4.2.2 Thomas Hobbes [1588-1679] 14 HISTORY OF WESTERN PHILOSOPHY
4.2.3 Blaise Pascal [1632-1662] 14 ANIL MITRA, PH. D., COPYRIGHT ? 1988 4.3 MODERN PHILOSOPHY: CONTINENTAL RATIONALISM 14 ND EDITION 2002 AND REVISED OCTOBER 2011 24.3.1 René Descartes [1598-1650] 15
4.3.2 Baruch [Benedict] de Spinoza [1632-1677] 15 TABLE OF CONTENTS 4.4 MODERN PHILOSOPHY: BRITISH EMPIRICISM 16
4.4.1 John Locke [1632-1704] 16 INTRODUCTION 3 4.4.2 George Berkeley [1685-1753] 17 Sources 3 4.4.3 David Hume [1711-1776] 17 The temperamentalist thesis 3 4.5 MODERN PHILOSOPHY: RATIONALISM IN GERMANY 18 The first edition 3 4.5.1 Leibniz [1646-1716] 18 The restriction to Western philosophy 3 4.5.2 Christian Wolff [1679-1754] 18 The second edition 4 4.6 MODERN PHILOSOPHY: THE ENLIGHTENMENT 18 Possibilities for a third edition 4 4.6.1 Voltaire [1694-1778] 18
4.6.2 Materialism and evolutionism 18
1 THE PERIODS AND MAIN INFLUENCES 5 4.6.3 Progress of the sciences 18
4.6.4 Charles-Louis de Secondat Montesquieu [1685-1754] 18 2 GREEK PHILOSOPHY 6 4.6.5 Jean Jacques Rousseau[1712-1778] 18 2.1 RELIGIOUS ORIGINS OF GREEK PHILOSOPHY 6 4.7 MODERN PHILOSOPHY: IMMANUEL KANT 2.2 GREEK PHILOSOPHY: ORIGINS 6 [1724-1804] 19 2.2.1 Early Greek philosophy 6 4.7.1 Kant‟s heritage 19 2.2.2 Age of sophists 6 4.7.2 Kant‟s problem 19 2.2.3 Socrates and the Socratic schools 6 4.7.3 The problem of knowledge 19 2.3 GREEK PHILOSOPHY: THE AGE OF GREAT SYSTEMS 6 4.7.4 The first transcendental method 19 2.3.1 Plato [427-347 BCE] 6 4.7.5 Preliminary analysis of experience 20 2.3.2 Aristotle [384-322 BCE] 8 4.7.6 The theory of sense perception 20 2.4 ETHICAL PERIOD [ABOUT 350-200 BCE] 9 4.7.7 The theory of the understanding 20 2.4.1 Epicureanism and stoicism 9 4.7.8 Kant‟s forms of understanding 21 2.4.2 Skepticism and eclecticism 9 4.7.9 Validity of judgment 21 2.4.3 Stoicism – continued 10 4.7.10 Knowledge of things-in-themselves 21 2.5 GREEK PHILOSOPHY: THE RELIGIOUS PERIOD 4.7.11 Impossibility of metaphysics 21 [150 BCE – 500 AD] 10 4.7.12 Rational cosmology 22 2.5.1 Jewish Greek philosophy 11 4.7.13 Use of metaphysics in experience 22 2.5.2 Neo-Pythagoreanism 11 4.7.14 Use of teleology in nature 22 2.5.3 Neoplatonism 11 4.7.15 Ethics 22 2.6 THE DECLINE OF GREEK PHILOSOPHY 11 4.7.16 Some comments on the successors of Kant 22 2.6.1 The closing of the school at Athens 11 4.8 MODERN PHILOSOPHY: PHILOSOPHY AFTER KANT 23 2.6.2 The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius 11 4.8.1 A brief review of Kant‟s progression of thought or presentation: 23 3 MEDIEVAL PHILOSOPHY 12 4.8.2 The legacy of Kant 23
3.1 Doctrine and dogma 12 4.9 MODERN PHILOSOPHY: GERMAN IDEALISM 23 3.2 The periods of medieval philosophy 12 4.9.1 Johann Gottlieb Fichte [1762-1814] 23 3.3 The patristic period: establishment of the Christian 4.9.2 Friedrich Wilhelm Schelling [1775-1854] 23 Church and dogma 12 4.9.3 Friedrich Schleiermacher [1768-1834] 23 3.4 Scholastic period 12 4.9.4 Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel [1770-1831]: the 3.4.1 Formative Period – the Schoolmen 12 culmination of rational idealism 23 3.4.2 Culmination 12 4.10 MODERN PHILOSOPHY: GERMAN PHILOSOPHY AFTER 3.4.3 Decline 12 HEGEL 23
4.10.1 Johann Friedrich Hebart [1776-1841] 23
4.10.2 A return to idealism: Arthur Schopenhauer [1788-4 THE MODERN PERIOD 14 1860] 23 4.1 BACKGROUND 14 4.10.3 Gustav Theodor Fechner [1801 – 1887] 23 4.1.1 The Renaissance 14 4.10.4 Rudolf Hermann Lotze [1817 – 1881] 23 4.2 THE BEGINNING OF MODERN PHILOSOPHY 4.10.5 Friedrich Albert Lange [1828 – 1875] 24 1550-1670 14
4.10.6 Wilhelm Wundt [1832 – 1920] 24 4.2.1 Francis Bacon [1561-1626] 14
4.10.7 Friedrich Nietzsche [1844-1900] 24 4.10.8 Rudolf Christoph Eucken [1846 – 1926] 24 4.10.9 Wilhelm Windelbland [1848 – 1915] 24
4.10.10 Ernst Cassirer [1874-1945] 24 4.11 MODERN PHILOSOPHY: FRENCH AND BRITISH NINETEENTH CENTURY PHILOSOPHY 24 4.11.1 Claude Henri de Saint-Simon [1760-1825]: a new science of society 24 4.11.2 August Comte [1798-1857] 24 4.12 MODERN PHILOSOPHY: BRITISH UTILITARIANISM 24 4.12.1 Jeremy Bentham [1748-1832]: 24
4.12.2 John Stuart Mill [1806 – 1873] 244.12.3 Herbert Spencer [1820-1903] 25
THST5 THE RECENT PERIOD: LATE 19 TO 21 CENTURY 26 5.1 INTRODUCTION 26 5.1.1 Influences on recent philosophy 26 5.1.2 The effect on philosophy 27 5.2 THE RECENT PERIOD: SCHOOLS AND TRENDS OF PHILOSOPHY 28 th5.2.1 20 Century Schools and Trends of Philosophy 28 5.2.2 Specialized Disciplines or Activities Within Philosophy 35 TH5.2.3 20 Century Philosophers 37 5.3 THE RECENT PERIOD: INFLUENTIAL PHILOSOPHERS 39 5.3.1 Gottlob Frege 39 5.3.2 Alfred North Whitehead 39 5.3.3 Karl Raimund Popper 39 5.3.4 Bertrand Arthur William Russell 40 5.3.5 Ludwig Josef Johann Wittgenstein 40 5.3.6 On Meaning 44 5.3.7 Martin Heidegger 45 6 THE FUTURE 46 6.1 Philosophical nihilism 46 6.2 The obligations and needs of philosophy 46 6.3 The possibilities of philosophy 47 6.3.1 Ways of Philosophical Understanding 48 6.3.2 Ways that are unique to philosophy 48 6.3.3 Further considerations 49 6.4 A concept of philosophy 49 6.5 The education of the philosopher 49 6.6 Journey in Being 50 6.7 True Philosophy 50 7 TRANSCENDENTAL AND REAL LOGIC 51 7.1 Real Logic 51 Latest Revision and Copyright 51
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There are many other sources – including many that may be implicit INTRODUCTION or forgotten Sources th Edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica for I have referred to the 15, Frank Thilly, 1914, 30 revised edition – A History of Philosophymany major and minor points Ledger Wood, 1957, has the virtues of brevity and impartiality For recent philosophy, I have referred to Research Guide to [attempt to understand each system in its integrity; to formulate the tacit and implicit basic assumptions of each system: allowing the , by T. N. Tice and T. P. Slavens, 1983, and One Hundred Philosophyprimary criticism to be the criticisms made by other – contemporary by Stuart Brown, Diane Collinson Twentieth-Century Philosophers, and later – philosophers. Often, the tacit assumptions are brought out and Robert Wilkinson, 1998 by later philosophers of the same movement or tradition]. This history The temperamentalist thesis is based in Thilly‟s work, re-thought and adapted to my understanding [From A History of Philosophy, Thilly] Thilly holds the view that the only complete systems of thought are …is the thesis that personal and cultural factors are important in Western. I wish to briefly examine possible bases of the claim. The philosophical thought – in addition to intellectual, logical and claim is decomposable into two parts and the first is that the Western philosophical ones tradition contains complete systems of thought. What does that mean? The two types of temperament – according to William James: It cannot mean that everything is known. It must mean, then, that there is something about the Western tradition that contains in Rationalist [“tender-minded”]: intellectualistic, idealistic, optimistic, principle completeness – the establishment of a world view of religious, free-willist, monistic and dogmatic [Plato, Aristotle, sufficient breadth and of methods that eliminate false views or Aquinas, Descartes, Hegel] thaspects of the world view. However, Western thought of the 20 Empiricist [“tough-minded]: sensationalistic, materialistic, century has cast serious doubt on the completeness or possibility of pessimistic, irreligious [deterministic, perhaps], pluralistic and completing any system. From the psychological point of view, what skeptical [Democritus, Hobbes, Bacon, Hume] would convince one that a system of thought is complete? There is a Of course: all philosophy is rational in its use of criticism; no tendency, perhaps tacit, that probably exists within all cultures and philosopher is a pure temperament; some philosophers – Spinoza, individuals – the natural belief in or identification with the paradigms Locke, Berkeley – straddle the classification; and, this simple scheme of the culture. Such paradigms present a picture of the world; and the of classification does not exhaust the possibilities for precision, systems of thought of the culture are an elaboration of that picture. dimensionality or completeness The psychological story cannot be whole in itself. It is embedded in a system of relations among attitudes [psychology] and the institutions The first edition of society. Together, these must adequately mesh with reality. The This history of Western philosophy began as an endeavor to provide role of psychology would then be an over-compensation so that the myself with a coherent picture of philosophy. The following brief tentative but otherwise valid common knowledge of society is seen as paragraphs define the aims imbued with a degree of the absolute. To a degree this is functional; What is significant about the historical approach to philosophy? A and, usually, held with some degree of ambiguity. Thus, with a good history of philosophy, whatever its shortcomings, will, among degree of success of the elaborated picture there is a natural other things, give the reader a perspective on philosophy: philosophy tendency to assume completeness. However, there is truly no way to as in-process, the relations of philosophy to life and to the other demonstrate this completeness because such a demonstration would academic disciplines, show how the attempt to understand the world depend on another, larger, picture. Even within the western must introduce radical elements of novelty. As a consequence of the intellectual traditions [pictures] there is serious doubt – the intrinsic radical novelty, systems of metaphysics are relative to one-another. limitations of empiricism [e.g. Hume, Russell] and rationalism [e.g. Views that eschew radical metaphysics are, therefore, based in a Kant, Gödel] – regarding completeness. There is, however, a picture closed view of knowledge and the world. In the open view, that casts doubt that possession of a complete paradigm / picture of metaphysics is at once serious and play the world is an ideal. It is the view of the community of life as an open community in an open universe. Our presence in the universe is A good history of philosophy is a contribution to philosophy. It is a an affirmation that an anchor in completeness is unnecessary; the contribution to the understanding of the nature of philosophy – the openness affirms that “incompleteness” is not a deficiency but may be study, description and demarcation of philosophy is philosophy. And, properly taken as positive, as an opportunity a good history provides an environment that enhances the quality of action. History of philosophy provides an environment for the conduct The second part to Thilly‟s claim must be that there are no other of philosophy complete systems of thought. That is true. However, there may well be other systems that have depths unfathomed by the West – see the The restriction to Western philosophy introduction to Dictionary of Asian Philosophers, St. Elmo Nauman, Jr., The restriction to Western philosophy is practical. First, is my desire 1978 – just as Western science is in some ways far in advance of to understand a tradition. To include other thought would have been other systems a diluting influence The open picture is a view that disaffirms the completeness of Having obtained an adequate understanding of Western philosophy Western thought and presents to the West a place in the universe and thought, the next step is a placement and broadening of that that is a positive opportunity – it is a view of opportunity and promise thought. Both these objectives can be accomplished by, as one way, rather than gloom. It is not a cultural relativism. It assigns different the parallel study of Western and non-western systems. And, as strengths to different cultures, it validates the different cultures and it stated above, “there may well be other systems that have depths allows for cultural ascendance. Such ascendance, however, is not unfathomed by the West.” Perhaps what has been accomplished in obtained by proclamation the West by way of empiricism is complemented in other systems by In Journey in Being, I provide a positive picture where thought is not placement in the universal. That statement is of course both polarized something that aspires to be complete within itself. Rather, thought and a simplification and being move in relation to each other. Journey in Being provides My writing includes, elsewhere, considerations of other systems. an open picture. It also suggests the possibility of completeness of When occasion arises and time permits, I will strengthen those other being in the sense of “Being = universe” rather than in the sense of writings and attempt a mesh of the following systems: Western, completeness of any given being or thought. That, however, is Eastern and native presented as a necessity rather than as an intrinsically ideal or joyful – or joyless – event or condition. Joy and other states are found in the contemplation and living out of every day life – and that includes the remote and ultimate as much as the present
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The second edition
The changes in the sections on Greek, Medieval and Modern philosophy have not undergone significant revision but there are numerous minor changes
The following sections are completely new as of January 2002: The source for a number of these sections was One Hundred Twentieth-by Stuart Brown, Diane Collinson and Robert Century Philosophers, Wilkinson, 1998
The Periods and Main Influences page 5
The Recent Period: Late 19th to 21st Century page 26 The Future page 46
Transcendental and Real Logic page 51
A Concept Of Philosophy synthesizes and broadens previous conceptions of philosophy
The Future is a discussion of trends and possibilities and is not intended to be predictive; The Future has the following sub-sections Philosophical nihilism considers the trend in which it is considered to be problematic to make positive statements in philosophy. Some of the influences or forces that resulted in this trend and the related conceptions of philosophy and the role of philosophy are discussed in Influences on recent philosophy and subsequent sections including The Effect on Philosophy
The obligations and needs of academic philosophy considers some of the functions that academic philosophy undertakes. It is not suggested that these functions are necessary although there is some degree of obligation that are felt by academic philosophers in virtue of the social and economic environment of the university The possibilities of philosophy in the Western and other academic traditions considers the possibilities of philosophy from the point of view of its heritage as an intellectual pursuit. The theme is elaborated in the following sub-sections: Ways of Philosophical Understanding, Ways that are unique to philosophy, Further considerations
Journey in Being considers an endeavor that results from a synthesis of the possibilities of philosophy and the potential of being. This endeavor is taken up in the author‟s website of the same name: Journey in Being
A section on Transcendental Logic – added October 25, 2011
Possibilities for a third edition
Integrate with History
Show the evolution of thought
The latest thought is not always the peak of thought; it may be concerned with some local issue or it may be a peak in some specific direction: identify peaks of thought and action Identify and develop the History of Philosophy as progressing toward the Transcendental Logic; what possibilities does that logic have as instructive and as ultimate
Combine history of philosophy with philosophy i.e. Journey in Being | Foundation. Note that these references contain significant conceptualizations of philosophy and [its] history Incorporate Indian and other philosophies; incorporate „ethnographic‟ studies of metaphysical systems where „metaphysics‟ is interpreted informally [„informal‟ does not imply „inferior‟]
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1 THE PERIODS AND MAIN INFLUENCES
In the following table, a philosopher, school or temperament – e.g. rationalism – is directly influenced by the ones above it
PERIOD RATIONALIST EMPIRICIST 700 BC Pre Socratic Philosophy
600 BC Parmenides [philosopher of permanence] Democritus [atomism]
Socrates 400 BC Plato Aristotle 300 BC Epicurus: Materialism Cynicism Skepticism [to 200 AD]; Christ Stoicism 300 AD
500 AD Neo-Platonism; St. Augustine, Boethius
800 AD Medieval Philosophy; Johannes Scotus Erigena
1100 AD Scholasticism
1200 AD Aquinas; Duns Scotus
1400 AD William of Occam; Renaissance Platonism
1600 AD Rationalism; Descartes; Spinoza Empiricism; Bacon; Hobbes; Locke 1700 AD Leibniz Berkeley; Hume 1800 AD Kant; Hegel J.S. Mill
thLate 19, Neo-Kantianism; Neo-Hegelianism; Marxism; thst20 and 21 Analytic And Linguistic Philosophy Existentialism; Neo-Thomism; Post-modernism… centuries
2 GREEK PHILOSOPHY actions through toms in air, soul atoms: the finest in-between body atoms 2.1 RELIGIOUS ORIGINS OF GREEK PHILOSOPHY 2.2.2 Age of sophists Two aspects of Greek religion are selected for their significance: The development of Greek thought led to a spirit of free inquiry in Anthropomorphic religion of the gods of Olympus – made familiar by poetry: Aeschylus [525-456 BCE], Sophocles [490=405 BCE], the Homeric epics…Gods exhibit, on a most majestic scale, human Euripedes [480-406 BCE]; history: Thucydides [b. 471 BCE]; medicine: passions and concern for the affairs of human beings. The Homeric Hippocrates [b. 460 BCE]. The construction of philosophical systems conception of the Gods as subject to fate may have contributed to the ceases temporarily; the existing schools continue to be taught and attitude of mind that produced the first Greek philosophy: the some turn attention to natural-scientific investigation… The resulting Milesian natural philosophy of the sixth century BCE individualism made an invaluable contribution to Greek thought but Religious revival of sixth century BCE – associated with mystery cults. led, finally, to an exaggerated intellectual and ethical subjectivism. Mystery cults – local forms of gods: symbolizing individualism…the The Sophists who were originally well-regarded came gradually to be Dionysian cults join with the Orphic: doctrine of the immortal soul and a term of reproach partly owing to the radicalism of the later schools: its transmigration…perhaps incline toward philosophy – especially their subjectivism, relativism and nihilism. For Protagoras, all opinions metaphysics – and especially to religiously oriented philosophies of are true [though some “better”]; for Gorgias none are true [there is Pythagoreans, of Parmenides and of Heraclitus nothing; even if there were something we could not know it; if we could know it we could not communicate it]. “Sophists exaggerated 2.2 GREEK PHILOSOPHY: ORIGINS the differences in human judgments and ignored the common 2.2.1 Early Greek philosophy elements; laid too much stress on the illusoriness of the senses… 2.2.1.1 Problem of Substance [Metaphysics] – and The Nevertheless, their criticisms of knowledge made necessary a Philosophy of Nature profounder study of the nature of knowledge.”
Thales c. [624-550 BCE]: water is original stuff [possible observation: 2.2.3 Socrates and the Socratic schools nourishment, heat, seed, contain moisture], out of water everything Socrates [469-399 BCE], Xenophon: “The Socratic problem was to comes –but Thales does not indicate how meet the challenge of sophistry, which, in undermining knowledge, Anaximander c. [611-547 BCE]: the essence or principle of things is threatened the foundations of morality and state.” Socratic method: the infinite – a mixture, intermediate between observable elements, includes the elements: [1] skeptical, [2] conventional, [3] conceptual from which things arise by separation; moisture leads to living or definitional, [4] empirical or inductive, [5] deductive… a things…All animals and humans were originally a fish. All return to the “dialectical” process for improving understanding of a subject primal mass to be produced anew The treatment to this point has been more detailed since [1] I am Cosmology: physical: sphere of fire leads to eternal motion: relatively ignorant of it, and [2] a detailed study of Socrates, Plato separation: hot, cold leads to hot, surrounds cold on a sphere of and Aristotle – a natural study of the tree supreme Greek flame: heat: cold leads to moisture leads to air: fire leads to rings philosophers – is left for later with holes: heavenly bodies: sun [farthest], moon, planets Ethics: knowledge is the highest good. Knowledge is virtue
2.3 GREEK PHILOSOPHY: THE AGE OF GREAT SYSTEMS Anaximines [588-524 BCE]: first principle is definite: air; it is infinite. 2.3.1 Plato [427-347 BCE] From air all things arise by rarefaction and condensation – a scientific The method of Socrates suggested: a system of thought to be worked observation out. Plato‟s system incorporates and transforms the doctrines of his These three philosophers – Thales, Anaximander and Anaximines, of predecessors…The problems suggested are the intimate ones: Miletus, represent advance from qualitative-subjective to quantitative-meaning of human life, human knowledge, human conduct, human scientific explanation of modes of emergence of being from a primary institutions which depend for an adequate answer upon the study, substance also, of their interrelations and their place as parts of the larger Ontological Question [and indeed are not comprehensible without an Pythagorean School: Pythagoras of Samos [c. 575-500 BCE]. The ontology – at least “an implicit” one]. Plato developed such a system Pythagorean School was concerned less with substance than with the form and relation of things. Numbers are the principles of things – The division of philosophy into [1] logic or dialectic [including theory number mysticism. Origin, in astronomy, of the dual: systematic, of knowledge], [2] metaphysics [including physics and psychology], fixed stellar system and chaotic, dynamic – terrestrial – world. Ethics, and [3]ethics…is implied in Plato‟s work too, rooted in number-mysticism Dialectic and Theory of Knowledge: Plato recognizes the importance 2.2.1.2 Problem of change of the problem of knowledge
…arises from the intuition that something from nothing is impossible Sense perception, opinion cannot lead to genuine knowledge Problem of Change: Eros, the love of truth, is necessary for advance…it arouses the contemplation of beautiful ideas…dialectic is the art of thinking in Qualitative Theories of Change: Empedocles [495-435 BCE] and concepts: the essential object of thought Anaxogoras [500-428 BCE]. Quantitative theories: Atomism: transition from teleology to mechanism: Leucippus and Democritus [460-370 Ideas do not have origin in experience…we approach the world with BCE]. Metaphysics, cosmology, psychology, theory of knowledge, ideals: truth, beauty, the good; in addition to the value-concepts. theology and ethics Plato also came to regard mathematical concepts and certain logical notions, or categories, such as being and nonbeing, identity and Heraclitus [535-475 BCE] born Ephesus: [1] Fire and universal flux, [2] difference, unity and plurality, as inborn, or a priori opposites and their union, [3] harmony and the law
Therefore, conceptual knowledge is the only genuine knowledge Eleatic School: Xenophanes [570-480 BCE] Colophon, precursor, first basis of skepticism in Greek thought, Parmenides – founder of What guarantee, then, is there of the truth of conceptual knowledge? philosophy of permanence – change is relative: combination and [Plato‟s answer is based on the metaphysics of certain of his separation [becoming]…paradoxes of being and nonbeing, Zeno [of predecessors, especially Parmenides: thought and being are identical; the paradoxes] [490-430 BCE] and Melisus of Samos are defenders of Parmenides speaks of or indicates the world of logical thought as true, the doctrine and the world of sense perception as illusion.] Democritus: same concept in atomic form. Metaphysics, ontology: For Plato, knowledge is correspondence of thought and reality [or space: nonbeing exists; motion in space: atomic. Psychology, theory being] – knowledge must have an object. If the concept is to have of knowledge: information from object to sentient: propagation of value as knowledge, something real must correspond to it – realities must exist corresponding to all our universal ideas: there must be, for
The influence of Plato‟s doctrine of ideas, and cosmology is enormous instance, pure absolute beauty corresponding to the concept of beauty…conceptual knowledge presupposes the reality of a – upon Aristotle: the four causes of Aristotle are the four factors in corresponding ideal or abstract objects…Or, in contrast to the Plato‟s cosmology… and in Christian [medieval] thought…[argument transient world of the senses, which is mere appearance, illusion: true from design] being is unchangeable, eternal. Conceptual thought alone can grasp 2.3.1.5 Psychology eternal and changeless being: it knows that which is, that which “Faculty” psychology: [1] rational faculty [mind], [2] spirited faculty persists, that which remains one and the same in all diversity, namely [emotions…it is doubtful that Plato considered will and free choice], the essential forms of things [3] appetitive faculty: desire, motivation 2.3.1.1 Plato‟s theory of knowledge: 2.3.1.6 Doctrine of immortality Conjecture Mere sense impression Guess [opinion] [From psychology: the part of the individual, which “knows” sense Belief Sensible objects Sense perception [opinion] impression and opinion, is the body; the soul knows or has genuine Understanding Mathematical and other Hypothesis [and education] knowledge or science. Because the soul possesses apprehension of ideas prior to its contact with the world: all knowledge is reminiscence Rational [insight] Forms or ideas Dialectic and all learning is awakening.] Hierarchy of the Sciences: Arithmetic; geometry; astronomy; Arguments for Immortality: Epistemological: [1] The soul has harmonies; dialectic – the coping stone of the sciences contemplated eternal ideas and only like can know like: [2] from the Dialectic knowledge considers forms as constituting a systematic unity doctrine of reminiscences. Metaphysical: [1] From the simplicity of the – as related to the form of the Good; rests on categorical first soul: it cannot be produced by composition or destroyed by principles – not hypothesis disintegration, [2] from vitality: as the source of its own motion, the 2.3.1.2 Doctrine of ideas: [Plato‟s most original philosophical soul is eternal [a survival of atomistic conceptions] [first cause achievement.] argument, perhaps]…and various other metaphysical arguments. Moral and Valuational: from the superiority and dignity of the soul: it According to Plato, universals exist. Corresponding to the concept of must survive the body; a variation: everything is destroyed by its horse, as example, there is a universal or ideal entity; it is the idea “connatural” evil; the evils of the soul [its worst vices: injustice, etc.] that is known in conceptual knowledge, reason do not destroy the soul – hence its indestructibility. [There are hardly The variety of ideas or forms is endless: there are ideas of things, any arguments advanced in the literature on immortality which are relations, qualities, actions and values…[these are some classes of not foreshadowed by Plato.] ideas]: of tables and chairs; of smallness, greatness, likeness; of 2.3.1.7 Ethics colors and tones; of health, rest and motion; of beauty, truth and goodness…The ideas or archetypes constitute a well-ordered world or Ethical being is one in which the superior principles dominate: rational cosmos; arranged in a connected, organic unity, a logical rationality. Wisdom: reason over other impulses of the soul; bravery: order subsumed under the highest idea: the Good reason over emotion [fear, pain]; temperance: reason over desire…Justice: wisdom with bravery and temperance The Good, the supreme idea, the logos or cosmic purpose, the unity of pluralities, the source of all ideas…is also the truly real. The 2.3.1.8 Politics function of philosophy, by exercise of reason, is to understand this Plato‟s theory of the state [in The Republic] is based on his ethics. inner, interconnected order of the universe and to conceive its Social life is a means to perfection of individuals. Laws result from essence by logical thought imperfection of individuals which leads to the state. Classes in society Outline of the doctrine: [1] The forms, or ideas defined as objects result from functions of the soul; harmony among the classes results corresponding to abstract concepts are real entities. The Platonic from functional relations of the healthy soul: form is the reification or entificiation of the Socratic concept; [2] there Ruling class: those embodying reason [philosophers] are a variety of forms; [3] they belong to a realm of abstract entities, Warriors: the spirited. Their function: defense a “heaven of ideas”, separate from their concrete exemplification in time and space [the Platonic dualism]; [4] form is archetype, Agriculturists, workers, merchants, artisans: lower appetites. Their particular: copy; form is superior: forms are real, particulars mere function: production appearances; [5] the forms are neither mental – they exist Justice in state: each class functions according to its character independently of any knowing mind, even God‟s – nor physical: yet The ideal society is a family: Plato opposes monogamy, private real; [forms are non-temporal and non-spatial: eternal and property, recommends for the two upper castes – who are to be immutable]; [7] they are logically connected in a “communicative” supported by workers – communism and common possession of hierarchy in which the supreme form is the Good; [8] forms are wives and children…Plato recommends: eugenic supervision of apprehended by reason, not sense; [9] the relation between a marriages and births, exposure of weak children, compulsory state particular and a form which it exemplifies is “participation”; all education, education of women for war and government, and particulars with a common predicate participate in the corresponding censorship form; a particular may participate simultaneously in a plurality of The state is an educational institution, the instrument of civilization; forms or successively [in change] in a succession of forms its foundation must be the highest kind of knowledge which is 2.3.1.3 Philosophy of nature philosophy. The education of the children of higher classes will follow Matter [the second principle, diametrically opposed to the idea] is the a definite plan: identical for the sexes during the first twenty years: raw material upon which the idea is impressed. Dualism. Matter is myths selected for ethicality, gymnastics for body and spirit; poetry, perishable, imperfect, unreal, nonbeing music –harmony, beauty, proportion and philosophical thought; 2.3.1.4 Cosmology reading, writing; mathematics which tends to draw the mind from the concrete and sensuous to the abstract and real. At 20, superior young The Demiurge or Creator [more an architect than a creator] fashions men will be selected and shall integrate their learning. At 30, those the world out of matter in the patterns of the ideal world…The four who show greatest ability in studies, military officers, etc., will study factors in creation enumerated in Timmaeus are [1] the Demiurge or dialectic for five years. Then they will be put to test as soldiers, God: the active principle or dynamic cause of the world; [2] the militias and in subordinate civic offices. Starting at the age of fifty, as archetype of the world; [3] the receptacle: the locus and pattern the demonstrably worthy will study philosophy until their turns come matrix of creation; matter; brute fact; source of indeterminacy and to administer the offices for their country‟s sake evil; and [4] the form of the Good
Plato‟s cosmology, garbed in myth: an attempt to identify the causes in [and creation of] the actual world [interpretation]
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Demonstration: the form of thought: propositions from propositions: 2.3.2 Aristotle [384-322 BCE] the syllogism Aristotle‟s Problems: Plato‟s system had difficulties and inconsistencies Intuition or induction: establishment of primary propositions. Intuition to be overcome; it was left to Aristotle to reconstruct it in a more consistent and scientific manner. First, the problem of transcendent is the apprehension of the universal element in the particular: or ideas and the degradation of the world of experience to mere induction appearance and, second, the concept of the secondary Platonic Content: the doctrine of the categories [also part of his metaphysics]: element matter and the gulf between form and matter provided categories are the fundamental, indivisible concepts of thought: the difficulties. Other difficulties: changing forms, immortal souls in most fundamental and universal predicates that can be affirmed of human bodies, makeshift nature of the Demiurge anything, not mere forms of thought or language but also predicates Aristotle claims the changeless eternal forms but as inherent, of reality…the ten categories [1] what [e.g., man: substance], [2] immanent in things: form and matter are eternally together…Because how it is constituted [e.g., white: quality], [3] how large [quantity], of his realism, Aristotle studied science sympathetically, his theories [4] relation [double, greater…], [5] where [space], [6] when [time], always in close touch with it and he encouraged the natural sciences [7] posture, [8] condition [e.g., armed: state], [9] activity [what it does], [10] what it suffers [what is done to it] 2.3.2.1 Extant writings 2.3.2.4 Metaphysics 1. Logic: Organon includes: Categories, De Interpretationae, Prior and Substance [that which exists], abstractly defined in metaphysics, is a Posterior Analytics [includes induction and the syllogism], Topics, Sophistic Fallacies [Topics are largely concerned with dialectic key concept…and is in sharp contrast to the Platonic notion. In reasoning] rejecting the Platonic theory of ideas, Aristotle offers two broad criticisms [seven actual items]: [1] ideas, though intended to explain 2. Natural sciences: Physics [8 books]; On the Heavens [4]; Origin the nature of things, are not adequate to do so, and [1] the relation and Decay [2]; Meteorology [4]; Cosmology [spurious], Botany between things and ideas is inexplicable [and even somewhat [spurious]; History of Animals [10]; On the Parts of Animals [4]; On contradictory leading to a regress: the idea of the relation, the idea of the Progression of Animals; On the Origin of Animals [5]; On the the idea of…] Locomotion of Animals [spurious] In contrast to Plato who held that things were incomplete copies of 3. Psychology: On the Soul [3, treating sensation, memory, universals [the form is the substance] and in contradiction to the imagination, thought]; Parva Naturalia [including De Memoria et atomism of Democritus, Aristotle regards particular objects as real Reminiscentia, On Dreams…] substances, but the essence of a thing is its form: the class to which 4. Metaphysics: [14] “First Philosophy” it belongs 5. Ethics: Nicomachean Ethics [10] Eudaemian Ethics [revision of There is plurality of substances, hierarchically arranged: Nicomachean by Eudaemas]; Magna Moralia, the Greater Ethics indeterminate matter…physical objects…plants…animals…man…God [compilation of the two proceeding] The process of becoming, or change: the substratum [matter] 6. Politics: [8, apparently incomplete]; On the Constitution of Athens persists and changes, governed by forms [qualities] which are [discovered 1890] [the work on economics attributed to Aristotle is responsible for diversity and change not authentic] Related to the relationship of form to matter is the relationship of 7. Rhetoric: Rhetoric to Theodectes [based on Aristotle‟s teachings]; potentiality to actuality: the stages in development: [acorn / oak : Rhetoric to Alexander [spurious]; Rhetoric [3, the third is of doubtful materials / building corresponds to potential / actual]…the series from authenticity], Poetics [part of 2 books extant; concerned with potential to actual is, progressively, realization of form over principle forms of literature: epic, tragic, comic] matter…Form realizes itself in the thing: it causes the thing to move 2.3.2.2 Philosophy and the sciences and to realize an end or purpose
The universe is an ideal world, an organic whole of interrelated parts, [Aristotle has been called the “father of Biology”…Plato of “Physics”.] a system of eternal, unchangeable ideas or forms: these are the 2.3.2.5 Four causes ultimate essences and causes…ideas are, in contrast to Plato, [1] Material [constituents], [2] formal [structure], [3] efficient or immanent in the world giving it form and life…experience is real – the moving [the producer‟, [4] the final cause [end or purpose] basis of knowledge; starting from experience we rise to the science of ultimate principles Everything is explicable, at the same time, by all four causes. In nature causes 2 and 4 coincide as do 2 and 3, so the only causes are Genuine knowledge is not merely factual but consists in knowing the form and matter reasons and causes of things. Philosophy or science in the broad sense is reasoned knowledge. Metaphysics is concerned with being 2.3.2.6 Theology qua being Eternal motion on the part of matter presupposes an eternal Aristotle‟s classification of sciences: [1] Logic, the method of inquiry, unmoved mover: God: the cosmological argument…God is pure form, [2] theoretical sciences [mathematics, physics, biology, psychology unadulterated by mater, complete actuality, substance par excellence, and first philosophy or metaphysics], [3] practical sciences in which thought-thinking-thought [which has been ridiculed on account of its knowledge is a means to conduct [ethics, politics], [4] productive inadequacies] sciences in which knowledge is subordinate to artistic creation 2.3.2.7 Physics [poetics] Science of bodies and motion: motion is change: matter is dynamic, 2.3.2.3 Logic atomism rejected [empty space is rejected]…four kinds of motion: [1] The creation of the science of logic is in a certain sense Aristotle‟s substantial [origin and decay], [2] qualitative, [3] quantitative, [4] most amazing achievement [there is no parallel case in intellectual local [place]. Qualities are things: there are, therefore, absolute history where a single thinker has brought to completion a new qualitative changes in matter…nature is teleological and qualitative science]. [There have been only two revolts against the Logic in 2.3.2.8 Biology recent times – Francis Bacon‟s advocacy of inductive method and the Aristotle may be called the founder of systematic and comparative nineteenth-twentieth century revolution in mathematical logic.] zoology which he subordinates to the teleologic, dynamic, qualitative Function: method of obtaining logic: the science of sciences interpretation. Aristotle‟s biology may be described as vitalism: it Theme: analysis of form and content of thought. Scientific truth is posits an animating and directing vital principle in organisms characterized by strict necessity: to establish a scientific proposition it must be proved that it could not possibly be otherwise
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2.3.2.9 Psychology are qualified by education and by position in life participate actively in government – that is, an aristocracy. He justifies slavery on the Man is the microcosm and the final goal of nature, distinguished from grounds that it is a rational institution: it is just that the inferior all other living beings by the possession of reason…Man‟s soul is like foreigners should not enjoy the same rights as the Greeks the plant soul: lower vital function, and animal soul: perception, common sense, imagination, memory, pleasure, pain. [Pleasure arises Aristotle‟s Genius and Influence: Aristotle‟s claim to the title “master when functions are furthered, pain when they are impeded; these of those who know” can easily be substantiated. He occupies a feelings arouse desire and aversion which alone cause the body the unique position in philosophy by whatever standard we judge him, move.] Desire with deliberation is called rational will breadth of learning, originality, or influence…Aristotle‟s philosophy is perhaps the most comprehensive synthesis of knowledge ever Besides the foregoing function the human soul possesses the power achieved by the mind of a human being – with the possible exception of conceptual thought, or thinking the universal and necessary of Hegel essences of things. Reason comes to think concepts as follows: His genius is his ability to use an enormous amount of knowledge into creative reason is pure actuality, the essences are directly cognized: thought and object are here one [in passive reason concepts are a unified whole: which he achieves by means of certain integrating merely potential], passive reason is the mater on which creative concepts: substance, matter, form, actuality, potentiality, etc reason, the form, acts…thee is a distinction –formal and material His influence was greatest during the Middle Ages but it is also phases of reason apparent in the greatest systems of the modern period including Perception, imagination, memory are connected with the body and those of Descartes, Leibniz and Hegel perish with it: creative reason is absolutely imperishable, absolutely 2.4 ETHICAL PERIOD [ABOUT 350-200 BCE] immaterial 2.4.1 Epicureanism and stoicism 2.3.2.10 Ethics The following on Epicureanism and Stoicism is a brief complement to [Aristotle‟s ethics are based in his metaphysics and psychology and is the longer discussion on Stoicism, which is taken up again, below the first comprehensive scientific theory of morality…it attempts to The Epicureans and Stoics. These thinkers were concerned primarily give a define answer to the Socratic question of the highest good.] with ethics – however the ethics needed a metaphysics and All human action has some end in view…what is the highest end or cosmology and a theory of knowledge and truth in terms of sense good? For man this must be his essence: the life of reason, the experience – they were pioneers of the empirical tradition in complete and habitual exercise of the functions which make him epistemology. They were nominalists – a universal is not a reality but human: eudaemonia [happiness is a substitute provided it does not a mark or sign: the only realities are particulars. They were also mean pleasure] forerunners of medieval nominalism. Opinions and hypotheses must A virtuous soul is a well-ordered soul…and since the soul does not be confirmed by sense experience or at least suggested by perception consist of reason alone, it is one in which the right relation exists and not contradicted by them between reason, feeling and desire… Epicurean metaphysics is, in its essentials, a restatement of the The highest good for man is self-realization [:not selfish individualism] atomistic and materialistic mechanism of Democritus. Psychology – – he realizes his true self when he loves the supreme part of his being: also derives from the emanationism of Democritus – likewise soul – the rational part…when he is moved by a motive of nobleness, the nimble fiery soul atom – is material; soul has a rational part, is promotes the interests of others and of country…”The virtuous man mortal – there is no afterlife to be feared will act often in the interest of friends, country and if need be die for Epicurean ethics is hedonism – based on pleasure – but not a basis them…surrender money, honour and all the goods for which the for debauchery: some pleasures are followed by pains and many world contends, reserving only nobleness for himself…” pains are followed by pleasures; therefore not all pleasures are to be Justice is a virtue implying a relation to others, for it promotes the chosen and not all pains avoided. Mental pleasures are greater than interest of others…it is taken in two senses: lawfulness and pleasures of the body, mental pains worse than physical pains – fairness…Nor is the happiness-theory understood in the hedonistic therefore a life of prudence and wisdom is good and this has a sense – a pleasure theory: therefore, all things which are honorable naturalistic basis in the caprice of the world. In truth, Epicureanism is and pleasant to the virtuous man are honorable and pleasant an ethics of enlightened self-interest: Epicurus extolled the same virtues as did Plato, Aristotle and the stoics – wisdom, courage, Aristotle rejects the Socratic maxim that knowledge is virtue: we must temperance and justice – but for different reasons. [However, in addition to a knowledge of virtue, endeavor to possess and although the pleasure-theory of Epicurus is not a doctrine of exercise it…Moral action is fostered by a moral society…Laws are sensuality, it came to be so interpreted by many.] required to teach us the duties of life…The state should seek to provide a social environs conducive to the morality of its Epicurean 341 – 270 BCE social and political philosophy: the citizens…Anyone who wishes to elevate the people must acquaint enlightened self-interest of the individual is the highest good; from himself with the principles of legislation…therefore: ethics and politics here follows justice and right, laws and institutions, practical rules of are never divorced by Aristotle: the moral ends of man are promoted action – but only as means by legal and political means 2.4.2 Skepticism and eclecticism 2.3.2.11 Politics Skepticism was contemporary with Stoicism and Epicureanism. After Man is a social being who can realize his true self only in society and Socrates and the great system of Plato and Aristotle, time was right the state…the state as the goal of evolution of human life is prior in for a new period of movement of doubt. The Skeptics filled this worth and significance to its component societies…Social life is the function: the thought common to this school is that we cannot know goal or end of human existence…the aim of the state is to produce the nature of things: Pyrrho [365-270 BCE] may be called the founder good citizens…Aristotle was perhaps even more successful than Plato but wrote nothing: his views were set down by Timon of Phlius [320-in steering a middle course between “statism” and individual 230 BCE]. After Timon, the Skeptical school was absorbed by the Platonic Academy and did not emerge as an independent school until The constitution of the state must be adapted to the character and the Academy – called the Middle Academy during the Skeptical period requirements of its people. It is just when it confers equal rights on – purged itself of Skepticism under Philo of Larina and Anticus: the people in so far as they are equal, and unequal rights in so far as Skepticism again became an independent movement at the beginning they are unequal of the Christian era and was later represented by Sextus Empircus. There are good constitutions: the monarchy, the aristocracy and the Eclecticism was encouraged by the growing intercourse between polity – a norm in which the citizens are nearly equal – and bad forms: Greek scholars and the Romans. The Romans had no genius for the tyranny, oligarchy and democracy…As the best state for his own philosophy; it was only after Rome conquered Macedonian 168 BCE time Aristotle advocates a city-state in which only those citizens who and Greece became a Roman Province [146 BCE] that interest arose
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in philosophical speculation. The Romans produced no independent modern systems], however in Stoicism the pantheistic aspect clearly system: they selected and modified according to their practical needs: prevails “They sought and found in Philosophy, nothing but a rule of conduct 2.4.3.3 Cosmology and a means of government.” Subsequently, Eclecticism made its way The Stoics offer a detailed description of the evolution of the world into nearly all the schools, into the Academy [Plate], the Lyceum from the original divine fire: every recurring world will resemble its [Aristotle] and the Stoa; the Epicureans alone remained true to their predecessors in every detail – the theory of cyclic recurrence – for creed each world is produced by the same law…Man is free in the sense 2.4.3 Stoicism – continued that he can assent to what fate decrees, but, whether he assents or Zeno [336-264 BCE] b Citium, Cyprus, came to Athens in 314, and in not, he must obey…Now, if everything is a manifestation of God, how shall we explain evil in the world? [1] The negative solution denies 294 opened his school in the Stoa Poikile [painted corridor or porch, the existence of evil – what we call evils are only relative evils; [2]the from which “Stoicism”] and was founder of the school. Zeno was positive solution regards evil, such as disease, as the necessary and esteemed for his upright character, the simplicity of his life, his inevitable consequence of natural processes or as a necessary means affability and moral earnestness…He was followed by his pupil of realizing the good Cleanthes [264-232 BCE] who lacked the qualities needed to defend the school against the Skeptics and the Epicureans…Next came 2.4.3.4 Psychology Chrysippus of Soli, Cilicia [232-204 BCE], a man of great ability who A man is free when he acts in accordance with reason; that is, clearly defined the teachings of the school, gave unity to the system, obedience to the eternal laws of nature. The Stoic conception of and defended it against the Skeptics. His pupils included Zeno of freedom is one of rational self-determination… Tarsis, Diogenes of Babylon, Antipater of Tarsus…Stoicism as The Stoic doctrine of cyclic recurrence implies that all souls developed by Chrysippus found favor in Rome during the Republic: necessarily reappear with the recreation of the universe Panaetius [180-110 BCE] being one of the first Roman adherents of note. During the Empire it divided into two schools: one popular, 2.4.3.5 Ethics represented by Musonius Rufus [first century CE], Seneca [3-65 CE], Man is part of the universal order, a spark of the divine fire, a small Epictitus [first century CE] and Emperor Marcus Aurelius [121-180]: universe [microcosm] reflecting the greater universe [macrocosm]. the other scientific, whose sole aim was to preserve intact and Hence it behooves man to act in harmony with the purpose of the interpret the old doctrine universe…to reach the highest possible3 measure of perfection. To do 2.4.3.1 Logic and the theory of knowledge this he must put his own soul in order: reason should rule him as reason rules the world…to live according to nature for a human being The goal of Stoic philosophy is to find a rational basis for ethics: they is to act in conformity with reason, the logos…to live thus is to realize start with logic, the science of thoughts and discourses. Stoic logic one‟s self and to realize one‟s true self is to serve the purposes of included grammar, and thus Stoics are founders of the traditional universal reason and to work for universal ends. The Stoic ethical science of grammar…the dialectical part of logic deals with the theory ideal implies a universal society of rational beings with the same of knowledge: of which there are two problems: [1] what is the origin rights – for reason is the same in all and all are part of the same [source] of knowledge, and [2]what is the criterion of knowledge world soul Sources: Knowledge is gained through perception. The mind has the A truly virtuous act is one which is consciously directed toward the faculty of forming general ideas and concepts of a large number of highest purpose or end, and is performed with conscious knowledge cases which are alike and of forming universal judgments. This faculty, of moral principle. Thus, virtuous conduct implies complete and reason, is a faculty of thought and speech identical with the universal certain knowledge of the good and a conscious purpose, on the part reason which pervades the world…the Stoics posited objected of the doer, to realize the supreme good. To act unconsciously and rationality in the world and yet opposed the Platonic doctrine of ideas: without knowledge is not virtue. Virtue is one, a unity, for everything only particular objects have real existence and universals are depends on disposition, on the good will: a man either has it or he subjective abstractions has it not: there is no middle ground: he is either a wise man or a Criterion: A sense image is true when it is an exact copy of the object. fool…Virtue is the only good, vice the only evil – all else is indifferent A concept is true when it agrees with the qualities pervading similar Evil conduct is the result of wrong judgment, or false opinion: the things. How shall we distinguish true from false? Man is entitled to his Stoics sometimes regard evil as the cause, sometimes the effect of conviction when he has satisfied himself that his sense organ is in the passions or immoderate impulses. The four such passions are normal condition, that the percept is clear and distinct and that pleasure, desire, grief and fear. These passions and their many repeated observations by him and others verify his first impression. variations are diseases of the soul which it is our business, not merely Since true premises are deduced logically from true premises, the to moderate, but to eradicate, since they are irrational…Apathy or faculty of drawing correct inferences is accordingly another means of freedom from passion is, accordingly, the Stoic ideal reaching the truth – and dialectic an essential qualification of the Stoic sage. Consequently, the stoics gave considerable attention to 2.4.3.6 Religion formal logic, particularly the syllogism, which they regarded as its True religion and philosophy are one, according to the Stoics. [Little most important phase [they made minor additions to Aristotle‟s wonder that Stoic philosophy should appeal to the Jesuits.] scheme of syllogism and revised his table of categories] 2.5 GREEK PHILOSOPHY: THE RELIGIOUS PERIOD [150 2.4.3.2 Metaphysics BCE – 500 AD] Stoic metaphysics – a materialistic version of Aristotelian metaphysics: Greek philosophy began in Greek religion; and after its formative force [or form] and matter are both corporeal…but force consists of a phase, described earlier, reached an apex in Socrates, Plato, Aristotle. finer kind of stuff, while matter as such is coarse, formless and The subsequent ethical theories of the Epicurean and Stoic schools, immovable…Only forces have causality – the effect which results, the nihilism of the Skeptics and the piece-meal practicality of the however, is not a cause or a force – nor is it a body – but a mere Eclectics did not satisfy all types of mind…”We come now to a period accidental state of the body…The forces in the universe form one all-in History when Philosophy seeks refuge in Religion”…The new pervasive force or fire: the rational active soul of the world. The attitude sought to know and see God, brought about by and universe is a cosmos – a beautiful, well-ordered, perfect whole. The expresses consciousness of the decline of the classical peoples and rational principle is related to the world as the human soul is to its their culture, “gave rise to a philosophy strongly tinctured with body [the pervasion of the cosmos by a rational principle is pure religious mysticism,” “brought to life not only Christianity, but, before pantheism]…but just as the governing part of the soul is situated in a its advent, pagan and Jewish Alexandrianism and its kindred particular part of the body, so the ruling part of the world soul, the phenomena”…”We may distinguish three currents to this religious Deity, or Zeus, is seated at the outermost circle of the world: philosophy: [1] an attempt to combine an Oriental religion, Judaism, pantheism and theism dwell together in the Stoic system [as in many
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