philosophy of man (humanities)
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Philosophyof Man:
Western
Tradition
THALES OF MILETUS (624-546 B.C.) he’s the founder of
Ionian School of Philosophy
he associated w/ specific discoveries in physics,
metaphysics, astronomy, geometry and engineering he asserted that the world
originated in water and was sustained by water and that the
earth floated on water he asserted that “all things are full of gods”
Contributions of Thales:
Haly’s River
passable for King Croesus
Haly’s River passable for King Croesus
Contributions of Thales:
Haly’s River
passable for King Croesus
Solstices and their
cycles
Solstices and their cycles
Contributions of Thales:
Haly’s River
passable for King Croesus
Solstices and their
cycles
five celestial zones inclination of the zodiac sources of the moon’s light
Five Celestial Zones
Inclination of Zodiac
Sources of Moon’s Light
Contributions of Thales:
Haly’s River
passable for King Croesus
Solstices and their
cycles
five celestial zones inclination of the zodiac sources of the moon’s light
Explicated the rise of
Nile
Explicated the rise of Nile
Contributions of Thales:
Haly’s River
passable for King Croesus
Solstices and their
cycles
five celestial zones inclination of the zodiac sources of the moon’s light
Explicated the rise of
Nile
Five Theorems of Thales in Geometry
Five Theorems of Thales in Geometry
Contributions of Thales:
Haly’s River
passable for King Croesus
Solstices and their
cycles
five celestial zones inclination of the zodiac sources of the moon’s light
Explicated the rise of
Nile
Five Theorems of Thales in Geometry
height of the
pyramids distance of ships at
sea
Distance of ships at sea
Height of the pyramids
ANAXIMANDER (610-546 B.C.)
he belongs to the Milesian School of Greek philosophy
with Thales and Anaximenes
– comes from the Greek words “a” that means ‘not’ and “peirar” or ”peiras” that means ‘limit’; hence, “apeiron” means ‘unlimited’
APEIRON
Contributions of Anaximander:
– the production of the opposites and their separating off are important in his
cosmogony “penalty and retribution of the opposites in accord to
the assessment of time”
COSMOLOGY
Contributions of Anaximander:
– the production of the opposites and their separating off are important in his
cosmogony “penalty and retribution of the opposites in accord to
the assessment of time”
COSMOLOGY– the 1st living creature were born in moisture and enclosed in thorny
barks. As their age grow, they came forth into the drier part and
the bark was broken off
ZOOGONY
– Man was born from animals of another species (man came into being inside
fishes)
ANTHROPOGO
NY
ANAXIMENES (585-528 B.C.)
“Our soul, being air, holds us together, so do breath and air encompass the whole world"
Hot and cold are the common attributes of matter that come from the result of its changes.
Matter comes first. Matter is air. Sun and moon are fiery celestial
bodies carried by air in their flatness. The origin of stars is called moisture
exhalation. Air is god. Air has the same function to man and the universe.
Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans (Samos: 570-500)
Mathematics is the best purifier
of the soul.1.
All things are
numbers.2. square of the hypotenuse as equal to the squares of the other two sides of a
right-angled triangle. correlation between numbers and
magnitude provided immense consolation to those who were seeking evidence of a principle of structure and
order in the universe.3.
XENOPHANES OF COLOPHON (570 B.C.)
he declined the immorality of the gods and believed on a single anthropomorphic Deitydiscipl
e
Elea
polytheistic belief
he taught on the unity of all things, eternity of the totality
being, and the nature as imbued with the divine
he taught on the unity of all things, eternity of the totality
being, and the nature as imbued with the divine
he started with the principle that “nothing comes from nothing: all is one and
one is all”
XENOPHANES OF COLOPHON (570 B.C.)
he advocated empirical knowledge
The truth has to be discovered by degrees. The primitive substance was earth; others would say water and earth. Xenophanes believed
that the one is eternal; the world in its present form is not eternal
– structural coherence
HERACLITUS (504-501 B.C.) he held that the world was not created but had
always existed he believed that the dry soul is the
wisest and the best in
comparison to wet soul
The logo
War is the father of all and the king of all, and some he presents as gods, others as man, some as slavers others
as free (Collinson, 10-12)
PARMENIDES (501-492 B.C.)
monistic
materialistic rather than an idealist
Father of Idealism
he begins with what he takes to a self-
evident truth: “It is”. It is the truth of
reason. It cannot be denied if you say, “it
is not”, then you have proved that “it is”;
for if nothing exists, it’s not nothing,
rather it is something
Being/Reality
Parmenides believed that:
Being is rational.
1. – uncreated and imperishable, eternal,
indivisible and homogenous, motionless,
finite and equally real in all directions. It is a timeless plenum. He negated the notion of time, the void
and plurality.
The air is
separated off
from the earth.
2.
“The moon is compounded of both air and fire. Aither is outermost,
surrounding all, next is the fiery sky, and lastly, the earth (Kirk and Raven,
283-285)
MELISSUS OF SAMOS (500 B.C.) he was a disciple of
Parmenides whose notion of being was in contrast with him
“Being/Reality is one, eternal, infinite and
unchangeable”The One is incorporeal. If this incorporeal being were to exist, it must be one, but if it were one it
cannot have body, for if it had body, it would have parts, and no longer be
one (Monists and Pantheists Perspective)
ZENO OF ELEA (490-B.C.)
he did not develop his own philosophy but he defend his master that there is only one
reality he proved the
impossibility of motion using a method known as reduction ad absurdum
his master was Parmenides
ZENO OF ELEA (490-B.C.)
FOUR ARGUMENTS:
- if things are many, they
must be both like and unlike
Against Plurality - the race
course - the tortoise and Achilles - the flying arrow - the stadium
Against Motion
- if everything that exists has a place, that
place will have a place, and so
on without limit
Against Space - It proves that
one of the senses is
unreliable. It is connected w/ the query how much force it takes to
shift a heavy weight
R.S.E.
Parmenides
ZENO OF ELEA (490-B.C.)
“Being is one, seamless and
unchanging whole”
“Motion and Change is impossible”
he believed that bodies are
composed of the hot for they have no share
in the cold
PHILOLAUS AND EURYSTUS OF CROTON
Philolaus
he suggest an analogy between macrocosm and
microcosm
The unlimited (womb = implanted)
represents darkness, while limit stand for
light (Kirk and Raven, 312-313)
he believed that numbers are the causes of
substances and of being whether as limits (as points are of spatial magnitudes)
Eurystus
EMPEDOCLES OF ACRAGAS his philosophy is
eclectic, all knowing
Principles of Empedocles:
Matter has no absolute beginning or end. Matter is eternal.
Matter is uncreated and indestructible.
1.There is no absolute
beginning, becoming. An object as a whole begins and ceases to be. These matters
are capable of change. It remains as it is.
2.
EMPEDOCLES OF ACRAGAS
Four Elements:
1. Zeus (fire) 2. Hera (air)3. Aidoneus (earth)
4. Nestis (water)
– dead; lifeless; it
cannot supply the principle of
motion
– transmigration of soul;
reincarnation
MATTER METEMPSYCHOSIS
ANAXAGORAS OF CLAZOMENAE (500-428 B.C.)
The Two PropositionsThe things
with like parts or
Homoeomereity: a natural substance.
1.There is a portion of
everything in everything.
2. For him, all things were
together, infinite in respect of both number and smallness, for
the small too was infinite.
Air being corporeal, is distinguished from the non-
existent void. He negated the existence of the void and gave no
explication of differences of weight (Kirk and Raven, 368 ff.)
He reacted to Zeno: Neither is there a smallest part of what is
small, but there is always something larger than what is large. It is equal in numbers to
what is small, everything is relation to itself, being both large and small. All things are always
equal.
ARCHELAUS OF ATHENS
he was a pupil of Anaxagoras and a teacher of
Socrates. he was a physicist who
transferred physical philosophy from Ionia to
Athens.
For him, the 1st principle was infinite air, with its
condensation and rarefraction, the former of which was water, the latter
fire. He maintained that right and wrong exist only by convention and not by
nature.
THE ATOMISTS: LEUCIPPUS OF MILETUS AND DEMOCRITUS OF ABDERA (460-371 B.C.)
LEUCIPPUS
Him with Parmenides and Xenophanes
regarded that the whole as one, motionless,
uncreated and limited, not being was impossible
and forbade even the search for what is not, he posited innumerable elements in perpetual motion, namely, the
atoms and void.
ATOMOS
– it is unsplittable; it
cannot be affected; it is so small and have
no parts.
DEMOCRITUS
he refined the system of the atomic theory. he was the most travelled man of his time because he wanted to study. For him, atoms and void are the material causes of reality.
For him, the visual image does not arise directly in the pupil, but the air between the eye and the object of sight is contracted and stamped by the object seen
Atom is eternal, passive, solid
and immutable.
Characteristics of Atom:
DIOGENES OF APOLLONIA his philosophy was
monism (all things are modifications of a single
basic substance: air) he believed on accurate
anatomy of human veins and that semen aerated, since semen produces new life
Air is:-
intelligent - divine
Anaximenes Anaxagoras Heraclitus
Medical
Principle
“air” (takes other forms when condensed and rarified)
“mind” [nous] (unmixed with but it rules all things) material only exist in animate things
“logos”/fire steers all
things
Diogenes [Air]
“air” (other attributes) hot and cold dry and wet stability and mobility flavour and color
[noesis] intelligence (mixed with and ruling all things) spiritual exists in animate and inanimate things
every natural
event was due
directly to this
intelligence
Anaxagoras Leucippus
Cosmogony and
Cosmology
noeticsubstancestarting a
vortex
infinite void and infinite cosmos all things are in motion
PROTAGORAS OF ABDERA (490-420 B.C.)
he was the first intellectual leader of the
Sophist – are persons skilled in a
particular craft, or the knowledgeable and the wise
or a specialist in wisdom.
SOPHISTS
he was tried at Athens and condemned to death and
banished for his agnosticism concerning to gods
he held this Protagorean relativism: “a human being is the measure of all things”—
this is known as the emblem of the entire sophistic movement
he talks about the myth of human progress
Aidos – a sense of shame and respect for others. Dike – a sense of right and justice.
Two gifts of Zeus:
SOCRATES (469-399 B.C.) = ETHICS AND RELIGION
he abandoned art and advocated education,
conceiving that he had a divine commission, witnessed by oracles, dreams and signs, not to teach doctrine, but to
convict men of ignorance mistaking itself for
knowledge, and by so doing to promote their intellectual
and moral improvement
he sought to discover the truth and the good life
he visualizes the value of the soul, the importance of
knowledge and wisdom if the soul is properly tended. Thus knowledge leads to ethical
action. Knowledge and virtue are one. Thus a wise man
knows what is right and will also do what is right
The charges lodged against Socrates:
1.Impiety towards the gods.
2.Corruption of the minds of the young people.
Piety, justice, courage and temperance are the names
which wisdom bars in different spheres of action: to be pious is
to know what is due to the gods; to be just is to know what is due to men; to be courageous is to know what is to be feared
and what is not; to be temperate is to know how to
use what is good and avoid evil
PLATO (427-347 B.C.) = RING OF GYGES he believed that
philosophers have a duty to society, to help their fellow citizens in their search for wisdom, he established a
school in Athens, the Academy
– one of the most influential
books in the history of Western Civilization. It talks about “the ring of gyges”, in
which the issues whether humans are naturally just or
unjust is raised.
THE REPUBLIC
PLATO (427-347 B.C.) = RING OF GYGES
Plato believes that:
Man is present earthly
existence.
1.Virtue is
knowledge, and the source of knowledge is
virtue. It is not abstract but
concrete knowledge, not theoretical but
practical knowledge.
2.
Wisdom Courage Temperance Justice
Four Cardinal Virtues:Man is a knower and a
possessor of an
immortality of the
soul.
3. The Theory of Forms
– the real nature of any individual thing depends on the form in which it “participates”.
4.The Theory of
Knowledge
– knowledge
is attainable.
5.Allegory of the
Cave
– the myth of the cave describes
individuals chained deep
within the recesses of a
cave.
ARISTOTLE (384-322 B.C.)
born in 384 B.C.
Plato’s Academ
y
tutor and founder
interested in differe
nt branches of
science
scientist
philosopher
researcher
writer
and
teacher
– one of the two major Aristotelian
treatises on ethical theory.
Nichomachean Ethics
VIRTUE
ARISTOTLE (384-322 B.C.)
Aristotle believes that:
1. Man is a rational animal.
– a state of character concerned with choice, lying in a mean.
2. The very goal of human life is happiness. As he put it: Virtue is a habit (moral virtue) or trained faculty of choice (intellectual virtue).Two Types of
Virtues:- Intellectual
Virtues- Moral Virtues
MATTER– a continuing process of developing or becoming.
ARISTOTLE (384-322 B.C.)
Aristotle believes that:
3. Moderation comes in the middle or mean between two vices, one on the side of excess, the other on the side of defect.
4. For him, reality consists matter and form.
THE FOUR CAUSES:a. Material
Cause– what an object is made from,
its matter.
b. Formal Cause– how matter is organized or
structured.
c. Efficient Cause
– how something came to be what it is.
d. Final Cause– the purpose or characteristic
activity of the object.
ARISTOTLE (384-322 B.C.)
God is the unmoved mover.
– purpose
, function
, or end.
TELEOLOGY
The body is alive if it has a soul.
Nutrition Sensation Thinking
Three Fundamental Activities of Life for Aristotle:
he synthesized Aristotle’s science by interpreting it is an evidence of a divine plan operating in nature
Thomas Aquinas
Exitus et reditus Principle: All things come from God and
return to God.Natural Law
- human way of knowing the ultimate norm of
morality.
Eternal Law
- enables us to develop our unique qualities.
ATOMIC MATERIALIS
M
EPICURUS (341-270 B.C.) he founded a school
of philosophy he regarded pleasure as the
beginning and end of the blessed life
- the universe is
composed of matter (in the form of atoms) in motion in
empty space.
he believed that not only that we
ought to act in such a way as to produce the greatest amount of pleasure (ethical hedonism), but also
that we are so constituted
psychologically that we inevitably take pleasure in all our acts (psychological
hedonism)
it advocates hedonism (from the Greek word “pleasure”)
Pleasure is the only good in life.
EPICUREANISM
he gave us the analogy of health and
disease
EPICTETUS (C. 50 – C. 130) = STOICISM
– a manual edited from his lecture notes taken by one of his students.
ENCHEIRIDION
1. Epictetus Stoic view of man
2. Dualism of mind (soul) and body
3. Virtue does not consist in external performance, but in inner attitude.
4. The private is better than the public; the inner self is better than the outer self.
5. The inner self can be free; the outer self is determined by events.
6. A man can be peaceful and self-composed even while being tortured or in great illness.
Ethical Teachings of Epictetus:
7. Man’s duty is to make the mind master over desires and needs.
STOICISM’S PHILOSOPHY OF RIGID AUSTERITY AND SELF
DENIALa. It contrasts Epicureanism’s philosophy of pleasure.
b. Men must find happiness in himself. He must fear the God within him.
PLOTINUS (205-270 A.D.) he was a pantheist. He
envisaged God as an impersonal Unity – infinite,
eternal, with no spatial location and without thought,
knowledge or movement
he believed in the source of all creation
called by Him, the One
The One
Mind (nous)
Soul
totally self-sufficient, has
no need of acting in a creative capacity
"intelligence", "thought", "the divine
mind”
the dynamic, creative temporal
powerMatter
absolute evil or non-
being
EMANATIONISM a cosmological
theory which asserts that all
things "flow" from an underlying
principle or reality, usually called the
Godhead.
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