Historical Introduction to Philosophy (W0Z00A)
1: Origins of philosophy
Ways of dealing with philosophy:
- Dramatic
- Creative
- Theoretical
- Rational:
o Objective intelligibility (if you have the capacity of thought, you should be
able to reproduce the explanation by yourself in an objective way; what you
find as the answer will be identical to answer that people are seeing; is not
always real in outside world, people in same context see it as objectively true)
o Universally valid (it should be valid for everyone at any time, not only for
some people in a given time; there are exceptions however, e.g. science
agrees that some things that are universal now can be jeopardized in the
future when something new is found)
o Systematically ordering
does not mean that another philosopher is wrong when you have all of these,
and he/she doesn’t
Wonder that leads to rational explanation also necessitates engagement/commitment (you
need to engage with the world when you see…)
- Cave of Plato (seeing truth over what anyone accepts to be true philosopher isn’t
always welcomed back in society because of their new views)
Philosophers are in this way activists of the mind
- Way of questioning things is self-destructive (e.g. to become mathematician, you
only need to absorb maths; but to be a philosopher means to deal with history-
having the idea that previous philosophers went wrong and you have to start from
the beginning philosophy seems to get nowhere)
- Ideology ends in some kind of violence because of raising questions
- There are however results (e.g. abolition of slavery started in antiquity with people
questioning widespread use of other people for own purposes, & has lasted until
1844-and eventually accepted that it was unacceptable there is however slavery,
but there is some kind of advance, rationalizing world in terms of universally
accepting that it isn’t tolerable & coping the same way in similar situations)
- Put our own days in perspective
1
,Hegel: philosophie ist ihre zeit in gedanken erfasst (the thinking expression of its own day)
- If we now raise questions, those are shaped by our days and reflect thinking made in
our present society
- Philosophy becomes more complex because it must answer more questions and
objections of previous times
Philosophy in antiquity:
- 6th BCE – 6th
o Before very specific way of explaining the world (through myths: e.g. why
does the sun shines every day and goes away: because there is a God;
seasons)
- Start of new mentality
Myth:
- Mythos, story
o Greek oral myth
o Greek colonization spread of Greek philosophy
o By encountering different world views through colonization, the Greeks
became aware of the relativity of their own views became engine of
questioning mythological Gods & others…
- Foundational event
- Non critical
- Normative & legitimizing
Homer
Hesiod: the world view according to Greeks (drawing)
The cultural shock of the 6th BCE
- Contact with foreign people’s critique of anthropomorphism
- Xenophanes
o Criticizes anthropomorphic views and representations of immoral gods
o Argues Homer and Hesiod (Gods are what you are)
- From oral to written culture
Critique of myth:
o Myths are viewed as nothing but stories, now written culture
o Standardized versions ( but complies with standards of philosophy; Lack of
credibility)
2
, - Logos: discourse, reason
o = new way of explaining things
o Rationalized versions of myths
Decentralization of the world:
- Old myths are set aside; new accounts in which you must explain nature as such, not
by appealing to the divine
- Supranational/nature
- Nature is a force that grows (physis, force of growth that determines nature)
- = birth of philosophy (explanation is given by means of logos)
- First type: natural philosophy (explains nature, like present day science, cosmology
(logic is inherent in cosmos-explanatory force is identical to structure that underlies
cosmos itself, logos of our mind + logos present in things that makes it have an
organized structure))
The “pre-Socratic” philosophers:
- Thales: primordial principle; everything is water (everything in nature is based on
this)
o 585 BCE
- Materialism
- Looking for the arkhè
o 1st principle = prime matter
Discovery of:
- Logos (rational)
- Physis (how nature is)
- Kosmos (how the cosmos comes into existence)
- Theoria:
o Thea (theatre, something made to see) – horan (to see) sightseeing
o Thales: “for the sake of theoria” (to see what is there)
o Theoros: ambassador, the one that does sightseeing visitors (not involved in
what is going on, just watch)
o To look at nature from non-involved perspective without looking for any
immediate use (possibility to change things, only to know)
institutional side, before it became philosophical
o Herodotos: witness to changing mentality; what makes greeks different from
other peoples
3
, o Starting to find ideological reasons to distinguish themselves from other
peoples (e.g. Greeks & Egyptians – gift of Nile)
o Before: studying for sake of practical purposes (e.g. geometry, mathematics)
detaching knowledge from its practical use and study it for its own sake
(to have theoria)
The 7 sages (sofoi):
o 7 wise persons who were specialist in knowledge, & had access to logos,
physis, kosmos, theoria
o
Being v becoming
- Reflection on principle of nature on more sophisticated level
- Explaining totality of cosmos
- World never had a beginning, nor will it ever have an end (permanent repeating
existence)
- Motion/change should be explained (problem of motion v rests; 2 extreme positions
in greek world: East v West; Heraclitus v Parmenides):
Heraclitus:
- Ephesos (East)
- Everything flows and nothing stays (panta rhei)
- Permanent change
- Reality is never stable
- By forces in nature that try to destroy one another (tensions between pieces)
- Conflict of opposites
Parmenides
- It is or it is not
o If it is, you must face consequences, if it is not there is nothing else (non-
existence, final world)
o Materialism: finding primordial principle of something (in the world, there
are things that are; affirming it; focus on its being, concrete ‘it is’ is the
primordial principle that underlies every existing thing)
o If you trust your senses, they teach you differences between things, but in
fact there is no difference (put aside senses to discover truth about the
world; access reality without senses; you can only use them to find
something without senses)
o all being is identical (nature as a whole never changes)
4
1: Origins of philosophy
Ways of dealing with philosophy:
- Dramatic
- Creative
- Theoretical
- Rational:
o Objective intelligibility (if you have the capacity of thought, you should be
able to reproduce the explanation by yourself in an objective way; what you
find as the answer will be identical to answer that people are seeing; is not
always real in outside world, people in same context see it as objectively true)
o Universally valid (it should be valid for everyone at any time, not only for
some people in a given time; there are exceptions however, e.g. science
agrees that some things that are universal now can be jeopardized in the
future when something new is found)
o Systematically ordering
does not mean that another philosopher is wrong when you have all of these,
and he/she doesn’t
Wonder that leads to rational explanation also necessitates engagement/commitment (you
need to engage with the world when you see…)
- Cave of Plato (seeing truth over what anyone accepts to be true philosopher isn’t
always welcomed back in society because of their new views)
Philosophers are in this way activists of the mind
- Way of questioning things is self-destructive (e.g. to become mathematician, you
only need to absorb maths; but to be a philosopher means to deal with history-
having the idea that previous philosophers went wrong and you have to start from
the beginning philosophy seems to get nowhere)
- Ideology ends in some kind of violence because of raising questions
- There are however results (e.g. abolition of slavery started in antiquity with people
questioning widespread use of other people for own purposes, & has lasted until
1844-and eventually accepted that it was unacceptable there is however slavery,
but there is some kind of advance, rationalizing world in terms of universally
accepting that it isn’t tolerable & coping the same way in similar situations)
- Put our own days in perspective
1
,Hegel: philosophie ist ihre zeit in gedanken erfasst (the thinking expression of its own day)
- If we now raise questions, those are shaped by our days and reflect thinking made in
our present society
- Philosophy becomes more complex because it must answer more questions and
objections of previous times
Philosophy in antiquity:
- 6th BCE – 6th
o Before very specific way of explaining the world (through myths: e.g. why
does the sun shines every day and goes away: because there is a God;
seasons)
- Start of new mentality
Myth:
- Mythos, story
o Greek oral myth
o Greek colonization spread of Greek philosophy
o By encountering different world views through colonization, the Greeks
became aware of the relativity of their own views became engine of
questioning mythological Gods & others…
- Foundational event
- Non critical
- Normative & legitimizing
Homer
Hesiod: the world view according to Greeks (drawing)
The cultural shock of the 6th BCE
- Contact with foreign people’s critique of anthropomorphism
- Xenophanes
o Criticizes anthropomorphic views and representations of immoral gods
o Argues Homer and Hesiod (Gods are what you are)
- From oral to written culture
Critique of myth:
o Myths are viewed as nothing but stories, now written culture
o Standardized versions ( but complies with standards of philosophy; Lack of
credibility)
2
, - Logos: discourse, reason
o = new way of explaining things
o Rationalized versions of myths
Decentralization of the world:
- Old myths are set aside; new accounts in which you must explain nature as such, not
by appealing to the divine
- Supranational/nature
- Nature is a force that grows (physis, force of growth that determines nature)
- = birth of philosophy (explanation is given by means of logos)
- First type: natural philosophy (explains nature, like present day science, cosmology
(logic is inherent in cosmos-explanatory force is identical to structure that underlies
cosmos itself, logos of our mind + logos present in things that makes it have an
organized structure))
The “pre-Socratic” philosophers:
- Thales: primordial principle; everything is water (everything in nature is based on
this)
o 585 BCE
- Materialism
- Looking for the arkhè
o 1st principle = prime matter
Discovery of:
- Logos (rational)
- Physis (how nature is)
- Kosmos (how the cosmos comes into existence)
- Theoria:
o Thea (theatre, something made to see) – horan (to see) sightseeing
o Thales: “for the sake of theoria” (to see what is there)
o Theoros: ambassador, the one that does sightseeing visitors (not involved in
what is going on, just watch)
o To look at nature from non-involved perspective without looking for any
immediate use (possibility to change things, only to know)
institutional side, before it became philosophical
o Herodotos: witness to changing mentality; what makes greeks different from
other peoples
3
, o Starting to find ideological reasons to distinguish themselves from other
peoples (e.g. Greeks & Egyptians – gift of Nile)
o Before: studying for sake of practical purposes (e.g. geometry, mathematics)
detaching knowledge from its practical use and study it for its own sake
(to have theoria)
The 7 sages (sofoi):
o 7 wise persons who were specialist in knowledge, & had access to logos,
physis, kosmos, theoria
o
Being v becoming
- Reflection on principle of nature on more sophisticated level
- Explaining totality of cosmos
- World never had a beginning, nor will it ever have an end (permanent repeating
existence)
- Motion/change should be explained (problem of motion v rests; 2 extreme positions
in greek world: East v West; Heraclitus v Parmenides):
Heraclitus:
- Ephesos (East)
- Everything flows and nothing stays (panta rhei)
- Permanent change
- Reality is never stable
- By forces in nature that try to destroy one another (tensions between pieces)
- Conflict of opposites
Parmenides
- It is or it is not
o If it is, you must face consequences, if it is not there is nothing else (non-
existence, final world)
o Materialism: finding primordial principle of something (in the world, there
are things that are; affirming it; focus on its being, concrete ‘it is’ is the
primordial principle that underlies every existing thing)
o If you trust your senses, they teach you differences between things, but in
fact there is no difference (put aside senses to discover truth about the
world; access reality without senses; you can only use them to find
something without senses)
o all being is identical (nature as a whole never changes)
4
