Spring 2019 Chapter 1 Notes:

What Actually IS Philosophy?



Study of Thoughts
Broadly the study of the "nature of knowledge" reality, existence, reason, values, beauty, time causation, language, government.

-Specifically could be the study of the above as applied to anything – i.e. – the philosophy of Science, History, or business …………. Or bowling, hunting, or quilting.   

Philosophy may or may not be done as an academic discipline.

Academic Philosophy:  You study it in college
Practical Philosophy:  The art of applying philosophical skills to normal problems.
Growing Need for critical thinking skills in 2019.  It used to be "here's the job, do it"  Now it might often be, "here's what we want, create it".  

 

-Philosophy has a Critical Attitude – one of Questioning.

-Seeking Truth:  Can be Skeptical, yet Open-Minded.

-Having “Rational Disinteredness”.  A good referee has this.  A bad referee gets sucked into the game.
 

Philosophy and being Practical.

-See All Options to a problem, not just what society has conditioned you to see.

-Think outside the Box, but in a structured way.

-Questions absolutely everything, but in a respectful way.

-To see the Other Perspectives and Other People’s Perspectives.

-A Key to understand how other people might think.

-A Key to understand what might be motivating someone or someone’s actions.

-It is possible to see philosophy in almost everything.

-It helps you to try to see it through the eye of the critic, regardless of how basic they might

  seem, or how irrational they might seem.

The ability to question, reason, negotiate, pass rational, logical mostly non-emotional judgment, and to continuously weigh options pays big bucks and is in large demand. 

-There is no mystical value to philosophy, but it can be therapeutically good for a person.

-Philosophy “can” help a person to rise above his/her own cultural bias/acceptance.

                -Values and one’s philosophy are connected.  Thought and action are connected.

                -It is possible for an entire culture to develop a philosophy that is generally not

                acceptable.

: Nazi Germany

: American Slavery

-Philosophy can help a person understand that everyone has bias to a degree, some more than others.

-Author suggests Philosophy is practical for understanding assimilation of Technology/21^st Century Skills.

-Oracle of Delphi:  Know Thyself.

Philosophy’s Body of Knowledge

-Philosophy has a body of knowledge like any other academic discipline such as math, or history.

               
-Philosophy has different opinions:  For example:  All knowledge must be rational and come from a-priori principles (Descartes), or there are no a-priori principles therefore all Knowledge must be based on experience, and therefore the most we can hope for is a feeling of what might be true (Hume).

-Some argue that philosophy was the first body of knowledge.

-Philosophy’s Body of Knowledge is sometimes cultural:

                -Western Philosophy:  Based on Greeks and Romans.

                -Eastern Philosophy: Based on Eastern Culture and Eastern Religions.

-Philosophy’s Body of Knowledge has various directions that have similar themes:  The main veins of philosophy are:

-Metaphysics  - Purpose -  anything that deals with purpose

-Epistemology – Knowing - Anything that deals with “How do we know what we know”?   Epistemology sometimes does not deal with metaphysics.  Epistemology often asks the question of whether we know by experience or by innate truths.

-Ethics -Right and Wrong:

-Logic -Making Sense:   In a sequential and rational way.

-Aesthetics -Beauty:  Asks the question of what beauty actually is. 

-Each of these themes have various dimensions, and can then have depth from that dimension – or a “body of knowledge within the body of knowledge”.  Example:  Calculus requires an understanding of Trigonometry which is related to Mathematics.  Logical Positivism requires an understanding of Empiricism, which is related to Philosophy.  

-Philosophy has basic “themes” that are “perennial” (come back again and again)
                -Is human action pre-determined or not, or both and to what degree?  (A metaphysical

                argument)

                -Is knowledge based on known truths and rationalized from there, or do we experience

                all knowledge? (An epistemological argument)

                -What is good conduct and how should we therefore live?  (Ethical)

                -Is human purpose to:  Have Fun, be dutiful, be kind, all of the above or none of the

                above? (Metaphysical)

   -Philosophy DOES have an element of religion, but is it one of many elements.

                -What is beauty, and is there such a thing as pure beauty? (Aesthetic)

                -What is “good” What is “just” What is “truth”?  (Aesthetic and Metaphysical)

                -What is our responsibility, if any, to the state?

Other Large Commonly Studies Veins:  In these veins of the body of knowledge of philosophy, they are all actually elements of one or all of the above:

Political Philosophy: What is government?  What should be the role of government?  Is there 

a better or best government? 

Philosophy of History:  What is history?  Is it what really happened or what we wanted it to 

be?   Is history actually journalism?  Is there history or are there “histories”?  If there are only 

“histories, then is there really “history”?  Is true history a history of events or of ideas and 

which is greater?

Philosophy of Science:  What is science?  What qualifies something as being scientific? What

 is the scientific method, and who says that is the right method?

Philosophy of Education: What is education?  What is the purpose of education?

Philosophy of Bias – phenomenology – the chance and degree that bias can be eliminated.

Philosophy or Race, Religion, Culture, Liberalism, Conservatism

There are many other large categories commonly studied.

Minor Philosophies

Philosophy of ________________ (You insert basically whatever you want)

Philosophy Based on Regions/Time Frames/Religions:

Western Philosophy:

Eastern:

Ancient Egyptian:

Jewish

Christian

Buddhist

40’s USA – To defeat the one defined enemy (while today often no one knows who the actual

                    enemy is)

50’s USA – Prosperity - Conservatism

60’s USA - Opposition to the government/cultural revolution.

Philosophy based on Specific Philosophers/Leaders/Artists:

Plato

Aristotle

Kantian

Hegelian

Husseral/Ponty - Phenomenology

Jeffersonian/Hamiltonian Arguments

Marx/Adam Smith Arguments

Whitman/Emerson/Thoreau –(American Writers)

Dewey (American Educator)

John Lennon (Singer-Song Writer)

Senator Grassley (Political)

Claude Debussy (Musician)

Picasso (Artist)

Traits of Most all Philosophy:

1                  Love of Wisdom

2          Seeking Truth

3          Reason

4                 Study of Thought

5          Critical Questioning

                   Open Mindedness

Periods of Philosophy:

1.      Ancient:  About 500 BC to 200 AD

–Pre Greek

-Classical Greek:  Socrates, Plato, Aristotle

-Hellenistic

-Roman

    2. Medieval:  Around 200 AD to 1650-ish

-Mostly Catholic Philosophers (Scholastic)

-Protestant Reformation in the 1500d’s (printing press 

 invented about 100 years earlier).

3.      Modern:  1650-1900:  Science became more important.  It was no longer always required to connect philosophy to a deity.

4.      Contemporary:  1900 – (2000?): 

Contemporary Analytical:  More of an analytical focus on what they can conclude as fact in the physical world.

Contemporary Continental:  Focus on freedom, being, meaning, and other metaphysical concerns.

5.      Next period?   (2000-Present).  Philosophy after the onset of the internet.

Greek Philosophers

Pre-Greek: Island of Miletus (500 BC) – Discussions of what the Earth is made up of.

                -Atomists:  Anaximander, Pythagoras

                -Zeno:  Paradox of Movement

                -Had arguments about infinity and divisibility

Greeks

                -All Greeks believed in fate and the Devine. 

-They had no mind-set of a life without purpose.

-Purpose, fate, and a spiritual dimension all existed a-priori without question.

Socrates:  (No real proof that he actually existed)

                -The Socratic Method:

                -The unexamined Life not worth Living.

                -Moderation

                -Corruption of the Youth, Sentences to death by his peer.  Could have escaped.

Plato:

 -Student of Socrates.

-Wrote the Dialogues.

-Started the “academy” which was the first school.

-Practiced deductive reasoning, which is going from large ideas to small details.

-Believed in the concept of “forms” The idea = the Form

-Teleology:  The purpose of the forms.  The purposes are assigned. 

-Reality = the unseen world of ideas and the physical world of things, but the world of ideas is greater than the world of things.  The unseen world does not decay.  The seen physical world is always in decay.

-Plato Believed in the concept of a three dimensional person:  The Physical/Mental/Spiritual

-Plato Believed in the “Divided Line” concept between physical world and spiritual world.

                : Seen and unseen.

                : Decay and non-decay.

Aristotle:

-Student of Plato

-Later started his own school “Lyceum”

-Practiced inductive reasoning, which is going from small observations to large ideas.

                : This turned into the concept of “experimentation”

                : Aristotle believed in probability in experimentation.

                : This turned into the “Scientific Method” that we still use today.

-Aristotle was an extreme classifier and labeler.  He invented the “Classification System” for animals.

-Aristotle named many animals.

-Aristotle rejected forms.

-Aristotle believed that worrying about the unseen was a waste of time.

-Truth had to be seen and experienced and lived in the physical world.

-How we lived in the physical world matters – “ethics”.

Alexander (The Great): 

-Student of Aristotle

-Was not actually Greek – was from Macedonia

-Became a warrior, and conquered the known world.

-Spread Greek Culture throughout the world – known as “Hellenistic Culture”.