Philosophy
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Philosophy φιλοσοφία (philosophía) –
“love of wisdom” (Pythagoras)
the study of general problems concerning
matters such as existence, knowledge,
truth, beauty, justice, validity, mind,
language … Philosophy is distinguished
from other ways of addressing these
questions (such as mysticism or mythology)
by its critical and systematic approach.
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Branches of philosophy
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Metaphysics - the nature of being and reality (ontology, cosmology,
but also mysticism, theology …).
Epistemology - nature and scope of knowledge and believe (truth,
justification ..., methodology)
Ethics, or 'moral philosophy', concerned with questions of how
persons ought to act (morality, virtue)
Political philosophy - study of government and the relationship of
individuals and communities to the society and state (justice, the
good, law, property, rights obligations of the citizen).
Aesthetic deals with beauty (art, enjoyment, sensory-emotional
values).
Logic deals with patterns of thinking that lead from true premises to
true conclusions.
Philosophy of mind deals with the nature of the mind and its
relationship to the body (dualism x monism, cognitive science)
Philosophy of language - inquiry into the nature, origins, and
usage of language.
Etc.
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Western philosophy – historical division
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Ancient philosophy (Greece 6th ct BC – 6th AC)
Medieval philosophy (6th AC - 14th AC), Muslim,
Jewish, Christian …
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Renaissance (14th AC – 17th)
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Early modern phil. (17th – 19th)
Nineteenth cent. phil.
Contemporary philosophy
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Eastern philosophy
Belongs Eastern thinking to philosophy?
No – Hegel, “Philosophy” – label only for western thinking?
Europocentrism?
Different nature of Eastern ph. (interconnection with mythology,
religious nature) – but not of whole.
Not one philosophy, but various philosophies
Persian philosophy (e.g. Zoroastrianism)
Indian philosophy (Buddhism, Hindu …)
Chinese philosophy (Taoism, Konfucionalism …)
Korean, Japanese, … African ….
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Ancient western philosophy –
temporal division
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Pre-Socratic period
Classical periods (Socrates, Plato, Aristotle)
Hellenistic (post-Aristotelian) period
Christian (and Neo-Platonist) philosophy
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Mythological background of
philosophy
Myth – philosophy – science (August
Comte) + applied science - technology
 All ethnics have their own myths.
• Traditional myths, artificial (modern) myths
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(fakes?) Myths and fairytales.
Passed by word of mouth (life of myths)
Written form (eposes) – fixation, petrification
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Mythological background of
philosophy
Role of myths
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Entertainment – dramatic stories
Formation and encourage group self consciousness,
formation of tribe, ethnics, nation (justification why our tribe
is super ordinate)
• Formation and consolidation of moral and social system
(model phenomena - archetypes: gods, heroes, solutions of
situations) (C. G. Jung)
• Base of religion
• From epistemological view:
There is a (non visible, metaphysical) world that controls
our visible (physical) world.
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Mythological background of philosophy
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Myths in ancient Greece
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Homer`epics (9th century BC) and
Homeric mythology (no moral order,
gods capriciously play with human
fates)
Hesiod (8th century BC): concept of
moral order that is given by chief god
Zeus to humans
Other systems: Orphism, Pythagoras
sect, Empedocles …
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Mythological background of
philosophy
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Truth of myth – implicit
expressions, metaphors, model
situations
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Judgement of Paris - bone of
contention – in Czech “apple of
contention”
Mythological truth and literal truth (art,
literature, theatre, film,
photography…)
Truth of religion ?
Truth of science
Truth in philosophy
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Conditions for formation of
philosophy
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SCHOLE (free time, leisure)
Developed language (abstract concepts)
Naivety of Homeric mythology – religion
(anthropomorphism)
Exchange of ideas and cultural influences
(connection with other civilisations…)
----------------------Material conditions (but cynics, Eastern sages…)
Fine climate
Freedom (but among philosophers there were also
slaves…)
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Presocratic philosophy
Milesians (Milesian school)
Thales of Miletus (about 625 - 545 BC)
„first philosopher“ politics, astronomy,
geometry…(Thales theorem, Thales circle,
rangefinder, division of celestial sphere …)
 Flat Earth floating on ocean
 Solar eclipse 28. May 585 BC
 Search for ARCHE (PRINCIPIUM)
 Water (HYDOR) – why just water?
(Magnet – soul (PSYCHE) as another principle of
motion and gods)
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Presocratic philosophy
Milesian School
Anaximander of Miletus (about 610 – 546 BC)
Quadrant, GNOMON (sundial), celestial globe, map
of the world
ARCHE – APEIRON (indefinite boundless, infinity…)
Things arise by process of separation
„evolutionary theory“:
IN THE BEGINNING MEN WERE BORN
FROM CREATURES OF A DIFFERENT SORT,
BECAUSE THE OTHER ANIMALS QUICKLY
MANAGE TO FEED THEMSELVES, BUT MAN
ALONE REQUIRES A LONG PERIOD OF
NURSING; HENCE HAD HE BEEN LIKE
THAT IN THE BEGINNING TOO, HE WOULD
NEVER HAVE SURVIVED
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Presocratic philosophy
Milesian School
... THE EATRH IS IN MIDAIR , OVERPOWERED BY
NOTHING, AND STAYING
WHERE IT IS ON ACOUNT
OF ITS SIMILAR
DISTANCE FROM
EVERYTHING
 Existence of antipodes
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Presocratic philosophy
Milesian School
Anaximenes (about 585 – 528 BC)
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ARCHE – AER APEIROS
AER (air, gas) – PNEUMA (SPIRIT)
Everything is breathing (later accepted by
Stoics)
Things arise by changes of concentration of
AER. (MANOSIS and PYKNOSIS)
The change of quantity into quality
Flat Earth floating in air (also Moon)
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Heritage of Milesians
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Reductionism – complex can be reduced to
simple, many to few or even one
Monism – everything comes from one principle
– but inconsistent
All rational approach and all science is based
on reduction (inner and outer reductionism)
Basic difference to Eastern thinking – HOLISM
Problems of HOLISM, intuition. Meditation.
Capra, Bohr and Eastern philosophy.
HYLOZOISM (paradox of hylozoism, modern
science – „hylonekrism“)
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The end of Milesians
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547 BC - Miletus fell under Persia – the end
of Milesian philosophy
479 BC - Miletus rebuilt
334 BC - captured by Alexander the Great
133 - part of Roman empire, Byzantine
empire
1328 AD till now - under Turkish rule
(Balat)
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Presocratic philosophy
Pythagoras and Pythagoreans
Pythagoras of Samos (about 572 - 494
BC)
Disciple of Anaximander ?
visited Egypt (perhaps he knew read hieroglyphs),
India (not probable)
Rule of tyrant Polycrates,
migration to southern Italy, Croton
Pythagorean School
philosopher and thaumaturgist
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Pythagoras of Samos
School of Pythagoras Number or limit is the basic principle
→ mathematics and numerology
THEORIA (theory) – originally (watching) religious
festival, narrating about r.f. → looking by inner sight
MATHEMATICA (mathematics), MATHEMA –
theorem, doctrine teaching: esoteric and exoteric
COSMOS (order, jewel) → HARMONY → UNIVERSE
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HARMONIA (harmony) – joint, fastening → principle
of unification
MUSICA (music), laws of acoustic, (P. tuning)
monochorde – sound of string, musical intervals,
music of spheres (we are accustomed with it),
MUSIC THERAPY
ARITHMOS and LOGOS (ratio)
Pythagoras´ theorem and crisis of mathematics
Irrational numbers
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Pythagoras
PSYCHE (soul) – principle of personal identity
METEMPSYCHOSIS and problems of personal identity
 Other problems of REINKARNATION (deja vu, belief in
fairness, vegetarianism, original sin, psychotherapy)
 ONCE THEY SAY THAT PYTHAGORAS WAS
PASSING BY WHEN A DOG WAS BEING BEATEN
AND SPOKE THIS WORD:
"STOP! DON'T BEAT IT! FOR IT IS THE SOUL OF
A FRIEND OF MINE – I RECOGNIZED HIM BY
HIS VOICE."
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Pythagoras
Medicine – the most honourable art
(TECHNE), principle of HARMONY at work
Body as a musical instrument
Health – harmony
Metrology – unifying measures, units of length
and weight
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Same of later Pythagoreans
Alcmaeon from Croton (5 cent. BC)
Astronomer, physician, concept of divine or animated planets
(Giordano Bruno +1600)
Closed time – Great year, Calpa and the age of Earth
Modern concepts of closed time
Autopsy (nerves, brain)
Philolaos of Croton (end of 5th cent. BC)
The first non-geocentric system (10 planets, Anti-earth), central
fire of Cosmos (nucleus of our Galaxy?)
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Same of later Pythagoreans
Archytas from Tarentum
(cca 400 – 365 BC)
Ruler of Tarentum (Tarano, Italy) friend of Plato
Study of mathematics, acoustics (sound of moving bodies, pipes)
Mechanical dove
Finite universe:
IF I AM AT THE EXTREMITY OF THE HEAVEN OF THE FIXED
STARS, CAN I STRETCH OUTWARD MY HAND OR STAFF? IT
IS ABSURD TO SUPPOSE THAT I COULD NOT. IF I CAN, WHAT
IS OUTSIDE MUST BE EITHER BODY OR SPACE. WE MAY
THEN IN THE SAME WAY GET TO THE OUTSIDE OF THAT
AGAIN, AND SO ON. IF THERE IS ALWAYS A NEW PLACE TO
WHICH THE STAFF MAY BE HELD OUT, THIS CLEARLY
INVOLVES EXTENSION WITHOUT LIMIT.
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Neopythagoreism
Numerology
Kepler – Cosmographic mystery
Physics and numerological from 1st century BC to 5-th AC) – new
ideas packed in the form of old
time-honoured teaching
Heritage of Pythagoreism:
Mathematics – ARITHMOLOGY
speculative approaches
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Heraclitus of Ephesus
Heraclitus of Ephesus (about 535 - 475 BC)
noble from the Androclus family (founder of Ephesus)
Contempt for the mass of mankind, loner, against
democracy (DEMOS =people) advocated
ARISTOCRACY (ARISTOS = the best)
Treatise deposited in the temple of Artemis
SKOTEINOS - dark
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Dynamical approach
YOU CANNOT STEP TWICE INTO THE
SAME RIVER.
The learning of many things teaches not
understanding.
IF YOU DO NOT EXPECT THE
UNEXPECTED, YOU WILL NOT FIND IT…
NATURE LOVES TO HIDE.
THE EYES ARE MORE EXACT WITNESSES
THAN THE EARS.
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TO GOD ALL THINGS ARE FAIR AND GOOD
AND RIGHT, BUT PEOPLE HOLD SOME
THINGS WRONG AND SOME RIGHT.
IT IS NOT GOOD FOR PEOPLE TO GET ALL
THEY WISH TO GET.
IT IS SICKNESS THAT MAKES HEALTH
PLEASANT; EVIL, GOOD; HUNGER,
PLENTY; WEARINESS, REST.
A PERSON'S CHARACTER IS HIS FATE.
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THIS WORLD, WHICH IS THE
SAME FOR ALL, NO ONE OF
THE GODS OR HUMANS HAS
MADE; BUT IT WAS EVER, IS
NOW, AND EVER WILL BE AN
EVER-LIVING FIRE, WITH
MEASURES OF IT KINDLING,
AND MEASURES GOING OUT.
EPYROSIS ? Conflagration
THE WAKING HAVE ONE
COMMON WORLD, BUT THE
SLEEPING TURN ASIDE EACH
INTO A WORLD OF HIS OWN.
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Some later reflection and similarities of Heraclitus
Cratylus:
YOU CANNOT STEP EVEN ONCE INTO THE
SAME RIVER.
Heraclitus and Taoism
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Laoze (Lao Tzu)
Dynamic approach
Stoic philosophy
EKPYROSIS, LOGOS, PANTA REI, “Everything
flows”
Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, Heidegger …
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The Eleatic school
Xenophanes of Colophone (570 - 475 BC)
HOMER AND HESIOD HAVE ASCRIBED TO THE GODS ALL THINGS
THAT ARE A SHAME AND A DISGRACE AMONG MORTALS,
STEALING AND ADULTERIES AND DECEIVING OF ANOTHER
One god (atheism, monotheism, metaphysical theology?)
MEN MAKE GODS IN THEIR OWN IMAGE. THOSE OF THE
ETHIOPIANS ARE BLACK AND SNUB-NOSED, GODS OF THE
THRACIANS HAVE BLUE EYES AND RED HAIR. IF HORSES OR
OXEN OR LIONS HAD HANDS AND COULD PRODUCE WORKS OF
ART, THEY TOO WOULD REPRESENT THE GODS AFTER THEIR
OWN FASHION.
The One. If there had ever been a time when nothing existed, nothing could
ever have existed.
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The Eleatic school
Parmenides (circa 540 - after 470 BC)
„PERI FYSEOS“
COME NOW, I WILL TELL YOU AND DO YOU LISTEN TO MY
SAYING AND CARRY IT AWAY, THE ONLY TWO WAYS
OF SEARCH THAT CAN BE THOUGHT OF.
THE FIRST, NAMELY, THAT IT IS, AND THAT IT IS
IMPOSSIBLE FOR IT NOT TO BE, IS THE WAY OF BELIEF,
FOR TRUTH IS ITS COMPANION.
THE OTHER, NAMELY, THAT IT IS NOT, AND THAT IT MUST
NEEDS NOT BE, THAT, I TELL YOU, IS A PATH THAT
NONE CAN LEARN OF AT ALL.
FOR YOU CANNOT KNOW WHAT IS NOT THAT IS
IMPOSSIBLE NOR UTTER IT; FOR IT IS THE SAME THING
THAT CAN BE THOUGHT (CONCEIVED) AND THAT
CAN BE.
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The Eleatic school
Melissus of Samos (5th century BC)
NOR IS ANYTHING EMPTY; FOR
WHAT IS EMPTY IS NOTHING; SO
NOTHING WILL NOT BE BEING OF
NOTHING IS NOT BEING.
Horror vacui, paradox of vacuum and it`s
solution Descartes, Thomas Hobes and
Boyles works on gas dynamics
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The Eleatic school
Epistemology: Paradox of negative
concepts (myth about giant Polyphemos)
Paradoxes of infinity
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The Eleatic school
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Zeno of Elea (about 489 BC)
Proof by contradiction
Zeno arguments against multiplicity, and against
motion. APORIA
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Bisection of line
The flying arrow
Achilles and the tortoise
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1 + ½ + ¼ + … + 1/2n = 2
Concept of infinity. Continuum. Classical (Cantor) set
theory and Alternative set theory (AST, Vopěnka)
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The way to materialism
Empedocles (circa 490 - 430 BC)
Religion of Orphic type, underworld. Poem “On Nature” (PERI PHYSEOS),
and “Purifications” (KATHARMOI). Death in vulcano Etna.
Love (PHILIA) – attraction
Strife (NEIKOS) – separation
NOW BY LOVE ALL COMING TOGETHER INTO ONE, NOW AGAIN
EACH CARRIED APART BY THE ENMITY OF STRIFE
roots (RIZOMATA) -- fire, air, earth, and water
(THERE IS) ONLY A MINGLING AND INTERCHANGE OF WHAT HAS
BEEN MINGLED. SUBSTANCE (PHYSIS) IS BUT A NAME GIVEN TO
THESE THINGS BY MEN.
KLEPSHYDRA – existence of air (experimental proof!)
Questions
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The way to materialism
Anaxagoras of Clazomenae (about 500 - 428 BC)
brought philosophy to Athens
Sun – great stone bigger than Pelopones
Seeds – SPERMATA
NOUS – reason
IN EVERYTHING THERE IS PRESENT A PORTION OF
EVERYTHING EXCEPT MIND (NOUS); AND IN
SOME THINGS MIND TOO IS PRESENT.
(ANAXAGORAS) WAS THE FIRST TO ADD MIND
(NOUS) TO MATTER, BEGINNING HIS BOOK,
WHICH IS PLEASANTLY AND GRANDLY RITTEN,
THUS: “ALL THINGS WERE TOGETHER; THEN
MIND CAME AND ARRANGED THEM“
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The way to materialism
Anaxagoras – criticism:
Plato in his dialogue “Phaedo“:
PROCEEDING AND READING ON, I SEE THE MAN MAKING NO USE
OF MIND (NOUS), NOR INDICATING ANY EXPLANATIONS FOR THE
ORDERING OF THINGS, BUT MAKING EXPLANATIONS OF AIRS
AND ETHERS AND WATERS AND MANY OTHER SUCH
ABSURDITIES
Aristotle in his book of “Metaphysics” :
ANAXAGORAS USES MIND (NOUS) AS A THEATRICAL DEVICE
(MECHANE) FOR HIS COSMOLOGY; AND WHENEVER HE IS
PUZZLED OVER THE EXPLANATION OF WHY SOMETHING IS FROM
NECESSITY, HE WHEELS IT IN; BUT IN THE CASE OF OTHER
HAPPENINGS HE MAKES ANYTHING THE EXPLANATION RATHER
THAN MIND.
ANAXAGORAS ADVOCATED THE METHOD PROPER TO NATURAL
SCIENCE
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The way to materialism – atomism
Leucippus (about 500 - 440 BC)
Postulated existence of free space (voids,
vacuum)
NO THING COMES ABOUT IN VAIN,
BUT EVERYTHING FOR A REASON
(LOGOS) AND BY NECESSITY
(ANANKE).
Principle of causality (?).
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The way to materialism – atomism
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Democritus
(460-370 BC)
MACROCOSMOS and MICROCOSMOS
Ethical teaching of Democritus
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INSTEAD OF ENJOYING LIFE FOR WHAT IT
IS, THEY HATE IT FOR WHAT IT IS NOT ...
THEY WANT TO PROLONG THE LIFE THEY
HATE, IN ORDER TO POSTPONE DEATH. IT
WOULD BE HARD TO FIND A BETTER
EXAMPLE OF MAN BEING HIS OWN WORST
ENEMY THROUGH STUPID DISREGARD OF
THE LIMIT.
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theory of knowledge – moving images
(EIDOLA)
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Presocratic philosophy
Atomism
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Free space
Atoms
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Differences between ancient and modern atoms
Crisis of atomism
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Order of necessity ANANKE
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(The atomists say that the universe is)
NEITHER ANIMATE NOR GOVERNED BY
PURPOSE, BUT BY A SORT OF
IRRATIONAL NATURE (PHYSIS
ALOGOS).
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Presocratic philosophy
Atomism
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ANANKE
Inferences of ANANKE
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No chance
No freedom („free will“)
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No responsibility
Fatalism
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EVERYTHING HAPPENS BY FATE, IN THE SENSE
THAT FATE APPLIES THE FORCE OF NECESSITY
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(Democritus said that) HE WOULD RATHER FIND A
SINGLE CAUSAL EXPLANATION (AITIOLOGIA) THAN
GAIN THE KINGDOM OF PERSIA.
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Presocratic philosophy
Atomism
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(Absolute) determinism (Stoics, P. S. Laplace)
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AN INTELLECT WHICH AT A GIVEN INSTANT KNEW
ALL THE FORCES ACTING IN NATURE, AND THE
POSITION OF ALL THINGS OF WHICH THE WORLD
CONSISTS - SUPPOSING THE SAID INTELLECT WERE
VAST ENOUGH TO SUBJECT THESE DATA TO ANALYSIS WOULD EMBRACE IN THE SAME FORMULA THE
MOTIONS OF THE GREATEST BODIES IN THE UNIVERSE
AND THOSE OF THE SLIGHTEST ATOMS; NOTHING
WOULD BE UNCERTAIN FOR IT, AND THE FUTURE, LIKE
THE PAST, WOULD BE PRESENT TO ITS EYES.
Laplace demon
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Presocratic philosophy
Atomism
Further history of the paradox
 Two meanings of „determination“ (passive and active mode)
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Epicurus – introduction of PARENCLISIS
Stoics – no freedom but spontaneity (voluntarity), one LOGOS
(also Boethius – there is no contradiction between foreknowledge
and freedom)
Modern history – quantum mechanics (Copenhagen
interpretation) and TYCHISM
„Free will“ antinomy (Plotinos …)
IF I WISH, I COULD GIVE AWAY MY PROPERTY TO THE
POOR, BUT I CANNOT WISH TO WISH. A. Schopenhauer
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Presocratic philosophy
The Sophists
5th cent. BC, democracy - growing demand for education.
Sophists - teachers of wisdom(?) or spurious learning, ancient
enlightment. Rhetorics, politics, grammar, history, physics,
mathematics .
Sophistry – the use of fallacious argument knowing them to be
such
Negative approaches (relativism, agnosticism, subjectivism,
deconstruction od ethics)
Gorgias (483 - 378 BC)
„On Nature, or the Non-existent“: NOTHING EXISTS; IF ANYTHING EXISTED,
IT COULD NOT BE KNOWN; IF ANYTHING DID EXIST, AND COULD BE
KNOWN, IT COULD NOT BE COMMUNICATED.
Agnosticism or parody on eleatism?
Rhetoric – art of persuasion
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Presocratic philosophy
The Sophists
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Protagoras (480 - 411 BC) of Abdera, Pericles debated
with him
“On the Gods” (PERI THEON)
RESPECTING THE GODS, I AM UNABLE TO KNOW
WHETHER THEY EXIST OR DO NOT EXIST.
“ On Truth” (ALETHEIA)
MAN IS THE MEASURE OF ALL THINGS; OF
WHAT ARE THAT (how?) THEY ARE;
OF WHAT ARE NOT THAT (how?) THEY ARE
NOT.
• Plato: why men and not horse or pig? (Theaithetos)
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Presocratic philosophy
The Sophists
Thrasymachus (4 th century BC)
injustice is preferred to a life of justice,
unjust person superior i character and
intelligence.
Justice is pursued by simpletons and
leads to weakness.
Reduction of morality to power (nihilism
towards thruth and ethics)
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Presocratic philosophy
The Sophists
Sophists and atheism
Rise of W. philosophy connected with overcoming mythology and
(naive, anthropomorfic) religion.
Diagoras - his opponent violated an oath and remain unpunished –
non-existence of gods
Critias – religion – device of rulers, instrument against breaking rules
when nobody observes.
Sophists and post-modern philosophy
Modern science disappointed many people, the fail of communism –
rejection of old values, old science, old aims, evolution, progress.
The rise of negative approaches (irrationality, immorality,
subjectivism)
Negative stage – positive value – clear space from obsolete conceptual
schemes. Must be followed by positive stage. In ancient Greece
Socrates directed thinking in a positive way. Unraveled logical
inconsistencies of Sophists,
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Classical Period
Socrates and Socratic schools
Socrates (469 - 399 BC)
Directed sophistic thinking in a positive way
Golden age of Athens
Aischylus, Euripides, Sophocles, Pericles, builded parthenon on
Acropolis. Persia defeated, Athens was naval power
Father sculptor (stonemason), mother midwife
Socrates practised craft of sculptor, married Xanthyppe (famous for
quarrelsomeness)
Admolished by „divine call“ gave up occupation and devote himself
to moral and intelectual reform of society
 Socrates` trial
 Athens under Pericles, Socrates could pursue his calling as a
gadfly. War with Sparta, betrayal of Alcibiades, accusations of
impiety, of corrupting the young, Socrates sentenced to death
 Self-knowledge is the starting point, he realised how little we
know about anything
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Socrates and Socratic schools
Socratic method – dialectic method, based on dialogues
Self-knowledge – the starting point
Socrates did not write (Plato, Aristophanes, Xenophon)
 Negative stage (assumed ignorance, Socratic irony)
 Positive stage (“intellectual midwifery”), series of
questions - the opponent acknowledges his ignorance
knowledge through concepts
WHATEVER EXISTS FOR A USEFUL PURPOSE
MUST BE THE WORK OF SOME INTELLIGENCE (GOD?).
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Socrates and Socratic schools
Socratic moral paradox
Knowledge – virtue
Ignorance – evil
Sin – the lack of knowledge
If anybody does evil, he should not be punished, but
instructed what not to do.
Ethics – epistemology
NO ONE FREELY GOES FOR BAD THING OR THING HE
BELIEVES TO BE BAD…
Aristotle ACRASIA – weakness of will, passions and instinct
prevail. Humans are not rational creatures.
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Socratic schools - Megarian school
Euclid (circa 430 - 360 BC)
Student of Socrates
Highest goodness – highest reality
Concepts - bodiless forms (step to Plato teaching)
Reductio ad absurdum: attacks not the premises but the conclusion
of the argument, showing the absurd consequences.
Paradox of the liar (Epimenides):
„All Cretans are liars.“
self-referential semantic paradoxes
“Homological” terms, are such which can be defined as those,
which express a quality that they have (for example the word
“short”, “English”). And further “heterological” words are those
that do not express such a quality that they have. The problem
is whether the term “heterological” is itself heterological or
homological. If it is heterological it does express the quality of
being heterological, so it must be homological, but if it is
homological, it must be, on the contrary, heterological.
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Socrates and Socratic schools
Cynic school
Athens about 400 BC to about 200 BC.
Coarse and vulgar depreciation of
Socrates ethics ?
Antisthenes (about 450 BC - 360 BC)
 advocated all natural including manual
work, despised culture and all „artificial
comfort“
 no universal objects of knowledge:
I SEE A HORSE BUT NOT ‘HORSENESS’
Diogenes of Sinope
(about 403 - 323 BC), lived in large barrel
NOT TO HAVE ANY NEEDS IS GODLIKE
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Plato and Platonism
Plato (428/7 - 347 BC)
Great poetic writer (unlike Socrates)
Cratylus (descendant of Heraclitus), Socrates,
Megara, three times in Sicily, Academy
A. N. Whitehead: (overdone?)
The safest general characterization of the European
philosophical tradition is that it consists of a
series of footnotes to Plato.
Democracy:
AS IN THE CASE OF A SHIP, WHERE THE PILOT’S
AUTHORITY RESTS UPON KNOWLEDGE OF
NAVIGATION, SO ALSO THE SHIP OF STATE SHOULD BE
PILOTED NOT BY ALL CITIZENS, LIKE IN DEMOCRACY,
BUT BY ONLY ONE WHO HAS ADEQUATE KNOWLEDGE.
Kings were philosophers and philosophers were kings.
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Plato
and Platonism
Travels in Egypt, Sicily (intended
to influence Dionysios of his
ideal system of government),
cast into prison, sold as a slave,
ransomed by friends
Academy (387 BC - 529 AD)
“LET NO ONE IGNORANT OF
MATHEMATICS ENTER
HERE.”
Scientific orientation attracted the
ablest thinkers
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Plato
Plato’s works
Not written teaching?
Series of 36 dialogues, Letters
Socratic method of question and answer
Plato own philosophical myths - Atlantis
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Plato
Plato own myths - Atlantis
200-year-old annals of Solon, who heard it from an
Egyptian priests. Island located in the Ocean.
Great and wonderful empire. The inhabitants
possessed great wealth thanks to the natural
resources, centre for trade and commerce. The
island provided all kinds of herbs, fruits, and nuts.
An abundance of animals, including elephants,
roamed the island.
Generations the Atlanteans lived simple, virtuous
lives. But slowly they began to change. Greed and
power began to corrupt them. When the chief god
Zeus saw the immorality of the Atlanteans he
gathered the other gods to determine a suitable
punishment. Soon, in one violent tsunami surge,
Atlantis was gone.
56
Plato and Platonism
The allegory of the cave
Philosophical fiction
prisoners living in a large cave
chained by their necks in a fixed
position, so that they can look
only at the wall in front of them
Behind them a fire, farther back
the entrance to the cave.
Path, where there are persons
carrying various figures
The prisoners can observe
shadows on the wall, they are
not aware that the shadows are
only shadows.
57
Plato and Platonism
One prisoner released from his chains, forced
to stand up, turn around, and walk towards
the light of the fire. He would not be able to
recognise actual objects and his eyes would
ache.
“If they could lay hands on the man who was trying to set
them free and lead them up, they would kill him”. The
prisoners are like us, Socrates concluded.
Prisoners who have been liberated from the cave must
not be allowed to remain in the higher world of
contemplation, but must be made to come back down
into the cave and take part in the life and labours of
the prisoners.
58
Plato and Platonism
System of philosophy
Forms – Ideas
various degrees of reality
Plato’s physics
Timaeus – view on Cosmos – teleology
Platonic bodies
Five “regular” solids, Platonic bodies have all their
sides the same and all their vertexes are
equivalent: tetrahedron cube, octahedron,
dodecahedron, icosahedron. Five basic elements:
fire, ground, water, air, and ether.
59
Plato and Platonism
precession of the
Earth’s axis
Platonic year
30 000 years.
Concepts of
closed or cyclic time
60
Plato and Platonism
Plato's ideal state
UNLESS PHILOSOPHERS BECOME RULERS OR RULERS
BECOME TRUE AND THOROUGH STUDENTS OF
PHILOSOPHY, THERE SHALL BE NO END TO THE
TROUBLES OF STATES AND OF HUMANITY.
rulers (corresponding to the reasonable soul),
 producers (corresponding to desire), and finally
 warriors (corresponding to courage).
State absolutism – totalitarianism
No private property, family. Children belong to the state.
Platonism and mathematics

61
Aristotle and Aristotelism
Aristotle (384-322 BC)
Stagira, Academy, Assos, Pella
Alexander:
THANKS TO MY FATHER I AM LIVING,
THANKS TO ARISTOTLE I KNOW HOW
TO LIVE.
Athens, Lykeion (PERIPATETIC school)
Death of Alexander
THE ATHENIANS MIGHT NOT HAVE
ANOTHER OPPORTUNITY OF
SINNING AGAINST PHILOSOPHY AS
THEY HAD ALREADY DONE IN THE
PERSON OF SOCRATES.
62
Aristotle and Aristotelism
General characterisation of Aristotle’s
philosophy




Logic
Theoretical philosophy, including Metaphysics, Physics,
Mathematics
Practical philosophy
Philosophy of art
Logic (analytics)
Founder of logic, reduction of logic to an exact
science
SYLLOGISMs - schemes of logical judgments
63
Aristotle and Aristotelism
Metaphysics
„first philosophy“, ontology
Theory of causes:
1.
Material Cause
2.
Formal Cause
3.
Efficient Cause
4.
Final Cause
Potentiality and Actuality (DYNAMIS, ENTELECHEIA)
Matter and Form
64
Aristotle and Aristotelism
Physics
Four elements, ether, natural motions (up – down, circular)
Elements, natural motions, prime matter
First Mover, concept of infinite, mechanics
Aristotle concept of God
It has seemed to me unfortunate that the word “God” (which
is, after all, a religious word) should have been retained
by philosophers as the name for a factor in their system
that no one could possibly regard as an object of worship,
far less of love. (Cornford)
65
Aristotle and Aristotelism
66
Aristotle and Aristotelism
Politics
ZOON POLITIKON - social animal
The best form of government is that, which
best suits the character of the people.
IT IS CLEAR THAT SOME MEN ARE BY
NATURE FREE, AND OTHERS
SLAVES, AND THAT FOR THESE
SLAVERY IS BOTH EXPEDIENT AND
RIGHT.
67
Aristotle and Aristotelism
Aristotelean school and Aristotelism
Andronicus of Rhodes - edited Aristotle's works
Alexander from Aphrodisias (2nd century AD)
John Philoponus (6th century)
Avicenna and Averroes (“Commentator”)
St. Thomas Aquinas (1225 - 1274 AD) – Christian adaptation of
Aristotle`s philosophy
Aristotle’s philosophy, and especially his logic, has been
considered as a basis for modern science.
In the middle ages, Aristotle philosophy gradually degenerated.
Also Aristotle’s logic was subjected to some contempt. It was
satirised by Francis Bacon (1561 - 1626), who argued that in
other civilisations, namely in China, the development of
science had been quite possible without Aristotle.
68
Philosophy of the Hellenistic period
Epicureanism
Epicurus (342 - 270 BC)
Samos, Garden of Epicurus
 Physics – atomism (PARENCLISIS CLINAMEN)
 Ethics and psychology - theory of human life,
personal happiness
HABITUATE YOURSELF TO THINK THAT DEATH IS
NOTHING TO US: FOR ALL GOOD AND EVIL IS IN
FEELING: NOW DEATH IS THE PRIVATION OF
FEELING. … WHERE WE ARE, DEATH IS NOT;
AND WHERE DEATH IS, WE ARE NOT.
69
Philosophy of the Hellenistic period
Epicureanism
BETTER WERE IT TO ACCEPT ALL THE
LEGENDS OF THE GODS THAN TO
MAKE OURSELVES SLAVES TO THE
FATE OF THE NATURAL
PHILOSOPHERS.
 Theology
GODS IN METACOSMIA
70
Philosophy of the Hellenistic period
Later Epicureanism
Titus Lucretius Carus (about 91 – 51 BC)
DE RERUM NATURA
The universe of matter and space, no centre, space is
without limit, matter is composed of atoms
mind and soul of a material nature, of the finest and
roundest atoms
sense-perception: from the surface of objects thin films of
matter are continually flying off
origin of life by spontaneous generation, preservation of
animal life in accordance with the law of the survival of
the fittest
description of free fall (friction, resistance of enviroment)
71
Philosophy of the Hellenistic period
Stoicism
STOA (colonnade or porch), STOA POIKILE
(Painted Colonnade)
Zeno of Citium (circa 336 – 264 BC)
300 BC Stoic school
Chrysippus (280 – 205 BC)
Logic (propositional calculus)
AII knowledge enters the mind through the
senses. Criterion of truth lie in sensation
itself. Intense feeling of reality
(KATALEPSIS)
72
Philosophy of the Hellenistic period
Stoicism
Stoic ethics
ascetic system, perfect indifference to everything
external, APATHEA passions as essentially
irrational
LIVE ACCORDING TO NATURE.
Morality is simply rational action. From the rootvirtue, wisdom, spring: insight, bravery, selfcontrol, and justice.
Suicide
73
Philosophy of the Hellenistic period
Stoicism
Stoic physics
NOTHING INCORPOREAL EXISTS.
Existence – subsistence (time, logical rules, space …)
world issue from one principle – LOGOS – (monism). The
corporeal cannot act on the incorporeal, nor the
incorporeal on the corporeal. There is no point of contact.
Hence all must be equally corporeal.
All things are composed of fire (= God). (Heraclitus).
74
Philosophy of the Hellenistic period
Stoicism
God - LOGOS is absolute reason.
purpose in the world (order, harmony,
beauty and design).
no freedom of the will but voluntarity
world-process is circular (circular, closed
time) - EKPYROSIS
rational soul (divine fire) from God
75
Philosophy of the Hellenistic period
Stoicism
Seneca (about 3 BC – 65 AD)
Roman politician, orator and the most famous
Roman Stoic.
YOUR HAPPINESS LIES IN NO ASPIRATION FOR
HAPPINESS.
The main sources of evil are human passions.
Epictetus (50 – 130 AD)
God had arranged all for the happiness of man, so
evil is no more than an illusion.
Marcus Aurelius Antonius (121 - 180 AD)
seeker after righteousness, Meditations
76
Scepticism
SKEPTIKOI - seekers or inquirers, basic mood is of doubt
We only know how things appear to us, but the same thing
appears differently to different people …
Complete suspense of judgement (EPOCHE) all systems of
philosophy are equally false
Pyrrho of Elis (about 360 - 270 BC)
Pyrrhonism
Timon of Athens - Academic scepticism
Arcesilaus (ca. 315 - 241 BC) – paradox of scepticism
77
Science in Alexandria and the
Museum
Alexandria (323 BC),
Ptolemy 308 BC – founder
of Ptolemy dynasty
(commander of Alexander
army)
Demetris Phaleron – urged
for Museum (after 285 BC)
- temple of the Muses,
scientific institution
Library with 700 000 books
Septuaginta
78
Science in Alexandria and the
Museum
Euclid (ca. 330 - ca. 275 BC)
Elements – STOCHEIA
definitions, 5 axioms and
5 postulates, theorems
(with proofs)
The fifth postulate (the
parallel postulate)
79
Science in Alexandria and the
Museum
Archimedes (287 - 212 BC)
Hydrostatic law
80
Science in Alexandria and the
Museum
81
Science in Alexandria and the
Museum
Archimedes
Counting sand
1051 – 1063 grains of sand in the Universe
To the sphere with diameter of Pluto orbit
aprox. 1051 grains of sand
82
Science in Alexandria and
the Museum
Hipparchos from Nicae (2-nd cent. BC)
 geocentrism, catalogue of 850 stars
 Epicyclic theory
83
Science in Alexandria and the
Museum
Eratosthenes of Cyrene
(about 275 - 195 BC)
System of meridians and parallels
star map containing 675 stars
A new calendar system, accepted
later in Rome by Caesar (Julian
calendar in 46 BC,)
one year 9 minutes longer
1582 Gregorian calendar
1752 England, rebelions (?)
In orthodox countries till the
begining of 20-th century.
84
Science in Alexandria and the
Museum

Eratosthenes sieve (identifying the prime numbers)
85
Alexandria and the Museum
Aristarchos of Samos
(3rd century BC)
HELIOCENTRIC SYSTEM
86
Science in Alexandria and the
Museum




Claudius Ptolemy (about 85 – 165 AD)
ALMAGEST
Earth-centred system
Epicycles and deferents
87
Science in Alexandria and the
Museum

Hypatia (355-370 - 415 AD) – lectured
on Plato, Aristotle, wroute on
mathematics and astronomy,
commentaries to work of Ptolemy
 Astrolabe, distilation of alcohol
Tortured to death, patriarch Cyrilos
643 library destroyed by Arabs
88
Philosophy of the Patristics
100 – 800 AD
Early Christian writers – Church Fathers (Greek, Latin writeings)
Theology and philosophy
Tertullianus (Carthage cca 160 – 230)
Roman theologian, advocate
Christian, Montanist, his own sect
Aggressive sarcastic style
De Performances – should Christians attent games? – no
Christians heve pleasures many – reconciliation with God and pardon of
many sins. Tertullian closes his eyes to the spectacles of the world and
appears before him spectacle of the Lord (angels, saints rising from
the dead, kingdom of the just, New Jerusalem…)
89
Tertullianus
Persecution of the Christians was ever present
danger and Chtistians were perplexed by it.
Was it persecution by Devil? No even such
persecution comes from God: It never happens
without God willing it and it is fitting for Him to
do so, to the approval or condemnation of his
servants.
What has Athens to do with Jerusalem, what has
the Academy to do with the Church?
90
Tertullianus
Christian truth is in opposition to secular
wisdom and to education as a whole.
Here lies its power and victory.
I believe it because it is impossible.
Naïve materialism: all existing thing (incl.
God and soul) of material nature.
The term “trinity”
91
Augustin of Hippo
(Tageste 354 – 430 AD)
If you want to understand the catholic church, you have
to understand Augustine
H. Kung
Monica (saint Monica), study in Carthage, hedonistic
sinful life (commited thefts for fun)
Catholic → Manichaean sect
Teacher of rhetoric in Carthage, Rome, Milan
Summer 386 personal crisis (mystical experience
conversion to Christianity, baptized, back to Africa
Priest in Hippo 350 sermons, bishop
Died 75 during the siege of Hippo by the Vandals
92
Works of Augustine
More than hundred titles
Confessions - 13 autobiographical books
Deep psychological insight into previous life
There is no salvation outside the Church.
11th book about time:
What, then, is time? If no one asks me, I know
what it is. If I wish to explain it, I do not know.
God created time within the word.
93
The City of God (De civita dei)
Human history as a conflict between “City of God” and City of Man
(New Jerusalem and Babylon)
People of “City of God” forgo earthly pleasures and dedicate
themselves to Christian values, but inhabitants of City of Man
strayed from the City of God
In 410 Roman empire sacked by Visigots
Conflict with Pelagius
Celtic monk, from Britain to Rome, recognized grandeaur of
Church and moral laxity.
One could achieve grace through his own free will, criticisled
Augustine doctrine of salvation depended only on God (and
Church). Basis: the nature of Original Sin (St. Paul)
Heresy – Ephesus 431 (rejected especially by Calvin)
94
Boethius (cca 480 – 525)
Intermediary between ancient philosophy
and Latin Middle Ages.
“Last Romans and the first scholastic
philosopher.”
395 Roman empire divided (E and W part)
476 Western part conquered by
Ostrogoths (Germans). Capital Ravena,
ruler Theodoric the Great
95
Boethius - works
Service of emperor Theodoric, many high posts
523 arrested (charged of treason – plot with
Byzantine Emperor) prison in Pavia, executed
in 524
Intended to translate into Latin works of Aristotle
and Plato, Euclid, Ptolemy
On Music - Musica mundana, humana,
instrumentalis (incl. voice)
96
Boethius
Consolidation of Philosophy
Written in prison waiting for execution
Prose and verse - dialogue between
Author and Lady Philosophy
Discussion of many old philosophical
questions
Translated to practically to all languages
Pope Leo XIII: Boethius – st. Severinus
97