PHILOSOPHY

 Study of knowledge
 “Thinking about thinking”
 1] Discipline concerned with questions of how one should live
(ethics)
2] what sorts of things exists and what are their essential
natures(metaphysics)
3] what counts as genuine knowledge (epistemology)
4] what are the correct principles of reasoning (logic)
 Originally used by ancient Greeks
 Term philosophy meant pursuit of knowledge for its own sake

western philosophy:
Pre-Socrates
 Thales of Miletus
 Anaximander
 Anaximenes
 Pythagoras
 Eleatics: Parmenides and Zeno of Elea
Socrates
 Plato
 Aristotle
 René Descartes
 Baruch Spinoza
Pre-Socrates
1] Thales
 Philosopher
 Mathematician
 Astronomer
 From Greek city of Miletus
 One of the so called Seven Sages of Greece
 First philosopher in western tradition
 His innovative search for a universality in the disciplines of
mathematics, astronomy and philosophy have earned him the
label the "first scientist".
 He claimed that water was the origin of all things, that from
which all things emerge and to which they return, and
moreover that all things ultimately are water. He probably
drew this conclusion from seeing moist substances turn into air,
slime and earth, and he clearly viewed the Earth as solidifying
from the water on which it floated and which surrounded it.
 Thales recognized a single transcendental god (monism) , who
has neither beginning nor end, but who expresses himself
through other gods (polytheism)

2] Anaximander
 Philosopher
 From Greek city of Miletus of Ionia
 He was an early proponent of science
 Considered to be first true scientist
 Considered the founder of astronomy
 Made important contribution to cosmology, physics,
geometry, meteorology and geography and Metaphysics
 Anaximander argued that neither water nor any of the other
candidates can embrace all of the opposites found in nature
(e.g. water can only be wet, never dry) and therefore cannot
be the one primary substance or first principle of the
universe.
 The Universe originates in the separation of opposites in this
primordial matter, and dying things are merely returning to
the boundless element from which they came. He saw the
universe as a kind of organism, supported by "pneuma"
(cosmic breath).
 Sometimes called the “father of Cosmology”
 Basic substance out of which everything comes out must be
more elementary
 Basic substance is thought to be AGELESS, BOUNDLESS, and
INDETERMINATE.
 From basic substance a nucleus of fire and dark mist formed
 Mist solidified in its center producing the world
 Anaximander proposed the theory of universe that
explained things in terms of natural power and processes

3] ANAXEMENES

 Pronounced the basic substance to be air

 Air becomes different things through processes of
condensation and rarefaction
 When rarefied, air becomes fire
 When condensed it first becomes wind on further
condensation it becomes cloud then water then earth and
then finally stone
 He said that earth is flat and floats on air
 He tried to explain natural occurrences through his theories

4]Pythagoras
 Early Greek pre-Socrates philosopher and mathematician
from the Greek island of somas
 He was the founder of the influential philosophical and
religious movement called PYTHAGOREANISM
 Probably the first man to actually call himself a
PHILOSOPHER (LOVER OF WISDOM)
 As a mathematician, he is known as the “FATHER OF
NUMBERS” or as the first pure mathematician
 Pythagoras moved to croton, another of a Greek city and
found a school where he started teaching PHILOSOPHY
MATH MUSIC AND ASTRONOMY
 He also found a cult based on divine revelations he received
from God
 Started brainwashing is followers in following a complex set
of arbitrary rules
 All shrouded in secrecy
 These lead to two groups of Pythagoreans, namely:
mathematikoi (focused on things studies by Pythagoras) and
Akousmatikoi (focused on most spiritual or mystical things
that Pythagoras said)
 Numbers are everything
 

 Numbers in music
 Discovery of the octave
 Musical harmony can be expressed in numbers
number mean math and mathematical proofs
 Everything can be proven by math!
 NUMBERS ARE EVERYTHING BECAUSE EVEYTHING IS
NUMBERS
 CALCULATING THE UNIVERSE
EVERYTHING IN THE UNIVERSE MOVES IN PERFECT CIRCLES,
harmonious circles can be calculated by creating “music of
the spheres”
 Calculating life
illness was disharmony in the body
must balance heat and cold as well as wet and dry

5] Parmenides of Elea
 Pre-Socratic Greek philosopher
 Sometimes referred to as Father of METAPHYSICS
 Philosophy of being
  a priori principles, or principles of reason, which just means
that they are
 known prior to experience
 Parmenides argued that the everyday perception of the reality
of the physical world is mistaken
 Being does not change
 Being is unitary – a single thing
 Being is an UNDIFFERENTIATED WHOLE – it does not have any
parts
 Being is an ETERNAL
 Reality of the world is THE ONE – an unchanging, ungenerated,
indestructible whole, non-existent
 Whatever is, truly is. And what is not, does not exist
 Studying nature of reality (not form), use logic (not
observation), knowledge (not speculation)
 No change, no variation, no time and no motion

6] Zeno of Elea
 He devised paradoxes to prove his points
 He devised arguments against both multiplicity and against
motion
 First paradox is called PARADOX OF THE STADIUM RUNNER:
asserts the non-existence of motion on the ground, which says
that you must reach halfway before reaching your goals but
there are infinite half ways before you reach the goal and it is
impossible to get through things that are infinite.
 Second is PARADOX OF ARCHILLES AND THE TORTOISE in a race
the quickest runner can never overtake the slowest, since the
pursuer must first reach the point whence the pursued started,
so that the slower must always hold a lead. ...
 The third paradox, regarding the motion of the arrow, takes a
slightly different strategy than the above two and can be
formulated as follows:
 (1) Anything occupying a place just its own size is at rest.
 (2) In the present, a moving arrow occupies a place just its own
size.
 (3) Hence, in the present, a moving arrow is at rest.
 (4) However, in the present a moving arrow always moves.
 (5) Hence, a moving arrow is always at rest throughout its
movement.
 The paradox here is that there’s good reason to say both that,
first, the moving arrow is always at rest, and (b) the moving
arrow is always in motion. Since this is a contraction, then the
very idea of a moving arrow is impossible.

7] Socrates
 Claimed that unexamined life is not worth living, for human
beings
 To examine life itself
  Widely held to be the founder of the western philosophical
tradition.
 Never wrote anything down
 staunchly opposed injustice, even at considerable risk to
himself.
 Wanted to discover essential knowledge, justice, beauty, and
especially traits of good character
 SOCRATIC METHOD: search for the proper definition of a thing,
one that will not permit refutation under Socratic questioning.

8] Plato
 Theory of forms
 What is truly real is not the objects we encounter in sensory
experience, but rather FORMS that can only be grasped
intellectually
 Example – a beautiful table participate in the form of beauty
 Forms are ageless, eternal, unchanging, unmoving, indivisible
 rejects the knowledge that is derived from sensory experience.
 For Parmenides – only one being
 For Plato – many forms
 Plato introduced two-realm concept
 One hand – realm of particular, changing, sense-perceptible
things
 Other hand – realm of forms: eternal, fixed, perfect (platonic
dualism)
 PLATO’S THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE
 First comprehensive theory of knowledge was given by Plato
 Protagoras – “man is the measure of all things” i.e., no absolute
knowledge
 One person’s views about the world are just as valid as of the
next.
 Idea about knowledge is mistaken, idea that knowledge my be
equated with sense perception
 Knowledge retains even after you sense a thing
 True knowledge is knowledge of WHAT IS because objects of
sense perception are changing, sense perception and
knowledge cannot be same
 True knowledge is about what is truly real
 Objects of true knowledge are the forms
 Object of sense perception are real only to the extent that they
“participate” in the form

9] Aristotle
 Owe him the term metaphysics
 Aristotle called metaphysics – first philosophy
 It is more abstract and general than the specific sciences, and it
considers the most basic questions of existence.
 Questions being – what is it to be? – Aristotle-ic view that
everything is a combination of matter and form. Except God.
 Second basic question – what produces a change? – change
can be viewed in the form of potentiality to actuality – source
of change.
 What is its form – formal cause
 What is it made of – material cause
 What made it – efficient cause
 Purpose, it serves – for what end it was made – final cause
 Actuality and possibility
 one extreme – matter – only possibility – must be moved as it
cannot move or form itself
 another extreme – God – pure actuality – move things without
God being moved or changed in any way – God = unmoved
mover
 any movement from gods side would mean imperfection and
god cannot be imperfect as this is impossible nature.
 Nature exists between these poles
 Said that stars – perfect shapes – were beings with
superhuman intelligence – because their actions are more
rational and purposeful than those of the lower order beings on
earth

 Earth – mortal sphere – things on earth come to be – cease to

be – things are in constant, unsettled state of becoming
 Essence and existence
 Existence and substance
 First judgement regarding a thing – whether or not it exists –
existence judgement – first step
 Then judgement regarding substance and characteristics of a
thing
 If a thing is, what is it?
 Substance – 1) refers to all the individual, particular thing – 2)
refers to what a thing is in common with other things.
 To be a specific thing is to have a set potential that is more or
less realized at any given time and is in a continuous process of
actualization. This forming process constitutes a thing’s being
and allows it to become a whole individual.
 Ex- happiness, beauty, truth, oneness, and justice.
 Ten basic categories – of beings – substance – quantity –
quality – relationships – place – time – posture – constitution –
passivity – activity. Humans make judgements regarding these
attributes
 These categories allow us to comprehend various aspects of
any thing’s being.
 Human beings – rational animals
 Soul (psyche) – form of body – prevents human from falling
apart
 Principal organ of the soul – heart
 Three souls – 1) vegetative soul – source of nourishment and
reproduction. 2) animal soul – basis of sensation and ability to
move – ability to experience feelings of pleasure and pain.
3) Nous or intelligent or spiritual soul – pure and immortal –
not share mortality of the body – more akin to God.
 Aristotle and the theory of forms – THIRD MAN ARGUMENT –
forms are universal – something more than one individual can
be. Example – beautiful, green, circular, etc.
 Forms are found only within particular things, which are an
embodiment of both form and matter.
 ARISTOTLE’S THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE – Aristotle sought to
define things by determining how a thing is similar to other
things(genus)
 how is it specifically different
 Intuition – immediate, direct seeing of a certain truth
 Comprehension of God needs intuition
 Logic – Aristotle made a study of the principles of sound
reasoning, most important forms of inference – syllogism
 Inference – to infer one proposition from other – first one
follows from the others
 Syllogism – in it one proposition is inferred from two others.
 Syllogism is an absolute fundamental form of inference
 Aristotle – father of logic
 He attempted to define FORMS OF THOUGHT – ways in which
we think about reality – represents the way in which reality is.

RISE OF MEAPHYSICS AND EPISTEMOLOGY

Common-sense metaphysics is dualistic. 2 kinds of phenomena exist:

physics and mental (spiritual)
 Other main possibilities
 Dualism – two-realms view
 Dualism – what exists is either physical or mental, things such a
humans have both a physical and a mental component
 Materialism – physicalism – only physical exists.
 Idealism – only mental or spiritual exists – physical things are in some
sense manifestation of the mind.
 Alternative views – some believes what exists is ultimately neither
mental nor physical, whereas some believe that what exists is both
mental and physical – sometimes called DOUBLE ASPECT THEORY

10] René Descartes

 Mathematician, scientist, philosopher

 Originated cartesian coordinates and cartesian curves
 Scepticism as the key to certainty – doubt everything that can
possibly be doubted
 Descartes employed 2 different conjectures – (1) dream conjecture –
(2) evil demon conjecture
 He could doubt absolutely everything, save one indubitable truth: “I
think, therefore I am.”
 To doubt is to think and to exist
 he had discovered in the certainty of his own existence an essential
characteristic of certain truth: anything that was as clear and distinct
as his own existence would pass the litmus test and would also have
to be certain.
 his rule of logic was “Whatever I perceive clearly and distinctly is
certain.”
 beyond God, two separate and distinct substances, and reality has a
dual nature
 On one hand is material substance, who’s essential
 attribute is extension (occupancy of space), and on the other hand is
mind, whose essential attribute is thought.
 A substance according to Descartes require nothing other than itself
to exist
 Parallelism – mind does not really cause the body to move but the
willingness of body or person to move makes itself to move