Shaikh Muhammad Ali

Introduction to Philosophy and critical thinking

Social Sciences Department
Lecture # 2

HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHTS

Early Ancient Philosophers and their contributions:

 Certain early Greeks from Ionia (Asia Minor) and southern Italy asked questions about
the world around them.
 Instead of attributing its creation to anthropomorphic gods, these early philosophers
broke tradition and sought rational explanations.
 Their speculation formed the early basis for science and natural philosophy.
 Here are some of the earliest and most influential ancient Greek philosophers in
chronological order.

Thales:

The founder of natural philosophy. Thales was a Greek pre-Socratic philosopher from the Ionian
city of Miletus (c. 620 - c. 546 B.C.). He predicted a solar eclipse and was considered one of
the seven ancient sages.
Pythagoras:

Pythagoras was an early Greek philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician known for the
Pythagorean theorem, which geometry students use to figure the hypotenuse of a right triangle.
He was also the founder of a school named for him.
Anaximander:
 Anaximander was a pupil of Thales.
 He was the first to describe the original principle of the universe as apeiron, or boundless,
unlimited or immense and to use the term arche for beginning.
 In the Gospel of John, the first phrase contains the Greek for "beginning"—the same
word "arche."

Eleatic School of Philosophy:

 The Eleatics were a pre-Socratic school of philosophy founded by Parmenides in the
early fifth century BC in the ancient town of Elea.
 Other members of the school included Zeno of Elea and Melissus of Samos.
 Xenophanes is sometimes included in the list.

Empedocles:
 Empedocles was another very influential early Greek philosopher,
 the first to assert the four elements of the universe were earth, air, fire, and water.
 He thought there were two contending guiding forces, love and strife.
 He also believed in transmigration of the soul (passes from one body to another, either
human, animal, or inanimate) and vegetarianism.

Leucippus:
 Leucippus developed the atomist theory, which explained that all matter is made up of
indivisible particles. (The word atom means "not cut.")
 Leucippus thought the universe was composed of atoms in a void.

Xenophanes:
 Born around 570 B.C.,
 Xenophanes was the founder of the Eleatic School of philosophy.
 He fled to Sicily where he joined the Pythagorean School.
 He is known for his satirical poetry ridiculing polytheism and the idea that the gods were
portrayed as humans.
 His eternal deity was the world.
 If there was ever a time when there was nothing, then it was impossible for anything ever
to have come into being.
SOCRATES:
Socrates of Athens (l. c. 470/469-399 BCE) is among the most famous figures in world history
for his contributions to the development of ancient Greek philosophy which provided the
foundation for all of Western Philosophy. He is, in fact, known as the "Father of Western
Philosophy" for this reason.
His most famous student was Plato (l. c. 428/427-348/347 BCE) who would honor his name
through the establishment of a school in Athens (Plato's Academy) and, more so, through the
philosophical dialogues he wrote featuring Socrates as the central character.
Socrates was born c. 469/470 BCE. He studied music, gymnastics, and grammar in his youth (the
common subjects of study for a young Greek) and followed his father's profession as a sculptor.
Tradition holds that he was an exceptional artist and his statue of the Graces, on the road to the
Acropolis, is said to have been admired into the 2nd century CE. Socrates served with distinction
in the army and, at the Battle of Potidaea, saved the life of the General Alcibiades.
Salient points of his Philosophy:

Socrates believed that philosophy should achieve practical results for the greater well-being of
society. He attempted to establish an ethical system based on human reason rather than
theological doctrine.

Socrates pointed out that human choice was motivated by the desire for happiness. Ultimate
wisdom comes from knowing oneself. The more a person knows, the greater his or her ability to
reason and make choices that will bring true happiness.

PLATO:
A Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, writer of philosophical dialogues. Founder of the
Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his
mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the foundations of Western
philosophy and science. Plato was originally a student of Socrates, and was as much influenced
by his thinking as by his apparently unjust execution.

Salient points of his Philosophy:

Knowledge is not sense- perception, not what simply appears to me. Like Socrates, Plato
believes in “virtue is knowledge,” and the source of knowledge is virtue. It is not abstract, but
concrete knowledge, not theoretical but practical knowledge. A man must know what is good so
that he may do good. Virtue can be taught, and there are four cardinal virtues: wisdom, courage
or fortitude, temperance, and justice.
Prudence: The first cardinal virtue:
Aristotle defined prudence as recta ratio agibilium, "right reason applied to practice." It is the
virtue that allows us to judge correctly what is right and what is wrong in any given situation.
When we mistake the evil for the good, we are not exercising prudence—in fact, we are showing
our lack of it.
Justice: The second cardinal virtue:
Justice is connected to the idea of rights. While we often use justice in a negative sense ("He got
what he deserved"), justice in its proper sense is positive. Injustice occurs when we as
individuals or by law deprive someone of that which he is owed. Legal rights can never outweigh
natural ones.
Fortitude: The third cardinal virtue:

Fortitude allows us to overcome fear and to remain steady in our will in the face of obstacles, but
it is always reasoned and reasonable; the person exercising fortitude does not seek danger for
danger's sake. Prudence and justice are the virtues through which we decide what needs to be
done; fortitude gives us the strength to do it.

Fortitude is the only one of the cardinal virtues that is also a gift of the Holy Spirit, allowing us
to rise above our natural fears in defense of the Christian faith.

Temperance: The fourth cardinal virtue:

temperance is the restraint of our desires or passions. Food, drink, and sex are all necessary for
our survival, individually and as a species; yet a disordered desire for any of these goods can
have disastrous consequences, physical and moral.

Temperance is the virtue that attempts to keep us from excess, and, as such, requires the
balancing of legitimate goods against our inordinate desire for them. Our legitimate use of such
goods may be different at different times; temperance is the "golden mean" that helps us
determine how far we can act on our desires.
BRIEF HISTORY OF ARISTOTLE:
He was a Greek philosopher and polymath. (a person of wide knowledge or learning). Also a
student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including
physics, metaphysics, poetry, theatre, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government,
ethics, biology, and zoology. Aristotle's writings were the first to create a comprehensive system
of Western philosophy, encompassing ethics, aesthetics, logic, science, politics, and metaphysics.
Aristotle as Empiricist
Empiricism is a theory of knowledge which states that knowledge comes only or primarily from
sensory experience. Aristotle is an empiricist because he thinks that all knowledge comes to
human beings from and through sensation. Our minds start out as blank slates and from sensation
we get our ideas or the so-called "contents" of our minds.
Aristotle and metaphysics:
Metaphysics-Kinds of Causes of Things:
 the formal cause (the form of the thing)
 the material cause (what it is made of)
 the efficient cause (what made it)
 the final cause (its purpose or end)

Aristotle divided his Metaphysics into three parts

 Ontology: The study of being and existence; includes the definition and classification
of entities, physical or mental, the nature of their properties, and the nature of change.
 Theology: The study of a God or gods; involves many topics, including among others
the nature of religion and the world, existence of the divine, questions about Creation,
and the numerous religious or spiritual issues that concern humankind in general.
 Universal science: The study of first principles, such as the law of non-contradiction
(logic), which Aristotle believed were the foundation of all other inquiries.

Aristotle and Ethics:

 Ethics, also known as moral philosophy, is a branch of philosophy that involves
systematizing, defending and recommending concepts of right and wrong conduct.
 Aristotle considered ethics to be a practical rather than theoretical study, i.e., one aimed
at becoming good and doing good rather than knowing for its own sake.
 Aristotle taught that virtue has to do with the proper function of a thing.
  An eye is only a good eye in so much as it can see, because the proper function of an eye
is sight.
 Aristotle reasoned that humans must have a function specific to humans, and that this
function must be an activity of the soul in accordance with reason.
Logic
 The term "logic" came from the Greek word logos, which is sometimes translated as
"sentence", "discourse", "reason", "rule", and "ratio “.
 Logic as the study of the principles of correct reasoning.
 Actually quite a controversial matter.

Logic and Aristotle:

Aristotle was the first to systematically study and catalogue the rules of correct logical
reasoning
 His logic is important because it dominated all western thought, including scientific
thought, until the 19th century CE; it also had enormous influence on the development of
Jewish, Christian and Muslim philosophy. It is still influential today.
 Although other types of logical systems exist, Aristotelian logic is still a powerful tool
used to teach reasoning skills in numerous academic disciplines.

In his logic, Aristotle explicitly established three laws of logical thought.

 Law # 1: Law of Identity: “each thing is inseparable from itself and its being one just
meant this”
 A thing is just itself and not something else: e.g. a soccer ball is a soccer ball and not a
kitchen stove.
 Sometimes this is expressed as A = A.
 Note: the fact that we can use a book for a doorstop does not mean it is not a book.
 Its use does not contradict the law of identity.
 What a thing is and how it is used are two different issues

In his logic, Aristotle explicitly established three laws of logical thought.

 Law # 2: The law of Contradiction: “the same attribute cannot at the and in the same
respect” same time belong and not belong to the same subject
 E.g. my cup cannot be blue and not blue at the same time •A cannot be A and not-A at the
same time in the same way/respect.
 Note: things may have and not have the same attributes in different ways: e.g. man is the
most intelligent creature compared to animals but he is not intelligent compared to God.
 So man is both intelligent (compared to animals) and not intelligent (compared to God).
 There is no contradiction because ‘intelligent’ is being used in different ways.

In his logic, Aristotle explicitly established three laws of logical thought.

  Law # 3: the law of the excluded middle or excluded third: “there cannot be an
intermediate between two contradictories, but of one subject we must either affirm or
deny any one predicate [statement]” .
 A statement about a topic must either be true or false.
 It cannot be both, i.e. there is no middle between them.
 It cannot be neither true nor false.
 Note: It is either true that Socrates is mortal or it is not true that he is not mortal.
 He is not both.
 Nor can he be neither mortal nor immortal.
 Another example: It is either true that there is a rubber duck in my bath tub or it is not
true. Nor can we say neither of these choices is true.

Epistemology and Aristotle:

 Epistemology is derived from the two Greek words “episteme “knowledge and “logos”
science, and means the science of knowledge. As employed in philosophy the word
means the science of the certitude of human knowledge.
 Aristotle defines soul as the Form of a natural body that has the potential to possess life.
 This body then must be furnished with organs: lungs, stomach etc.
 Life then is the process of growth and nutrition.
 Sensation requires an external stimulus, to move the potentiality to an actuality.
 In this case, the perceptive organ, i.e. the eye, is potentially what the object is actually.
 When having a sensation, the eye, which is only logically distinct from the “seeing” of
the eye, is one in quality with the object of sight.
 So when looking at a green wall, the eye becomes qualitatively green.