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Greek Philosophy: An Introduction

Greek Philosophy: An Introduction. Lecturer: Wu Shiyu Email: shiyuw@sjtu.edu.cn Website ： http://sla.sjtu.edu.cn/bbs. Timeline. ??. Greek Philosophy (585 B.C.-323 B.C.). Timeline. Myth (poetry) Story telling. Greek Philosophy

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Greek Philosophy: An Introduction

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  1. Greek Philosophy: An Introduction Lecturer: Wu Shiyu Email: shiyuw@sjtu.edu.cn Website：http://sla.sjtu.edu.cn/bbs

  2. Timeline ?? Greek Philosophy (585 B.C.-323 B.C.)

  3. Timeline Myth (poetry) Story telling Greek Philosophy (585 B.C.-323 B.C.) CHAOS (Nothingness)

  4. Homeric Age Creation of Myths Greek Philosophy 古希腊时间表 Minoan civilization(2000-1200BC) Mycenacan civilization(1500-1200BC) The Dark Age (1150-700BC) Greek Archaic Age(700-600BC) (Renaissance) Greek Golden Age(600-400BC (Golden Age)

  5. Course Overview • Three questions: • What are we going to study? • Why should we study ancient Greek philosophy? • How will we study it?

  6. Subject Matter Four periods Greek Philosophy (585 B.C.-322 B.C.) Pre-Socrates Thales (585 B.C.) Socrates (469-369 B.C.) Plato (429-347 B.C.) Aristotle (384–322B.C.) Anaximander Anaximenes Xenophanes Pythagoras Heraclitus (535-475 B.C.) Parmenides (515-440 B.C.)

  7. 2. Subject Matter (Question 1) • Four distinctive periods: • The Pre-Socratics: Thales of M (585 B.C.) • Socrates: 469–399 BC. • Plato: 429–347BC. • Aristotle: 384–322BC. • The earliest period of western philosophy .

  8. 3. Why Study? (Question 2) • (1) Monumental influences Plato, Aristotle, subsequent western philosophy • (2) Philosophically interesting, provocative,valuable.

  9. 4.Interesting, Provocative, Valuable Philosophy=love (philia) of wisdom (sophia) ?

  10. 5. What is wisdom? • The Ability to answer “fundamental” or the “perennial” questions.

  11. Examples • Question 1: Is anything stable and in our experience, is there anything permanent, or is reality always changing? Or is everything in flux? Is it flowing?

  12. Examples • Question 2: Are human beings capable of understanding reality as it is in itself? Or is reality always seen from a human perspective, which distorts it? Must reality remain a mystery?

  13. Examples • Questions 3: Are ethical values, values like justice and courage, relative or are they absolute? (Relativist and Absolutist: stealing)

  14. Examples • Question 4: What sort of political community is most just? What about democracy?

  15. Along with the question of democracy come two other questions basic in western tradition: the question of freedom and question of equality. 1. Is it freedom the highest value? We often associate freedom with democracy. 2. Are all human beings to be counted as equal?

  16. Question 5: What is the proper and best relationship that a human being can take to the natural world? “Man is the measure of all things.” -----Protagoras (Greek sophist)

  17. 6.如何学？ (Question 3) • Approached “dialectically.” • They engage in a “dialogue.”

  18. 学问之道 • These thinkers acknowledge and are dependent on their predecessors, but criticize and move beyond them.

  19. 7. 三个哲学 术语( P Terms) • Being (archê ): The principle (origin) of all things The origin of all things in becoming • Becoming • one and many

  20. Logos (逻格斯) • Logos: A rational explanation. (Heraclitus) Suffix of many English words

  21. Pre-Socrates: Quest for Being (the archê) and Becoming Pre-Socrates

  22. The Milesian School Thales (624-546 B.C.), Anaximander (610-540 B.C.), and Anaximenes (585-528 B.C. ). Began their quest for being (the archê): How the world is originated? Look for a unifying element What is there behind all the constant change? Come up with their own theory.

  23. Thales (泰勒斯 ) Date: 624-546 B.C. from Miletus; The founder of philosophy “The first to give logos of nature” (Aristotle). “Water is the archê.” Water is what is unchanging in a world of changing

  24. Thales (624-546 B.C.) One of the Seven Wise Men

  25. Thales of Miletus (624-546 B.C.)

  26. 经验主义者和理性主义者 • Empiricist：Relies on experience of the world in order to gain knowledge. • Rationalist: Relies on pure reason alone in order to achieve knowledge

  27. Anaximander (阿那克西曼德) (610- 540 B.C.)

  28. Anaximander (阿那克西曼德) Student of Thales (610- 540 B.C.) Agreed with Thales: The world has an origin (archê). Disagreed: The archê is not in ordinary, limited, determinate substance like water. The archê: “The indefinite,” to apeiron. To apeiron : “The indefinite,” or “the indeterminate.”

  29. 阿那克西曼德的写作风格 • Anaximander有一回这样言简意赅地说道： “事物生于何处，则必按照必然性毁于何处；因为它们必遵循时间的秩序支付罚金，为其非公义性而受审判。” （想起米利都这个城邦的命运）

  30. Anaximenes(阿那克西米尼)

  31. Anaximenes(阿那克西米尼 ) Anaximenes: Student of Anaximander, Agreed: There is a rational archê of the world There was a problem with Thales’ view. Disagreed: No different from Hesiod’ CHAOS. The archê was air.

  32. With air, Anaximenes attempted to solve the problem of Being and Becoming, of the One and the Many.

  33. Summary Spirit of free inquiry, challenge the traditional and established ideas, and also present their own. Using his reasoning capacity, senses, mind. The battle that Plato 200 years later would describe as the old battle between philosophy and poetry.

  34. 前苏格拉底派 (中篇)

  35. A kind of crisis has been developing in the sixth century, in the ancient Greek philosophy: The Relationship between Being and Becoming. . Two of the greatest and most radical solutions to the problem of Being and Becoming: Heraclitusand Parmenides

  36. Heraclitus and Parmenides Two of the greatest and most radical solutions to the problem of Being and Becoming.

  37. Heraclitus: The Obscure (540 - 470 B.C.)

  38. Heraclitus: The Obscure (540 - 470 B.C.)

  39. 1. Heraclitus: The Obscure • In Ephesus, near Miletus (540 - 470 B.C.) • Some 100 fragments or aphorisms（警句） • Lonely life he led • The riddling nature of his philosophy • Contempt for humankind Heraclitus (540-470 B.C.) ??

  40. 2. Heraclitus’ Writing • Heraclitus writes: short, aphoristic saying.(?) • A short saying: provoke thought • “You can’t step into the same river twice.” • His favorite image: river • River stands for becoming (reality itself) • Flowing, in constant motion • As we step into it, it changes

  41. 3. Heraclitus’ Logos • “Everything flows" • Change being central to the universe. • Then: If nothing stable, how possible to give a logos? • Heraclitus: “The Logos is common.” • What sort of logos could this possibly be?

  42. 4. More fragments • "The road up and the road down, are one and the same.“ • “The same thing is both living and dead.” • "Changing, it rests.“ • “S” is both “p” and not “p”. • Heraclitus contradicts himself. • Sounds irrational.

  43. This is his strength, not a weakness. • Rational and expressive. • Nothing stable, permanent, endures; Everything flows • Then: Everything in a process of moving from • “P to Not P” • Take the river as an example. • “We step and we do not step into the same rivers.” • The river is both it and is not itself.

  44. 5. A Relativist • If nothing is permanent, then nothing is absolute. • Values would also be in flux (Stealing). • “The sea is purest and most polluted water.” • “Pigs rejoice in mud more than pure water”; • “Asses would choose rubbish rather gold”. • The sense of relativism.

  45. 6. Milesian or Anti-Milesian? • “The cosmos was always and is and shall be…” • “an ever living fire.” • “War is the father of all and the king of all.” • “A lifetime is a child playing, the kingdom belogs … • “to A child.” • Fire, war, and Play have in common (?)

  46. 7. Influences of Heraclitus • The real power of Heraclitus’ logos: • It is a logos which: contradicts itself, moves, plays. • The German philosopher: Nietzsche • The German thinker: Martin Heidegger • 20th century thinkers.

  47. Nietzsche: courage and honesty face reality • Christianity • God • escapism

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