What is philosophy?What is philosophy?

* The Life of Reason

*“A reasoned pursuit of fundamental truths.” Concerned with problems whose solution depend

not on facts but ways of thinking about these facts.

* A critical approach to all subjects.*A careful examination and reflection on our

ideas, beliefs, opinions.* An attitude of critical and systematic

thoughtfulness“We are philosophers already”: It is in our nature!

PHILOSOPHY IN ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY IN ANCIENT TIMESTIMES

Challenging the authority of the historians and poets like Hesiod and Homer.

Seeking a rational explanation of why things happen.

Karl Jaspers: The axial period. Man becomes aware of Being as a whole, of himself and he asks radical questions.

In the East and the West.

Philosophy as historically developing concept.

SOCRATES: SNUBBED SOCRATES: SNUBBED NOSE, THE GADFLY NOSE, THE GADFLY

AND DRUNK!AND DRUNK!Aristophanes: Socrates and the clouds.

Plato: The Apology and other Discourses.

His Story: Plato’s “Apology.”

His Maxims:

Know Thyself.

The Unexamined Life is not worth living.

The fear of death is nothing but the imitation of knowledge.

The only thing he knows is that he does not know.

Philein+SophiaPhilein+Sophia

Philein: Love between friends. A Madness?

Sophia: Wisdom (not knowledge)

Method: Conversation, Discourse.

Plato and Dialectic, more on this later.

Aristotle: Philosophy as Wonder. Thinking our way around the maze!

Wonder as sense or feeling of the mental importance of things.

Humans are rational animals! Philosophy as human centered.

Eve and PhilosophyEve and Philosophy

• Who was or is Eve?

• Philosophy as the queen of the sciences

• Takes our heads out of the clouds and enlarges our view of ourselves and the world

• Mary Midgley: Philosophy and Plumbing

• The acceptance of confusion, ambiguity, perplexity

PHILOSOPHY AS WAY PHILOSOPHY AS WAY OF LIFEOF LIFE

Confucius and Buddha

The Stoics: Epicurus.

Live according to Nature.

Reason is limited and can only concern itself with what it can change.

THE MIDDLE AGESTHE MIDDLE AGES

St. Thomas Aquinas

The use of reason to justify and complement faith.

Concern for cause and ultimate cause (God).

Using Aristotle to think about fundamental issues related to the nature of things, God and the human world.

THE MODERN THE MODERN CONCEPTIONCONCEPTION

“Philosophy is first and foremost a discipline that teaches us how to articulate, hold and defend beliefs that we have held but have held without spelling them out and arguing for them” -- Solomon

Reason and good reasoning: Logic also

Formulating, clarify ideas and beliefs

Like Science: assumes universe is rational and operates according to laws or principles

Ideal of Modern Philosophy: Thinking for oneself

Critical Reflection

DESCARTES AND THE DESCARTES AND THE ENLIGHTENMENTENLIGHTENMENT

The Age of Reason

Great hope that reason would improve life

The power of reason and mind

Doubt and Skepticism:

Questioning traditional authority and church

Descartes’ Method: introspection, doubt and the quest for certainty

Philosophy as fundamental

Bertrand Russell: The Value of Philosophy

MARX AND MARX AND NIETZSCHENIETZSCHE

Marx:

Philosophy as activity. Idea of Praxis; analysis of labour/work which is human conscious activity.

Philosophy no longer just interpretation but world force (“Philosophy has hitherto only interpreted the world; the point is to change it”)

The Proletariate and Class Consciousness: radicalism-- getting to the root, which is human beings themselves.

End of Philosophy or Fulfillment?

Nietzsche:

The critique of philosophy; philosophy as self-critique or self critical

Philosophy and truth are antithetical and at odds with human beings

Psychological approach to why humans want truth and philosophy

Philosophy as Philosophy as Philosophy of . . . Philosophy of . . .

Aims at the Big Questions: the role of definition

Philosophy of Art

Philosophy of Religion

Philosophy of Mind

Philosophy of Salad?