Philosophy Paper
kristie lccc
class_2-32016-07-06-15-19-44.pptPre-Socratics
Philosophers prior to Socrates
Some Contemporaries of Socrates who were not influenced by his teaching
Beginning of Western Philosophy
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Questions of Pre-Socratics
Is the universe ONE or MANY?
What is the basic SUBSTANCE of the world?
Is CHANGE possible or an illusion?
What is the relationship between Mathematics, Reason and the world?
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Thales
Father of Western Philosophy
Greek – Lived in the town of Miletus in Asia-Minor (modern-day Turkey)
Didn't assume knowledge based on authority or religion
Thoughts based on observation and reflection
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Thales
Basic Ideas of Thales
Everything is made of a single element
The basic element is WATER
The earth is floating on water
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Pythagoras
Greek Mathematician
Pythagorean Theorem: The sum of the areas of the two squares on the legs (a) and (b) equals the area of the square on the hypotenuse (c).
Head of a religious cult which was heavily influenced by mathematics
Numbers are the true nature of reality
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Pythagoras
Philosophical Questions
Do humans have a soul?
What happens after physical death?
Is there a power or being greater than the Cosmos (universe)?
Is the Cosmos orderly or chaotic? Why?
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Pythagoras
First thinker to use mathematics in philosophy
Believed that the cosmos is saturated with structure (therefore saturated with mathematics)
Intelligent Design – Structure of Cosmos is evidence of an “Intelligence” behind the Cosmos
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Pythagoras
Nature is full of geometrical shapes.
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Pythagoras
Nature is full patterns and organization.
- Daily Sunrise and Sunset
- Four Repeating Seasons
- Birth – Growth – Death
- Ocean Waves and Tides
- Flocks of Birds
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Pythagoras
Compare Nature and Man-made things
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Pythagoras
Transmigration of Souls
The soul survives physical death.
The soul moves (transmigration) to a new physical body after death.
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Xenophanes
Questions
What is reality?
Can humans know reality?
What is God like?
Is there One God or many gods?
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Xenophanes
Reality and Knowledge
“as for certain truth, no man has known it,
Nor shall he know it, neither of the gods
Nor yet of all the things of which I speak...
For all is but a woven web of guesses.”
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Xenophanes
Reality and Knowledge
Reality – There actually exists a truth of reality
Knowledge – Humans are unable to know it with certainty
Contemporary philosophies of Critical Rationalism (Karl Popper) and Critical Realism (Roy Bhaskar) hold similar views.
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Xenophanes
God(s)
But if cattle and horses and lions had hands
or could paint with their hands and create works such as men do,
horses like horses and cattle like cattle
also would depict the gods' shapes and make their bodies
of such a sort as the form they themselves have.
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Ethiopians say that their gods are snub–nosed [σιμούς] and black
Thracians that they are pale and red-haired.
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Xenophanes
God(s)
Since humans really can't know the gods they have made them up in their own image.
Possibly the first Monotheist in Western Philosophy
Development of the concept of a "one god greatest among gods and men"
God is abstract
God is universal
God is unchanging
God is immobile
God is always present
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Heraclitus
Questions
Is there anything that doesn't change?
What are opposites?
What is the primary element of the universe?
What is the principle order of knowledge?
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Heraclitus
Everything is Flux
The only constant thing in the universe is change
“You can't step into the same river twice”
Vocabulary
Flux – constant change
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Heraclitus
Activity:
Is this mountain trail going UP or DOWN?
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Heraclitus
Activity:
Is this glass of water half-empty or half-full?
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Heraclitus
Activity:
Is money Good or Evil?
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Heraclitus
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Heraclitus
Unity of Opposites
The way Up is Down
Half-full is half-empty
Money is Good and Evil
Similar to concept of Yin-Yang
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Heraclitus
Fire is the Primary Element
3 Principle Elements – Fire, Earth and Water
Fire is the Primary Element because it controls and changes the other two
The Cosmic Fire is the center of the cosmos. Human souls come from it and return to it after death.
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Heraclitus
Logos
“This Logos holds always but humans always prove unable to understand it, both before hearing it and when they have first heard it. For though all things come to be in accordance with this Logos, humans are like the inexperienced when they experience such words and deeds as I set out, distinguishing each in accordance with its nature and saying how it is. But other people fail to notice what they do when awake, just as they forget what they do while asleep.”
“For this reason it is necessary to follow what is common. But although the Logos is common, most people live as if they had their own private understanding.”
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Heraclitus
Logos
Principle order of all knowledge and existence
The link between rational discourse and the rational structure of the world.
Logos has an independent existence and is universal
Possibly a divine entity
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Parmenides
Questions
What is the nature of reality?
Is change possible?
Can you trust your sensory perceptions?
What is the Logos?
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Parmenides
Discussion:
Do Unicorns Exist?
Why? Why not?
What is Existence?
What is Real?
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Parmenides
Do Unicorns Exist?
Parmenides believes that unicorns do exist
“One cannot know that which is not – that which is impossible, nor utter it; for it is the same thing that can be thought, that is.”
To think of something is to think of an idea (i.e. Uncorn)
The IDEA of a unicorn is real.
Therefore unicorns are real in the realm of ideas.
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Parmenides
To think of something means that “something” exists
It is impossible to think of “something” that does not exists because you would have to think of “something” and “not-something” at the same time.
Existence includes more than objects in the physical world.
When you think of “something” you are thinking of an IDEA.
Ideas are real.
Reality includes IDEAS.
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Parmenides
Everything is Eternal
It is impossible for something to come out of nothing.
It is also impossible to for something to become nothing.
Therefore, things are eternal (no beginning and no end).
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Parmenides
Time does not change
If you can think of something that will exist in the future, then it exists in your mind in the present.
If you think of something that existed in the past, then it also exists in your mind in the present.
Therefore, anything that can be thought of has always existed and always will exist.
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Parmenides
Change is an Illusion
If everything that can be thought of is eternal, then the universe is an eternal, single and unchanging entity.
If the universe is and eternal, unchanging and single entity, then CHANGE is impossible.
Opposite view of Heraclitus.
What we perceive as change is just an illusion
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Parmenides
Perception:
What kind of woman do you see?
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Parmenides
Perception:
Paramenides said that we can't trust our sensory perception (sight, hearing, touch...) because they can be deceived.
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Parmenides
Logos
Truth cannot be known though sensory perception.
Truth can only be know through Logos.
Logos = Reason
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Zeno of Elea
Paramenides' Student
Wrote many paradoxes to prove Paramenides' premise that change is an illusion
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Zeno of Elea
Achilles and the Tortoise
1/2
In order to reach the point where the Tortoise started Achilles must first pass the half-way point.
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Zeno of Elea
By the time Achilles reaches the point where the tortoise was the tortoise will have moved on from that point.
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Achilles and the Tortoise
When the Tortoise moves that will create a new half-way point that Achilles must also cross.
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Zeno of Elea
Achilles and the Tortoise
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Each time Achilles reaches the point where the tortoise was he will have a new half-way point to cross.
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Zeno of Elea
Achilles and the Tortoise
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Since the Tortoise is constantly moving his movement will produce an infinite number to half-way points that Achilles must cross before passing the Tortoise.
Therefore, Achilles will never pass the Tortoise.
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Zeno of Elea
Arrow Paradox
At any point in time an arrow can only occupy one position and is therefore motionless.
At every point in time the arrow is motionless.
If the arrow is motionless at every point in time then it does not move. Movement is an illusion.
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Zeno of Elea
Zeno's Paradoxes
Show that a good and logical argument can lead to a false conclusion.
Therefore, Logic seems to be flawed
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Democritus
Questions
What is the basic unit of matter?
What is the soul?
Does everything have a cause?
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Democritus
Atoms
The cosmos is made up of Atoms and Void
Atoms = Indivisible particles of matter
Void = The space between atoms
Atoms
Void
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Democritus
Problem of the Void
A VOID is the absence of something.
Therefore, a VOID is nothing.
If a void is nothing then how can it be real? How can a void exist if it is nothing?
Atoms
Void
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Democritus
The Soul
The soul is a material aspect of the body
Therefore, it cannot be separated from the body.
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Democritus
Knowledge
The knowledge of truth is difficult.
Perception through the senses is subjective.
We can only interpret the sense data through the intellect and grasp the truth.
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