Philosophy

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Philosophy

• Philosophy f???s?f?a (philosophía) love of
  wisdom (Pythagoras)
• the study of general problems concerning matters
  such as existence, knowledge, truth, beauty,
  justice, validity, mind, language Philosophy is
  distinguished from other ways of addressing these
  questions (such as mysticism or mythology) by its
  critical and systematic approach.

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Branches of philosophy

• Metaphysics - the nature of being and reality
  (ontology, cosmology, but also mysticism,
  theology ).
• Epistemology - nature and scope of knowledge and
  believe (truth, justification ..., methodology)
• Ethics, or 'moral philosophy', concerned with
  questions of how persons ought to act (morality,
  virtue)
• Political philosophy - study of government and
  the relationship of individuals and communities
  to the society and state (justice, the good, law,
  property, rights obligations of the citizen).
• Aesthetic deals with beauty (art, enjoyment,
  sensory-emotional values).
• Logic deals with patterns of thinking that lead
  from true premises to true conclusions.
• Philosophy of mind deals with the nature of the
  mind and its relationship to the body (dualism x
  monism, cognitive science)
• Philosophy of language - inquiry into the nature,
  origins, and usage of language.
• Etc.

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Western philosophy historical division

• Ancient philosophy (Greece 6th ct BC 6th AC)
• Medieval philosophy (6th AC - 14th AC), Muslim,
  Jewish, Christian
• Renaissance (14th AC 17th)
• Early modern phil. (17th 19th)
• Nineteenth cent. phil.
• Contemporary philosophy

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Eastern philosophy

• Belongs Eastern thinking to philosophy?
• No Hegel, Philosophy label only for western
  thinking?
• Europocentrism?
• Different nature of Eastern ph. (interconnection
  with mythology, religious nature) but not of
  whole.
• Not one philosophy, but various philosophies
• Persian philosophy (e.g. Zoroastrianism)
• Indian philosophy (Buddhism, Hindu )
• Chinese philosophy (Taoism, Konfucionalism )
• Korean, Japanese, African .

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Ancient western philosophy temporal division

• Pre-Socratic period
• Classical periods (Socrates, Plato, Aristotle)
• Hellenistic (post-Aristotelian) period
• Christian (and Neo-Platonist) philosophy

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Mythological background of philosophy

• Myth philosophy science (August Comte)
  applied science - technology
• All ethnics have their own myths.
• Traditional myths, artificial (modern) myths
  (fakes?) Myths and fairytales.
• Passed by word of mouth (life of myths)
• Written form (eposes) fixation, petrification

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Mythological background of philosophy

• Role of myths
• Entertainment dramatic stories
• Formation and encourage group self consciousness,
  formation of tribe, ethnics, nation
  (justification why our tribe is super ordinate)
• Formation and consolidation of moral and social
  system
• (model phenomena - archetypes gods, heroes,
  solutions of situations) (C. G. Jung)
• Base of religion
• From epistemological view
• There is a (non visible, metaphysical) world that
  controls our visible (physical) world.

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Mythological background of philosophy

• Myths in ancient Greece
• Homerepics (9th century BC) and Homeric
  mythology (no moral order, gods capriciously play
  with human fates)
• Hesiod (8th century BC) concept of moral order
  that is given by chief god Zeus to humans
• Other systems Orphism, Pythagoras sect,
  Empedocles

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Mythological background of philosophy

• Truth of myth implicit expressions, metaphors,
  model situations
• Judgement of Paris - bone of contention in
  Czech apple of contention
• Mythological truth and literal truth (art,
  literature, theatre, film, photography)
• Truth of religion ?
• Truth of science
• Truth in philosophy

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Conditions for formation of philosophy

• SCHOLE (free time, leisure)
• Developed language (abstract concepts)
• Naivety of Homeric mythology religion
  (anthropomorphism)
• Exchange of ideas and cultural influences
  (connection with other civilisations)
• -----------------------
• Material conditions (but cynics, Eastern sages)
• Fine climate
• Freedom (but among philosophers there were also
  slaves)

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Presocratic philosophyMilesians (Milesian school)

• Thales of Miletus (about 625 - 545 BC)
• first philosopher politics, astronomy,
  geometry(Thales theorem, Thales circle,
  rangefinder, division of celestial sphere )
• Flat Earth floating on ocean
• Solar eclipse 28. May 585 BC
• Search for ARCHE (PRINCIPIUM)
• Water (HYDOR) why just water?
• (Magnet soul (PSYCHE) as another principle of
  motion and gods)

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Presocratic philosophyMilesian School

• Anaximander of Miletus (about 610 546 BC)
• Quadrant, GNOMON (sundial), celestial globe, map
  of the world
• ARCHE APEIRON (indefinite boundless, infinity)
• Things arise by process of separation
• evolutionary theory
• IN THE BEGINNING MEN WERE BORN FROM
  CREATURES OF A DIFFERENT SORT, BECAUSE THE OTHER
  ANIMALS QUICKLY MANAGE TO FEED THEMSELVES, BUT
  MAN ALONE REQUIRES A LONG PERIOD OF NURSING
  HENCE HAD HE BEEN LIKE THAT IN THE BEGINNING TOO,
  HE WOULD NEVER HAVE SURVIVED

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Presocratic philosophyMilesian School

• ... THE EATRH IS IN MID-AIR , OVERPOWERED BY
  NOTHING, AND STAYING WHERE IT IS ON ACOUNT OF ITS
  SIMILAR DISTANCE FROM EVERYTHING
• Existence of antipodes

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Presocratic philosophyMilesian School

• Anaximenes (about 585 528 BC)
• ARCHE AER APEIROS
• AER (air, gas) PNEUMA (SPIRIT)
• Everything is breathing (later accepted by
  Stoics)
• Things arise by changes of concentration of AER.
  (MANOSIS and PYKNOSIS)
• The change of quantity into quality
• Flat Earth floating in air (also Moon)

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Heritage of Milesians

• Reductionism complex can be reduced to simple,
  many to few or even one
• Monism everything comes from one principle
  but inconsistent
• All rational approach and all science is based on
  reduction (inner and outer reductionism)
• Basic difference to Eastern thinking HOLISM
• Problems of HOLISM, intuition. Meditation.
• Capra, Bohr and Eastern philosophy.
• HYLOZOISM (paradox of hylozoism, modern science
  hylonekrism)

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The end of Milesians

• 547 BC - Miletus fell under Persia the end of
  Milesian philosophy
• 479 BC - Miletus rebuilt
• 334 BC - captured by Alexander the Great
• 133 - part of Roman empire, Byzantine empire
• 1328 AD till now - under Turkish rule (Balat)

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Presocratic philosophyPythagoras and Pythagoreans

• Pythagoras of Samos (about 572 - 494 BC)
• Disciple of Anaximander ?
• visited Egypt (perhaps he knew read hieroglyphs),
  
• India (not probable)
• Rule of tyrant Polycrates,
• migration to southern Italy, Croton
• Pythagorean School
• philosopher and thaumaturgist

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Pythagoras of Samos

• School of Pythagoras -
• Number or limit is the basic principle
• ? mathematics and numerology
• THEORIA (theory) originally (watching)
  religious festival, narrating about r.f. ?
  looking by inner sight
• MATHEMATICA (mathematics), MATHEMA theorem,
  doctrine teaching esoteric and exoteric
• COSMOS (order, jewel) ? HARMONY ? UNIVERSE

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• HARMONIA (harmony) joint, fastening ? principle
  of unification
• MUSICA (music), laws of acoustic, (P. tuning)
  monochorde sound of string, musical intervals,
  music of spheres (we are accustomed with it),
  MUSIC THERAPY
• ARITHMOS and LOGOS (ratio)
• Pythagoras theorem and crisis of mathematics
• Irrational numbers

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Pythagoras

• PSYCHE (soul) principle of personal identity
• METEMPSYCHOSIS and problems of personal identity
• Other problems of REINKARNATION (deja vu, belief
  in fairness, vegetarianism, original sin,
  psychotherapy)
• ONCE THEY SAY THAT PYTHAGORAS WAS PASSING BY WHEN
  A DOG WAS BEING BEATEN AND SPOKE THIS WORD
  "STOP! DON'T BEAT IT!
  FOR IT IS THE SOUL OF A FRIEND OF MINE I
  RECOGNIZED HIM BY HIS VOICE."

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Pythagoras

• Medicine the most honourable art (TECHNE),
  principle of HARMONY at work
• Body as a musical instrument
• Health harmony
• Metrology unifying measures, units of length
  and weight

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Same of later Pythagoreans

• Alcmaeon from Croton (5 cent. BC)
• Astronomer, physician, concept of divine or
  animated planets (Giordano Bruno 1600)
• Closed time Great year, Calpa and the age of
  Earth
• Modern concepts of closed time
• Autopsy (nerves, brain)
• Philolaos of Croton (end of 5th cent. BC)
• The first non-geocentric system (10 planets,
  Anti-earth), central fire of Cosmos (nucleus of
  our Galaxy?)

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Same of later Pythagoreans

• Archytas from Tarentum (cca 400 365 BC)
• Ruler of Tarentum (Tarano, Italy) friend of Plato
• Study of mathematics, acoustics (sound of moving
  bodies, pipes)
• Mechanical dove
• Finite universe
• IF I AM AT THE EXTREMITY OF THE HEAVEN OF THE
  FIXED STARS, CAN I STRETCH OUTWARD MY HAND OR
  STAFF? IT IS ABSURD TO SUPPOSE THAT I COULD NOT.
  IF I CAN, WHAT IS OUTSIDE MUST BE EITHER BODY OR
  SPACE. WE MAY THEN IN THE SAME WAY GET TO THE
  OUTSIDE OF THAT AGAIN, AND SO ON. IF THERE IS
  ALWAYS A NEW PLACE TO WHICH THE STAFF MAY BE HELD
  OUT, THIS CLEARLY INVOLVES EXTENSION WITHOUT
  LIMIT.

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Neopythagoreism

• Numerology
• Kepler Cosmographic mystery
• Physics and numerological from 1-st century BC to
  5-th AC) new ideas packed in the form of old
  time-honoured teaching
• Heritage of Pythagoreism
• Mathematics ARITHMOLOGY speculative approaches

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Heraclitus of Ephesus

• Heraclitus of Ephesus (about 535 - 475 BC)
• noble from the Androclus family (founder of
  Ephesus)
• Contempt for the mass of mankind, loner, against
  democracy (DEMOS people) advocated ARISTOCRACY
  (ARISTOS the best)
• Treatise deposited in the temple of Artemis
• SKOTEINOS - dark

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• Dynamical approach
• YOU CANNOT STEP TWICE INTO THE SAME RIVER.
• The learning of many things teaches not
  understanding.
• IF YOU DO NOT EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED, YOU WILL NOT
  FIND IT
• NATURE LOVES TO HIDE.
• THE EYES ARE MORE EXACT WITNESSES THAN THE EARS.

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• TO GOD ALL THINGS ARE FAIR AND GOOD AND RIGHT,
  BUT PEOPLE HOLD SOME THINGS WRONG AND SOME RIGHT.
• IT IS NOT GOOD FOR PEOPLE TO GET ALL THEY WISH TO
  GET.
• IT IS SICKNESS THAT MAKES HEALTH PLEASANT EVIL,
  GOOD HUNGER, PLENTY WEARINESS, REST.
• A PERSON'S CHARACTER IS HIS FATE.

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• THIS WORLD, WHICH IS THE SAME FOR ALL, NO ONE OF
  THE GODS OR HUMANS HAS MADE BUT IT WAS EVER, IS
  NOW, AND EVER WILL BE AN EVER-LIVING FIRE, WITH
  MEASURES OF IT KINDLING, AND MEASURES GOING OUT.
• EPYROSIS ? Conflagration
• THE WAKING HAVE ONE COMMON WORLD, BUT THE
  SLEEPING TURN ASIDE EACH INTO A WORLD OF HIS OWN.

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Some later reflection and similarities of
Heraclitus

• Cratylus
• YOU CANNOT STEP EVEN ONCE INTO THE SAME RIVER.
• Heraclitus and Taoism
• Laoze (Lao Tzu)
• Dynamic approach
• Stoic philosophy
• EKPYROSIS, LOGOS, PANTA REI, Everything flows
• Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, Heidegger

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The Eleatic school

• Xenophanes of Colophone (570 - 475 BC)
• HOMER AND HESIOD HAVE ASCRIBED TO THE GODS ALL
  THINGS THAT ARE A SHAME AND A DISGRACE AMONG
  MORTALS, STEALING AND ADULTERIES AND DECEIVING OF
  ANOTHER
• One god (atheism, monotheism, metaphysical
  theology?)
• MEN MAKE GODS IN THEIR OWN IMAGE. THOSE OF THE
  ETHIOPIANS ARE BLACK AND SNUB-NOSED, GODS OF THE
  THRACIANS HAVE BLUE EYES AND RED HAIR. IF HORSES
  OR OXEN OR LIONS HAD HANDS AND COULD PRODUCE
  WORKS OF ART, THEY TOO WOULD REPRESENT THE GODS
  AFTER THEIR OWN FASHION.
• The One. If there had ever been a time when
  nothing existed, nothing could ever have existed.
  

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The Eleatic school

• Parmenides (circa 540 - after 470 BC)
• PERI FYSEOS
• COME NOW, I WILL TELL YOU AND DO YOU LISTEN TO MY
  SAYING AND CARRY IT AWAY, THE ONLY TWO WAYS OF
  SEARCH THAT CAN BE THOUGHT OF.
• THE FIRST, NAMELY, THAT IT IS, AND THAT IT IS
  IMPOSSIBLE FOR IT NOT TO BE, IS THE WAY OF
  BELIEF, FOR TRUTH IS ITS COMPANION.
• THE OTHER, NAMELY, THAT IT IS NOT, AND THAT IT
  MUST NEEDS NOT BE, THAT, I TELL YOU, IS A PATH
  THAT NONE CAN LEARN OF AT ALL.
• FOR YOU CANNOT KNOW WHAT IS NOT THAT IS
  IMPOSSIBLE NOR UTTER IT FOR IT IS THE SAME THING
  THAT CAN BE THOUGHT (CONCEIVED) AND THAT CAN BE.

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The Eleatic school

• Melissus of Samos (5th century BC)
• NOR IS ANYTHING EMPTY FOR WHAT IS EMPTY IS
  NOTHING SO NOTHING WILL NOT BE BEING OF NOTHING
  IS NOT BEING.
• Horror vacui, paradox of vacuum and its solution
  Descartes, Thomas Hobes and Boyles works on gas
  dynamics

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The Eleatic school

• Epistemology Paradox of negative concepts (myth
  about giant Polyphemos)
• Paradoxes of infinity

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The Eleatic school

• Zeno of Elea (about 489 BC)
• Proof by contradiction
• Zeno arguments against multiplicity, and against
  motion. APORIA
• Bisection of line
• The flying arrow
• Achilles and the tortoise
• 1 ½ ¼ 1/2n 2
• Concept of infinity. Continuum. Classical
  (Cantor) set theory and Alternative set theory
  (AST, Vopenka)

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The way to materialism

• Empedocles (circa 490 - 430 BC)
• Religion of Orphic type, underworld. Poem On
  Nature (PERI PHYSEOS), and Purifications
  (KATHARMOI). Death in vulcano Etna.
• Love (PHILIA) attraction
• Strife (NEIKOS) separation
• NOW BY LOVE ALL COMING TOGETHER INTO ONE, NOW
  AGAIN EACH CARRIED APART BY THE ENMITY OF STRIFE
• roots (RIZOMATA) -- fire, air, earth, and water
• (THERE IS) ONLY A MINGLING AND INTERCHANGE OF
  WHAT HAS BEEN MINGLED. SUBSTANCE (PHYSIS) IS BUT
  A NAME GIVEN TO THESE THINGS BY MEN.
• KLEPSHYDRA existence of air (experimental
  proof!)
• Questions

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The way to materialism

• Anaxagoras of Clazomenae (about 500 - 428 BC)
• brought philosophy to Athens
• Sun great stone bigger than Pelopones
• Seeds SPERMATA
• NOUS reason
• IN EVERYTHING THERE IS PRESENT A PORTION OF
  EVERYTHING EXCEPT MIND (NOUS) AND IN SOME THINGS
  MIND TOO IS PRESENT.
• (ANAXAGORAS) WAS THE FIRST TO ADD MIND (NOUS) TO
  MATTER, BEGINNING HIS BOOK, WHICH IS PLEASANTLY
  AND GRANDLY RITTEN, THUS ALL THINGS WERE
  TOGETHER THEN MIND CAME AND ARRANGED THEM

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The way to materialism

• Anaxagoras criticism
• Plato in his dialogue Phaedo
  
  PROCEEDING AND READING ON, I SEE THE MAN MAKING
  NO USE OF MIND (NOUS), NOR INDICATING ANY
  EXPLANATIONS FOR THE ORDERING OF THINGS, BUT
  MAKING EXPLANATIONS OF AIRS AND ETHERS AND WATERS
  AND MANY OTHER SUCH ABSURDITIES
• Aristotle in his book of Metaphysics
  
  ANAXAGORAS USES MIND (NOUS) AS A
  THEATRICAL DEVICE (MECHANE) FOR HIS COSMOLOGY
  AND WHENEVER HE IS PUZZLED OVER THE EXPLANATION
  OF WHY SOMETHING IS FROM NECESSITY, HE WHEELS IT
  IN BUT IN THE CASE OF OTHER HAPPENINGS HE MAKES
  ANYTHING THE EXPLANATION RATHER THAN MIND.
• ANAXAGORAS ADVOCATED THE METHOD PROPER TO NATURAL
  SCIENCE

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The way to materialism atomism

• Leucippus (about 500 - 440 BC)
• Postulated existence of free space (voids,
  vacuum)
• NO THING COMES ABOUT IN VAIN, BUT EVERYTHING FOR
  A REASON (LOGOS) AND BY NECESSITY (ANANKE).
• Principle of causality (?).

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The way to materialism atomism

• Democritus (460-370 BC)
• MACROCOSMOS and MICROCOSMOS
• Ethical teaching of Democritus
• INSTEAD OF ENJOYING LIFE FOR WHAT IT IS, THEY
  HATE IT FOR WHAT IT IS NOT ...
  THEY WANT TO PROLONG THE LIFE
  THEY HATE, IN ORDER TO POSTPONE DEATH. IT WOULD
  BE HARD TO FIND A BETTER EXAMPLE OF MAN BEING HIS
  OWN WORST ENEMY THROUGH STUPID DISREGARD OF THE
  LIMIT.
• theory of knowledge moving images (EIDOLA)

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Presocratic philosophy Atomism

• Free space
• Atoms
• Differences between ancient and modern atoms
• Crisis of atomism
• Order of necessity ANANKE
• (The atomists say that the universe is) NEITHER
  ANIMATE NOR GOVERNED BY PURPOSE, BUT BY A SORT OF
  IRRATIONAL NATURE (PHYSIS ALOGOS).

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Presocratic philosophy Atomism

• ANANKE
• Inferences of ANANKE
• No chance
• No freedom (free will)
• No responsibility
• Fatalism
• EVERYTHING HAPPENS BY FATE, IN THE SENSE THAT
  FATE APPLIES THE FORCE OF NECESSITY
• (Democritus said that) HE WOULD RATHER FIND A
  SINGLE CAUSAL EXPLANATION (AITIOLOGIA) THAN GAIN
  THE KINGDOM OF PERSIA.

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Presocratic philosophy Atomism

• (Absolute) determinism (Stoics, P. S. Laplace)
• AN INTELLECT WHICH AT A GIVEN INSTANT KNEW ALL
  THE FORCES ACTING IN NATURE, AND THE POSITION OF
  ALL THINGS OF WHICH THE WORLD CONSISTS -
  SUPPOSING THE SAID INTELLECT WERE VAST ENOUGH TO
  SUBJECT THESE DATA TO ANALYSIS - WOULD EMBRACE IN
  THE SAME FORMULA THE MOTIONS OF THE GREATEST
  BODIES IN THE UNIVERSE AND THOSE OF THE SLIGHTEST
  ATOMS NOTHING WOULD BE UNCERTAIN FOR IT, AND THE
  FUTURE, LIKE THE PAST, WOULD BE PRESENT TO ITS
  EYES.
• Laplace demon

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Presocratic philosophy Atomism

• Further history of the paradox
• Two meanings of determination (passive and
  active mode)
• Epicurus introduction of PARENCLISIS
• Stoics no freedom but spontaneity
  (voluntarity), one LOGOS (also Boethius there
  is no contradiction between foreknowledge and
  freedom)
• Modern history quantum mechanics (Copenhagen
  interpretation) and TYCHISM
• Free will antinomy (Plotinos )
• IF I WISH, I COULD GIVE AWAY MY PROPERTY TO THE
  POOR, BUT I CANNOT WISH TO WISH. A. Schopenhauer

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Presocratic philosophy The Sophists

• 5th cent. BC, democracy - growing demand for
  education. Sophists - teachers of wisdom(?) or
  spurious learning, ancient enlightment.
  Rhetorics, politics, grammar, history, physics,
  mathematics .
• Sophistry the use of fallacious argument
  knowing them to be such
• Negative approaches (relativism, agnosticism,
  subjectivism, deconstruction od ethics)
• Gorgias (483 - 378 BC)
• On Nature, or the Non-existent NOTHING EXISTS
  IF ANYTHING EXISTED, IT COULD NOT BE KNOWN IF
  ANYTHING DID EXIST, AND COULD BE KNOWN, IT COULD
  NOT BE COMMUNICATED.
• Agnosticism or parody on eleatism?
• Rhetoric art of persuasion

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Presocratic philosophy The Sophists

• Protagoras (480 - 411 BC) of Abdera, Pericles
  debated with him
• On the Gods (PERI THEON)
  
• RESPECTING THE GODS, I AM UNABLE TO KNOW WHETHER
  THEY EXIST OR DO NOT EXIST.
• On Truth (ALETHEIA)
• MAN IS THE MEASURE OF ALL THINGS OF WHAT ARE
  THAT (how?) THEY ARE OF
  WHAT ARE NOT THAT (how?) THEY ARE NOT.
• Plato why men and not horse or pig? (Theaithetos)

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Presocratic philosophy The Sophists

• Thrasymachus (4 th century BC)
• injustice is preferred to a life of justice,
  unjust person superior i character and
  intelligence.
• Justice is pursued by simpletons and leads to
  weakness.
• Reduction of morality to power (nihilism towards
  thruth and ethics)

47
Presocratic philosophy The Sophists

• Sophists and atheism
• Rise of W. philosophy connected with overcoming
  mythology and (naive, anthropomorfic) religion.
• Diagoras - his opponent violated an oath and
  remain unpunished non-existence of gods
• Critias religion device of rulers, instrument
  against breaking rules when nobody observes.
• Sophists and post-modern philosophy
• Modern science disappointed many people, the fail
  of communism rejection of old values, old
  science, old aims, evolution, progress. The rise
  of negative approaches (irrationality,
  immorality, subjectivism)
• Negative stage positive value clear space
  from obsolete conceptual schemes. Must be
  followed by positive stage. In ancient Greece
  Socrates directed thinking in a positive way.
  Unraveled logical inconsistencies of Sophists,

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Classical PeriodSocrates and Socratic schools

• Socrates (469 - 399 BC)
• Directed sophistic thinking in a positive way
• Golden age of Athens
• Aischylus, Euripides, Sophocles, Pericles,
  builded parthenon on Acropolis. Persia defeated,
  Athens was naval power
• Father sculptor (stonemason), mother midwife
• Socrates practised craft of sculptor, married
  Xanthyppe (famous for quarrelsomeness)
• Admolished by divine call gave up occupation
  and devote himself to moral and intelectual
  reform of society
• Socrates trial
• Athens under Pericles, Socrates could pursue his
  calling as a gadfly. War with Sparta, betrayal of
  Alcibiades, accusations of impiety, of corrupting
  the young, Socrates sentenced to death
• Self-knowledge is the starting point, he realised
  how little we know about anything

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Socrates and Socratic schools

• Socratic method dialectic method, based on
  dialogues
• Self-knowledge the starting point
• Socrates did not write (Plato, Aristophanes,
  Xenophon)
• Negative stage (assumed ignorance, Socratic
  irony)
• Positive stage (intellectual midwifery), series
  of questions - the opponent acknowledges his
  ignorance
• knowledge through concepts
• WHATEVER EXISTS FOR A USEFUL PURPOSE
• MUST BE THE WORK OF SOME INTELLIGENCE (GOD?).

50
Socrates and Socratic schools

• Socratic moral paradox
• Knowledge virtue
• Ignorance evil
• Sin the lack of knowledge
• If anybody does evil, he should not be punished,
  but instructed what not to do.
• Ethics epistemology
• NO ONE FREELY GOES FOR BAD THING OR THING HE
  BELIEVES TO BE BAD
• Aristotle ACRASIA weakness of will, passions
  and instinct prevail. Humans are not rational
  creatures.

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Socratic schools - Megarian school

• Euclid (circa 430 - 360 BC)
• Student of Socrates
• Highest goodness highest reality
• Concepts - bodiless forms (step to Plato
  teaching)
• Reductio ad absurdum attacks not the premises
  but the conclusion of the argument, showing the
  absurd consequences.
• Paradox of the liar (Epimenides)
• All Cretans are liars.
• self-referential semantic paradoxes
• Homological terms, are such which can be
  defined as those, which express a quality that
  they have (for example the word short,
  English). And further heterological words are
  those that do not express such a quality that
  they have. The problem is whether the term
  heterological is itself heterological or
  homological. If it is heterological it does
  express the quality of being heterological, so it
  must be homological, but if it is homological, it
  must be, on the contrary, heterological.

52
Socrates and Socratic schoolsCynic school

• Athens about 400 BC to about 200 BC. Coarse and
  vulgar depreciation of Socrates ethics ?
• Antisthenes (about 450 BC - 360 BC)
• advocated all natural including manual work,
  despised culture and all artificial comfort
• no universal objects of knowledge
• I SEE A HORSE BUT NOT HORSENESS
• Diogenes of Sinope
• (about 403 - 323 BC), lived in large barrel
• NOT TO HAVE ANY NEEDS IS GODLIKE

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Plato and Platonism

• Plato (428/7 - 347 BC)
• Great poetic writer (unlike Socrates)
• Cratylus (descendant of Heraclitus), Socrates,
  Megara, three times in Sicily, Academy
• A. N. Whitehead (overdone?)
• The safest general characterization of the
  European philosophical tradition is that it
  consists of a series of footnotes to Plato.
• Democracy
• AS IN THE CASE OF A SHIP, WHERE THE PILOTS
  AUTHORITY RESTS UPON KNOWLEDGE OF NAVIGATION, SO
  ALSO THE SHIP OF STATE SHOULD BE PILOTED NOT BY
  ALL CITIZENS, LIKE IN DEMOCRACY, BUT BY ONLY ONE
  WHO HAS ADEQUATE KNOWLEDGE.
• Kings were philosophers and philosophers were
  kings.

54
Plato and Platonism

• Travels in Egypt, Sicily (intended to influence
  Dionysios of his ideal system of government),
  cast into prison, sold as a slave, ransomed by
  friends
• Academy (387 BC - 529 AD)
• LET NO ONE IGNORANT OF MATHEMATICS ENTER HERE.
• Scientific orientation attracted the ablest
  thinkers

55
Plato

• Platos works
• Not written teaching?
• Series of 36 dialogues, Letters
• Socratic method of question and answer
• Plato own philosophical myths - Atlantis

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Plato

• Plato own myths - Atlantis
• 200-year-old annals of Solon, who heard it from
  an Egyptian priests. Island located in the Ocean.
  Great and wonderful empire. The inhabitants
  possessed great wealth thanks to the natural
  resources, centre for trade and commerce. The
  island provided all kinds of herbs, fruits, and
  nuts. An abundance of animals, including
  elephants, roamed the island.
• Generations the Atlanteans lived simple, virtuous
  lives. But slowly they began to change. Greed and
  power began to corrupt them. When the chief god
  Zeus saw the immorality of the Atlanteans he
  gathered the other gods to determine a suitable
  punishment. Soon, in one violent tsunami surge,
  Atlantis was gone.

57
Plato and Platonism

• The allegory of the cave
• Philosophical fiction
• prisoners living in a large cave
• chained by their necks in a fixed position, so
  that they can look only at the wall in front of
  them
• Behind them a fire, farther back the entrance to
  the cave.
• Path, where there are persons carrying various
  figures
• The prisoners can observe shadows on the wall,
  they are not aware that the shadows are only
  shadows.

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Plato and Platonism
One prisoner released from his chains, forced to
stand up, turn around, and walk towards the light
of the fire. He would not be able to recognise
actual objects and his eyes would ache. If
they could lay hands on the man who was trying to
set them free and lead them up, they would kill
him. The prisoners are like us, Socrates
concluded. Prisoners who have been liberated
from the cave must not be allowed to remain in
the higher world of contemplation, but must be
made to come back down into the cave and take
part in the life and labours of the prisoners.
59
Plato and Platonism

• System of philosophy
• Forms Ideas
• various degrees of reality
• Platos physics
• Timaeus view on Cosmos teleology
• Platonic bodies
• Five regular solids, Platonic bodies have all
  their sides the same and all their vertexes are
  equivalent tetrahedron cube, octahedron,
  dodecahedron, icosahedron. Five basic elements
  fire, ground, water, air, and ether.

60
Plato and Platonism

• precession of the Earths axis
• Platonic year
• 30 000 years.
• Concepts of
• closed or cyclic time

61
Plato and Platonism

• Plato's ideal state
• UNLESS PHILOSOPHERS BECOME RULERS OR RULERS
  BECOME TRUE AND THOROUGH STUDENTS OF PHILOSOPHY,
  THERE SHALL BE NO END TO THE TROUBLES OF STATES
  AND OF HUMANITY.
• rulers (corresponding to the reasonable soul),
• producers (corresponding to desire), and finally
• warriors (corresponding to courage).
• State absolutism totalitarianism
• No private property, family. Children belong to
  the state.
• Platonism and mathematics

62
Aristotle and Aristotelism

• Aristotle (384-322 BC)
• Stagira, Academy, Assos, Pella
• Alexander
• THANKS TO MY FATHER I AM LIVING, THANKS TO
  ARISTOTLE I KNOW HOW TO LIVE.
• Athens, Lykeion (PERIPATETIC school)
• Death of Alexander
• THE ATHENIANS MIGHT NOT HAVE ANOTHER OPPORTUNITY
  OF SINNING AGAINST PHILOSOPHY AS THEY HAD ALREADY
  DONE IN THE PERSON OF SOCRATES.

63
Aristotle and Aristotelism

• General characterisation of Aristotles
  philosophy
• Logic
• Theoretical philosophy, including Metaphysics,
  Physics, Mathematics
• Practical philosophy
• Philosophy of art
• Logic (analytics)
• Founder of logic, reduction of logic to an exact
  science
• SYLLOGISMs - schemes of logical judgments

64
Aristotle and Aristotelism

• Metaphysics
• first philosophy, ontology
• Theory of causes
• Material Cause
• Formal Cause
• Efficient Cause
• Final Cause
• Potentiality and Actuality (DYNAMIS, ENTELECHEIA)
• Matter and Form

65
Aristotle and Aristotelism

• Physics
• Four elements, ether, natural motions (up down,
  circular)
• Elements, natural motions, prime matter
• First Mover, concept of infinite, mechanics
• Aristotle concept of God
• It has seemed to me unfortunate that the word
  God (which is, after all, a religious word)
  should have been retained by philosophers as the
  name for a factor in their system that no one
  could possibly regard as an object of worship,
  far less of love. (Cornford)

66
Aristotle and Aristotelism
67
Aristotle and Aristotelism

• Politics
• ZOON POLITIKON - social animal
• The best form of government is that, which best
  suits the character of the people.
• IT IS CLEAR THAT SOME MEN ARE BY NATURE FREE, AND
  OTHERS SLAVES, AND THAT FOR THESE SLAVERY IS BOTH
  EXPEDIENT AND RIGHT.

68
Aristotle and Aristotelism

• Aristotelean school and Aristotelism
• Andronicus of Rhodes - edited Aristotle's works
• Alexander from Aphrodisias (2nd century AD)
• John Philoponus (6th century)
• Avicenna and Averroes (Commentator)
• St. Thomas Aquinas (1225 - 1274 AD) Christian
  adaptation of Aristotles philosophy
• Aristotles philosophy, and especially his logic,
  has been considered as a basis for modern
  science.
• In the middle ages, Aristotle philosophy
  gradually degenerated. Also Aristotles logic was
  subjected to some contempt. It was satirised by
  Francis Bacon (1561 - 1626), who argued that in
  other civilisations, namely in China, the
  development of science had been quite possible
  without Aristotle.

69
Philosophy of the Hellenistic period Epicureanism

• Epicurus (342 - 270 BC)
• Samos, Garden of Epicurus
• Physics atomism (PARENCLISIS - CLINAMEN)
• Ethics and psychology - theory of human life,
  personal happiness
• HABITUATE YOURSELF TO THINK THAT DEATH IS NOTHING
  TO US FOR ALL GOOD AND EVIL IS IN FEELING NOW
  DEATH IS THE PRIVATION OF FEELING. WHERE WE
  ARE, DEATH IS NOT AND WHERE DEATH IS, WE ARE
  NOT.

70
Philosophy of the Hellenistic period Epicureanism

• BETTER WERE IT TO ACCEPT ALL THE LEGENDS OF THE
  GODS THAN TO MAKE OURSELVES SLAVES TO THE FATE OF
  THE NATURAL PHILOSOPHERS.
• Theology
• GODS IN METACOSMIA

71
Philosophy of the Hellenistic period Later
Epicureanism

• Titus Lucretius Carus (about 91 51 BC)
• DE RERUM NATURA
• The universe of matter and space, no centre,
  space is without limit, matter is composed of
  atoms
• mind and soul of a material nature, of the finest
  and roundest atoms
• sense-perception from the surface of objects
  thin films of matter are continually flying off
• origin of life by spontaneous generation,
  preservation of animal life in accordance with
  the law of the survival of the fittest
• description of free fall (friction, resistance of
  enviroment)

72
Philosophy of the Hellenistic periodStoicism

• STOA (colonnade or porch), STOA POIKILE (Painted
  Colonnade)
• Zeno of Citium (circa 336 264 BC)
• 300 BC Stoic school
• Chrysippus (280 205 BC)
• Logic (propositional calculus)
• AII knowledge enters the mind through the senses.
  Criterion of truth lie in sensation itself.
  Intense feeling of reality (KATALEPSIS)

73
Philosophy of the Hellenistic periodStoicism

• Stoic ethics
• ascetic system, perfect indifference to
  everything external, APATHEA passions as
  essentially irrational
• LIVE ACCORDING TO NATURE.
• Morality is simply rational action. From the
  root-virtue, wisdom, spring insight, bravery,
  self-control, and justice.
• Suicide

74
Philosophy of the Hellenistic periodStoicism

• Stoic physics
• NOTHING INCORPOREAL EXISTS.
• Existence subsistence (time, logical rules,
  space )
• world issue from one principle LOGOS
  (monism). The corporeal cannot act on the
  incorporeal, nor the incorporeal on the
  corporeal. There is no point of contact. Hence
  all must be equally corporeal.
• All things are composed of fire ( God).
  (Heraclitus).

75
Philosophy of the Hellenistic periodStoicism

• God - LOGOS is absolute reason.
• purpose in the world (order, harmony, beauty and
  design).
• no freedom of the will but voluntarity
• world-process is circular (circular, closed time)
  - EKPYROSIS
• rational soul (divine fire) from God

76
Philosophy of the Hellenistic periodStoicism

• Seneca (about 3 BC 65 AD)
• Roman politician, orator and the most famous
  Roman Stoic.
• YOUR HAPPINESS LIES IN NO ASPIRATION FOR
  HAPPINESS.
• The main sources of evil are human passions.
• Epictetus (50 130 AD)
• God had arranged all for the happiness of man, so
  evil is no more than an illusion.
• Marcus Aurelius Antonius (121 - 180 AD)
• seeker after righteousness, Meditations

77
Scepticism

• SKEPTIKOI - seekers or inquirers, basic mood is
  of doubt
• We only know how things appear to us, but the
  same thing appears differently to different
  people
• Complete suspense of judgement (EPOCHE) all
  systems of philosophy are equally false
• Pyrrho of Elis (about 360 - 270 BC)
• Pyrrhonism
• Timon of Athens - Academic scepticism
• Arcesilaus (ca. 315 - 241 BC) paradox of
  scepticism

78
Science in Alexandria and the Museum

• Alexandria (323 BC), Ptolemy 308 BC founder of
  Ptolemy dynasty (commander of Alexander army)
• Demetris Phaleron urged for Museum (after 285
  BC) - temple of the Muses, scientific institution
• Library with 700 000 books
• Septuaginta

79
Science in Alexandria and the Museum

• Euclid (ca. 330 - ca. 275 BC)
• Elements STOCHEIA
• definitions, 5 axioms and 5 postulates, theorems
  (with proofs)
• The fifth postulate (the parallel postulate)

80
Science in Alexandria and the Museum
Archimedes (287 - 212 BC) Hydrostatic
law
81
Science in Alexandria and the Museum
82
Science in Alexandria and the Museum

• Archimedes
• Counting sand
• 1051 1063 grains of sand in the Universe
• To the sphere with diameter of Pluto orbit aprox.
  1051 grains of sand

83
Science in Alexandria and the Museum

• Hipparchos from Nicae (2-nd cent. BC)
• geocentrism, catalogue of 850 stars
• Epicyclic theory

84
Science in Alexandria and the Museum

• Eratosthenes of Cyrene
• (about 275 - 195 BC)
• System of meridians and parallels
• star map containing 675 stars
• A new calendar system, accepted later in Rome by
  Caesar (Julian calendar in 46 BC,)
• one year 9 minutes longer
• 1582 Gregorian calendar
• 1752 England, rebelions (?)
• In orthodox countries till the begining of 20-th
  century.

85
Science in Alexandria and the Museum

• Eratosthenes sieve (identifying the prime numbers)

86
Alexandria and the Museum

• Aristarchos of Samos
• (3rd century BC)
• HELIOCENTRIC SYSTEM

87
Science in Alexandria and the Museum

• Claudius Ptolemy (about 85 165 AD)
• ALMAGEST
• Earth-centred system
• Epicycles and deferents

88
Science in Alexandria and the Museum

• Hypatia (355-370 - 415 AD) lectured on Plato,
  Aristotle, wroute on mathematics and astronomy,
  commentaries to work of Ptolemy
• Astrolabe, distilation of alcohol
• Tortured to death, patriarch Cyrilos
• 643 library destroyed by Arabs

89
Philosophy of the Patristics100 800 AD

• Early Christian writers Church Fathers (Greek,
  Latin writeings)
• Theology and philosophy
• Tertullianus (Carthage cca 160 230)
• Roman theologian, advocate
• Christian, Montanist, his own sect
• Aggressive sarcastic style
• De Performances should Christians attent games?
  no
• Christians heve pleasures many reconciliation
  with God and pardon of many sins. Tertullian
  closes his eyes to the spectacles of the world
  and appears before him spectacle of the Lord
  (angels, saints rising from the dead, kingdom of
  the just, New Jerusalem)

90
Tertullianus

• Persecution of the Christians was ever present
  danger and Chtistians were perplexed by it.
• Was it persecution by Devil? No even such
  persecution comes from God It never happens
  without God willing it and it is fitting for Him
  to do so, to the approval or condemnation of his
  servants.
• What has Athens to do with Jerusalem, what has
  the Academy to do with the Church?

91
Tertullianus

• Christian truth is in opposition to secular
  wisdom and to education as a whole. Here lies its
  power and victory.
• I believe it because it is impossible.
• Naïve materialism all existing thing (incl. God
  and soul) of material nature.
• The term trinity

92
Augustin of Hippo (Tageste 354 430 AD)

• If you want to understand the catholic church,
  you have to understand Augustine
• 
  H. Kung
• Monica (saint Monica), study in Carthage,
  hedonistic sinful life (commited thefts for fun)
• Catholic ? Manichaean sect
• Teacher of rhetoric in Carthage, Rome, Milan
• Summer 386 personal crisis (mystical experience
  conversion to Christianity, baptized, back to
  Africa
• Priest in Hippo 350 sermons, bishop
• Died 75 during the siege of Hippo by the Vandals

93
Works of Augustine

• More than hundred titles
• Confessions - 13 autobiographical books
• Deep psychological insight into previous life
• There is no salvation outside the Church.
• 11th book about time
• What, then, is time? If no one asks me, I know
  what it is. If I wish to explain it, I do not
  know.
• God created time within the word.

94
The City of God (De civita dei)

• Human history as a conflict between City of God
  and City of Man (New Jerusalem and Babylon)
• People of City of God forgo earthly pleasures
  and dedicate themselves to Christian values, but
  inhabitants of City of Man strayed from the City
  of God
• In 410 Roman empire sacked by Visigots
• Conflict with Pelagius
• Celtic monk, from Britain to Rome, recognized
  grandeaur of Church and moral laxity.
• One could achieve grace through his own free
  will, criticisled Augustine doctrine of salvation
  depended only on God (and Church). Basis the
  nature of Original Sin (St. Paul)
• Heresy Ephesus 431 (rejected especially by
  Calvin)

95
Boethius (cca 480 525)

• Intermediary between ancient philosophy and Latin
  Middle Ages.
• Last Romans and the first scholastic
  philosopher.
• 395 Roman empire divided (E and W part)
• 476 Western part conquered by Ostrogoths
  (Germans). Capital Ravena, ruler Theodoric the
  Great

96
Boethius - works

• Service of emperor Theodoric, many high posts
• 523 arrested (charged of treason plot with
  Byzantine Emperor) prison in Pavia, executed in
  524
• Intended to translate into Latin works of
  Aristotle and Plato, Euclid, Ptolemy
• On Music - Musica mundana, humana, instrumentalis
  (incl. voice)

97
Boethius Consolidation of Philosophy

• Written in prison waiting for execution
• Prose and verse - dialogue between Author and
  Lady Philosophy
• Discussion of many old philosophical questions
• Translated to practically to all languages
• Pope Leo XIII Boethius st. Severinus