History of Western
Philosophy
in Five Minutes
Video
Philosophy 1010
Class #1 - 6/10/2010
Title:
Introduction to Philosophy
Instructor:
Paul Dickey
E-mail Address:
pdickey2@mccneb.edu
Website:
http://mockingbird.creighton.edu/NCW/dickey.htm
Prefix/Section:
Begins/Ends:
Meeting Day/Time:
Phil 1010 – SA
6/10/2010 – 8/12/2010
TH 5:30 – 9:55 PM
http://www.coursesmart.com/9780495103097
Reading Assignment for 6/17/2009:
Velasquez, Philosophy: A Text With Readings (11e)
Chapter 1
Text: Website:
http://college.cengage.com/site_engine/#053874197X/philo:shell
1)
Introductions
2)
Syllabus
3)
Assessment Quiz
4)
Break
5)
Discussion / Videos
6)
Writing Assignment
Philosophy Begins
with Wonder!
Wonder is an emotion comparable
to surprise and awe that people feel
when perceiving something rare or
unexpected.
It is specifically linked to curiosity
and is the emotion leading to
philosophy and science.
Video
What is a Philosophical Question?
What is true love? – Is beauty a matter of fact or a matter of taste?
– Is there a God? – What do I want to do with my life? – What is
the purpose of art? – Is there a difference between health and
beauty? – Do I want to be beautiful? – Is everything I think I know
true? -- Is lying always wrong? -- Does every question have an
answer? – Do I have to accept reality or can I determine my own
reality? -- Why can’t people just get along together? – Who should
take care of the environment? -- What would happen if there were
no government? – Why do bad things happen to people? -- What
is the meaning of my life? – Will getting married make me more or
less free? Is love more important than freedom? …. What is true
love? …..
Why are these questions philosophical questions?
What the characteristics of these questions so that we say they are
philosophical?
Is there a difference between philosophical questions and scientific
questions?
Is there a difference between philosophical questions and
speculation?
Questions, So Many Questions …
What Kind of Questions are These Anyway?
•
May be deeply personal
•
Answers cannot be “proven” but some opinions make
more sense than others and generally arguments can
be given for our views (thus, they are not entirely
subjective)
•
Necessary to ask for our world to “make sense”
•
Often confuse us
•
We have to answer for ourselves.
•
We cannot expect everyone to agree with us and they
may also have good arguments for their views
•
Throughout our life we may have to reconsider our
answers
Some Shots at Defining Philosophy . . .
•
Do these definitions give YOU a satisfactory
understanding of what the lady on the beach is
doing?
•
Philosophy is an activity people undertake when they
seek to understand fundamental truths about
themselves, the world in which they live, and their
relationships to the world and to each other.
…www.fsu.edu (Florida State University)
•
Philosophy studies the fundamental nature of existence,
of man, and of man's relationship to existence. … In the
realm of cognition, the special sciences are the trees, but
philosophy is the soil which makes the forest possible.
…Ayn Rand, Philosophy, Who Needs It (p. 2)
What is Philosophy?
Well, maybe….
•
Philosophy is the “audacity of hope” for obtaining
knowledge and wisdom about the world and about
ourselves. – Yes, we can! (Thanks, Barack.)
•
Philosophy is the application of critical reasoning to
our wonder about the world and ourselves.
•
Philosophy is the willingness to ask questions about
what we have assumed we already know.
•
Philosophy is each individual person’s opportunity
and responsibility to live their own life, to be who
they are, to become autonomous.
What is Philosophy?
“We can help one another to find out the meaning of
life. But in the last analysis , the individual person is
responsible for living his own life and for ‘finding
himself.’ Others can give you a name or a number,
but they can never tell you who you really are. That
is something you yourself can only discover from
within.”
….Thomas Merton
“The unexamined life is not worth living.”
“The only thing I know is that I know nothing.”
….Socrates
Is Philosophy Important to Living a Good Life?
Some claims for Studying Philosophy –
Do you agree? Why or why not?
• Philosophy enlarges our understanding of the world
and expands freedom of thought. Philosophy can
release us from the "prejudices derived from common
sense", from the "habitual belief of an age or nation",
and from convictions that have grown up "without the
cooperation or consent of (our) deliberate reason".
(Russell)
• Philosophy may help develop the capacity to look at
the world from the perspective of other individuals
and cultures. It develops tolerance and critical sense.
• By discussing political and social issues,
philosophy raises public awareness and helps in
forming engaged and responsible citizens.
Is Philosophy Unavoidable?
Philosophy is not a bauble of the
intellect, but a power from which no
man can abstain. Anyone can say that
he dispenses with a view of reality,
knowledge, the good, but no one can
implement this credo. The reason is
that man, by his nature as a conceptual
being, cannot function at all without
some form of philosophy to serve as his
guide.
…Leonard Peikoff
The Father of Western Philosophy?
•
Socrates, 460-399 B. C.
•
Socrates was both a real philosopher and the major
character in Plato’s (his student’s) dialogues. Thus, it
is not clear to what degree Socrates was a precursor
to Plato’s ideas or was a mouthpiece for Plato to put
forward his own views.
•
There were many Greek thinkers (actually known as
“The Pre-Socratics”) prior to Socrates who developed
profound insights into the nature of the universe and
man’s place in it.
•
Most importantly though, Socrates' deserves credit for
inventing rigorous, ethical investigation. His
conversations with his fellow Athenians, as recorded
by Plato, are the first records we have of an individual,
by his own careful reasoning, trying to discover the
guiding principles of moral choices.
What is the Socratic method?
•
“Teaching by Asking Instead of by Telling”
•
More than anyone prior to him however,
Socrates built a reputation on questioning
conventional beliefs, thus embodying the nature
of philosophy itself.
•
Socrates engaged himself in questioning
students in an unending search for truth. He
sought to get to the foundations of his students'
and colleagues' views by asking continual
questions until a contradiction was exposed,
thus proving the fallacy of the initial assumption.
•
This became known as the Socratic Method, and
may be Socrates' most enduring contribution to
philosophy.
Video
Plato’s Dialogues &
the Socratic Method
•
Plato’s dialogues demonstrate the Socratic Method.
•
In The Euthyphro, Plato shows Socrates questioning
traditional religious beliefs and the nature of religious
duty. He asks: what makes a thing holy? Is an act holy
because it is loved by the gods or do the gods love
what is holy because it is holy? If the first, are the
gods capricious and random and be able to select
anything to be holy? If the latter, then we have not
answer the original question at all.
•
In Plato’s The Republic, Socrates questions
Thrasymachus who states that justice is whatever is to
the advantage of the strong, that “might makes right.”
Socrates asks what if the powerful pass laws that in
error do not benefit themselves. Would not justice then
be following laws that do not benefit the strong?
Plato’s Dialogues &
the Socratic Search for How to Live
•
Plato’s dialogues demonstrate Socrates’ pursuit of
how one should live.
•
In The Apology, Socrates claims that the wisest
man is he who knows he does not know. The
unexamined life is not worth living. It is better to
obey God than man. His pursuit of philosophy is
following the instruction of God.
•
In Crito, Socrates is awaiting execution in his
prison. Crito arrives and tries to persuade Socrates
to escape. In order he says to act on reason alone,
he asks Crito what is right and wrong. Socrates
argues we must obey the laws of the society in
which we live.
Video
Plato
Plato is history's first great philosopher
because, among other reasons, he provided
the first set of answers to some of the largest
and most difficult questions: What is the
structure of reality? What can be known for
certain? What is moral virtue? What is the
nature of the ideal state?
No philosopher before Plato had ever
attempted such a wide and deep exploration
of philosophical problems.
Plato &
The Allegory of the Cave
•
Plato was a student of Socrates. To better understand
what philosophy is, he describes the nature of
philosophy in the Allegory of the Cave.
•
Plato compares the state of man’s ignorance to living
at the bottom of an underground cave chained so that
such men cannot move. All they see are shadows
created by a fire behind them.
•
Through this symbolism, he then describes the act of
philosophy which he likens to the prisoners being
freed from their chains.
•
Plato is suggesting to us that this process is the
“ascent of the mind into the domain of true
knowledge.” Plato suggests that the aim of
philosophy is freedom from unwarranted belief.
The Allegory of the Cave
Video
What Is
Philosophy?
Disk 1 from “The Examined Life”
Video Series
The Matrix / The Allegory of the Cave
The Matrix Trailer
Video
Oh what the heck, philosophy is fun!!!
Video
What Are the Major Fields of
Philosophy?
1. Metaphysics is “the study of
reality or existence.”
Does God Exist?
Does man have a soul? If so, is it
immortal?
Are humans free to choose for
themselves, or are all human acts
determined?
In general, there are two kinds of metaphysical questions:
- What is all of reality?
- What are important parts of reality?
On the first, a Christian and an atheist might differ like this:
Christian: All of reality is divided into two parts: a higher part,
the realm of God, that is eternal, perfect and non-material and
a lower part, the human realm, that exists in time, is imperfect
and material.
Atheist: All of reality is matter, that which the sciences can
measure and describe.
On the second:
Christian: God, Heaven, Hell, the physical universe, the
human body and soul are important parts of reality.
Atheist: The physical universe is the only reality and has only
two parts, the living and the non-living.
Monism
Monism is the view that all of reality is one kind of thing. If,
for example, you believe that all of reality is matter, or that
God is the only reality, then you are a monist.
The first philosophers (Pre-Socratics) like Thales (c. 600
BCE) Pythagoras (c. 550 BCE) and Heraclitus (c. 500 BCE),
were monists.
Thales' belief that "All is Water" is considered the first
philosophical statement because it explains reality, "All", in
non-religious terms. Every previous description of all of
existence relied upon stories rooted in religious traditions.
Typically, most monists are materialists. In other words,
they believe that the single unifying feature of reality is
matter. Holding this view, materialistic monists argue that
there is no God, Heaven, Hell, soul, or any other "spiritual"
part of reality.
Dualism
Dualism is the view that all of reality is divided into two kinds
of things. Thus, if you believe that all of reality is divided
between the realm of God and the physical universe, or that
there is a "higher world" and a "lower world", or that reality is
composed of spirit and matter, you are a dualist.
In general, most Christians are dualists. They hold that
reality is divided into two parts. Our souls are eternal and
non-material; our bodies, like the physical universe, are
temporal and material.
Plato's view of reality is often termed dualistic, that is, he saw
reality "dual", divided into two parts. The higher part of reality
consisted of perfect and eternal truths which he called Forms.
Plato held that all physical things are imperfect copies of
Forms. Thus, all physical triangles are imperfect copies of
the Form of Triangle.
What Are the Major Fields of
Philosophy?
WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!
(or rather, in contrast to other areas of study
such as biology where biology studies a
particular domain, Philosophy does not
necessarily have agreed upon assumptions that
it can rely on to define any domain of study.
Thus, metaphysics is more accurately “a
collection of questions that seem to group
together about what is real and what reality is
like.”
NOTE: Biology is the study of life or living matter in all its
forms and phenomena. To do biology, scientists thus must
work with an agreed upon view of what is life.
What Are the Major Fields of
Philosophy?
2. Epistemology is “the study of knowledge.”
(or rather….)
What is the structure, reliability and kinds of
knowledge we have?
What is the meaning of truth?
Is scientific knowledge different than other forms
of knowledge?
Is the nature of knowledge different based on
gender?
In general, philosophers have explained
knowledge in three ways.
 Empiricists argue that all
knowledge begins with the senses.
 Rationalists argue that is possible
for the mind, independently of the
senses, to gain knowledge.
 Skeptics explain knowledge by
saying that little if anything is known
for certain.
If you believe that everything you know can be traced back
to information that you saw, heard, touched, smelled or
tasted, then you are an empiricist.
If you believe that you have knowledge of God, heaven, hell,
spiritual aspects of reality, or anything else that didn't come
to you through your senses, then you are a rationalist.
Some rationalists like Plato (427-348 BCE) hold that we are
born with knowledge; other rationalists like St. Augustine
(354-430) believe that God, during our lives, makes it
possible for our minds to know truths that could not be
gained through our senses.
If you don't know for certain that the material world exists, or
that the principles of science qualify as genuine knowledge
or that God exists (or doesn't exist) then, on each of those
issues, you are a skeptic.
What Are the Major Fields of
Philosophy?
3. Ethics is “the study of values and
morality and how they relate to
conduct.” (or rather….)
What is the nature of man’s obligation to
other men?
How should we live to be good?
What responsibilities do governments have
to their citizens?
Is man essentially selfish? Or can he be
motivated by principles beyond his own selfinterest?
Ethics comes from the Greek word ethos for character. Ethics
is the study of the nature of morality and immorality, of how
humans should, and should not, act. A central ethical
question is, what is the source of moral values?
Here are three of several possible answers:
1. Moral values come from
God. If you hold this position,
then odds are that you believe
that genuine moral values are
unchanging and universal.
What is right, has always been
right; what is wrong, has always
been wrong. God's laws apply to
everyone, in all cultures. This
position would make you a
moral absolutist.
2.
Moral values come from societies. If
you hold this view, then you probably
believe that moral values can
legitimately vary from culture to culture.
Each society can have its own
standards of ethical behavior. What is
right for the Chinese, may be wrong for
Brazilians, and vice versa. This position
would make you a moral relativist.
3.
Moral values are determined by the
utility or usefulness of an action to
promote everyone’s best interest. If
you hold this view, then you are a
utilitarian. Utilitarianism was
supported by, among others, John
Stuart Mill (1806-1873).
A Second Opinion…
What is Philosophy?
Graham Priest,
Professor of Philosophy
University of Queensland
Video
Writing Assignment
Worth 5 points in Participation Category.
Pose a philosophical question that is
important to you and attempt to answer it
in 250 words or less. Please do not use
any sources. Just use your own reflection.