Introduction to Philosophy

Approaching the Concept of Philosophy

• Philosophy explores fundamental questions, such as the origin of the universe, the nature of truth, and the meaning of existence.
• Philosophy can be understood in various ways, including as a field that addresses complex issues that other disciplines cannot tackle.
• Philosophy may be defined as "supreme science," serving as the origin and guarantor of scientific thought.
• Philosophy can be viewed as a critical attitude towards knowledge and how we understand the world around us.

Origin of the Term

• The word "philosophy" (φιλοσοφία) comes from Greek, meaning "friend or lover (philos) of wisdom (sophia)."
• Etymologically, philosophy is the desire to know and understand.
• Philosophy, as a specific form of knowledge, is rational, systematic, and critical.
• This type of knowledge emerged in Ionia during the 6th century BC.
• Pythagoras was the first to call himself a "philosopher," distinguishing himself from being "wise" (sophos), which he believed only God could be.

Prerrational Thought

• Philosophy emerged as a distinct type of knowledge, separate from myths.
• The origin of philosophy is often characterized as the transition from myth to logos.
• Myths are present in all cultures, providing early attempts to understand the world and human nature.
• Myths offer descriptions and explanations of the natural world, atmospheric phenomena, customs, and the afterlife.
• Myths use legendary figures like gods and heroes from Olympus, personifying and divinizing natural forces.
• Myths do not provide rational explanations or provable laws instead relying on the capricious will of gods, their conflicts, and affections.
• Myths are created by unknown or collective authors.
• Myths are traditional and acritical, based on customs and are transmitted through generations.
• Rituals were forms to face the world and reality, where priests had a hidden, magical knowledge used to confront natural forces and illnesses.
• Greeks could visit the oracles to unveil divine will, sacred places where gods revealed their intentions, interpreted by priests.

From Myth to Logos

• The reasons that philosophy and rational thought emerged in Greece are debated.
• John Burnet defended that rational thought appeared without origin thanks to Greek's genius.
• Francis Macdonald Cornford said that some myths try to approach and give sense to reality, creating a complimentary knowledge to philosophy
• The Greek polis, democracy, economic prosperity due to commerce and popular use of alphabet supposed and explosion of culture and public life.
• Rational thought uses principles or laws to understand sensory data differently from myths.
• World phenomena are understood because its inherent nature.
• Rational thought assumes that all phenomena have fixed laws that allow knowledge.
• Rational knowledge is constantly revised and is open to new explanations.
• Rational Thought is systematic, based on hierarchical affirmations where incoherent ideas are not admitted.

Division of Philosophy

• Philosophy aims to address all of reality and has branched into specialized areas.
• Metaphysics examines the nature of being and the properties of everything that exists.
• Logic studies reasoning, its structure, correctness, and the validity of conclusions.
• Epistemology addresses knowledge like what it is, types, and forms of knowledge.
• Ethics studies and reflects on moral codes, analyzing their basis, validity, and universalizability.
• Aesthetics explores art and beauty and emerged as a philosophical discipline in the 18th century.
• Philosophy also examines the validity and foundations of other disciplines like the philosophy of culture, mind, law, language, and religion.

Philosophy and its History

• Western philosophy emerged in the Greek colonies of Asia Minor and Italy in the 6th century BC.
• Early philosophers explored the origin of nature (physis) and whether the multiplicity of things was due to a single principle (arché).
• Philosophers included Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes, Pythagoras, Heraclitus, and Parmenides.
• In the 5th and 4th centuries BC, the Sophistic movement focused on the concept of "truth" and the exploration of the logic of language applied to politics.
• Socrates criticized the Sophists as he prioritized utility of knowledge over truth, and he promoted the search for virtue through the questioning of subjective beliefs.
• Plato affirmed the existence of another world, the "world of ideas", of immutable and perfect character.
• Knowledge occurrs by remembering the ideas, like when the soul remembers due to amnesia.
• Those capable of remembering should be the leaders of the polis.
• Aristotle defended the existence of objective truths, following the Socratic and Platonic traditions.
• He was a student of Plato for twenty years and founded the Lyceum in Athens where he classified the sciences, from biology and physics to politics and ethics.
• After Alexander the Great died in 323 BC and the polis transitioned into empires, new schools emerged.
• These were: Stoicism, Epicureanism, and Scepticism, and they were to focus on how to live a happier life.
• During the Roman Empire, philosophical doctrines persisted, and Neoplatonism gained prominence in Egypt.
• Prominent Neoplatonists like Plotinus and Hypatia interpreted the doctrine of Plato from a mystical perspective.

Medieval Philosophy

• With the consolidation of Christianity, the function of philosophy was to clarify Christian theological doctrine.
• Explanations and teachings were sought to complement the Holy Bible.
• Patristics was the first medieval Christian philosophical school.
• San Agustín focused on the relationship between reason and faith which would influence free will and the concept of time.
• In the 12th century, Aristotle's philosophy was reintroduced in Christian and through Arab authors (Averroes and Avicena).
• The incorporation of Aristotelian ideas into Christian thought became Scholasticism where Aquino and Escoto presented rational arguments in favor to prove the existence of God.
• Ockham, the maximum exponent, criticized that generic concepts are human creations and only individuals exist.

Renaissance and Modern Philosophy

• The Renaissance was inspired by Greek and Latin classics.
• Humanism placed the human being at the center of philosophical reflection.
• Scientific research increased, including figures like Copernicus, Kepler, and Galileo.
• There was significant political reflection, leading to the creation of the utopia genre.
• Notable figures of Renaissance thought were Nicolas de Cusa, Pico della Mirandola, Giordano Bruno, Erasmus of Rotterdam, and Thomas More.
• Modernity sought a theory of knowledge and the study of limits of human reasoning.
• Rationalism prioritizes reason as the source of true knowledge.
• Empiricism prioritizes understanding through sensory data points, through sensorial data-driven knowledge.
• The 18th century Enlightenment presented the L'Encyclopédie, which offered a new vision that broke traditional beliefs.
• Kant pushed for critical and free-thinking.
• Enlightenment thinkers wanted people to leave the traditions behind "minority of age" leading to future revolutions.
• German Romanticism sought freedom and feeling against rigid Enlightenment ideals.
• German Idealism emerged.
• Liberal revolutions in the 19th century inspired those movements.

Contemporary Philosophy

• Contemporary philosophy is characterized by criticism and suspicion.
• Marxism, psychoanalysis, and Nietzsche's irrationalism mark the 19th century.
• Phenomenology aims to recognize the subject, the self, and put it in the center.
• Philosophy tries to describe the reality and how it appears to consciousness.
• Neopositivism and Analytical Philosophy emphasized the significance of the language to analyze and clarify misunderstandings, so philosophical problems can be solved
• Existentialism developed during the tense Cold War period in history.
• There is a radical belief that humans have freedom and abandonment.
• Humans are to decide the meaning in their lives.
• Personalism recognizes the value and dignity of the person as a fundamental principle.
• This is a Christian-inspired movement present in Europe since the Renaissance.
• Structuralism argues that culture, language, and history are systems that should be studied attending to their structure.
• Humans disappearence' on human sciences is coming, since they are subdued to structure.
• Hermeneutics states that human events can be known through subjective interpretation.
• Frankfurt School reacts to prioritized tech and efficiency, proposing a critique to tecnique, science, consumerism, and massed-culture.