INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY Definition What is PHILOSOPHY Etymological

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 § 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 a. Military engineering b. Geometry c. 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) a. Life depends on water b. Seeds (source of most life has moist) c. 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

Physis?

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 1. 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 - Scientific approach 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…