Philosophy Pre-Socratics Quest

Buddha

Buddha’s name is Siddhartha Gautama and he is the founder of Buddhism. He taught the path to enlightenment through the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path. In the time period of 6th century BC.

Philosophies of life

• The four noble truths: the universality of suffering.

• The middle way: the way to satisfaction

• The “not-self”: the root of selfishness

• The eightfold path: the elimination of desire.

Meditation

Non-attachment is something that can happen from meditation.

Eastern philosophy

• This is because eastern theology is not generally the result of divine revelation or religious dogma, but is often linked with matters of faith

• Eastern philosophy is less concerned with the nature of the universe and more concerned about how to best organize a just society 

• It provides moral guidelines for the individual living within society 

• Hundred schools of thought were known as the philosophical teachings during 770-220 BCE.

Confucius

Chinese philosopher who had respect for ancestors, and ritual and was conservative. He was in the social class of the scholars that were advisors in courts achieving their status by merit not class. Confucius emphasized the moral cultivation of individuals, service to the state and leadership by ethical, educated men

The analects

The primary source of his teachings are in a book called the analects where his disciples wrote down his teachings. It is like a book on etiquette that was originally used as a rule book for a good government.

The virtuous life

kindness, loyalty, courtesy, wisdom

five constant relationships

Major teachings

• Confucius believed that people should respect the family hierarchy

• People should engage in good conduct outside the home to bring a good name to one’s family 

• People should show love, respect and support and be courteous to others 

• He also emphasized the role of rules and ritual to ensure universal order in society 

• He believed that man is a social being in a set of relationships and that men must educate and cultivate themselves so that their behavior would be on par with the moral order of society and the moral leaders who run it 

Ideas about education

• Confucius believed that the world became a better place if more people were educated because uneducated people only attended their base instincts, while educated people were more attuned to higher pursuits such as ethics and morality

• To ensure more people could be educated, he reformed the system so that it was based more on merit than on wealth

• Confucius had a strong desire to serve and empower others and believed that teaching was the best way to have a positive impact on people

Natural philosophers

• No complete work survives from any of the pre-Socratic philosophers: we only have fragments of the originals, plus quotations and summaries that appear in the works of later writers 

• They were known as the Natural Philosophers because they explained the nature of reality without reference to supernatural forces

Issues of pre-socratics

1. The problem of the one and the many: explaining how one basic thing can be the source of many varied things. The world contains an enormous variety of objects, some living, others inanimate; some solid, others liquid. What was the common source?

2. The Problem of Change and Constancy: explaining how things remain constant as they change over time. Not only are there many kinds of things in the world, but each one is subject to change. Living things like trees grow old and die; inanimate objects like rocks weather away and change their form. As things go through changes, there’s still something about them that enables them to retain their identity. 

3. Relativism: determining whether principles are absolute or created by people. Suppose that I arrive at an explanation of how the world operates. Is that explanation true just for me, or have I discovered something more universal that must be true for everyone? While some truths might appear to be independent of me, identifying those truths is a challenge.

Thales

6th century BCE: Thought of as the First Philosopher, or the Father of Philosophy

• He was an astronomer and taught that the sun and stars were great spheres of fire

• Studied Geometry + Astronomy 

• He was a natural philosopher

• He was the first recorded to ask “what is everything made of?”

• He believed that the basic substance was WATER – why is still not exactly known

Anaximander 610-540 BC

• The first Greek to make astronomical and geographical charts

• He believed that:

  • The universe was formed by the separation of opposites

  • The first human beings lived in the bellies of a fish and we cut our way out once we became self sufficient

  • That life began in the seas + planets had all once been fluid

• He said that because all created things are limited, that which comes before and after them must be boundless

• He disagreed with Thales – water is not the fundamental basis of reality

Anaximenes

570-526 BC: He believed that the various states of matter – gas, liquid, solid – were all varying degrees of condensation

• He said that AIR was the one thing that was the basis of reality

• He said that air was the source of water, earth, and fire

Heraclitus

540-480 BC: The problem he dealt with: Everything in the world is continually changing. Things grow then decay, are created then disintegrate. The most permanent things we see like mountains or stone monuments wear down with time. As things change, they exhibit opposing tendencies: “Cold things become warm, and what is warm cools; what is wet dries, and the dry is moistened.” Two things on a spectrum. We can only appreciate one because of the other. Hunger + Full

• According to Heraclitus, there is a unifying plan that underlies the coherence of  natural changes and harmonizes their opposing tendencies. He dubbed this the logos, the Greek word meaning “plan” or “formula” or “cosmic law” 

• He disagreed with Thales about the basic substance; he believed it was fire, not water

  • Fire is a more fundamental force or element than water because it is fire (i.e., in the sun, or in a forge) which transforms solids into liquids→ a force of change.

  • Fire, like everything else in the world, is in motion (i.e., in "flux").

Pythagoras

570-497 BCE: He may have been a disciple of Anaximenes

• He had a genuine “love of wisdom” = Philosophy

• He is best known for his Pythagorean Theorem

• The “essence” of the number 4 - what is it? The “essence” of a right angle triangle 

• Number is the ruler of all forms 

• The first person to have the idea that all workings of the material universe are expressible in mathematical terms

• He introduced the notion of the “square” and “cube” of a number 

• People saw him as a Messiah for his mathematical knowledge

• Since his day, some of the great philosophers have also been great mathematicians 

• Descartes invented the graph and the subject of analytic geometry, Leibniz- Calculus  

Anaxagoras

500-428 BC: He denied the possibility that everything we see in the natural world comes from one of the four elements (earth, air, fire, water)

• He proposed the idea that everything in nature was built of an infinite number of invisible particles

• He also said that all heavenly bodies are made of the same substance as earth and that there could be human life on other planets

Democritus

The fundamental idea that everything is made up of atoms that are too small to be seen, or even subdivided any further

• Indestructible atoms, not created or broken apart 

• The word “atom” comes from the Greek words meaning “cannot be cut”

• The beginnings of atomic physics →How they combine and interact explain different forms and types of matter.

• No afterlife - atoms that make up your body leave to make other things once you die

• “Never trust an atom, they make up everything!”

Parmenides

504-456 BCE: When something changes, what was not, is.

• And what is, is not.

• E.g., Green is, green is not. Red was not, but now red is.

• But... "is not" is nothing. Therefore, change is impossible.

• It is impossible for something to go "out of being," because "nothing" (non-being) is outside of being.

• There is nothing to go into.

• Hence, change is impossible.

• In short, change is simply an illusion.

• The principle of Parmenides is summarized as: "Being is. Non-being is not."

Zeno of Elea

490-430 BCE: He was a student of Parmenides

• He devised clever paradoxes to show that motion of any kind or even the concept of change is impossible.

• For example: Achilles and the Tortoise

• If Achilles can run ten times faster than a tortoise, and the tortoise has a ten-yard lead at the outset, then when Achilles has run ten yards to catch up to the tortoise, it will have moved ahead one yard.

• Each time Achilles reaches the position where the tortoise had been, the tortoise has moved ahead some small distance, so that Achilles will never catch up even though he is much faster.

• Zeno was not disputing that we experience change in the course of our daily lives. Rather, he claimed that any attempt to explain change in motion would lead to contradictions.

• Only the permanent and unchanging are real. The rest is an illusion we can ignore.

Sophists/sophistry

• The term sophistry has come to signify the deliberate use of fallacious reasoning 

• Sophists were splendid orators, public speakers and mouths for hire

• Completely ignorant of any morality or ethics, these charismatic men dazzled everyone with their clever reasoning, but usually fallacious arguments 

• will win an argument at any cost pretty much

• plato and socrates oppose it bc they believe in the absolute truth

Protagoras

465-410 BC: He is the best-known Sophist

• Protagoras was one of the most influential of the Sophists.  He said that morals are nothing more than the social traditions of a society or group and that following local morals is the best way to live successfully and well in that place

• He said “Man is the measure of all things”

• There are no absolute norms to determine right or wrong

• What is a social construct? Are morals necessary to live successfully in a society? 

Moral relativity

• Moral Relativity- There are no absolute norms to determine right or wrong, you have your morals and I have mine. Is there a problem with this type of thinking?

Sophist politics

• Sophists were divided into two schools of thought

1. The first group followed the idea that nature was good and civilization was bad – that man is made equal in nature becoming unequal only by class-made institutions – that the law is an invention of the strong in order to subjugate the weak – they were supporters of DEMOCRACY

2. The second group followed the idea that nature is beyond good and evil – that by nature all men are unequal –  (Socrates) believed society should be ruled by those who had the greatest ability, knowledge and virtue. ARISTOCRACY

• Socrates was part of this second group

Socrates death

• During the time of Socrates there is a lot of political turmoil between the various political parties

• By 403 B.C. democracy is re-established in Athens

• Socrates and the rebels launch a counterrevolution in order to bring down democracy and reinstate aristocracy

• In 399 B.C. Socrates is sentenced to death by a democratic jury for corrupting the youth and for refusing to recognize the gods that were recognized by the state

• Even still, he went on to influence nearly all the world for close to 2400 years!

The socratic method

Acting like u know nothing about a subject and asking lots of questions so that they can answer the questions and study better.

Socrates on happiness

• Group 1: Pleasure (most people)

• This group is in the majority; those in this group make choices that are directed ultimately towards pleasure as the chief good 

• Group 2: Fame & Status (others)

• This group of people are willing to sacrifice pleasure for the sake of what they regard as the chief end, namely, honours, fame, or social status 

  Group 3: Wisdom and Knowledge
  (smallest group)

• This group who pursue neither honours, or social status or fame

• They have made wisdom or knowledge the chief end 

• Socrates belonged to this group

wisdom knowledge and the soul

• The highest good is the improvement of the soul

  • Do not be concerned with your bodies or your money, but first and foremost to care about the improvement of your soul.  Not until you have pursued wisdom and truth ought you to think of money or fame or prestige or of your body.  Virtue does not come from money, but from virtue comes money and every other good thing for mankind, public, and private.

virtue and the good life

• To Socrates all these words represent what constitutes the right or good life

• His view is known as rationalist moral philosophy

• Rationalist Moral Philosophy claims that REASON is the dominant factor in moral conduct – to know the good is to do the good