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Today’s agenda

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Today’s agenda

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  1. 3. Jan 23. Socrates. Chapter 4 esp p. 103-106. Ignorance and WisdomJan 25. Plato. skim Chapter 5. Forms, allegory of cave. AristotleJan 27. Logic primer: Deductive/ Inductive logic. Soundness vs. Validity. Download: Lewis Vaughn4. Jan 30. Logic primer. Download: "Informal Fallacies" by Jon Arthur. Download: "6 ways to critique an argument" Download: "Response essay instructions" and "How to write an argument essay."Feb 1. Philosophy of Religion. Pascal's wager. Prob of evil. Feb 3. Philosophy of Religion. Pojman's critique of religious experience. Download: "Pojman" from religion folder.

  2. Today’s agenda • The beginning of philosophy: Natural Philosophy (science) • Pre-Socratics

  3. Pre-Socratics • 700 BCE- 400 BCE • Attempted to create general theories of the cosmos (world) • Not by repeating tales of gods • But by discovering natural laws.

  4. Pre-Socratics attempted to give a naturalistic explanation (a logos) to causal events and things in the world. (as opposed to a supernatural explanation (mythos). They demanded explanation by reason and evidence. I.e. the reason the Nile dried up was because of desert wind

  5. Pre-Socratics’ ontology • Ontology is the study of particular basic substances that must be in the universe. • E.g. Ontology is a theory of being. • (an ontological theory points to what some philosopher considers the basic stuff, or elements of the universe). • i.e. Descartes’ ontology is: matter, mind, and God. Thales ontology is : water

  6. Pre-Socratic Ontology: There is earth, water, air and fire. Which one is most basic, or foundational, or fundamental?

  7. Pythagoras (numbers) • Democritus (Earth, atoms) • Heraclitus (fire) (Everything changes except change itself). • Thales (water) • Parmenides Nothingness exists. • Anaximenes (air) • Anaximander (indeterminate “stuff”)

  8. Thales • Thales(c.624-545 B.C.E.). • He is the first thinker to suggest that all of the things in nature are ultimately made of one basic “stuff” (which he believed to be water), since, as he says, “the nutriment of everything is moist.” • monism– the belief that reality is essentially one – whether it be one process, one structure, or one substance.

  9. Thales Change happens. Winter into summer, life into death, the flooding and drought of the Nile River, etc. But if there is change, then there must be something behind change that does not itself change.

  10. Tables are hard, black, existing • If tables changed  • Soft, white, not-existing? • If the universe changed, it would end up non-existing. • Something that does not exist could not change to existing. • Since things exist, then they can’t change to non-existence. • Must be some underlying non-changing substance

  11. Thales’ argument • Water changes to air. (i.e. When heated, water changes to steam, then to air. So, water explains the existence of air) • Water turns to earth. (When frozen, water changes to a solid. And, the origin of water comes from deltas (earth). So, water can explain earth) • The fire in the sun is fed by water. (i.e. The sun draws water up to the sky and turns them to clouds.) • Conclusion: Water is basic. It explains the other elements of air, earth, and sun. Everything is made of water.

  12. Thales’ argument in deductive format Premise 1: Whatever explains the elements is a “basic” substance that constitutes all other substances. Premise 2: Water explains other substances (of earth, air, fire). Conclusion: So, Water is the “basic” element.

  13. Thales argument that water is the basic substance is not so strange. We think that “atoms” are the basic constituents of material things. The word “atom” comes from the Pre-Socratic philosophers, Atomists. Atoms are the “smallest things possible that constitute matter. We adopted the Greek philosopher’s way of thinking about the world: There must be some basic substance.

  14. Thales • Natural Philosophy: An attempt to explain natural phenomena in terms of other natural phenomena. • Modern science is the attempt to explain natural phenomena in terms of other natural phenomena. • For example, we explain why things fall to the earth by appealing to natural forces (gravity). Natural philosophy is the origin of science.

  15. Special kind of thinking:

  16. From Sophos to Philosopher • Whereas the sophos (sage or wise man) was seen as a kind of prophet-priest-therapist, the philosopher was seen as an unusual sort of thinker and truth-seeker. • The very first Western thinkers identified as philosophers were initially concerned with questions about nature (physis) and about the order of the world (kosmos). • The earliest philosophers were referred to as the Presocratics because they appeared prior to Socrates, the first major figure of the Western tradition.

  17. Presocratic Rational Discourse • The Presocratics initiated the transformation of mythology into rational inquiry about nature and the cosmos. • The Presocratic philosophers’ intense interest in explanations shaped the development of reason by triggering questions of logical consistency and standards of knowledge. • These concerns played a major role in the origins and historical development of Western philosophy.

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