ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY (7TH CENTURY B.C.

- 5TH  Matter and form = substance

CENTURY A.D.) Matter > what is unique to an object
PRE- SOCRATIC PERIOD: Form > what something is
1. Thales: water  The process of change
2. Anaximander: the unifying element called the  The four causes (explanations)
"boundless" or "apeiron", “infinite”
3. Anaximenes: air 1. Formal cause: the form explains what a things
4. Pythagoras: numbers is.
5. Heraclitus: fire, change, “no man can step into 2. Material cause: the matter out of which a thing
the same river twice" is made.
6. Parmenides: "permanent". Only what can be 3. Efficient cause: the actual force that brings
thought can exist about change
7. Empedocles: ,immortal, four elements; fire, air, 4. Final cause: the end or ultimate purpose for
water, and earth, forces of love and hate which a thing was made
8. Anaxagoras: infinite divisibility, nous or mind
9. Zeno: motion
10. Democritus: atoms (indivisible)  Substance
11. Protagoras: truth relative to spectator” man is a  Essences: features of a substance essential to it
measure of all things  Accidents: features of a substance not essential
12. Gorgias: no truth at all to it.
o What is good?
SOCRATES (469-399 B.C.) Good is performing the intended function
o What is the good person?
The good person is the person who is fulfilling his/her
" the unexamined life is not worth living" function as a human being.
o What is human function?
-living a life where you live under the rules of others in a To engage in activity of the soul which is in accordance
continuous routine without examining what you actually with virtue and which is in conformity with reason.
want out of it is not worth living. Strived for meaningful o What is ultimate end?
goal and be resilient against evil, pain and hardship Happiness is the end that alone meets the
requirements for the ultimate end of human action.
Socratic discourse (2 directions): Roman Period(1st Century B.C. -5th Century A.D.)
 This period continues the classical Greek
Inward: to discover the inner person tradition and is usually considered to end with
the Fall of Rome in the 5th Century.
Outward: to objective definitions  Romans started studying philosophy after
numerous battles and attempts to conquer them.
 Roman society was ruled by custom as much as
1. Piety? – euthyphro-being religious
by law called Mos Maiorum.
2. Justice? – republic- where power is held by
 Roman virtues: Virtue, disciplinen, gravita
elected people or representatives
(dignified self-control meant to protect oneself
3. Virtue? - meno
and one’s family from shame and honor),
4. Meaning? – sophist-reasons cleverly but
constancy, faithful, and dignity.
fallacious arguments
Most Proponent Philosophy Schools
5. Love? – symposium-is a drinking party to praise
1. Stoicism (CONTROL YOUR EMOTIONS)
love
 An ancient G
reek philosophy started by Zeno of
PLATO (427- 347 B.C.) Citium.
 Teaches the development of self-
 The Allegory of the cave –knowledge gained control and fortitude as means of
through senses is nothing thus to have real overcoming destructive emotions.
knowledge we must gain it through philosophical  It does not seek to extinguish emotions
reasoning completely but rather seeks to transform
 Theory of forms: forms are the source of reality. them by voluntary abstinence from
 The good: worldly pleasures.
 Ultimate Goal: to develop clear
- a superform; judgement, inner calm, and freedom
- form of all forms. from passion.
- Ultimate object of knowledge  Philosopers
- Whole of reality is found upon the good, which is  Marcus Aurellius
reality's source of being  Lucius Annaeus Seneca
2. Epicureanism (MODERATION IN ALL
ARISTOTLE (384- 322 B.C.) THINGS)
 A philosophy taught by the Ancient 1. St. Augustine of Hippo
Greek philosopher Epicurus founded  A Christian Platonist
around 307 B.C.  First truly great medieval philosopher.
 Teaches that the greatest good is to  Believes that the human reason in general and
seek modest pleasures in order to attain philosophy in particular are useful only to those who
a state of tranquility, freedom from already have faith.
fear(ATARAXIA), and absence from  the classical attempts to achieve virtue by
bodily pain(APONIA)= HAPPINESS discipline, training and reason are all bound to fail,
 A more moderate approach of and the redemptive action of God's grace alone offers
Hedonism. hope.
 Pleasure is to be obtained from  He emphasized the church's
knowledge, friendship, and living in a strict independence from and its superiority over, the
virtuous and temperate life. civil state.
 Philosopher:  expounded on the concept of original sin (the
 Lucretius guilt of Adam which all human beings inherit)
 Horace 2. St. Aquinas
 Julius Caesar  He was the foremost classical proponent of natural
3. Neoplatonism (RELIGIOUS) theology at the peak of Scholasticism in Europe,
 A philosophy founded by Plotinus. and the founder of the Thomistic school of
 The One- Ultimates source of things philosophy and theology.
 Nous-emanated reality, biblical god  Thomistic School is distinguished from other
 The term “neoplatonist” was not used in schools of theology chiefly by its doctrines on the
ancient times therefore they called difficult questions relating to God's action on
themselves platonists. the free will of Man, God's foreknowledge, the
 A religious philosophy, combining a form nature of grace (which was granted to Man by
of idealistic monism with an element of God from the beginning), and predestination (the
Polytheism idea that God has appointed and pre-ordained
 Teaches the existence of an ineffable from eternity all events occurring in time).
and transcendent One, from which  One of his most important works is the "Summa
emanates the rest of the universe as a Theologica", in which he expounds his systematic
sequence of lesser beings. theology the five proofs of the existence of God..
 Philosophers:  He believed that truth becomes known through
 The Roman Emperor, Julian both natural revelation(certain truths are available
 Boethius to all people through their human nature and
MEDIEVAL PHILOSOPHY (6th-16th Century) through correct human reasoning)
Medieval Period (6th-14th Century) and supernatural revelation(faith-based
-fall of Roman empire and beginning of age of knowledge revealed through scripture).
renaissance(means rebirth)  He believed that God reveals himself
 Represents a renewed flowering of Western through nature, so that rational thinking and the
philosophical thought after the intellectual study of nature is also the study of God.
drought of the Dark Ages. Renaissance period (15TH-6TH Century)
 The period of Christianity and proving the  The bridge between medieval philosophy and
existence of God. the start of Modern philosophy.
 Establishment of the 1st universities with  It represents a movement away from Christianity
professional full-time scholars. and medieval scholasticism and towards
Scholasticism humanism.
 A medieval school of a method of learning  It is the birth of new sense of critical inquiry that
taught by the academics of medieval universities looked back to the ancient Greeks but also set
and cathedrals in the period. the stage for the birth of modern philosophy.
 The combination of semantics,metaphysics, and Humanism
logic in one discipline.  A renaissance movement in philosophy towards
 The origin for understanding “Logic”. a more human-centered (and less religion-
 Scholastic = Latin scholasticus or Greek centered) approach.
sccholastikos which means “scholar” and Greek  Ultimate faith in humankind.
scholeion which means “school”. Thus they are  The basis for the Doctrine of Humanism and
also called schoolmen. Doctrine of Atheism
 a tool and method for learning which places  Believes that human beings possess the power
emphasis on dialectical reasoning (the or potentially of solving their own problems
exchange of argument, or thesis, and counter  Relying on reason and scientific method applied
argument, or antithesis, in pursuit of a with courage and vision.
conclusion, or synthesis), directed at answering  Ultimate Goal:
questions or resolving contradictions.  Human flourishing
Great Philosophers:  Doing good
 Living well The legacy of the Enlightenment has been of
 Leaving the world better for those who enormous consequence for the modern world.
come after
MODERN PHILOSOPHY The general decline of the church, the growth of
- The Age of Reason period of the Modern era of secular humanism and political and economic
philosophy is generally regarded as the start of liberalism, the belief in progress, and the
modern philosophy, and roughly equates to development of science are among its fruits.
the 17th Century. Role of the Enlightenment in later philosophy
- The Age of Reason saw a continuation of the
move away from theology and faith-based • The Enlightenment occupies a central role in the
arguments, and marks the shaking off justification for the movement known
of medieval approaches to philosophy such as modernism.
as Scholasticism • A period of rationality which was overturning
foolishly established traditions, and therefore
SCHOLASTICISM analogized itself to the Encyclopedists and
• The primary purpose of scholasticism was to find other philosophes.
the answer to a question or resolve a contradiction. It • The modern movement points to reductionism
is most well known in its application in medieval and rationality as crucial aspects of
theology, but was eventually applied to classical Enlightenment thinking, of which it is the
philosophy and many other fields of study. inheritor, as opposed to irrationality and
emotionalism.
Modern Period (19th – 20th Century)
Age of Reason – Reason, Rationality and
Enlightenment • The Modern period of philosophy generally
corresponds to the 19th and 20th Century. More
• The Age of Reason brought about a great recent developments in the late 20th Century are
change in the tale of man’s sojourn on earth. Reason, sometimes referred to as
rationality and enlightenment became the new the Contemporary period.
‘gods.’
• Now, in this new age, man felt obligated to follow • for this period that includes seven philosophers
his own intellect, not ‘revealed’ truth. Earth and arranged into three groups: Descartes, Leibniz,
emphasis on nature became the new dogma; and Spinoza (The Rationalists);
miracles, prophecy, and religious rites were mere • Locke, Berkeley, and Hume (The
superstitions. Empiricists);
• and Kant (who is generally thought to have
• REASON, philosophically, is defined as the combined the best insights of the other two
ability to form and operate upon concepts in groups).
abstraction, narrowing information to its bare content,
without emotion. BRANCHES…
• RATIONALITY carries the dual implication of
ordered inference and comprehension along with METAPHYSICS
understanding and explanation.  Originally, the Greek
• ENLIGHTENMENT is more or less the word "metaphysika" (literally "after physics")
application of reason and rationality to previously held  It is the branch of philosophy concerned with the
beliefs resulting in broader, clearer thinking. nature of existence, being and the world.
Arguably, metaphysics is the foundation of
Age of Enlightenment (18th Century) philosophy
 It asks questions like: "What is the nature of
Enlightenment philosophy was skeptical of religion — reality?", "How does the world exist, and what is
especially the powerful Catholic Church — monarchies its origin or source of creation?", "Does the world
and hereditary aristocracy. Enlightenment philosophy exist outside the mind?", "How can the
was influential in ushering in the French and American incorporeal mind affect the physical body?", "If
revolutions and constitutions. things exist, what is their objective nature?", "Is
there a God (or many gods, or no god at all)?"
The Enlightenment advocated reason as a means to
establishing an authoritative system THREE MAIN SECTIONS
of aesthetics, ethics, government, and even religion,
which would allow human beings to obtain objective
truth about the whole of reality.  Ontology (the study of being and existence,
including the definition and classification of entities,
THE EFFECTS: physical or mental, the nature of their properties, and
The wide availability of knowledge was made possible the nature of change)
through the production of encyclopedias, serving the  Natural Theology (the study of God, including
Enlightenment cause of educating the human race. the nature of religion and the world, existence of
the divine, questions about the creation, and the 5. Determinism and Free will
various other religious or spiritual issues) - Determinism is the philosophical proposition that
 Universal Science (the study of first principles of every event, including human cognition, decision and
logic and reasoning, such as the law of action, is causally determined by an unbroken chain of
noncontradiction) prior occurrences.
FIVE CENTRAL QUESTIONS
1. Mind and Matter
- Free Will, where rational agents can
exercise control over their own actions and decisions.
- Early debates on the nature of EPISTEMOLOGY
matter centered on identifying a single
underlying principle (Monism)
- is the study of
the nature and scope of knowledge and justified belief
- In the 17th Century, Descartes proposed - It also deals with the means of production of
a Dualist solution called Substance
knowledge
Dualism (or Cartesian Dualism) whereby
*Knowledge- is the awareness and understanding of
the mind and body are totally separate
particular aspects of reality. It is the clear, lucid
and different: the mental does not have
information gained through the process of reason
extension in space, and the material
applied to reality
cannot think.
TYPES OF PROPOSITIONAL KNOWLEDGE (Based on
- Baruch Spinoza and Bertrand sources)
Russell both adopted, in different ways,  a priori (or non-empirical)- where knowledge is
a dual-aspect theory called Neutral possible independently of, or prior to, any experience,
Monism, which claims that existence and requires only the use of reason
consists of a single substance which in  a posteriori (or empirical)- where knowledge is
itself is neither mental nor physical, but is possible only subsequent, or posterior, to certain
capable of mental and sensory experiences, in addition to the use of
physical aspects or attributes reason
THEORIES OF KNOWLEDGE ACQUISITION
2. Objects and their Properties  Empiricism-emphasizes the role of experience,
- Things appear to be universal, not especially experience based on perceptual
particular, they can be fully present in observations by the five senses in the formation
many things. of ideas, while discounting the notion of innate
- Universals are more real than particulars ideas
(Platonists) –can exist independtly  Rationalism- holds that knowledge is not
derived from experience, but rather is acquired
- Nominalism- universal exist only in by a priori processes or is innate (in the form of
names concepts) or intuitive.
3. Identity and Change  Representationalism (or Indirect
Realism or Epistemological Dualism)- holds that
- Identity is whatever makes an the world we see in conscious experience is not
entity definable and recognizable, in the real world itself, but merely a miniature
terms of possessing a set of qualities or virtual-reality replica of that world in an internal
characteristics that distinguish it from representation.
entities of a different type
 Constructivism (or Constructionism)-
- Aristotle's Law of Identity (or the Axiom presupposes that all knowledge is "constructed",
of Identity) states that to exist, in that it is contingent on convention, human
an existent (i.e. an entity that exists) perception and social experience.
must have a particular identity. A thing Logic
cannot exist without
existing as something, otherwise it would
- from the Greek "logos", which has a variety of
meanings including word, thought, idea, argument,
be nothing and it would not exist.
account, reason or principle
- Change is the alteration of identities - study of reasoning, or the study of the principles
- Causality is the law that states that and criteria of valid inference and demonstration
each cause has a specific effect, and TYPES OF LOGIC
that this effect is dependent on the 1. Formal Logic
initial identities of the agents involved.
4. Space and Time
- study of reasoning, or the study of the
principles and criteria of valid inference
- A traditional Realist position is and demonstration
that time and space have existence 2. Informal Logic
independent from the human
mind. Idealists, however, claim that
- a recent discipline which studies natural
languagearguments, and attempts to
space and time are mental
develop a logic to assess, analyze and
constructs used to organize perceptions,
improve ordinary language (or
or are otherwise unreal.
"everyday") reasoning
Natural language - language that • Aesthetic Judgements – judgement of aesthetic
is spoken, written or signed by humans for general- value goes beyond sensory level
purpose communication, as distinguished • Imannuel kant – beauty is objective and
from formal languages universal
3. Symbolic Logic • Second concept-subjective (class, cultural
- study of symbolic abstractions that background, education)
capture the formal features of logical • Aesthetic Universals
inference. It deals with the relations of • Dews Dutton – seven universal signatures:
symbols to each other • Expertise or virtuosity, non-utilitarian pleasure,
2 sub-branches: style, criticism, imitation, special focus,
o Predicate Logic- a system in which imagination.
formulae contain quantifiable variables
o Propositional Logic (or Sentential Logic)- THEORIES AND DOCTRINES OF ETHICS
a system in which formulae
representing propositions  Cynisism
4. Mathematical Logic  Hedonism
- Both the application of the techniques  Pyrrhonian skepticism
of formal logic to mathematics and  Humanism
mathematical reasoning, and,
conversely, the application SECTIONS OR TYPES OF ETHICS
of mathematical techniques to the
representation and analysis of formal
logic.  Normative Ethics
Ethics (moral philsophy)  Deotolongy
• concerned with questions of how people ought to  Contractarian Ethics
act, and the search for a definition of right  Virtue ethics - eudaimonism
conduct and the good life.  Ethics of Care
• Derived from the greek word “ethos” meaning  Metha ethics
“custom” or “habit” - moral realism
• Asks questions like “how should people act?”,
“what do people think is right?”, “how do we take
- moral anti realism
moral knowledge and put it into practice?”, “what - moral nihilism
does ‘right’ even mean?” - moral scepticism
• Ancient Greek ethics  Meta ethical views
• Socrates – father of western ethics - moral absolutism
“There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, - moral universalism
ignorance” - moral relativism
• Aristotle – moderation in all things  Descriptive Ethics
 Applied Ethics
“Nature does nothing in vain” -medical ethics
-environmental ethics
Aesthetics -bioethics
- information ethics
-legal ethics
• concerned with the nature and appreciation of art
- media ethics
beauty and good taste.
- business ethics
“Critical reflection on art, culture, and nature”

• Came from the greek word “aesthetikos”

meaning of sense perception
• a part of axology with ethics (study of value and
value judgements)

• AESTHETIC JUDGEMENT AND ARTISTIC

JUDGEMENT – asks questions like “what is a
work of art?”, “what makes a work of art
successful?”, “why do we find certain things
beautiful?”, “is there a connection between art
and morality?”, “can art be a vehicle of truth?”,
“Are aesthetic judgements objective statements
or purely subjective expressions of personal
attitudes?”, “can aesthetic judgements be
improved or trained?”