History of Western Philosophy Lecture Notes

Jul 21, 2024

History of Western Philosophy Lecture Notes

Introduction

  • Origins: Western philosophy begins in the Eastern Mediterranean, specifically Greece and Asia Minor.
  • First Known Philosopher: Thales of Miletus, from the west coast of Asia Minor (Greek colonies around the Aegean).

Reasons for the Rise of Philosophy in Ancient Greece

  1. Geographical Crossroads: The interaction between Eastern and Western cultures due to strategic trade routes through Asia Minor.
  2. Pre-scientific Inquiry: Early Greek philosophers acted as pre-scientific scientists by questioning the natural world (cosmology, natural processes, basic elements).
  3. Moral Order: Early Greek literature suggested a cosmic order that is also a moral order.

Two Lines of Philosophical Inquiry

  1. Physical Order: Reflection about the natural world.
  2. Moral Order: Reflection about the moral order believed to exist in the cosmos.

Focus on the Pre-Socratic Philosophers

  • Pre-Socratics: Philosophers before Socrates, studied in terms of monism and pluralism.
    • Monism: Belief in one fundamental substance or element.
    • Pluralism: Belief in multiple fundamental substances or elements.
    • Qualitative Monism/Pluralism: Focuses on the types and qualities of basic elements.
    • Quantitative Monism/Pluralism: Focuses on the number of fundamental entities.

Key Pre-Socratic Philosophers and Their Ideas

Milesians (c. 600 BC)

  • Thales: Proposed water as the basic element.
  • Anaximander: Proposed the 'apeiron' (the indefinite, undefined) as the basic substance.
  • Anaximenes: Proposed air as the basic element.

Double Aspect Theories

  • Pythagoras and Heraclitus (600-500 BC): Nature has features of both change and order.
    • Heraclitus: Everything is in flux, fire as a basic element, and 'logos' as underlying order.
    • Pythagoras: Emphasized mathematical order and geometry.

Eleatics

  • Parmenides and Zeno (500 BC): Rejected multiplicity and change, emphasizing a static, unchanging reality.
    • Parmenides: Change and plurality are illusory.
    • Zeno: Known for paradoxes that argue against the reality of change.

Pluralists

  • Empedocles (490-430 BC): Proposed four elements (earth, air, fire, water), and cyclical processes driven by 'love' and 'hate'.
  • Anaxagoras (500-428 BC): Proposed that everything is composed of 'seeds' of all qualities and introduced nous (mind) as a cosmic ordering principle.
  • Democritus (460-370 BC): Everything is composed of small, indivisible atoms, chance and mechanical processes explain the universe.

Key Philosophical Themes Introduced

  1. Metaphysics: Questions about the nature of reality, basic elements, causal processes, and the underlying order of the cosmos.
  2. Epistemology: Questions about the nature and reliability of knowledge, sense experience vs. rational thought.
  3. Ethics and Society: What is the good life and how should one live in accordance with the order of the universe?

Significance

  • Pre-Socratic philosophers laid the groundwork for the philosophical agenda that has been influential in Western thought.
  • Legacy: Their inquiries contributed to the development of natural science, metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics in Western philosophy.