An Introduction to Western Philosophy 1
合集下载
相关主题
- 1、下载文档前请自行甄别文档内容的完整性，平台不提供额外的编辑、内容补充、找答案等附加服务。
- 2、"仅部分预览"的文档,不可在线预览部分如存在完整性等问题,可反馈申请退款(可完整预览的文档不适用该条件!)。
- 3、如文档侵犯您的权益，请联系客服反馈,我们会尽快为您处理(人工客服工作时间：9:00-18:30)。
– – – – Thales The Atomists Heraclitus Parmenides
Socrates
• Born in Athens about 469 B.C. • He had a tremendous impact upon the history of thought • But nothing remains of his writings. What we know about him comes mainly through the works of his pupil, Plato • Most famous for his method of arguing • Sentenced to death by the city of Athens in 399 B.C
– It is not a matter of expanding knowledge, of increasing the truths we know about the world, as science is – But like the scientist, the philosopher is seeking truth and makes discoveries. – It is not an art because there is progress in philosophy. – But like the arts, and unlike the sciences, philosophical works do not go out of date. The ideas of philosophers from thousands of years ago are as relevant today as they were when they were originally writing. There is also no specific subject matter to philosophy.
What is philosophy (as we understand it in the West)?
• Philosophy is what happens when we try to use our mental capacities for reflection to make the world intelligible • Sooner or later, in any discipline, we start asking philosophical questions
Outline of the course
• Over the next semester I will introduce you to a few important problems in Western philosophy.
– The problem of personal identity – Scepticism about the external world – Normative ethics – what makes something right? – What is the world really like? Is it the way it appears in experience? – The relationship between mind and body
Introduction to Western Philosophy
Outline of the course
• Quiz in week 5 (7.5% of final grade) • Mid-term exam in week 9 or 10 (30% of final grade) • Quiz in week 15 (7.5% of final grade) • Final exam in week 18 or 19 (40% of final grade) • Classroom participation (15% of final grade)
• There was a time when the life of men was something evidently quite foul. Mankind was grovelling on the ground, pressed down beneath the heavy weight of superstitious awe. *…+ It was a man from Greece who first dared to raise defiantly his mortal eyes and then to take his stand against her. He could not be suppressed by stories about the gods or by thunderbolts or by a sky full of the menace of thunder. *…+ By sheer force of intellect he was able to wander over the whole of infinity. From this journey he brings back to us the fruits of victory-the knowledge of what can and what cannot come into existence, what are the fixed limitations to the powers of each individual thing and the sharply drawn line of definition. So now it is the turn of Religion to be cast down and trampled under foot. As for us, the victory has raised us up to the skies. • (Lucretius, Roman poet and contemporary of Julius Caesar c. 1st century B.C. He is talking here of the Greek philosopher Epicurus)
Historical Overview
• I have divided the period will be looking at into four sections
– The classical world – The middle ages – The early modern period – The modern period
What is philosophy (as we understand it in the West)?
• There has always been an intimate (close) relationship between philosophy and the sciences. What we call ‘science’ today is an offshoot of what would originally have been considered ‘philosophy’
• I am part of a philosophical tradition that traces its roots back to Ancient Greece (starting around the 6th century BC). Our word ‘philosophy’ comes from the Greek ‘philosophia’ which means ‘love of wisdom.’
What is philosophy? (as we understand it in the West)
• Can you tell me what philosophy studies? What is philosophy about? • Can you give me an example of a philosophical question?
What is philosophy (as we understand it in the West)?
• Of all the academic subjects philosophy is perhaps the hardest to define • It is neither a science nor an art
Historical overview
• The period we will be looking at is huge. • We start wi源自文库h the birth of philosophy in Greece in the 6th Century B.C. and end in the current day • I want to begin our course by giving a very quick overview of the historical development of philosophy in the Western world
What is philosophy (as we understand it in the West)?
• While you come from a culture with a different philosophical tradition, tracing back to thinkers such as Confucius (also 6th Century BC?), I believe it represents the same basic idea of a love of reflection, questioning and understanding. We are all human, and in virtue of this have certain common needs, desires, and perspectives on the world. And central to being human is a need to think, and a desire for thinking, and a shared perspective which encourages us to think in similar (if sometimes very different) ways.
The Greek World
The Pre-Socratics
• Western philosophy begins with the Pre-Socratics – those who were writing and teaching before the time of Socrates. • As the quote from Lucretius forcefully indicates, they were the first people to try and render the world intelligible through the use of reason
The classical world
• Western civilization has its roots in the classical worlds of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. • During the 6th century B.C. there was a tremendous flowering of science and philosophy amongst the various Greek city states. It’s impact upon the Western world cannot be overstated.
Socrates
• Born in Athens about 469 B.C. • He had a tremendous impact upon the history of thought • But nothing remains of his writings. What we know about him comes mainly through the works of his pupil, Plato • Most famous for his method of arguing • Sentenced to death by the city of Athens in 399 B.C
– It is not a matter of expanding knowledge, of increasing the truths we know about the world, as science is – But like the scientist, the philosopher is seeking truth and makes discoveries. – It is not an art because there is progress in philosophy. – But like the arts, and unlike the sciences, philosophical works do not go out of date. The ideas of philosophers from thousands of years ago are as relevant today as they were when they were originally writing. There is also no specific subject matter to philosophy.
What is philosophy (as we understand it in the West)?
• Philosophy is what happens when we try to use our mental capacities for reflection to make the world intelligible • Sooner or later, in any discipline, we start asking philosophical questions
Outline of the course
• Over the next semester I will introduce you to a few important problems in Western philosophy.
– The problem of personal identity – Scepticism about the external world – Normative ethics – what makes something right? – What is the world really like? Is it the way it appears in experience? – The relationship between mind and body
Introduction to Western Philosophy
Outline of the course
• Quiz in week 5 (7.5% of final grade) • Mid-term exam in week 9 or 10 (30% of final grade) • Quiz in week 15 (7.5% of final grade) • Final exam in week 18 or 19 (40% of final grade) • Classroom participation (15% of final grade)
• There was a time when the life of men was something evidently quite foul. Mankind was grovelling on the ground, pressed down beneath the heavy weight of superstitious awe. *…+ It was a man from Greece who first dared to raise defiantly his mortal eyes and then to take his stand against her. He could not be suppressed by stories about the gods or by thunderbolts or by a sky full of the menace of thunder. *…+ By sheer force of intellect he was able to wander over the whole of infinity. From this journey he brings back to us the fruits of victory-the knowledge of what can and what cannot come into existence, what are the fixed limitations to the powers of each individual thing and the sharply drawn line of definition. So now it is the turn of Religion to be cast down and trampled under foot. As for us, the victory has raised us up to the skies. • (Lucretius, Roman poet and contemporary of Julius Caesar c. 1st century B.C. He is talking here of the Greek philosopher Epicurus)
Historical Overview
• I have divided the period will be looking at into four sections
– The classical world – The middle ages – The early modern period – The modern period
What is philosophy (as we understand it in the West)?
• There has always been an intimate (close) relationship between philosophy and the sciences. What we call ‘science’ today is an offshoot of what would originally have been considered ‘philosophy’
• I am part of a philosophical tradition that traces its roots back to Ancient Greece (starting around the 6th century BC). Our word ‘philosophy’ comes from the Greek ‘philosophia’ which means ‘love of wisdom.’
What is philosophy? (as we understand it in the West)
• Can you tell me what philosophy studies? What is philosophy about? • Can you give me an example of a philosophical question?
What is philosophy (as we understand it in the West)?
• Of all the academic subjects philosophy is perhaps the hardest to define • It is neither a science nor an art
Historical overview
• The period we will be looking at is huge. • We start wi源自文库h the birth of philosophy in Greece in the 6th Century B.C. and end in the current day • I want to begin our course by giving a very quick overview of the historical development of philosophy in the Western world
What is philosophy (as we understand it in the West)?
• While you come from a culture with a different philosophical tradition, tracing back to thinkers such as Confucius (also 6th Century BC?), I believe it represents the same basic idea of a love of reflection, questioning and understanding. We are all human, and in virtue of this have certain common needs, desires, and perspectives on the world. And central to being human is a need to think, and a desire for thinking, and a shared perspective which encourages us to think in similar (if sometimes very different) ways.
The Greek World
The Pre-Socratics
• Western philosophy begins with the Pre-Socratics – those who were writing and teaching before the time of Socrates. • As the quote from Lucretius forcefully indicates, they were the first people to try and render the world intelligible through the use of reason
The classical world
• Western civilization has its roots in the classical worlds of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. • During the 6th century B.C. there was a tremendous flowering of science and philosophy amongst the various Greek city states. It’s impact upon the Western world cannot be overstated.