Transcript Slide 1

INTRODUCTION
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Greeks began to speculate metaphysical questions
as the origin and nature of the universe
 As evidenced by the poems of Homer
►Homer relied on mythology to provide the
answers
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Overtime, philosophers would ultimately discard
religious mythology as a means to answer these
questions and develop a secular methodology based
on observation, logic, and semantics
 With this development came the birth of
philosophy
BIRTH OF PHILOSOPHY
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originated in Greek city
states along the coast of Asia
Minor around 600 BC
 Not as bound by tradition as
city-states on mainland Greece
 Trade brought contact
with the ancient science
and the Middle Eastern
ideas
 These city-state were open
to intellectual innovation
and speculation more than
counterparts on the
mainland
THALES OF MILETUS
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Born around 625 BC
well-known
astronomer and
correctly predicted a
solar eclipse
 developed theories
about size and orbits
of the sun and moon
Learned geometry and
engineering in Egypt
THALES’ THEORY OF THE
UNIVERSE
► Divided
all matter in the universe into two
categories
 Material objects
►Which had their origin in water
 Animate spirits
►Had the ability to move on their own
► Although his theory was wrong, he laid a
foundation
 Saw universe as tangible, finite, and
knowable
►Not mysterious or nebulous only gods
could understand
OPENING THE DOOR
 Asserted universe could be known by
men
►rejected theological and mythological
interpretations of the universe
►sought rational explanations
►Opened door for new series of
questions
 What is man and what is the best
society for man?
 What is truth and how can one
recognize it?
 What is virtue and how can one
acquire it?
THE SOPHISTS
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Quickly commercialized spirit of
intellectual liberation
(marketplace of ideas)
 Set up philosophical training up
as teachers of various fields
►Basic premise: men were
capable of self-improvement
through education and
education would make men
more successful
►Idea of human progress
through one’s own efforts
 Popular and concentrated in
Athens
RHETORIC
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Most popular sophists taught
rhetoric
 Rhetoric Promised:
 most humble man on street could
speak in the Assembly and law
courts
 He could confound opponents,
and reap financial benefits of
public life
► Teachers
taught how to
win any arguments,
regardless of the side they
took
 No truth is universally valid then
no universal standards
►Good and evil, truth and
falsehood were matters of
individual judgment
MORE SOPHIST
ARGUMENTS
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Attacked traditional religious and moral values of
Athenian society
 argued that religion was useless
 others asserted religion as a human invention
Argued that the law did not come from the gods, nor
based on any objective or universal standard of justice
and good
 law was something made by the most powerful
citizens for their own benefit
 Dangerous implications
►Law did not need to be obeyed since it rested on
no higher principle than might
 Disruptive of community life
 stressed the selfish interests of individual over
general welfare
STILL MORE SOPHIST
ARGUMENTS
► Some
attacked Athenian emphasis on
moderation and self-discipline
 Urged people should maximize pleasure
and destroy traditions that restricted
them
►Traditions were only invented by the
weak to enslave nobler nations
CRISIS WITHIN ATHENS
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Radical sophists triggered
intellectual and spiritual crisis
in Athens
 doctrines encouraged
► disrespect
and disobedience
to the law
► neglect of civic duty
► elfish individualism
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 Dangerously weakened
community bonds during
Peloponnesian War
Worried conservative
Athenians
 Wanted to restore authority
of law and respect for moral
values by renewing
allegiance to traditions
SOCRATES
► Employed
intellectual
methodology to Sophist’s
questions they had
neglected or ignored
► 469-399 BC
 Born into middle class
 began adult life as a
stone mason
►Soon gave this up to
devote life to finding
out what was the right
way to conduct one’s
life
CRITICISM OF THE
SOPHISTS
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Felt that sophists had taught skills
but had no insight into the
questions that really mattered
 What is the purpose of life?
 What are the values by which
man should live?
 How does man perfect his
character?
► Felt sophists had attacked
old system of beliefs but had
not provided a constructive
replacement
CENTRAL CONCERN
► Central
concern: perfection
of individual human
character
 moral values attained when the
individual regulated his life
according to objective standards
arrived through rational reflection
 When reason becomes guiding and
ruling agency of logic, an
individual can ascertain the values
necessary to live a good and just
life
 True education shapes character
 Discourse (critical use of reason)
leads to discovery of values (the
construct of values)
Necessity of REASON
► Sophists
sought to subject all human beliefs
and behavior to the clear light of reason
 Thus they would remove ethics from the
realm of authority, tradition, dogma,
superstition, and myth
 Reason was the only proper guide to the
most critical problem of human existence =
good and evil!!!
Means of REASON
► Socrates
asserts
 rational inquiry was the foundational tool to:
to test opinions
► weigh the merit of ideas
► alter beliefs on the basis of knowledge
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 when people engaged in critical selfexamination they would inherently strive
to perfect their character
 Impact:
►liberation
of self from accumulated traditions
and opinions based on one’s conduct
►instead convictions were rationally defend
precepts
SOCRATIC INQUIRY
► Assumed:
Knowledge was innate in the
human mind
 To extract it out into the conscious, he
developed a question-and-answer method
► Attracted loyal audience of young men
 Mostly from well-off families
 Encouraged them to debate the most
fundamental concepts of human behavior
in an attempt to define the guidelines of
ethical conduct
SOCRATIC METHOD
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Began inquiry with searching
questions into traditional
assumptions that everyone took
for granted
Proceed to show that these
assumptions were rooted more
in custom and prejudice than
logic
► Inquiry
deepened with
more questions into
developing more precise
definitions concepts:
 piety, justice, good, and
evil
SOCRATIC METHOD III
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Never formulated rules
of conduct
 Believed giving
followers the habits
of rigorous
questioning and
logical reasoning
created a mentality
that could perceive
correct conduct
under all conditions
ATTITUDES TOWARDS
SOCRATES
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Dismissed as an eccentric
sophist
 fanatical loyalty of
students toward him
 Hated by Political
leaders => they
questioned his ability
and judgment
 The critique of the
state too easily could
bring a challenge of the
state
 ultimately he was
undone
Student’s Position on
Pelophonesian War
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Many students were
enchanted by his
criticism of their elders
and the establishment
However, they did not
embrace inquiry of
creative alternatives
 They also affected an
ill-disguised
admiration for
Sparta during the
Peloponnesian War
DEATH OF
SOCRATES
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After war was over, some enemies brought Socrates
to trial on charges of “corrupting the youth of
Athens”
 denied charges but refused to grovel and beg for
forgiveness
►Instead he boldly spelled out what he stood for
 Found guilty and ordered to kill himself by
drinking hemlock
►Would have received lighter sentence if he
acquiesced or appeased jurors
 He refused to alter his principles, even under
the threat of death
PLATO
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In 387, Plato founded the Academy in Athens: a training
ground for young men from all over Greece to learn the
Socratic Method
Plato had more ambitious goal than Socrates’ moral
regeneration of the individual
 Wanted to arrange political life according to rational
rules
►Argued: the quest for personal morality could not
succeed unless the community was also
transformed on the basis of reason
The ‘Marketplace’ of Ideas
► Socrates
taught universal
standards of right and justice
exist, and could be found
through application of reason
► Plato insisted on the existence
of a higher world of reality
 One independent from the
everyday world of things
 The “World of Ideas” (or “Forms”)
 Unchanging, eternal,
absolute, and universal
standards of beauty, justice,
and truth
 To know these forms was to
know the truth
 One lived according to these
standards = to live the good life
The ‘Marketplace’ of Ideas II
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Truth resides in the World of Ideas – not in the world of
the senses
People form opinions of beauty or justice from
observing what they think is beautiful or just in the
material world
 Since nothing is perfect in the material world, this
opinion is distorted and imperfect
 One who aspires to true knowledge must go beyond
sensory perception and try to grasp with their mind
the Idea of Beauty or Justice in the World of Ideas
Plato saw the material world as unstable, transitory,
and imperfect while the World of Ideas was eternal and
universally valid
 True wisdom is obtained through knowledge of the
Ideas, not the imperfect reflection of these Ideas
that we perceive with the senses
ARISTOTLE
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384 – 322 BCE
Studied in Plato’s Academy
for 20 years
 Left to become tutor to
Alexander the Great
 Returned after Alexander
became ruler and founded
Lyceum
Extraordinary ranges of
interests and intellect
 Leading expert of time in
all subjects except
mathematics
 Wrote scores of books on
various topics: art, logic,
ethics, metaphysics,
psychology, politics,
physics, biology and
natural history
Division of the Three Sciences
Theoretical
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Contemplation
of things that
are permanent
and cannot be
“otherwise.” In
the theoretical
sciences,
understanding
is pursued for
its own sake.
Example:
metaphysics
and logic.
Practical
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Knowledge of things that can be
“otherwise” or variable given human
freedom, choice, and circumstance.
Example: politics, ethics.
Productive
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Knowledge of rational production or
the science of making, producing
things.
Example: technological know-how,
carpentry, pottery. The productive
sciences result in the making of some
“product.”
ARISTOTLE MATERIALISM I
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Renewed confidence in sense
perception
 Which Plato had dismissed
as an erroneous way to
obtain knowledge
 Respected knowledge
obtained through the
senses
 Retained stress on
universal principles
►But wanted them to be
derived from human
experience with the
material world
ARISTOTLE MATERIALISM II
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Thought Plato’s notion of
an independent and
separate World of Ideas
beyond space and time
was contrary to common
sense
 To comprehend reality,
one should not try to
escape to another world
 Believed Plato had
undervalued the world
of facts and objects
revealed through the
senses
ARISTOTLE MATERIALISM III
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Perfect models existed within material things
themselves
 Through human experience with such things as
men, horses, and red objects, the essence of
man, horse, and red could be discovered through
reason
 For Plato, perfect models existed independently
of particular objects
►For Aristotle, universal ideas could not be
determined without examination of particular
things through the senses
ARISTOTLE ETHICS I
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Believed knowledge of
ethics was possible and
that it had to be based
on reason
 Ethical thought
derived from a
realistic appraisal of
human nature and a
common sense
attitude towards life
The “good life” meant
making intelligent
decisions when
confronted with
specific problems
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ARISTOTLE ETHICS II
People could achieve happiness
when they applied knowledge
relevantly to life and when their
behavior was governed by
intelligence
 Not by whim, tradition, or
authority
Realized passionate element within
the human personality could not be
completely eradicated
 To surrender to one’s passions
was to sink to that of animals
 But to deny the passions was
foolish and an unreasonable
rejection of human nature
 Argued people could regulate
passions through rigorous
training, and achieve virtue by
avoiding extreme behavior and
chose moderation
SUMMARY
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Believed that contemplative life of the philosopher
would yield perfect happiness
 But he did not demand more from a person than
human nature would allow
►Did not set impossible standards but
recognized that all persons cannot pursue life
of contemplation
►But all persons could experience a good life by
applying reason to human affairs
Philosophy came down to earth with Aristotle and
spoke to needs and concerns of all people
 Not just a highly educated elite
 Set the stage for the individualistic philosophies
of the Hellenistic Age