed that even if one of these prisoners were to turn around and see the
actual objects they would be compelled to turn back towards the wall.
• Plato believed that what we perceive with our senses was like the reflections on
the cave wall, only shadows of reality.
 Allegory of the Cave continued
• The belief that we are only able to perceive a reflection of true reality is the
foundation of Plato’s theory of forms.
• Everything that we perceive with our physical senses has a equivalent
“Form” which is a perfect “Idea” or perfect and eternal example of that
thing.
• Because our understanding of reality is based on the flawed perception of
our physical senses and all we can ever really experience is only a shadow of
reflected truth the best understanding we can hope to achieve with our
physical senses is limited to the formation of opinions.
• Genuine understanding can only ever be achieved through the application
of reason, because our senses are deceptive and subjective
 Plato’s World of Forms
• Plato’s theory is based on the idea that there are two different worlds.
• There is the world of appearances (what we perceive with our senses) and what
Plato considered reality. While the material world changes Plato believed that the
world of ideas was eternal and unchanging
• This theory was applied to both concreate objects like cats and dogs as well as
concepts like justice.
• According to Plato there was an idea of justice that was “true” justice and attempts
to create a just system in the material world were imperfect reflections of this “true
justice”
• This theory would be equally applicable to the concept of what was true “goodness.”
The understanding of and pursuit towards Plato considered the ultimate goal of
philosophical inquiry.
 Plato’s World of Form
• Plato believed that our conception of the Ideal Form must be inborn, although we
might be unaware of it.
• Plato also believed that human beings were not just physical. Plato believed people
were composed of both a body and a soul.
• According to Plato the human body has the senses with which we perceive the
material world and the soul allows people to reason and perceive the world of ideal
forms.
• According to Plato the soul is immortal and before we are born into the material
world the soul inhabited a perfect world of Ideas. From the time we are born the soul
longs to return to the perfect world of Ideas.
• In the material world the objects and concepts we perceive with our senses remind
us of their perfect counterpoints in the world of ideas we left when we were born
into the material world.
 Plato and the role of the Philosopher in
Society
• Plato thought that the role of the philosopher was to utilize reason to
discern what Ideal forms or ideas were.
• In his work the Republic Plato argued that philosophers and those that
followed the principles of reason laid out in the pursuit of philosophical
understanding should rule society.
• Plato argued that only through the application of reason could the truth of
the real nature of reality and ideal form and true morality be understood,
thus philosophers should be the ruling class.
• During his life Plato found it difficult to convince the prevailing power
structure that the world should be run not by the existing elite but by the
best philosophers.
 The Legacy of Plato
• Plato’s influence can not be underestimated. He was the first philosopher to explore
the route to knowledge itself. He was a profound influence on the philosophers that
followed him particularly on his pupil Aristotle.
• Plato’s methods and philosophies influenced the development of both medieval
Christian and Islamic thinkers and continue to inform the study of philosophy to this
day. In the words of Alfred North Whitehead (a modern British logician) Western
philosophy ultimately “consists of a set of footnotes to Plato.”
• What is Love?
• Overview of the Symposium
• Plato’s The Symposium on love
• Another look at the Symposium on love
• Plato’s The Symposium on Beauty
• What does love have to do with it?
• Listen to the Symposium
 Aristotle
• Aristotle (Circa 384-322 BCE)
• Theory
• The truth resides in the world around us.
• The essentials of human logic consist of concepts, judgment and syllogisms:
a form of reasoning in which a conclusion is drawn from two given or assumed premises, each of which
shares a term with the conclusion, and shares a common or middle term not present in the conclusion
(e.g., all dogs are animals; all animals have four legs; therefore all dogs have four legs) . There are
fundamental laws of logic. People gain wisdom by attaining knowledge
about the ultimate causes behind and nature of reality.
• Aristotle’s theory directs attention to the universal elements in things. He
also believed that individual things are true substances; however universals
are substances in a derived sense.
 Aristotle
• Aristotle questioned Plato’s theory of forms. He developed an argument to refute Plato’s
ideal form theory. Aristotle argued that if there is a perfect form of man on which all earthly
men are based, then that perfect form must be based on the form of the form of man. Then
that form would have to be based on a higher form and so on forever.
• Later Aristotle would argue that it was unnecessary to imagine a hypothetical realm of
Forms, when the reality of things are observable on Earth.
• Aristotle was more interested in what are now called the biological sciences. Plato’s
background was in mathematics.
• Plato’s theories are influenced by the abstract concepts of geometry and mathematics, while
Aristotle based his theories almost entirely on observations of physical reality
• Plato based his theories of Forms from concepts like the perfect circle (which does not exist
in nature) while Aristotle believed that certain concepts could be discovered through the
examination of the world around him.
 Still More Aristotle
• Unlike Plato who believed our senses deceived us and were easily misunderstood or
misinterpreted Aristotle relied on the senses to provide evidence to back up his theories.
• His studies confirmed that we are not born with the ability to recognize the perfect form
as Plato believed.
• Each time we encounter an example of something like a cat for instance, we make note
of what it has in common with other cats we have encountered. Eventually with enough
experience we are able to recognize the features that make something a “cat.”
• Aristotle believed that the only way of experiencing the world is through the senses. He
did not believe that things in the material world were just imperfect copies of an ideal
“Form” of themselves as Plato believed.
• Aristotle thought the essential form of a thing was inherent in every example of the
thing. “cattiness” is not just a shared characteristic of cats, it is something that is inherent
in every cat.
• Aristotelian logic is a way of analyzing the forms of thought
 Even More Aristotle
• Aristotle agreed with Plato that there was truth in the world,
however unlike Plato he did not believe that this could be found in
the world of forms or only perceptible by the soul.
Aristotle believed that our senses what we experienced through them
would allow us to understand the nature of reality.
• Aristotle extended this from understanding things that occurred in
the natural world to ideas that related to human beings.
• Concepts like “justice,” “truth,” “beauty,” “good” and “evil” could be
understood through the application of our senses, not as Plato
believed by an inborn understanding of a perfect “form”
 Still more Aristotle: He was really important
• Aristotle believed that when people were born they were without knowledge “tabula rasa” or blank slates
and that everything we understand is learned through the application of our senses.
• When we are born we have no concept of “beauty” but as we go through life and see examples of “beauty”
in the world we see what these examples have in common and thus we build and refine what qualities are
constant in these examples and this ultimately defines what true, eternal, unchangeable “beauty” is. The
only way to really understand what beauty is, is to observe how it manifests in the world we experience
with our senses.
• Aristotle’s break from Plato was not the idea that universal truths and qualities exist. Aristotle disagreed
with the nature of these universal truths and how people come to know them.
• This is the basis of “epistemology” (the theory of knowledge) it is this difference of understanding that led
to the development of two major philosophical schools of thought, the rationalists and the empiricists
• Rationalists (including: Descartes, Kant and Leibniz) believe in a priori knowledge (inborn not taught) these
philosophers have their foundation in Plato and Empiricists (including: Locke, Berkeley, and Hume) who
believe all knowledge is learned by observation, and/or the use of our senses. These philosophers have
their foundation in Aristotle.
 Rationalism vs. Empiricism
• What are you? A Rationalist or an Empiricist?
• Do you believe that we are born with pre-existing knowledge? Or do
you think that everything we know is the product of experiences we
have had?
• What makes you believe this?
 Yet more Aristotle: Bet you thought it was
over
• Aristotle’s applied his theory to understanding the natural world. He
is responsible for the first known attempt to classify things that occur
in the natural world according to the various characteristics and
qualities they possessed.
• In order to achieve this Aristotle developed a hierarchical system that
it still forms the basis of taxonomy (the branch of science concerned
with classification, especially of organisms; systematics) to this day.
• Aristotle started by dividing the natural world into non-living and
living things.
• Next Aristotle began to classify the components of the living world.
 Aristotle’s classification of living things
• After Aristotle divided the world into living and non-living things, he further divided the living world
into plants and animals.
• Aristotle achieved this by determining what the consistent features of each category were.
• All plants share consistent features of “plants” and all animals share consistent features of “animals”.
Once we know what form those consistent features take on we can see them in every example of a
plant or animal.
• This becomes clearer the further Aristotle subdivided the natural world.
• In order to classify a specific specimen as a fish we must first determine what makes a fish a fish, that is
what qualities and characteristics are shared by all fish.
• This can be determined by observation and experience and does not require pre-existing or innate
knowledge. Using this process Aristotle developed a complete classification of the natural world from
the most uncomplicated creature to human beings.
• Aristotle’s system of classification was not limited to physical attributes like scales or fins but also how
an organism behaves, which Aristotle believed had ethical implications
 Aristotle’s Four Causes of Existence
• Aristotle believed that the existence of everything in the world could
be explained by four causes
• 1. The material cause; What a thing is made of.
• 2. The formal cause; The shape or arrangement of a thing.
• 3. The efficient cause; How a thing is brought into existence
• 4. The final cause; The function of or purpose of a thing and how it
behaves
• It is the final cause that Aristotle related to ethics. It is important to
note that Aristotle did not separate ethics and science. Aristotle
believed that ethics were an extension of the study of biology.
 Aristotle: Ethics, Syllogisms and Logic
• One of the examples Aristotle uses to explain his theory is the eye. The eyes function or “final
cause” is to see. This is the “telos” or purpose of the eye. The Greek word “telos” is where we get
the word “teleology” the study of the purpose of nature.
• So a teleological explanation is an explanation of the purpose of a thing. Aristotle believed that to
know the purpose of a thing was also to understand what a “good” or “bad” version of a thing is.
For example a “good” eye would be an eye that could see well.
• Aristotle further applied this concept to what makes a “good” life.
• For a human being living a “good” life would involve fulfilling our purpose or using all of the
characteristics unique to being human to the fullest possible extent. Aristotle believed that a
human could be considered “good” if they used the attributes they were born with and could only
be “happy” if they were using these characteristics in the attempt to achieve “virtue” the highest
form of which Aristotle believed was “wisdom”.
• So according to Aristotle we can understand what we call “virtue” through observation, and the
“good life” by seeing people living it.
 Aristotle and the Syllogism
• The process of classification developed by Aristotle also forms the basis of a
systematic form of logic.
• One of the characteristics of all mammals is that they nurse their offspring. If an
animal does not nurse its offspring then it can not be a mammal.
• This creates a pattern of thinking; three propositions, that consist of two
premises and a conclusion. Example: If As are Xs and B is an A, then B is an X. This
form of reasoning is called a syllogism. It is believed to be the first formal system
of logic and served as the basic model of logically reasoning until the 19 Century.
• Analytical reasoning in the form of logic does not rely on the senses. This forced
Aristotle to conclude that the power of reason must be an innate characteristic of
humans.
 “Socrates is Mortal”
Aristotle’s most famous syllogism
• This syllogism is composed of a simple deduction formed from two
premises and a conclusion. This is the first formalized system of logic.
• 1 All men are mortal +2 Socrates is a man=therefore Socrates is
mortal.
• Aristotle believed that humans did not have innate ideas or
knowledge however, they do have the innate ability to reason.
Aristotle believed that this ability placed humans at the top of the
hierarchy of all other living things.
• Aristotle was far from perfect. He considered women to be inferior to
men and used his concept of ethics to support the idea of slavery.
 The Legacy of Aristotle
• Aristotle was Alexander the Great’s teacher. He was a central figure at
the end of an era “Classical Greece” and the beginning of a new one the
“Hellenistic period” where Rome not Greece became the dominant
power.
• Many of Aristotle’s works were lost to history. Much of what was
preserved disappeared from western philosophy and was only available
in Arabic until the 9th Century, when it began to be translated into Latin
(The language of the Catholic Church)
• Not until the 13th Century when Tomas Aquinas integrated Aristotle’s
teaching into Christianity (despite a ban on Aristotle’s work by the
Church) did Aristotle’s works re-emerge into western philosophy.
 Aristotle in the Middle Ages and beyond
• Aristotle and Plato’s philosophies underpinned much of the philosophical
thinking of the middle ages and still form the foundation of much of modern
western philosophy.
• Aristotle’s concept of logic (explained in his work the Organon) was the standard
for logic until the 19th Century and the emergence of mathematical logic.
• Aristotle’s method of classification for living things was the foundation of the
scala naturae (ladder of nature, or Great Chain of Being) the concept that all of
creation was a hierarchy dominated by man, where man was second only to
God.
• During the renaissance Aristotle’s empiricism formed the basis of most
philosophical inquiry.
 Empiricists vs. Rationalists E. vs. R.
• The dispute between the rationalists and the empiricists reached a peak in the 17 th Century when
Rene Descartes contested the ideas of empiricism in his work Discourse on the Method. Descartes
was a rationalist. He believed in innate knowledge existed and that the use of reason was how we
came to understand it. The Empiricists believe that all knowledge comes from experience and that
the ability of human’s to reason is a feature of humanity like feathers are a feature of birds.
• Descartes found his rationalist philosophy contested by Locke, Berkeley and Hume who all
ascribed to philosophies based on empiricism.
• The debate between the two is as much a reflection on where the ideas emerged from (England
or continental Europe) and the temperament of the philosophers in question the rationalists are
more poetic and the empiricists more academic in their approach. Deductive vs. Inductive
Reasoning
• The argument between the two schools of thought died down in the 19 th Century. Recently
interest in Aristotle has been revived, particularly his perspective of ethics and what constitutes a
good life.
 Aristotle’s Ethics
What is a “Good Life?”
• The first rule for being a “good” human according to Aristotle is that there are no rules.
• Being good is not about learning a universally accepted set of “rules” for good behavior. We
become “good” by acting in a way that is virtuous over time and consistently choosing to do
virtuous things.
• That raises the inevitable question “What is virtuous behavior?” According to Aristotle it is by
living in a way that is most in harmony with our nature.
• The thing that most sets us aside from other animals is our ability to act as rational creatures.
Therefore we are most virtuous when we are doing the thing that makes us most human,
thinking.
• According to this philosophy good and bad are not necessarily opposites. Rather what is good
is a balance between two extremes of too much or too little. For example bravery lies
between the extreme of cowardice and imprudence. Kindness lies between selfish disregard
for others and overindulgence of others to the detriment of self. What Constitutes a “good
life?”
 Epicurus
• Epicurus (Circa 341-270 BCE)
• Theory
• Death is nothing to us
• Happiness, peace of mind and tranquility are the ultimate goals of human existence.
Good and evil find their roots in pleasure and pain and desirable qualities like virtue
and justice find their roots in pain and pleasure. Epicurus believed that it was
“impossible to live a pleasant life without living wisely, honorably, and justly, and it
is impossible to live wisely, honorably, and justly without living pleasantly.” This does
not mean that life should be about the pursuit of sensual pleasure (although it has
often been interpreted as just that) Epicurus believed that true fulfilment and
pleasure could only be attainted through friendship the pursuit of a temperate life,
the acquisition of knowledge and living free of fear and pain.
 Epicurus and the fear of death
• Epicurus believed that the fear of death acted as an impediment to living a tranquil life and
therefore was detrimental to living a “good life.”
• Epicurus further believed that this fear was made worse by religions and the fear of
punishment in the afterlife.
• Epicurus’s solution to this was to remove the fear of death by better explaining the process
of dying.
• According to Epicurus the universe consists of either atoms or empty space. He further
reasoned that the soul must be made of atoms because it operates dynamically with the
physical form (body) he believed that the atoms of the soul were distributed around the
body and dissolved when we die, which results in the inability to sense anything after
death.
• If you cannot feel anything either physically or mentally when you die, then it is silly to be
afraid of it, and let it cause you pain while you live.
 Diogenes of Sinope
• Diogenes of Sinope (circa 404-323 BCE)
• Theory
• He has the most who is most content with the least.
• Diogenes founded a school of thought called the Cynics from the Greek word Kunikos “dog like.” because the Cynics
rejected social conventions and norms and tried to live in a state as natural as possible. They believe that the closer a
person could come to live in a natural state the closer one would be to living a ideal life.
• Diogenes believed that in order to live a “good life” one had to be free from the restrictions society imposed on individuals
and also free from the internal unhappiness caused by desire, fear and human emotion.
• Diogenes believed that this state could be achieved by finding contentment in a simple life.
• Diogenes’ philosophy suggests rejecting the conventions of society (without shame) and the desire for comfort and
property and living in a way governed by reason and natural impulses would lead to a “good life” and therefore happiness.
• Diogenes was described by Plato as “Socrates gone mad.” This was obviously meant as an insult.
• Diogenes did take Socrates’ philosophy of pursuing virtue and rejecting material comfort to an extreme position. He said
“He has the most who is most content with the least.” Diogenes lived on the streets eating only discarded food and dressing
in rags (when he dressed at all)
 Zeno of Citium
• Zeno of Citium (Cyprus) (Circa 332-265 BCE)
• Theory
• The goal of life is living in agreement with nature
• Stoicism as a philosophy promotes; virtue, tolerance and self-control.
• Stoicism is a contrast to the hedonistic ethic of Epicurus (who did not believe religion was beneficial to humanity) Zeno believed that the universe was
ruled by natural laws that were determined by a supreme lawmaking entity.
• Because humans are powerless to change reality we must accept the cruelties and injustices that exist just as we enjoy the benefits of reality. The Stoics did
not find value in metaphysics (the branch of philosophy that attempts to explain abstract concepts such as being, knowing, substance, cause, identity, time,
and space. abstract theory with no basis in reality.)
• According to the Stoics everything in the universe operates according to a web of causes and effects.
• No one is forced to pursue a “good life” and humans have a rational soul and possess free will.
• People must choose to ignore the things they have no or little control over and become indifferent to the pain/pleasure of existence and cease to care
about poverty and wealth.
• If a person does this, then the Stoics believe they will be in harmony with nature and thus find a path to the “good life.”
• Zeno’s ideas were more popular than Epicurus and similar to Diogenes in some ways. Stoicism influenced much of the philosophy of the Roman empire and
largely informed the ethics political and personal until Christianity replaced Roman concepts of ethics and philosophy in the 6 th Century.