HUMANITIES – ANCIENT GREEKS
HUM2230_Lec_1_GreekPhilosophy_b - power point notes
Why
Why
the ancient Greek world never hosted a state religion. . . . Rather, there is a remarkable integration of the secular and the reverential, the secular and the religious—an integration of belief and myth with action and thought . . .
The spiritual dimension of life is coextensive with human experience and seems to be a vital ingredient. . . . but the inquiring mind is restless and demands a justification for its favored beliefs. . . . and it is fearful of self-deception.
(click) Parthenon ruins picture-- the Parthenon, was a classical center of mythology.
The Parthenon was one of the classical buildings influential
in the Renaissance.
(click) Why
Occasionally, wealth and power and inspired patronage add to these civilizations a lasting record of artistic and literary merit capable of influencing posterity long after the wealth and power have disappeared.
The era of Hellenism---of all its achievements, it would be ancient Greek philosophy that would guide much of what would come to be Western civilization in its finest hours.
xxx- Pre-Socratics – focus on ultimate, underlying constituent of the universe
Four different pre-Socratics (not listed here): air, water, fire, earth
Pythagoras -Astonishing
number of original discoveries;
What is the Pythagorean theorem? (a-sq + b-sq = c-sq)
-- Discoverer of the musical scale and musical harmonies – mathematical principles of harmony (or one of his disciples).
--The view that creation is itself an expression of an essentially harmonic and mathematical structure expressive of a divinely rational plan.
Hence, the divinity of number, the creative power of number itself, the creative power of the cosmic soul, the ultimate creative force in the universe.
-- How is it that abstract mathematics, initially utterly uninterested in the things of this world, nonetheless ends up proving the best, most accurate, most precise, and most revealing characterization of the things of this world?
Democritus – father of materialism; everything is
reducible to the level of a-toms
What about dreams – desires – emotions – our sensations – our thoughts – are these atomic?
Such collections of atoms like furniture, buildings, animals, people –are all ephemeral. . . the fate of everything is dictated by the atomic structure . . . when the forces that hold things together become weakened through injury or disease or age, the atomic structure breaks down
Heraclitus
(@ 500BC) had grave doubts about our ability to answer fundamental questions without introducing our own prejudices into the equation. .
“No one descends twice into the same river” seeing nothing but flux and change everywhere; Everything is changing in every respect, all the time. For Heraclitus “things” do not change; rather, “change” calls “things” into being. (e.g. an acorn, becomes a seedling, becomes an oak tree, becomes disintegrated material)
human wisdom consists in grasping the logos . . . Pythagoreans offered mathematics; Heraclitus offers language as the key to understanding the universe. It is a counterpart to the biblical “In the beginning was the WORD . . .” God is the author of wise discourse, a system of meaning.
xxx- Socrates
(intro slide): “To find yourself, think for yourself.”
We saw how the pre-Socratics were focused on the cosmos at large; at the underlying factor of Reality, of the total Universe.
Fortunately, Socrates . . . shifts philosophical attention from the cosmos . . . turning it into the human condition itself. He will argue that each of us not only fails to be the measure of all things, but we are generally very poor in our understanding of our very own selves. With him, philosophy now becomes an utterly humanizing and humanistic enterprise . . . from which there will be no retreating.
Socrates said, “To Find yourself, think for yourself.” Socrates believed one cannot just accept the world as it comes at him. He must think in order to understand and to find a true glimpse of truth and the meaning of life. This then passed down the tradition that thinking rationally was a necessary aspect of living.
xxx- Think, Think Rationally
…Socrates believed in the pursuit of truth, and he believed individuals should strive to do this by rational thinking. He believed the world could be understood and explained through thinking. Rather than just accept things as they were or were assumed to be, he began trying to understand why they were and why people thought they way they did.
Knowledge is Virtue
One of Socrates’ core teachings was the idea that knowledge is virtue. One of Socrates core interests was the moral character of man. He came to the conclusion that moral actions are the result of having virtue and that virtue comes through knowledge.
Prior to Socrates, people believed that what was moral was doing what was pleasing to the gods. However, Socrates saw this as weak and uncertain based on the wavering character of the gods and the whimsical wishes of the priests that represented them.
He believed good was founded in a higher, more definite authority than the character of the gods. This authority he believed was immutable, unconditional truth, and virtuous action comes by knowledge of this truth.
…People just don’t know what good is. They do what they think is best, but what they think is best is not really the actual best. What they think is good is not actually the highest good. What people lack is not will power but knowledge of the truth that leads to virtue.
Teacher
Thus, in order to cause people to good, you have only to teach them what good is. . .
Yet quite ironically, Socrates claims he did not teach anyone anything, for Socrates believed he could not teach.
He said, “I cannot teach anybody anything. I can only make them think.”
Although people considered him the wisest man to be alive, Socrates believed he actually knew nothing at all, and therefore could not teach anyone anything.
Thus, instead of teaching his students lessons, he developed a different technique unique from any other “teacher” previous to his time…
xxx- Socratic Method
…and that technique has now come to be called “The Socratic Method.”
Socrates asked his students questions to get them to discover truth.
This method dramatically impacted the world, & Socrates is considered to be the first to employ it.
He asked questions about people’s ideas to see if any belief they had was irrational or illogical.
He even refused to answer questions with direct replies, but rather replied to questions with even deeper questions that addressed the issue at hand.
Giving the answer to them would not be true knowledge.
He did this because of a fundamental belief he had:
Socrates believed that all knowledge lies within all people.
No one can learn anything new, and nothing can be taught because everyone already knows everything.
However, we have just forgotten it and need to draw it out. We draw it out by questions.
Socrates believed that souls were eternal and are reincarnated. Each time we are reborn we forget our knowledge. We must ask questions to draw out all the knowledge from our past lives. If one asks the right questions, he will find the right answers. This introduced the world to the concept of continually challenging your beliefs with questions.
Because Socrates believed we will only do the right things if we know the right things, he believed it was critical to continuously question what we think we know in order to find true knowledge.
xxx- Death of Socrates
Unfortunately, the world can be resistant to new ideas.
Socrates made many people angry by his blunt honesty, radical new ways of thinking, criticism of politics and rulers, and method of teaching.
The Athenian rulers felt threatened by the great influence
Socrates had, and especially by his criticism of their government and
immorality and his praise of their archrival
So.. …the Athenian rulers that opposed Socrates put him on trial and condemned him as guilty of corrupting the minds of the Athenian youth. . . . , and sentenced him to death.
Socrates had the opportunity to flee, but he did not, for various reasons.
Painting by Jacques-Louis David “The Death of Socrates”
THE TRIAL AND DEATH OF SOCRATES is a compilation four
dialogues: the "Euthyphro," the "Apology,"
"Crito," and the "Phaedo". As the title clearly states,
these four dialogues convey the story - and philosophical debate - that
surrounded Socates' trial and death. In these dialogues we find Socrates defending
the righteousness of his actions and views, and tearing away at his prosecutors
with the skill of expert lawyer. His only weapon being the truth. . . . and
so-called Socratic method of endless penetrating questions is here exemplified
in the most dire of occasions - Socrates defense against the State of Athens.
xxx-Plato – intro, student and follower of Socrates
Socrates never wrote out any of his ideas or philosophy.
Plato recorded Socrates’ ideas in the form of dialogues. He wasn’t the only one to write these Socratic Dialogues, but he was the most notable, both for his accuracy, depth, and number of writings.
Some of these dialogues include such familiar works as Plato’s Republic¸ Apology, Meno, Sophist, Statesman, and Laws. Because Plato wrote down Socrates ideas, it is difficult to determine which are actually Socrates’ and which are uniquely Plato’s. It’s unclear whether Plato was really recording Socrates’ ideas or just using him as a character to give credibility to his own. However, given the history provided by other contemporaries, it does appear that Plato stays fairly true to Socrates’ original beliefs.
Plato wrote over 35 of these dialogues, and scholars have determined three classes within Plato’s Socratic dialogues—early, middle, and later—and the later dialogues have a shift in style that enables us to differentiate between Plato’s teachings and those of his master.
These later dialogues have Socrates’ performing more direct teaching rather than asking questions, and this has led scholars to conclude that Plato was using these unique dialogues to record his own beliefs rather than those of his teacher.
xxx- Perfect Forms
Perhaps Plato’s greatest influence to succeeding generations of thinkers, and still is highly influential today: is his theory of Perfect Forms. ----This was the basis of his whole philosophy
Problem of Universals – also called ‘the One and the Many’ Problem
-- Words (not proper nouns) are Universals
-- we think in terms of universals
-- we use reason to form abstractions – via deductive reasoning
-- higher abstractions such as courage, justice, love, honor, triangles
-- we perceive in particulars
xxx- Dualism: Two world Universe: Plato believed
there is a division of reality between the irreconcilable worlds of the
material and the immaterial.
The true reality (of True Forms) lies above the world we observe around us. True reality is spiritual, abstract, and distant. Plato believed the truth is absolute and immaterial and exists in its own immaterial world beyond this material world. The forms of perfect things and truth exist in this immaterial world. He believed this world was not just an idea, but an actual state of existence above and beyond our own and was eternal and unchangeable.
This world is but a shadow. The world we observe around us is but a shadow of the true forms that lie above in the eternal, perfect platonic world. Plato denied the reality of the material world. Everything we observe is always changing, inconsistent, and untrue. Thus, it is but a shadow of perfect, unchanging truth.
This Dualism view of the cosmos- probably held by most (but not all) of the Christian, Jewish, & Muslim faith. Various Buddhist sects teach that all in the world is but illusion.
xxx- Soul is good and eternal; it is ineffable – beyond
the power of human reason
The source of all Perfect Forms is God, but not a personal God.
All forms are related to each other. Science is about discovering these relationships.
One form that connects all the others (in some way) = GOOD
Good is the Supreme Form (God just has one less ‘o’) ;-)
Good – tells us what to strive for, what to use our knowledge for.
In Plato’s dualism, the source of evil is Matter; the chaos of matters gives rise to Evil (can you see why Plato has been influential in Christianity?)
GOOD is what EVERYTHING aims at (not just humans) –
Universal Teleology: there is a purpose behind everything
xxx- Raging Conflict
That serene picture of the Soul is Countered by another picture of Plato’s vision of the Soul
The soul is what it is good and eternal. It is an eternal form, and because it is a form, it is true and good.
Only the soul can perceive the perfect forms, for it is perfect itself.
However the body hinders the soul from finding truth. The senses distract it from true reality.
The body’s appetite causes the owner of the soul to crave evil.
But after the body dies and disintegrates, the eternal soul is free to move into the realm of pure forms and lives forever.
A Hydra in Greek mythology is a multi-headed beast; it could grow back a head if it was cut off; it could spew poisonous fumes at enemies.
Plato put forth an image that a human is a combination of a multi-headed beast, a lion, and a man: the three grow into one and make the whole outside look like a human.
Plato is the Father of the Dichotomy of Mind (or soul) and Body
Tremendously influential theory.
Freud –Theory of soul: ID – wild uncontrollable urges of appetite.
Ego and Super-Ego not quite the same as Spirit & Reason
Plato at least had reason play important part; for Freud - reason is completely at mercy of other parts of soul.
xxx- Plato on Knowledge: mosaic of Plato’s Academy from
• Because the world is an imperfect shadow, observation of the world will only lead to imperfect ideas.
• If one seeks knowledge experientially or by observation, he will find only opinions rather than true knowledge.
• This world is in a state of flux, so the views derived from it also will always be changing and thus instable opinions.
• The phenomena we perceive with our senses is imperfect and leads to imperfect knowledge.
c) Thinking –
you are here when you start studying mathematics. You know forms, but they are still
confused by imagery. You might know
the definition of e.g. courage, and some principles; but you would still be using some sensible
images to help you. You would not be
absolutely certain at this stage.
d) True Knowledge – You have had your mystic vision of the form of the GOOD – you are omniscient at this point! You know all the forms and all the relationships among them; and you know WHY – to what reason / purpose everything is striving. This gives you complete certainty.
· (click) Plato established: The Academy/ school--The Academy was quite exclusive to wealthy young Greek men interested in learning and discussing ideas with great thinkers.
· Plato instructed many of these young men at his Academy after establishing it in 387 BC. He particularly focused his teachings in the fields of philosophy, epistemology, metaphysics, mathematics, astronomy, politics, and methodology.
· But since it was not meant to be a strict institution of learning and since it did not have a formal curriculum, the Academy members primarily discussed different points of thinking and posed problems to be studied and solved.
xxx- Plato’s Ethics
Ethics (and Politics) in a comprehensive systematic Philosophy, like Plato and Aristotle put forth: foundation is Metaphysics and Epistemology
(click) You have Happiness when you have a healthy soul.
To achieve Happiness, reason must rule over appetite and spirit, which are blind; only by reason can one know the GOOD.
(click) Function of Reason is to acquire knowledge of the forms so you can attain the GOOD.
Reason’s virtue is Wisdom.
Etc. (Click through bullet points)
Consequences of Plato’s ethics: Asceticism is the essence of virtue for Plato;
xxx- Aristotle
- Intro
The attendees of Plato’s Academy included many great thinkers, but the most notable, which can be seen in this engraving being taught by Plato himself, was… Aristotle, who is considered by many scholars to be the father of natural science.
instructed by Plato at The Academy, learned how to think under him, discovered the world with him, and studied all of his ideas for nineteen years……he eventually grew to disagree with Plato on his fundamental ideas…most notable disagreement with Plato that what should be studied is the world we sense around us.
Aristotle was the first to present a philosophic argument for a rational, common-sense, yet scientific, view of the world.
xxx- Only ONE world
Aristotle could not bring himself to think of the world in the abstract ways Plato did. Aristotle did not believe in the perfect platonic world. (denied FORMS) He did not think that THE TRUE reality existed in some abstract world beyond the one we sense and observe.
For Aristotle, there is only ONE world, the one in which we live and sense things around us.
Universals do not exist in a super-natural world, such that we Know them by Remembering them for a past life of our Soul – Plato put consciousness, i.e., that we become conscious of things already in our mind, over Existence of Real things in the world. Those things we see, for Plato, are not Real, they are mere imitations of the Real Form – the Real Form is only in our consciousness.
For Aristotle – what exists is independent of our minds.
xxx- Aristotle’s Unmoved Mover
First two points are basically his whole argument for the Unmoved Mover.
We will learn about his influence on Catholicism later.
xxx- Aristotle on Empirical Knowledge: Aristotle’s
greatest legacy is in the area of Epistemology (how we know things), which
includes formal Logic.
Aristotle believed knowledge is empirical. Reality is what we experience, the world around us, the physical world, the world we can sense, observe, measure, and describe.
Aristotle disagreed with Socrates that all knowledge lies within us and needs only to be drawn out by questions, for he believed that the world must be studied to learn truth.
And he disagreed with Plato that the world to be studied is distant and abstract.
We observe the world around us to find truth. We can trust in our senses and, in fact, must trust in our senses to find truth. Knowledge of truth comes by observing, studying, and experimenting with the world we are in. Through observation of the world, truth is revealed.
Universals are grasped by abstraction from particulars.
E.g. three tables: one large, square, made of wood; one small, circular, made of metal; a third long, rectangular, made out of stone.
You abstract what they have in common (a platform that stands on legs used to place things upon), and you eliminate the things which are different (what they are made out of, size, color, shape).
This is crucial in knowledge. The language of science is in terms of universals. Putting things in categories is just something that humans (reason) are able to do.
You get basic abstractions (man, dog, fish, ant) and form higher abstractions from those – animal.
--- Tabula Rasa – blank slate [discussion – do humans have intuition?]
---Induction: process of passing in thought from particulars (particular observations) to a general principle. E.g. gravity – observing individual things all falling – induce a general principle from those observations (e.g. the rate of descent).
Note: he did not yet have our modern knowledge about controlled experimentation – did not tell us how to perform inductions. (Scientists just ‘do’ this – no philosopher has stated a logical principle of how to do this “properly”)
---Deduction: apply to particular cases. Now we can fly a man to the moon.
Once we now that all human beings eventually die, you can deduce that you will die some day.
Deduction only comes after Induction (except for rational abstractions, such as mathematics)
Aristotle was the first to see the difference between these two types of reasoning.
He sees how you build up a whole integrated system of knowledge by going back and forth between induction and deduction.
Syllogism: an example of one of Aristotle’s rules for logic. Induction – observation and general principle regarding all men. Deduce, Socrates is mortal.
xxx- Aristotle, the Scientist
Aristotle developed many natural sciences because of this belief, for he believed that the only way to find knowledge, truth, and meaning was to study the nature of a thing.
Aristotle studied nearly everything and developed many sciences including…
Yeah. Aristotle kept busy. He did a lot. He was not the only scientist, nor the best . . . But his approach to knowledge led to the scientific method:
Question, observe, form idea, experiment, analyze, come to conclusion – essence of scientific method. Come to know the natural laws.
Because his beliefs and methods differed greatly from Plato’s, Aristotle wanted to start his own unique school to pass down his teachings. Therefore, he established…the Lyceum.
The Lyceum was more of a formal institution than Plato’s Academy, and many came to learn about natural sciences, which was Aristotle’s obvious specialty.
Writing. We now have many of Aristotle’s writings because he wrote a vast array of works on his studies. He wrote about everything he studied.
xxx- Aristotle’s famous student – Alexander the Great;
Alexander spreads culture
Aristotle was the teacher of the great emperor that changed the face of the world.
xxx- Socrates - review
xxx- PLATO - review
xxx- Aristotle - review
xxx- Raphael’s
xxx- Two Giants of Philosophy
What is the significance of their postures?
It is often said that all philosophy discourses – are but a mere footnotes to Plato and Aristotle
xxx- Picture - a restored rendition of the Parthenon.
This is example of the type of art
and architecture from ancient
xxx- Picture – Athena Parthenos
xxx- Think (brain) You must think
and form your own opinions . . . (end)