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INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY. Definition. What is PHILOSOPHY?. Etymological (origin of the word). Philia - love Sophia – wisdom Philosophy= love of wisdom. What is to love…? What is wisdom? How is it to love WISDOM?. LOVE Pursuit of something Be PASSIONATE in that pursuit WISDOM
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Definition • What is PHILOSOPHY?
Etymological (origin of the word) • Philia - love • Sophia – wisdom Philosophy= love of wisdom
What is to love…? • What is wisdom? • How is it to love WISDOM?
LOVE • Pursuit of something • Be PASSIONATE in that pursuit • WISDOM • Physis • First principle • The source of all things • The destination of all things
Branches or Divisions of Philosophy • Speculative or Descriptive • Interested in nature, essence, or substance of reality (Metaphysics) • Normative philosophy • Interested in the goodness or badness of a human act (Ethics) • Practical philosophy • Interested in TRUTH in relation to action (Logic) • Critical philosophy • Truth without being necessarily related to/with action (Epistemology)
LOGIC: ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY Pre-Socratics • Main interest would be the PHYSIS Physis • The physis problem is a search to identify that thing of which all else is derived and will return (the source or origin of the world) • Cosmological
THALES • 685 B.C. • Miletus in Ionia • Achievement: practical triumphs • Military engineering • Geometry • Astronomy
Thales’ first cause… • WATER • The substance from which the entire cosmos emerged (and perhaps will also return) • Water is a natural phenomenon, not a personified god or goddess
Logical reasoning… • Biology (Proofs) • Life depends on water • Seeds (source of most life has moist) • Heat provides moist The problem of solid objects?
ANAXIMANDER • Milesian • 610 B.C. • Student of Thales • Natural Philosophy, Astronomy • First man to construct a MAP of the known world • First to build SUNDIAL • Build celestial globe with a chart of stars
UNBOUNDED (APEIRON) • Source out of which everything derives and also the unifier within nature. • Indefinite (unlike water), no particular qualities of its own • Neutral between opposites
UNBOUNDED (APEIRON) • Something that can’t be comprehended • Limitless or infinite (in order to give rise to everything in the universe) • Unlimited potentialities
How was the cosmos generated? • UNBOUNDED – moves in eternal motion • As it moves something separates off (creation of something) • Gives rise to the creation of the OPPOSITES; most important forces in the system
PLURALITY and MAINTENANCE • PLURALITY • Give rise to the multitude of objects 2. MAINTENANCE • Manages to remain stable and predictable
The Pre-Evolutionary Theory • Cause and Effect • Human when born needs care from someone else in order to survive • Human = Effect • First human = Cause? • From FISHLIKE creatures
ANAXIMENES • Student of Anaximander • Last Milesian philosopher • Physis: AIR
AIR • Soul/ breathy thing • Unlimited and inexhaustible • Proofs: • Living creatures depend on air – life • Holds together and guides living creatures
Critics: • Big step backward from Anaximander’s Was he not aware of this? • Step going back to the natural world • Air is something that can be observed; the apeiron can’t • Air is natural; Apeiron is theoritical
Air is somewhat superior to the unbounded • It exists • It is observable • Scientificapproach Unbounded has no qualities, but a source of all in the world?...
Air’s qualities… • Always on a move (eternal motion) • Can either be rarefied or condensed • when rarefied = it becomes hot/fire • Condensed = wind → water → clouds → earth → stone
Famous evidence… • Breath • Rarefaction = HOT • Condensation = COLD
XENOPHANES • Born in Colophon 570 B.C • Poet and philosopher • Adamant in rejecting the Olympian gods (anthropomorphic) • There is only one non-anthropomorphic god who is unmoving, but all seeing, all hearing, all thinking; who controls the whole universe with his thought
Attacks on the traditional gods… • Result of the human tendency to project our own nature onto the gods (Freudean) • Different people/races have different gods relating to themselves • If animals could draw their gods… • Horses – god horses • Oxen – god oxen
epistemology • Milesians • straight empirical observations + conclusion • Xenophanes • Straight empirical observation, but added:
Human knowledge is impossible in most fields of inquiry • Mind cannot comprehend everything there is in the world; once one is focused on one thing, the rest observable things are left unattended
Alternative to empirical observation… • Use of REASON • Where human observation fails, we allow our reason to go beyond THEORIZE Observation with reason yields true knowledge…