Philosophy

Philosophy

1. Myth

   • Narration that tries to give an order to the universe.
   • It is diveded in 3 ways of understanding myths
     • attenuated form of intellectuality, autonomous form of thinking, instrument of social control

2. Etymological meaning of philosophy

   • “The love of wisdom”
   • Main questions
     • What can I know? What ought I to do? What may I hope?

3. Approaches to philosophy

   • Love and pursuit of wisdom
     • Type of nuturing love
       • Seeks knowledge
   • Rational justification of beliefs
     • Seeks for rational explanations for our beliefs. Questions our behavior (correct/incorrect)
   • Question of fundamental beliefs
     • For daily life actions and decisions
   • Self understanding
     • Being able to understand our role and purpose
       • What are we doing here?

4. Branches of philosophy

   • Metaphysics
     • Known as the first science
       • Known as the first science. Goes beyond the physical world.
   • Ontology
     • Study the essence of things
       • why the things are what they are?
   • Theodicy
     • Study god by the use of reason, tries to explain god's wishes, and god itself.
       • There are 3 kinds of theodicy: Mythical, Natural and Civil
   • Cosmology
     • • Study the origins of the universe
   • Logic
     • Study of the methods used to recognize what is correct or incorrect
       • Is the reasoning about the best option.
   • Ethics
     • Study the behavior of the human being,
       • Divided in right and wrong.
   • Politics
     • Studies the structure of the society
       • State, Government, politics, liberty, justice and authority
   • Aesthetics
     • Is the study of artistic phenomenon and how it affects thought
   • Anthropology
     • Understanding of the human nature throughout history.

5. Pre-Socratic Cosmologists

   • Pythagoras
     • Anything could be understood by mathematical reasoning.
   • Anaximenes
     • Everything in the universe comes from aire.
       • He established the existence of a microcosmos and a macrocosmos
   • Empedocles
     • everything in the universe is conformed by water, wind, earth and fire.
   • Democritus
     • the universe is conformed by particles (Atoms).
       • Are uncountable and indivisible.
   • Parmenides
     • he universe will not change, the change doesn't exist.
       • He said “What is, is; What isnt, isnt”. .
       • The universe is something indivisible and unchanging
   • Thales
     • First philosopher known ever. Fahter of science. Believed the water was the origin of everything.
   • Anaximander
     • Created the concept of “aperon”, shapeless, infinite grater than anything.
   • Arche
     • The first cause and principle
   • Heraclitus
     • He thought that everything in the universe is a change, All things are in the way of becoming something else.
       • Change has order-logos
   • Anaxagoras
     • Everything in the universe is an array of “seeds”
   • Hybris
     • chaotic, violent, without form, no-reasonable, without balance

6. Philosophical Questions

   • Content
     • Sense of Life
     • Value of a particular act
     • Existential
       • They refer to something essential for the individual and for the whole humanity
     • Moral legitimacy
   • Approach
     • Critique
       • Goes from an affirmation to an interrogation
     • Rational
       • Based on critical thinking.
     • Universal
       • Questions related to human condition.
     • Abstract
       • They use abstract and generic notions with undetermined verbal persons
     • Open
       • They can be answered from many standpoints

7. Sophists

   • Protagoras
     • “Man is the measure of all things”
     • knowledge is in a constant change.
       • knowledge was limited only to the individual itself. The world exists according to the viewer.
     • what the individual saw existed, and what the individual did not saw did not existed
   • Gorgias
     • First “Nothing exists”; second, “If something exists, then we cannot know it”; third, “If we knew something we would not be able to communicate it”.
     • Dissertation on knowledge based on senses
       • We can imagine somethingbut that doesn´t make it real.
   • Framework
     • Were located in Greece when Athens creates an international economy involving all Mediterranean cities
       • Arts evolved enormously leading to a better understanding of nature, and to the Sophists (Wiseman) as the first humanists in history.
       • first time in history a democratic political system is used to govern
     • They taught the art of persuasion

8. Socrates

   • Framework
     • Believed in the power of spoken word thus he never wrote anything
   • Eristic
     • Persuasion
       • Trying to win an argument
   • Maieutic
     • To create new concepts or ideas through questions.
   • Socratic Method
     • Questioning the knowledge that we had already established as truth, by asking questions in order to find the real truth about things.
   • Dialectics
     • Postulation of one thesis, analyzing this thesis and stating an antithesis, finally establishing a synthesis
   • Dialogue
     • Is constant search truth using the spoken language as its mean

9. Plato and the World of Ideas

   • Framework
     • Plato said that the universe was separated in two worlds
       • The sensitive world
       • The world of forms
   • Cavern Myth
     • We live in a world of shadows, controled by the government, religion, and media.
       • Above the cavern is the world ideas, perfect .
   • Concept of Beauty
     • Is just an idea
   • Utopian Republic
     • In which every person has an specific task and she/he is an expert in it.
   • World of ideas
     • Plato observed that things can´t ever be made without calification.
       • Things are only perfect in the world of ideas