History Of Western Philosophy - An Introduction PDF

LESSON 1: HISTORY OF WESTERN Are artists devoid of morality? PHILOSOPHY: AN INTRODUCTION LOGIC The branch of philosophy concerned with the art WHAT IS PHI...

LESSON 1: HISTORY OF WESTERN Are artists devoid of morality? PHILOSOPHY: AN INTRODUCTION LOGIC The branch of philosophy concerned with the art WHAT IS PHILOSOPHY? of correct thinking. Serve to support in arriving at clear, correct, The word philosophy comes from Greek roots ―philo valid, and consistent answers to questions which is and ―sophia- meaning, the love of wisdom. the primary consideration in the other branches of Philosophy is wisdom of love. (Emmanuel Levinas philosophy. 1905 – Some topics in logic are: 1995). Argument validity The knowledge of things in general by their ultimate Argument soundness causes, so far as natural reason can attain such knowledge. Fallacies (i.e. ad hominem, appeal to pity, hasty generalization) PHILOSOPHY AS THE MOTHER DISCIPLINE METAPHYSICS The branch of philosophy concerned with the nature Philosophy is the mother discipline out of of reality and existence. which other disciplines emerge. The study of reality or what is real. Phusis – investigation regarding the Some questions in metaphysics: nature of things in general. Are we free? But later on Mythology became Does God exist? separated from Philosophy Is time merely a concept created by humans? What is the underlying EPISTEMOLOGY substance that reality is made of? The branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of truth and knowledge. How things come to be, change and It answers the question, "How do we know?" It pass away? encompasses the nature of concepts, the constructing of concepts, the validity of the senses, concerned with the study of morality logical reasoning, as well as thoughts, ideas, concerned with beauty and art memories, emotions, and all things mental. The the art of reasoning study of knowledge and what we can know concerned with the nature of reality and Questions in epistemology: existence When can we say we know something? concerned with truth and knowledge. What is truth? How are facts related to truth? Ethics – concerned with the study of morality Aesthetics – concerned with beauty and art ETHICS Logic – the art of reasoning The branch of philosophy concerned with Metaphysics – concerned with the nature of the study of morality. reality and existence It answers the question, "What do I do?" It Epistemology – concerned with truth and is the study of right and wrong in human Knowledge endeavors. It is the method by which we categorize our AESTHETICS values and pursue them. The branch of philosophy concerned Some questions in ethics: with the nature of beauty and art. What are good actions? Some questions in aesthetics: What kind of person should one be? What is art? Should murder be permitted? Can art be political? What makes ‘lying’ an immoral act? Theodicy Hesiod, on the other hand, is in stark contrast to Theodicy is a classical branch of Philosophy Homer and depicts reality as moral order. which attempts to answer the fundamental question The gods and goddesses that we find in his poetry in relation to God and the problem of evil. are without the capricious qualities of man but now possess moral uprightness. According to Gottfried Leibniz, Theodicy is an attempt to justify God’s existence in light of the PRE-SOCRATICS- THE IONIAN apparent imperfections of the world. PHILOSOPHERS Some questions in theodicy: 1. What are the attributes of God? The birthplace of Greek philosophy was the sea- 2. If God exists, why is there evil? board of Asia Minor and the early Greek philosophers were Ionians. Western Philosophy Western philosophy as a particular intellectual We have represented early Greek philosophic movement that began in Ionia (particularly in thought as the ultimate product of the ancient Miletus) in the sixth century BC among Greek Ionian civilisation; but it must be remembered that speaking inhabitants of what is today Turkey. Ionia forms, as it were, the meeting-place of West and East, so that the question may be raised whether Although Western philosophy is only one of the or not Greek philosophy was due to Oriental world’s great philosophical traditions, it clearly has influences, whether, for instance, it was borrowed enormous historical importance in the development from Babylon or Egypt. of what is today called “the West” and “modernity”. Ionian philosophy or cosmology is mainly an It is commonly associated with four notable attempt to decide what this primitive element periods: Ancient, Medieval, Modern, and Post- or Urstoff of all things is, one philosopher deciding Modern. for one element, another for another element. They did not arrive at their conclusions through a scientific, experimental approach, but by means of the speculative reason: the unity posited is indeed a material unity, but it is a unity posited by thought. Consequently, we might perhaps call the Ionian cosmologies instances of abstract materialism: we can already discern in them the LESSON 2: THE PRE-SOCRATICS notion of unity in difference and of difference as entering into unity: and this is a PRE-SCIENTIFIC WORLD philosophic notion. Before the rise of philosophical and scientific THALES (624 to 546 BC) inquiry, poetry was held to be the sole standard Thales is the “progenitor of philosophy.” of truth. He is merited as the “father of philosophy” since Homer – the famous blind poet of Ionia – he signifies the point of transition from myth to primarily described the world of gods and me in a science and philosophy. very capricious manner heavily relying on poetic understanding. Instead of having natura physical He earns his place as the First Greek philosopher laws to dictate the order of the world, Homer from the fact that he first conceives the notion of conceived of fate and destiny as that which rules Unity in Difference (even if he does not isolate the and reigns over the world. notion on to the logical plane), and, while holding fast to the idea of unity, endeavours to account for the evident others are not destroyed by the one of them that is diversity of the many. infinite. For they contain oppositions with regard to one another, for example, air is cold, water wet, fire In the Metaphysics Aristotle asserts that according hot. If any one of them were infinite, the rest would to Thales the earth is superimposed upon water already have been destroyed. But as it is, they (apparently regarding it as a flat floating disc). For declare that the thing from which all come to Thales, the primary stuff of the universe is water. be is different. (Aristotle, Physics) "getting the notion perhaps from seeing that the ANAXIMENES (585 to 528 BC) nutriment of all things is moist, and that heat itself He was a student or associate of Anaximander. is generated from the moist and kept alive by it (and that from which they come to be is a principle The determinate element is not water, but Air. of all things). He got his notion from this fact, and from the fact that the seeds of all things have a "Just as our soul, being air, holds us together, so moist nature, and water is the origin of the nature do breath and air encompass the whole world. of moist things.” (Aristotle) Air then is the Urstoff of the world, from which the things that are and have been and shall be, Also, it was him who said that “all things are full the gods and things divine, arose, while other of gods.” It seems to be that this can be understood things come from its offspring. in context of his understanding that the primary stuff of the universe is water. For the Greeks, water Anaximenes found Anaximander’s notion of was a divine object. It was viewed to be divine due apeiron as a vague account for explaining the to its nature as nourishing and at the same time kosmos. But at the same time, he was also aware generative and possesses mobility and motion. of Thales’ inability to account how water can be the explanation for the vastness and variety of ANAXIMANDER (547 BC) things. As such, he insisted that a determinate He is described by Theophrastus as an "associate" element must be assigned to account for the of Thales. origin of the kosmos and at the same time move beyond the “sensible” materiality of water. Credited with having constructed a map— probably for the Milesian sailors on the Black Sea. In order to explain how concrete objects are formed from the primitive element, he introduces What was unique about Anaximander is his primal the notion of condensation and rarefaction. Air in element–- apeiron. For him, apeiron was not a itself is invisible, but it becomes visible in this discriminate material element but an process of condensation and rarefaction, becoming “indeterminate” and “boundless” matter. fire as it is dilated or rarefied; wind, cloud, water, earth and finally stones, as it is condensed It was through Anaximander that philosophy started to show an advance beyond the assignation First Generation [Ionians: Thales, Anaximander, of a determinate material element to take into Anaximenes] account the unity and the generation of things. His apeiron was the first instance of With the fall of Miletus in 494, the Milesian considering the possibility of moving beyond School must have come to an end. The Milesian physical to understand reality. doctrines as a whole came to be known as the philosophy of Anaximenes, as though in the eyes of The infinite [apeiron] body cannot be one and the ancients he was the most important simple, nor can it be as some say it is: that which is representative of the School. apart from the elements, and from which they generate the elements...For some make the infinite The main importance of the Ionians lies in the fact [apeiron] this [namely, something aside from the that they raised the question as to the ultimate elements], rather than air or water, so that the nature of things, rather than in any particular answer which they gave to the question raised. We may also point out that they all assume the eternity of Now, Aristotle tells us that (the Pythagoreans) matter: the idea of an absolute beginning of this hold that the elements of number are the even material world does not enter into their heads. and the odd, and of these the former is unlimited and the latter limited; and the I proceeds from both They were materialists in the sense that they tried of these (for it is both even and odd), and number to explain the origin of all things out of some from the I; and the whole heaven, as has been said, material element: but they were not materialists in is numbers. the sense of deliberately denying a distinction between matter and spirit, for the very good reason To the Pythagoreans, not only was the earth that the distinction had not been so clearly spherical, but it is not the centre of the universe. conceived that its formal denial was possible The earth and the planets revolve—along with the sun—round the central fire or "hearth of the THE PYTHAGOREAN SOCIETY Universe" (which is identified with the number - It is important to realise that the Pythagoreans One). The world inhales air from the boundless were not merely a crowd of disciples of Pythagoras, mass outside it, and the air is spoken of as the more or less independent and isolated from one Unlimited. another: they were members of a religious society or community, which was founded by Pythagoras, a HERACLITUS (540- 484 BC) Samian, at Kroton in South Italy in the second half Following the “legendary wise-man” of Samos of the sixth century B.C. was the Ephesian aristocrat, Heraclitus. If all previous philosophers proposed answers to what - The Pythagorean Society represents the spirit of constitutes the kosmos, Heraclitus shifts his this religious revival, which it combined with a attention to a new problem – the problem of change. strongly marked scientific spirit, this latter of course being the factor which justifies the inclusion of the "All things are in a state of flux” Pythagoreans in a history of philosophy. "You cannot step twice into the same river, for As to the religious-ascetic ideas and practices of fresh waters are ever flowing in upon you the Pythagoreans, these centred round the idea of purity and purification, the doctrine of the Reality consists in the conception of unity in transmigration of souls naturally leading to the diversity, difference in unity. promotion of soul-culture. The philosophy of Heraclitus corresponds All things are and we can express many things much more to the idea of the concrete numerically. Thus numerable, the relation between universal, the One existing in the many, two related things may be expressed according to Identity in Difference. numerical proportion: order between a number of ordered subjects may be numerically expressed, and The One is always Many so on. Heraclitus introduced three main ideas which are Aristotle says: "since they saw that the attributes interrelated and can be understood through each and the ratios of the musical scales were expressible other: fire, Logos, and God. in numbers; since then all other things seemed in their whole nature to be modelled after numbers, For Heraclitus, the essence of all things is Fire. and numbers seemed to be the first things in the whole of nature, and the whole heaven to be a Together with his concepts of Logos and God, the musical scale and a number. conclusion is that his philosophy is generally pantheistic. All material things or entities in To say then that all things are numbers, would Heraclitus’ understanding of the world is essentially mean that "all bodies consist of points or units sub specie aeternitatis or that all things are viewed in space, which when taken together constitute a in relation to what is eternal or divine. number.” PARMENIDES (515–450 BC) Parmenides denied the existence of the void or His doctrine in brief is to the effect that Being, the empty space, and Zeno tries to support this denial One, is, and that Becoming, change, is illusion by reducing the opposite view to absurdity. Suppose. for a moment that there is a space in which things Way of Truth and the Way of Belief or Opinion. are. If it is nothing, then things cannot be in it. If, however, it is something, it will itself be in space, Now change and movement are most certainly and that space will itself be in space, and so on phenomena which appear to the senses, so that in indefinitely. But this is an absurdity. Things, rejecting change and movement, Parmenides is therefore, are not in space or in an empty void, and rejecting the way of sense-appearance. It is, Parmenides was quite right to deny the existence of therefore, not incorrect to say that Parmenides a void. introduces the most important distinction between Reason and Sense, Truth and Appearance. Arguments Concerning Motion "It is.” Let us suppose that Achilles and a tortoise are going to have a race. Since Achilles is a sportsman, Now, of what nature is this "It," Being, according he gives the tortoise a start. Now, by the time that to Parmenides? That Parmenides regarded Being as Achilles has reached the place from which the material, seems to be clearly indicated by his tortoise started, the latter has again advanced to assertion that Being, the One, is finite. Infinite for another point; and when Achilles reaches that point, him must have meant indeterminate and indefinite, then the tortoise will have advanced still another and Being, as the Real, cannot be indefinite or distance, even if very short. Thus Achilles is always indeterminate, cannot change, cannot be conceived coming nearer to the tortoise, but never actually as expanding into empty space: it must be definite, overtakes it—and never can do so, on the determinate, complete. It is temporarily infinite, as supposition that a line is made up of an infinite having neither beginning nor end, but it is spatially number of points, for then Achilles would have to finite. traverse an infinite distance. We can denote his philosophy as monistic Suppose a moving arrow. According to the materialism. It is because that there is only one Pythagorean theory the arrow should occupy a reality, and at the same time, one principle that given position in space. But to occupy a given explains this reality. position in space is to be at rest. Therefore the flying arrow is at rest, which is a contradiction. Parmenides may be called the father of idealism, in that the first great idealist adopted a cardinal ZENO (495—430 BC) tenet of Parmenides and interpreted it from an Zeno, as a disciple of Parmenides, believed that idealistic standpoint. motion is an illusion and is impossible, but in the foregoing arguments his aim is to prove that even ZENO (495—430 BC) on the pluralistic hypothesis motion is equally Zeno of Elea, born probably about 489 B.C., was impossible, and that the assumption of its a disciple of Parmenides, and it is from this point possibility leads to contradictory and absurd of view that he is to be understood. conclusions. He is master of arguments related to reductio ad EMPEDOCLES (490–430 BC) absurdum (“reduction to absurdity”) or reductio ad Parmenides had held that Being is, and that being impossibile (“reduction to the impossible”) is material. Empedocles not only adopted this arguments. position, but also the fundamental thought of Parmenides, that being cannot arise or pass away, Arguments against the Pythagorean Doctrine of for being cannot arise from not-being, nor can being Space pass into not-being. Matter, then, is without beginning and without end; it is indestructible.  Empedocles held that one kind of matter cannot supplied most of the elaboration of the Atomists’ become another kind of matter, but that there are works. fundamental and eternal kinds of matter or elements—earth, air, fire and water. The familiar According to Leucippus and Democritus there are classification of the four elements was therefore an infinite number of indivisible units, which are invented by Empedocles, though he speaks of them, called atoms. These are imperceptible, since they not as elements but as "the roots of all." are too small to be perceived by the senses. The atoms differ in size and shape, but have no quality The forces are conceived by Empedocles as save that of solidity or impenetrability. Infinite in physical and material forces, Love or Attraction number, they move in the void. bringing the particles of the four elements together and building up, Strife or Hate separating the Leucippus and Democritus are noteworthy for particles and causing the cessation of the being of having carried previous tendencies to their logical objects. conclusion, producing a purely mechanical account and explanation of reality. The attempt to give a However, Empedocles somehow fell short in complete explanation of the world in terms of explaining how material change happens since he mechanical materialism has, as we all know, made use of mythological forces – Love and Strife reappeared in a much more thorough form in the – to account them. It was only after Empedocles modern era under the influence of physical science, that Anaxagoras would eventually conceive of a but the brilliant hypothesis of Leucippus and principle that will explain change and motion in the Democritus was by no means the last word in Greek kosmos. philosophy: subsequent Greek philosophers were to see that the richness of the world cannot in all its ANAXAGORAS (500–428 BC) spheres be reduced to the mechanical interplay of Anaxagoras introduces instead the principle of atoms. Nous or Mind. PRE-SOCRATIC PHILOSOPHY "Nous," says Anaxagoras, "has power over all It is often said that Greek philosophy centres things that have life, both greater and smaller. Nous round the problem of the One and the Many. "is infinite and self-ruled, and is mixed with nothing, but is alone, itself by itself." Already in the very earliest stages of Greek philosophy we find the notion of unity: things The philosopher thus speaks of Nous or Mind in change into one another—therefore there must be material terms as being "the thinnest of all things," some common substratum, some ultimate principle, and as occupying space. He made Nous purer than some unity underlying diversity. other material things, but never reached the idea of an immaterial or incorporeal thing. they possessed what we might call the power of metaphysical intuition, and this constitutes their Though he failed to make full use of the principle, glory and their claim to a place in the history of Anaxagoras must be credited with the introduction philosophy. into Greek philosophy of a principle possessed of the greatest importance, that was to bear splendid The early Greek philosophers are then rightly fruit in the future. called Cosmologists, for they were concerned with the nature of the Cosmos, the object of our THE ATOMISTS knowledge, and man himself is considered in his The Atomist School was the last of the objective aspect, as one item in the Cosmos, rather pluralists. Its founder was said to be Leusippus than in his subjective aspect, as the subject of however, many scholars maintain that he did not knowledge or as the morally willing and acting actually exist. Leusippus was said to be a subject. contemporary of Empedocles and we know nothing more than that and it was actually Democritus who LESSON 3: THE SOCRATIC PERIOD “Man is the measure of all things, of those that are that they are, of those that are not that they are SOPHISM not.” Sophism differed from the older Greek philosophy in regard to the matter with which it dealt, namely, - It cannot be denied that the doctrine of relativism, man and the civilisation and customs of man: it when linked up with the practice of dialectic and treated of the microcosm rather than the eristic, very naturally produces a desire to succeed, macrocosm. without much regard for truth or justice. The Sophist sought to amass a wide store of - Protagoras was a pioneer in the study and science particular observations and facts; they were of grammar. He is said to have classified the Encyclopaedists, Polymaths. Then from these different kinds of sentence and to have accumulated facts they proceeded to draw distinguished terminologically the genders of nouns. conclusions, partly theoretical,partly practical. In an amusing passage of the Clouds Aristophanes depicts the Sophist as coining the feminine The method of Sophism, then, was "empirico- from the masculine inductive. Prodicus of Ceos The latter was concerned with objective truth: the Cosmologists wanted to find out the objective truth Prodicus came from the island of Ceos in the about the world, they were in the main disinterested Aegean. seekers after truth. The Sophists, on the other hand, were not primarily intent on objective truth: their Prodicus, like Protagoras, was noted for linguistic end was practical and not speculative. And so, the studies, and he wrote a treatise on synonyms. He Sophists became instruments of instruction and seems to have been very pedantic in his forms of training in the Greek cities, aiming at teaching the expression. art and control of life. It has been remarked that while a band of disciples was more or less He is credited with holding that death is desirable accidental for the Pre-Socratic philosophers—since in order to escape the evils of life. Fear of death is their primary aim was finding out the truth—it was irrational, since death concerns neither the living essential for the Sophists, since they aimed at nor the dead—the first, because they are still living, teaching. the second, because they are not living any more. The relativism of the Sophists, their encouragement Prodicus is perhaps chiefly remarkable for his of Eristic, their lack of stable norms, their theory on the origin of religion. He held that in the acceptance of payment, and the hair-splitting beginning men worshipped as gods the sun, moon, tendencies of certain later Sophists, justify to a great rivers, lakes, fruits, etc.—in other words, the things extent the disparaging signification of the term. which were useful to them and gave them food. Protagoras (481 B.C.) GORGIAS (483 to 375 B.C.) He was entrusted by that statesman with the task Gorgias of Leontini, in Sicily, lived from about of drawing up a constitution for the Panhellenic 483 to 375 B.C., and in the year 427 he came to colony of Thurii, which was founded in 444 B.C. Athens as ambassador of Leontini, in order to ask for help against Syracuse. Diogenes Lafirtius relates the story that Protagoras was indicted for blasphemy because of his book on He was led, however, to scepticism by the the gods, but that he escaped from the city before dialectic of Zeno and published a work entitled On trial and was drowned on the crossing to Sicily, his Not being or Nature the chief ideas of which can be book being burnt in the market-place. gathered from Sextus Empiricus and from the pseudo-Aristotelian writing On Melissus, Xenophanes and Gorgias. (i) Nothing exists, for if there were anything, then it skepticism and relativism was not a viable would have either to be eternal or to have come into position, thus absurd. being. But it cannot have come into being, for neither out of Being nor out of Not-being can Socrates (470- 399 B.C.) anything come to be. Nor can it be eternal, for if it The death of Socrates fell in the year 399 B.C., were eternal, then it would have to be infinite. But and as Plato tells us that Socrates was seventy years the infinite is impossible for the following reason. It old or a little more at the time of his death, he must could not be in another, nor could it be in itself, have been born about 470 B.C. therefore it would be nowhere. But what is nowhere, is nothing, It is from the four dialogues of Plato – Euthyphro, Apology, Crito and Phaedo – that we find the last (ii) If there were anything, then it could not be days of Socrates. known. For if there is knowledge of being, then what is thought must be, and Not-being could not be “All I know is that I know nothing.” (Apology) thought at all. In which case there could be no error, which is absurd, Aristotle declares that there are two improvements in science which we might justly ascribe to (iii) Even if there were knowledge of being, this Socrates—his employment of "inductive arguments knowledge could not be imparted. Every sign is and universal definitions" different from the thing signified; e.g. how could we Impart knowledge of colours by word, since the ear WHAT IS A UNIVERSAL DEFINITION? hears tones and not colours? And how could the Universal concept or definition presents us with same representation of being be in the two something constant and abiding that stands out, persons at once, since they are different from one through its possession of these characteristics, from another? the world of perishing particulars. Rhetorical art was regarded by Gorgias as the Universal concept are fixed concept. They remain mastery of the art of persuasion, and this necessarily the same: particular instances may vary, but the led him to a study of practical psychology. He definition stands fast. deliberately practised the art of suggestion, which could be used both for practical ends, good and bad, WHAT IS A UNIVERSAL CONCEPT and for artistic purposes. NECESSARY IN ETHICS? According to a relativistic ethic, justice, for The art of justifiable deception, calling a tragedy example, varies from city to city, community to "a deception which is better to cause than not to community: we can never say that justice is this or cause; to succumb to it shows greater powers of that, and that this definition holds good for all artistic appreciation than not to." States, but only that justice in Athens is this and in Thrace that. THRASYMACHUS Thrasymachus of Chalcedon is famously known But if we can once attain to a universal definition through Plato’s Republic as the Sophist who argues of justice, which expresses the innermost nature of that “Might makes right” or justice serves the justice and holds good for all men, then we have interest of the stronger and not the weaker. something sure to go upon, and we can judge not only individual actions, but also the moral codes of Following what was set by the older Sophists, different States, in so far as they embody or recede reducing morality to power is the inevitable from the universal definition of justice. conclusion of their relativistic stance towards epistemology and ethics. “The unexamined life is not worth living” (Apology) This attitude to ethics and to understanding the world in general has led Socrates to constantly refute the Sophists and prove that their radical WHAT IS ETHICAL INTELLECTUALISM? oath, to the following effect. Socrates is guilty (i) of According to Socrates knowledge and virtue are not worshipping the gods whom the State one, in the sense that the wise man, he who knows worships, but introducing new and unfamiliar what is right, will also do what is right. In other religious practices; (ii) and, further, of words, no one does evil knowingly and of set corrupting the young. The prosecutor demands purpose; no one chooses the evil as such. the death penalty. Plato in the Apology relates the profession of Socrates at his trial, that he went where he could do LESSON 4: PLATO the greatest good to anyone, seeking "to persuade every man among you that he must look to himself, PLATO (428/427 BCE-348/347 BCE) and seek virtue and wisdom before he looks to his - PLATO, one of the greatest philosophers of the private interests, and look to the State before he world, was born at Athens (or Aegina), most looks to the interests of the State; and that this probably in the year 428/7 B.C., of a distinguished should be the order which he observes in all Athenian family. his actions. - His father was named Ariston and his mother HOW CAN VIRTUE BE TAUGHT? Perictione, sister of Charmides and niece of Critias, who both figured in the Oligarchy of 404/3. But though Socrates' method was dialectic and not lecturing, it necessarily follows from his - He is said to have been originally called identification of virtue with knowledge that virtue Aristocles, and to have been given the name Plato can be taught. We would make a distinction: only later, on account of his robust figure, though intellectual knowledge of what virtue is can be the truth of Diogenes' report may well be imparted by instruction, but not virtue itself. doubted. However, if wisdom as real personal conviction is stressed, then if such wisdom can be taught, perhaps - Plato lived in the flourishing period of Athenian virtue could be taught too. culture and must have received a cultured Education. WHAT IS DIALECTIC? - Plato was present at the trial of Socrates, and he may rightly be ascribed "inductive arguments.” was one of the friends who urged Socrates to It took the form of "dialectic" or conversation. He increase his proposed fine from one to thirty minae, would get into conversation with someone and try offering to stand security; but he was absent from to elicit from him his ideas on some subject. the death-scene of his friend in consequence of an illness. After the death of Socrates, Plato withdrew The dialectic, therefore, proceeded from less to Megara and took shelter with the philosopher adequate definitions to a more adequate definition, Euclid, but in all probability he soon returned to or from consideration of particular examples to a Athens. universal definition. - He is said by the biographers to have to Cyrene, WHY WAS SOCRATES PUT INTO TRIAL? Italy and Egypt, but it is uncertain what travelled truth there is in these stories. In the year 400/399 Socrates was brought to trial by the leaders of the restored democracy. Anytus, THE ACADEMY the politician who remained in the background, - On his return to Athens, Plato seems to have instigated Meletus to carry on the prosecution. The founded the Academy (388/7), near the sanctuary of indictment before the court of the King Archon is the hero Academus. recorded as follows: "Meletus, son of Miletus, of the deme of Pitthus, indicts Socrates, son of - The Academy may rightly be called the first Sophroniscus, of the deme of Alopecae, on his European university, for the studies were not confined to philosophy proper, but extended over a wide range of auxiliary sciences, like II. Transition Period. Plato is finding his way to mathematics, astronomy and the physical sciences, his own opinions. the members of the School joining in the common worship of the Muses. x. Gorgias. The practical politician, or the rights of the stronger versus the philosopher, or justice at all - Plato was convinced that the best training for costs. public life is not a merely practical "sophistic" xi. Meno. Teachability of virtue corrected in view training, but rather the pursuit of science for its own of ideal theory. sake. Mathematics, apart of course from its xii. Euthydemus. Against logical fallacies of later importance for Plato's philosophy of the Ideas, Sophists. offered an obvious field for disinterested study, and xiii. Hippias I. On the beautiful. it had already reached a high pitch of development xiv. Hippias II. Is it better to do wrong voluntarily among the Greeks. or involuntarily? xv. Cratylus. On the theory of language. - Plato's reputation as teacher and counsellor xvi. Menexenus. A parody on rhetoric. (The of statesmen must have contributed to bringing dialogues of this period were probably composed about his second journey to Syracuse in 367. In that before the first Sicilian journey, though Praechter year Dionysius I died, and Dion invited Plato to thinks that the Menexenus dates from after come to Syracuse in order to take in hand the the journey.) education of Dionysius II, then about thirty years old. III. Period of Maturity. Plato is in possession of his own ideas. PLATO’S WORKS I. Socratic Period. In this period Plato is still xvii. Symposium. All earthly beauty is but a influenced by the Socratic intellectual determinism. shadow of true Beauty, to which the soul aspires by Most of the dialogues end without any definite Eros. result having been attained. This is characteristic of xviii. Phaedo. Ideas and Immortality. Socrates' "not knowing.” xix. Republic. The State. Dualism strongly emphasised, i.e. metaphysical dualism. i. Apology. Socrates' defence at his trial. xx. Phaedrus. Nature of love: possibility of ii. Crito. Socrates is exhibited as the good citizen philosophic rhetoric. Tripartition of soul, as in who, in spite of his unjust condemnation, is willing Rep. (These dialogues were probably composed to give up his life in obedience to the laws of the between the first and second Sicilian State. Escape is suggested by Crito and others, and journeys.) money is provided; but Socrates declares that he will abide by his principles. IV. Works of Old Age iii. Euthyphron. Socrates awaits his trial for impiety. On the nature of piety. No result to the xxi. Theaetetus. (It may be that the latter part was inquiry. composed after the Parmenides.) Knowledge is not iv. Laches. On courage. No result. sense-perception or true judgment. v. Ion. Against the poets and rhapsodists. xxii. Parmenides. Defence of ideal theory against vi. Protagoras. Virtue is knowledge and can be criticism. taught. xxiii. Sophistes. Theory of Ideas again considered. vii. Charmides. On temperance. No result. xxiv. Politicus. The true ruler is the knower. The viii. Lysis. On friendship. No result. legal State is a makeshift. ix. Republic. Bk. I. On justice. (The Apology and xxv. Philebus. Relation of pleasure to good. Crito must obviously Have been written at an early date. Probably the other dialogues of this group were also composed before the first Sicilian journey from which Plato returned by 388/7.) IV. Works of Old Age which must be, as we have said, (i) infallible, (ii) of what is. xxvi. Timaeus. Natural science. Demiurge appears. xxvii. Critias. Ideal agrarian State contrasted with - He was convinced that ethical conduct must be imperialistic sea-power, "Atlantis." founded on knowledge, and that that knowledge xxviii. Laws and Epinomis. Plato makes must be knowledge of eternal values which are not concessions to real life, modifying the Utopianism subject to the shifting and changing impressions of of the Republic. (Of these dialogues, some may sense or of subjective opinion, but are the same for have been written between the second and third all men and for all peoples and all ages. Sicilian journeys, but the Timaeus, Critias, Laws - Knowledge must be (i) infallible, and (ii) of and Epinomis were probably written after the third what is. journey), xxix. Letters 7 and 8 must have been - Sense-perception is not, therefore, worthy of the written after the death of Dion in 353. name of knowledge. It should be noted how much Plato is influenced by the conviction that sense- objects are not proper objects of knowledge and KNOWLEDGE IS NOT SENSE-PERCEPTION cannot be so, since knowledge is of what is, of the - He [Socrates] raises the objection that if stable and abiding, whereas objects of sense cannot knowledge is perception, then no man can be really be said to be—qua perceived, at least—but wiser than any other man, for I am the best judge of only to become. Sense objects are objects of my own sense-perception as such. apprehension in some sort, of course, but they elude the mind too much to be objects of real knowledge, - Moreover, if knowledge and perception are the which must be, as we have said, (i) infallible, (ii) of same, if there is no difference between seeing and what is. knowing, it follows that a man who has come to know (i.e. see) a thing in the past and still KNOWLEDGE IS NOT TRUE JUDGMENT remembers it, does not know it—although he PLUS AN "ACCOUNT" remembers it—since he does not see it. - If "giving an account" means analysis into elementary parts (i.e. knowable parts), will addition - Socrates finishes the claims of perception to be of an account in this sense suffice to convert true knowledge by showing (i) that perception is not belief into knowledge? No, the mere process of the whole of knowledge, and (ii) that even within analysing into elements does not convert true belief its own sphere perception is not knowledge. into knowledge. - He was convinced that ethical conduct must be - Socrates suggests a third interpretation of "plus founded on knowledge, and that that knowledge account." It may mean "being able to name some must be knowledge of eternal values which are not mark by which the thing one is asked about differs subject to the shifting and changing impressions of from everything else." sense or of subjective opinion, but are the same for all men and for all peoples and all ages. - If this is correct, then to know something means - Knowledge must be (i) infallible, and (ii) of the ability to give the distinguishing characteristic what is. of that thing. But this interpretation too is disposed - Sense-perception is not, therefore, worthy of the of, as being inadequate to define knowledge. name of knowledge. It should be noted how much Plato is influenced by the conviction that sense- TRUE KNOWLEDGE objects are not proper objects of knowledge and - Plato accepts from Protagoras the belief in the cannot be so, since knowledge is of what is, of the relativity of sense and sense-perception, but he will stable and abiding, whereas objects of sense cannot not accept a universal relativism: on the contrary, really be said to be—qua perceived, at least—but knowledge, absolute and infallible knowledge, is only to become. Sense objects are objects of attainable, but it cannot be the same as sense- apprehension in some sort, of course, but they elude perception, which is relative, elusive and subject to the mind too much to be objects of real knowledge, the influence of all sorts of temporary influences on the part of THEORY OF THE DIVIDED LINE both subject and object. - Plato accepts, too, from Heraclitus the view that the objects of sense-perception, individual and sensible particular objects, are always in a state of becoming, of flux, and so are unfit to be the objects of true knowledge. They come into being and pass away, they are indefinite in number, cannot be clearly grasped in definition and cannot become the objects of scientific knowledge. - If we examine those judgments in which we think we attain knowledge of the essentially stable and abiding, we find that they are judgments concerning universals. - It follows, then, that it is the universal that fulfils the requirements for being an object of METAPHYSICS AND EPISTEMOLOGY knowledge. Knowledge of the highest universal A: This is the level of pure intelligence or will be the highest kind of knowledge, while " understanding. Here the soul directly apprehends knowledge" of the particular will be the lowest truth at its highest level. (e.g., archetypal forms – kind of " knowledge." Good, Truth, Beauty) B: This is the level of reasoning; specifically, mathematical thinking and deductive reasoning. (e.g., ideas or forms of individuals and classes of entities) C: This is the level of belief or common opinions about physical objects, morals, politics, practical affairs. (e.g., sensible reality) D: This is the level of illusion, dominated by secondhand opinions and uncritical impressions. (e.g., copies or images of sensible reality)  real and no mere mental fiction; but it does not LESSON 5: ARISTOTLE prove that the universal has a subsistence apart from individual things. ARISTOTLE (ii) The doctrine of Ideas or Forms is useless. ARISTOTLE was born in 384/3 B.C. at Stageira (iii) The theory of Ideas or Forms is an impossible in Thrace, and was the son of Nicomachus, a theory. physician of the Macedonian king, Amyntas II. What is Metaphysics? When he was about seventeen years old Aristotle It is a science, which is desirable for its own sake, went to Athens for purposes of study and became a is the science of first principles or first causes, a member of the Academy in 368/7 B.C., where for science which took its rise in wonder. over twenty years he was in constant intercourse Metaphysics is Wisdom par excellence, and the with Plato until the latter's death in 348/7 B.C. philosopher or lover of Wisdom is he who desires knowledge about the ultimate cause and In 343/2 Aristotle was invited to Pella by Philip of nature of Reality, and desires that knowledge for its Macedon to undertake the education of his son own sake. Alexander, then thirteen years old. Wisdom, therefore, deals with the first principles and causes of things, and so is universal knowledge In 335/4 Aristotle had returned to Athens, where in the highest degree. This means that it is the he founded his own School. Apart from the fact of science which is furthest removed from the his absence from Athens for some years, the senses, the most abstract science, and so is the development of his own ideas no doubt precluded hardest of the sciences as involving the greatest any return to the Athenian Academy. effort of thought. Aristotle and Plato Metaphysical science is concerned with being as The notion that Aristotle was in any real sense an such, is the study of being qua being. opponent of Plato in the Academy and that he was a Aristotle answers that, if there is an unchangeable thorn in the side of the Master, is scarcely tenable: substance, then metaphysics studies unchangeable Aristotle found in Plato a guide and friend for substance, since it is concerned with being qua whom he had the greatest admiration, and though in being, and the true nature of being is shown in that later years his own scientific interests tended to which is unchangeable and self-existent, rather than come much more to the fore, the metaphysical and in that which is subject to change. religious teaching of Plato had a lasting influence Metaphysical science is, therefore, concerned with upon him. being, and it studies being primarily in the category of substance, not "accidental being," which is the Aristotle was convinced, as Plato was, that the object of no science nor being as truth, since truth universal is the object of science: it follows, then, and falsity exist in the judgment, not in things. that if the universal is in no way real, if it has no objective reality whatsoever, there is no scientific What is Being? knowledge, for science does not deal with the Substance in the primary sense is the individual individual as such. The universal is real, it has substance, composed of matter and form: substance reality not only in the mind but also in the things, in the secondary sense is the formal element or though the existence in the thing does not entail that specific essence that corresponds to the universal formal universality that it has in the mind. concept. Aristotle claims that every being (substance) has POLEMIC AGAINST THE PLATONIC its essence and existence. Essence is the attribute or THEORY OF IDEAS a set of attributes that makes a thing as it (i) The argument for Plato's theory that it makes fundamentally is, it may also refer to as nature of a scientific knowledge possible and explains it, thing, such as that it possesses certain necessary, proves, says Aristotle, that the universal is metaphysical characteristics or properties in contrast with merely accidental or contingent ones. It also refers to the telos – end, of a certain thing. What constitute the essence of the says Aristotle, must be good: there can be in them thing are Matter (hyle) and Form (matter), which no defect or badness or perversion. Badness means are the intrinsic principles of a thing or a substance. defect or perversion of some kind, and there can be no defect in that which is fully actual. Actuality, says Aristotle, is prior to potency. The actual is always produced from the potential, the He declares that there must be a First Mover potential is always reduced to act by the actual, that which causes change without itself being changed, which is already in act, as man is produced by man. without having any potentiality, for if, for instance, The distinction of potency and act leads to the it could cease from causing motion, then motion or doctrine of the hierarchy or scale of existence, for it change would not be necessarily eternal— which it is clear that an object which is in act as regards its is. There must accordingly be a First Mover which own terminus a quo may be in potency as regards a is pure act, and if it is pure act, then it must be further terminus ad quem. immaterial, for materiality involves the possibility of being acted upon and changed. WHAT IS BEING? VIRTUE ETHICS Aristotle’s Ethics THE Ethics of Aristotle are teleological. Ethics are regarded by Aristotle as a branch of political or social science: we might say that he treats first of individual ethical science and secondly of political ethical science, in the Politics. The TELOS Argument What do people generally view as the end of life? Every substance has its telos – end, purpose, or Happiness, says Aristotle, and he, like a true Greek, function. Aristotle’s claim is essentially that in accepts this view. achieving its function, goal or end, an object achieves its own good. Every object has this type of How can one attain Eudaimonia? a true function and so every object has a way of This is indeed an activity of virtue—for Aristotle achieving goodness. distinguished, besides the moral virtues, the intellectual virtues—but it is not what people THE PROCESS OF CHANGE (THE FOUR ordinarily mean when they say that happiness CAUSES) consists in being virtuous, since they are generally thinking of moral virtues, such as justice, Aristotle, as we have seen, gives four principles: temperance, etc. In any case, happiness, as the matter, the form, the source of movement or the ethical end, could not consist simply in virtue as efficient cause, and the final cause. such: it consists rather in activity according to virtue or in virtuous activity, understanding by virtue both the intellectual and the moral virtues. Moreover, says Aristotle, it must, if it really deserves the name of happiness, be manifested over a whole life and not merely for brief periods. Virtue On Aristotle’s account of virtue, virtue is seen as a THE UNMOVED MOVER quality that leads to eudaimonia, or human well- God, exists necessarily, and that which exists being. necessarily must be fully actual: as the eternal. Aristotle discussed two types of virtue: intellectual Source of movement, of the reduction of and moral virtue. potentiality to act, God must be full and complete Intellectual virtues are virtues conducive to actuality, the Unmoved First Mover. Eternal things, certain kinds of knowledge, and there are two main intellectual virtues: theoretical The first kind of justice, "universal" justice, is wisdom and practical wisdom. practically equivalent to Moral virtue involves activity that leads to well- obedience to law, but since Aristotle envisages the being and it is practical wisdom that enables the law of the State— ideally, at least—as extending agent to figure out how to act well: “…a man of over the whole of life and enforcing virtuous actions practical wisdom is he who has the ability to in the sense of materially virtuous actions (since of deliberate…it is a truthful characteristic of acting course law cannot enforce virtuous actions,formally rationally in matters good and bad for man.” or subjectively considered), universal justice is more or less coterminous with virtue, looked at in Virtue is a mean state, which means that it does its social aspect at any rate. not exhibit excess. And practical wisdom comes into play since it is crucial for the virtuous person in "Particular" justice is divided into (a) Distributive choosing the mean: …virtue or excellence is a Justice, whereby the State divides goods among its characteristic involving choice, and… it consists in citizens according to geometrical proportions, i.e. observing the mean relative to us, a mean which is according to merit (as Burnet says, the Greek defined by a rational principle, such as a man of citizen regarded himself as a shareholder in the practical wisdom would use to determine it. State, rather than as a taxpayer), and (b) Remedial Justice. Practical Wisdom Aristotle regarded the possession of practical This latter is subdivided into two types, (i) that wisdom, the ability to see what is the right thing to dealing with voluntary transactions (Civil Law), and do in the circumstances, as essential to the truly (ii) that dealing with involuntary transactions virtuous man, and he attaches much more value to (Criminal Law). Remedial Justice proceeds the moral judgments of the enlightened conscience according to arithmetical proportion. than to any a priori and merely theoretical conclusions. In friendship a man is loving himself. "Virtue is not only the right and reasonable Aristotle devotes Books Eight and Nine of the attitude, but the attitude which leads to right and Ethics to the subject of Friendship. Friendship, he reasonable choice, and right and reasonable choice says, "is one of the virtues, or at any rate implies in these matters is what we mean by prudence virtue. Moreover, it is one of the prime necessities Prudence, therefore, is necessary for the truly of life. virtuous man, (a) as being "the excellence of an essential part of our nature," and (b) inasmuch as A happier thought is Aristotle's saying that a man's "there can be no right choice without both prudence relations to his friend are the same as his relations to and virtue, seeing that the latter secures the choice himself, since the friend is a second self. In other of the right end, and the former the choice of the words, the concept of the self is capable of right means to its attainment." extension and may grow to include friends, whose happiness or misery, success or failure, become PRACTICAL WISDOM as our own. Moreover, incidental observations, such as "friendship consists in loving rather than in being loved, or that "men wish well to their friends for their sake, show that his view of friendship was not so egoistic as his words would sometimes lead one to suppose. Types of Friendship (i) On the lowest level are friendships of utility in The Concept of Justice which men do not love their friends for what they In Book Five of the Ethics Aristotle treats of are in themselves, but only for the advantage Justice. Under Justice he understands (a) what is which they receive from them. Such friendships are lawful and (b) what is fair and equal. necessary to man, since man is not economically self-sufficient. A others is a great assistance to him, but if it be business friendship would be of this type. wanting, the thinker is better able than other men to (ii) Friendships of pleasure. These are founded on get along without it. the natural delight that men take in the society of (v) Philosophy is loved for its own sake and not for their fellow-men, and are characteristic of the the sake of any results that accrue from it. In the young, for "young people live by feeling, and have field of practical activity, it is not the action itself a main eye to their own pleasure and to the present that is desirable, but some result to be attained by moment. But both these types of friendship are means of the activity. Philosophy is no mere means unstable, for when the motive of the friendship— to a further end. utility or pleasure—is gone, the friendship also is (vi) Happiness would seem to imply leisure. Now, destroyed. "the practical virtues find the field of their exercise (iii) Friendships of the good. This type of friendship in war or politics, which cannot be said to be is perfect friendship and endures as long as both leisurely employments, least of all war. retain their character—"and virtue," says Aristotle, "is a lasting thing.” The Role of Reason "If happiness is activity in accordance with virtue, it is reasonable that it should be in accordance with the highest virtue, and this will be that of the best thing in us. It is in the exercise of reason, then, and in the exercise of that reason concerning the noblest objects, that man's complete happiness is found, provided that it is extended over " a complete term of years." "If happiness is activity in accordance with virtue, it is reasonable that it should be in accordance with the highest virtue, and this will be that of the best thing in us. Aristotle gives several reasons for saying that man's highest happiness consists in reason. (i) Reason is the highest faculty. of man, and theoretic contemplation is the highest activity of reason. (ii) We can keep up this form of activity longer than any other, e.g. than bodily exercise. (iii) Pleasure is one of the elements of happiness, and "philosophy is admittedly the pleasantest of the activities in which human excellence manifests itself." (iv) The philosopher is more self-sufficient than any other man. He cannot indeed dispense with the necessaries of life any more than others can (and Aristotle considered that the philosopher needs external goods in moderation and friends); but all the same "the thinker is able to pursue his studies in solitude, and the more of a thinker he is, the more capable he is of doing so." The co-operation of