Philosophy Notes

Philosophy when considered an academic discipline is defined as the study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, or existence.  Philosophers have set views or theories about a variety of topics.  The word philosophy comes from a Greek word that means “love of wisdom”. 

Sophists

Sophists were traveling teachers in ancient Greece.  They believed it was simply beyond the reach of the human mind to understand the universe.  It was more important for individuals to improve themselves.  The Sophists stressed the importance of rhetoric (the art of persuasive speaking and debating). 

Socrates

The Socratic Problem – It is difficult to form an accurate picture of Socrates as he did not write philosophical texts.  What is known of Socrates today is compiled from the writings of his students, such as Plato.  The “real” Socrates is unclear as these texts are often philosophical and dramatic rather than histories.  Plato is usually viewed as the most reliable and informative source of Socrates’ life and philosophies. 

Socratic Method

Socrates accepted no pay from his students.  He used a teaching style that is known today as the Socratic Method.  The Socratic Method of teaching uses a question and answer format to lead students to see things for themselves by using their own reason.  Socrates believed that all real knowledge is already present within each person. 

Death of Socrates

Socrates lived during the height of Athenian hegemony and Athenian failure after the Peloponnesian War.  Socrates pursuit of virture and truth was at odds with the Athenian’s political and social views.  He was accused of corrupting the youth and convicted.  His punishment was death by consuming a poison called hemlock. 

Quotes:

“The unexamined life is not worth living.”

“Employ your time in improving yourself by other men's writings, so that you shall gain easily what others have labored hard for.”

“He is a man of courage who does not run away, but remains at his post and fights against the enemy.”

“I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.”

“The way to gain a good reputation is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear.”

“Once made equal to man, woman becomes his superior.”

Plato

One of Socrates’ students was Plato.  Unlike his teacher, Plato wrote a great deal. Plato is the founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world.  Based on his experience in Athens, Plato had come to distrust the workings of democracy. To him, individuals could not achieve a good life unless they lived in a just and rational state.

The Republic – What is justice? Do men behave justly because it is good for them to do so?

Social or political justice – harmony in a structured political structure.

Ideal society consists of 3 main classes of people:

1.     Guardians (rulers) – philosopher kings

2.     Auxiliaries (warriors)

3.     Producers (artisans, farmers, blacksmiths)

The soul has 3 parts:

1.     Rational Part (reason, logic, thinking) – seeks truth

2.     Spiritual Part (emotional) – desires honor; responsible for our feelings of anger and indignation.

3.     Appetitive Part (base, self-interested) – desires money, luxury, and pleasure.

Theory of Forms

            Two worlds:

1.     Real world – visible world

2.     Intelligible world – only grasped through our mind.

Allegories

1.     Sun – goodness (it is the reflection of good in the intelligible world)

2.     Lines – various stages of cognition

3.     Cave (most famous) – the effects of education on the human soul

Education moves the philosopher through the stages on the divided line, and ultimately brings him to the Form of the Good.

Definitions:

1.     Allegory – a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning typically a moral or political one.

2.     Cognition – mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses.  The result of which is perception, sensation, notion, or intuition. 

Quotes

“All men are by nature equal, made all of the same earth by one Workman; and however we deceive ourselves, as dear unto God is the poor peasant as the mighty prince.”

“Apply yourself both now and in the next life. Without effort, you cannot be prosperous. Though the land be good, You cannot have an abundant crop without cultivation.”

“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.”

“Dictatorship naturally arises out of democracy, and the most aggravated form of tyranny and slavery out of the most extreme liberty.”

“Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws.”

“For a man to conquer himself is the first and noblest of all victories.”

Aristotle

Aristotle was a Greek philosopher, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. He wrote on many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology.

Aristotle's interests, then, lay in analyzing and classifying things based on observation and investigation.

For his Politics, Aristotle looked at the constitutions of 158 states and found three good forms of government: 

1.     Constitutional government

2.     Aristocracy

3.     Monarchy

Three bad forms of government:

1.     Democracy

2.     Oligarchy

3.     Tyranny

    

A good constitution is formulated according to the principle of distributive justice: equal people are treated equally and unequal people are treated unequally.

People are only as important as their contribution to society.

Moderation, education, and respect ensure stability. 

A city should be small but self-sufficient.

Individuals are not more important than the city, rather the individual is defined by the city they live in and that the individual can be totally human (fully rational) only by participating in the city.  The city is a complete whole and each individual a mere part.  The city is thus more important than the individual. 

Aristotle favored constitutional government as the best form for most people.

Quotes

“If liberty and equality, as is thought by some, are chiefly to be found in democracy, they will be best attained when all persons alike share in government to the utmost.”

“Man is a political animal.”

“Moral excellence comes about as a result of habit. We become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts.”

History

History as we know it—as a systematic analysis of past events—was created in the Western world by the Greeks. Herodotus, the father of history, was the author of History of the Persian Wars, a work commonly regarded as the first real history in Western civilization.

Many historians today consider Thucydides the greatest historian of the ancient world. Thucydides was an Athenian general who fought in the Great Peloponnesian War. A defeat in battle led the Athenian assembly to send him into exile. This gave him the opportunity to write his History of the Peloponnesian War.

Unlike Herodotus, Thucydides was not concerned with divine forces or gods as causal factors in history. He saw war and politics in purely human terms, as the activities of human beings. He examined the causes and the course of the Peloponnesian War clearly and fairly, placing much emphasis on the accuracy of his facts. He believed that the study of history is of great value in understanding the present.