As I reached the twilight of my life, I realized that unconsciously I had suppressed a lot of unpleasant memories. They now are coming back with full force and fury, demanding attention and resolution. It is then slowing dawning on me that I've lived an insular life. The "exciting" and "defining" events in my life were almost invariably brought on by myself in an attempt to make life harder than it already is. I am perversely risk-happy and relentlessly self-destructive.
I instinctively turned to Philosophy for answers and solace.
Branches of Philosophy:
-Metaphysics: What is the world made of?
-Epistemology: How can we be sure of what we know? Through empiricism (experiences and senses) or rationalism (reasoning? Explore the connection between knowledge and concepts such as truth and belief.
-Ontology, actually a major branch of Metaphysics: The nature of our existence and reality.
-Logic: process of reasoning through inductive process (specific examples to arrive at general principle) or deductive (from general statements).
Classic logic via syllogism (formalized by Aristotle, 2 connecting premises and a conclusion).
Mathematical logic in the 19h century
Symbolic logic in the 20th century
-Ethics: The field of moral philosophy.
-Political Philosophy: What kind of society we want to live in. Deal with Justice, Liberty,
and Rights; relationship b/w a state and its citizens; various forms of gvt (monarchy, aristocracy, oligarchy, tyranny, and democracy; how each affects the rights of individual; and how they exert their authority through rule of law).
-Aesthetics
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-Relativism/Sophism (more than one side in every argument). Protagoras : " Man is the measure of all things"
-Socrates and the dialectical method. "The unexamined life is not worth living".
*What do we mean by a good life(eudaimonia)?
*arete (virtue) and knowledge. To S, virtue is knowledge.
-Plato and the connection between Morality and Religion:
*Is morality determined by religion, or do we devise it ourselves and incorporate it into religion?
*Plato took the above question further and suggested we have some innate concept (in his teens, a knowledge of Forms) of Good and Evil.
-Aristotle and Scientific Observation
*scala naturae (Great chain of being): hierarchy from simple plants and animals to Man.
*Knowledge from experience: it is only after experiencing something through the senses that we apply the process of rational thought.
*The 4 causes and the nature of being: we cannot have any knowledge of anything unless and until we understand its why: how it came to be, and in particular the explanation for change or the movement of an object or event.
4 causes (distinct categories of observation) of how a thing has come about:
#material cause: the material the thing is composed of (a block of marble)
#formal cause: the structure/blueprint of the thing (the idea of a finished sculpture)
#efficient cause: more akin to our modern understanding of cause, meaning the outside agency or event that brings it about (the sculpture)
#final cause: what a thing has come about for---its purpose, but in a very wide sense (display of statue on temple frieze)
-Plato's Republic and Aristotle's Politics
*The Republic describes a vision of a somewhat authoritarian city-state governed by specially educated philosopher-Kings whose knowledge of the Forms of virtue made them qualified to rule.
*Aristotle's Politics analyses the possible forms of govt, categorizing them by criteria of
"Who rules?" (a single person, a select few, or the people)
and "On Whose behalf?" ( themselves, or the state?)
A identified 3 forms of true constitution: monarchy, aristocracy, and polity (or constitutional gvt). These all ruled for the common good, but when perverted, became tyranny, oligarchy, and democracy. Given a choice, A believed that polity was the optimal form of gvt, with democracy the least harmful of the perverted forms.
-Beauty: proportion, symmetry, balance, and harmony
-Judging a work of art: the problem of affective fallacy: the confusion of our emotional response with an objective appraisal.
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The trio of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle proved something of a hard act to follow. After them, Greek philosophy divided into 4 separate schools of thought: the cynics, skeptics, Epicureans, and stoics. Epicureanism deserves to be expounded a little bit here, because of popular misconception.Those who are interested in it can look further on the Internet or in the library.
-Epicureanism: more than simple hedonism. Although the founder Epicurus saw the "good life" as the pursuit of fulfillment and happiness, he regarded the goal of life as peace of mind and freedom from fear---in particular, the preoccupying fear of death. Epicureanism was based on a belief that all matter, including our bodies, is composed of indestructible atoms. When we die, these are dispersed and reform elsewhere, it is the end of our physical and emotional pain. Death, therefore, is nothing to be feared, and we should concentrate on enjoying life than fearing a nonexistent afterlife. Epicurus went further, questioning the relevance of gods, and even the existence of a benevolent god (although outright denial of the existence of god would have landed him in serious trouble). Unfortunately, Epicureanism was quashed by later Christian and Islamic philosophies that followed, but many of its principles reappeared in modern scientific and liberal humanism.
Epicurus was probably the first philosopher to categorically deny that humans have an immortal soul. Working from the theory of atomism, he believed that not only is everything composed of atoms, but also there is nothing else---everything is material, and our physical death is the end of our existence. This was, and has continued to be, a minority opinion. But throughout the history of human thought, it is the minority that has brought light and understanding to the stupid, deluded masses. When it comes to true thinking, the masses are asses.
Belief in an immortal soul is essential to most religions, and a cornerstone of Eastern philosophy...
(To be continued)
(To be continued)
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