Philosophy

Philosophy is a discipline or field of study involving the investigation, analysis, and development of ideas at a general, abstract, or fundamental level. It is the discipline in search for a general understanding of values and reality by chiefly speculative rather than observational means. The term covers a very wide range of approaches, and is also used to refer to a worldview, to a perspective on an issue, or to the positions argued for by a particular philosopher or school of philosophy. The phrase "a philosophical attitude" is often used to refer to a stoical approach to life. This article concerns philosophy as a discipline.

History (of Western philosophy)

Traditionally, the history and study of the history of philosophy is divided into three areas: Ancient Greek, Medieval, and Modern. There is also now focus being put on the post-modern period, especially existentialism. Étienne Gilson, in his book The Unity of Philosophic Experience, attempts to show important connections between the ideas of the medieval period and their development in the modern period; this is contrary to traditional interpretations of modern philosophy as a new era unconcerned with the past.

Related Topics:
Ancient Greek - Medieval - Modern - Existentialism - Étienne Gilson

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Ancient Greek Philosophy is typically divided into the pre-Socratic Period, the philosophy of Plato, and the philosophy of Aristotle. Important pre-Socratic philosophers include Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes, Parmenides, and Heraclitus. The pre-Socratics, as far as we know from the fragments which survive, were mostly interested in metaphysics; their goal was to find the universal arche or defining principle of the world. Also notable are arguments about the distinction between the one and the many and the possibility of change.

Related Topics:
Pre-Socratic Period - Thales - Anaximander - Anaximenes - Parmenides - Heraclitus - Metaphysics

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Socrates and his pupil Plato revolutionized philosophy. While Socrates wrote nothing, his influence survives through that of his pupil. Plato defined the issues with which philosophy still wrestles.

Related Topics:
Socrates - Plato

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A student of Plato's, Aristotle, was concerned with all matters of knowledge, and his Nicomachean Ethics would form the basis of all later ethical discussions. He also deepened the study of metaphysics, improving on the theory of forms suggested by Plato and creating the hylomorphic theory (ie. All things in the universe are composites of form and matter--of the immaterial universal and the material particular).

Related Topics:
Nicomachean Ethics - Metaphysics

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Marcus Tullius Cicero was one of the greatest Roman orators and legal philosophers of the ancient world. His explication of the Natural Law, the belief that the rule of law must be rooted in the nature of the cosmos itself, held great sway in the ancient and medieval world. It was Cicero who offered one of the first conceptions of the commonwealth, as a people united by common interests and a shared sense of law (lex). The Romans rooted law in concepts of rights and power, which through their military might, they projected throughout Europe.

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Law was already an important concept in the near east when the Romans invaded and conquered. The Hebrew people living in Jerusalem already had a complex understanding of law and of its relation to the creator of the cosmos. Law for them was intimately related to the idea of being a people or a nation. The Law was a gift from God given to the Hebrew people as a means of maintaining their identity and purity before their creator-God.

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In the 200s-400s early Christians built on this already ancient Hebrew understanding. A number of important Christian thinkers sought to understand the nature of law and its relation to the early Church. Irenaeus of Lyon, Tertullian, Origen and Ambrose of Milan rank among the most important.

Related Topics:
Irenaeus - Tertullian - Origen - Ambrose

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It was Augustine, however, who had the greatest and longest impact. A convert to Christianity, Augustine wrote many important texts. One of his most widely read works are Confessions, his biography recounting his studies in Cicero's philosophy, his conversion to the Gnostic religion of Manicheanism, and his eventual conversion to Christianity. Another important Augustinian text is his City of God in which he argued against the claim then circulating among some Romans that the Christians were the cause of Rome's decline. Augustine argued that Christians had strengthened a corrupt Empire, slowing its inevitable decline. In Book 19 he argues against Cicero's understanding of the commonwealth, stating instead that the commonwealth is defined by people who are united in a commitment to share what they love.

Related Topics:
Augustine - Confessions - Manicheanism - City of God

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After Augustine, many important Christian thinkers, including Justinian I, Boethius, and Gregory the Great shaped philosophy in the early medieval period. An issue of great importance was coming to grips with the great political power that the Church had achieved, particularly in the office of the papacy.

Related Topics:
Justinian I - Boethius - Gregory the Great

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In the thirteenth century, the works of Aristotle had become influential once again, after having been lost to Western Europe since the fall of Rome. One of the greatest synthesizers of Christian and Aristotelian thought was Thomas Aquinas. His synthesis of Aristotelian metaphysics and practical reasoning with Christian teaching became characteristic of medieval philosophy. A central issue of which was understanding the nature of Being-as-such and the God who identifies himself as the Creator of all beings. In his Summa Theologica, Aquinas attempted to answer in brief format all the major theological issues of his day by synthesising Christian belief with Aristotelian hylopmorphic metaphysics.

Related Topics:
Thomas Aquinas - Medieval philosophy - Summa Theologica

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Aquinas divided the concept of law into four modes: Eternal Law, Natural Law, Human Law, and Divine Law. The Eternal Law reflects God's intentions for creation. The Natural Law are laws immanent in Being. The human law is the positive law of princes; and the Divine Law is the revelation of God in the Scripture. Natural law relies on the power of the human mind to know the form and substance of things and thereby their telos (their eternal purpose, goal, or end) that makes it possible to know the natural law. Aquinas argued that ultimately the tele (plural of telos) merged into the desire to achieve union with God.

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William of Ockham offered an important alternative to Thomistic philosophy. He argued against the premise that Thomas Aquinas accepted on faith, that a true and accurate understanding of the tele can be known through human experience, and thus he argued against the Natural Law as Aquinas had proposed it.

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Modern thinkers would find much of value in the thought of Ockham. Descartes, who is often called the father of modern philosophy, proposed that philosophy should begin with a radical skepticism about the possibility of obtaining reliable knowledge. In his Meditations, he systematically destroys all the foundations of knowledge except one (I am thinking, therefore I am), and then uses this single indubitable fact to rebuild a system of knowledge. The questions he raises would then be dealt with by Spinoza, Malebranche, Hobbes, Arnauld, John Locke, Leibniz, and David Hume. The period was marked by an association with the natural sciences and rationalism.

Related Topics:
Descartes - Spinoza - Malebranche - Hobbes - Arnauld - John Locke - Leibniz - David Hume

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The many debates among these modern philosophers caused strains in every area of philosophy, most notably metaphysics. Finally, Immanuel Kant wrote his Critique of Pure Reason and attempted to reconcile conflicting views and establish a new groundword for studying metaphysics rooted in the analysis of the conditions for the possiblity of knowledge. A central claim of Kant's program of "critique" involved the refutation of classical and Thomistic conceptions of metaphysics, which suggested an abstact concept of being-as-such. Kant argued that being predicates nothing, such that to claim "that x" and "that x is" are equivalent expressions. There is no "Being" in the abstract, only particular beings and these are known only as phenomena of human experience. No knowledge of things in themselves (noumena) is possible. Kant dubbed this insight in his philosophy a "Copernican Revolution".

Related Topics:
Immanuel Kant - Critique of Pure Reason

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Kant's moral philosophy is rooted in the claim set out in the Critique of Practical Reason that "There is nothing that is good without qualification, except a good will." Why is this? Simply because anything at all can be either good or evil except a desire to do good. The only thing that guides human action to be moral is the individual will seeking to obey the dictates of reason. In his famous Categorical Imperative, he sets out the principle of moral judgment: "As such that the principle of one's action can be willed to be a universal principle (held by all)." Kant's thought offered a means for thinking about moral duty without reference to metaphysical programs, which were becoming increasingly dubious in the light of advancing scientific progess. The duty to obey what practical reason demands became the mode of moral reasoning known as Kantianism. Kantian philosophy continues to cast a long shadow in legal theory. Contemporary theorists like John Rawls and Jurgen Habermas draw much of their inspiration from Kantian predecessors.

Related Topics:
Critique of Practical Reason - Categorical Imperative - John Rawls - Jurgen Habermas

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By the late 19th Century, however, several important philosophers argued against the Kantians' skepical attitude. One of the most influential was Edumund Husserl, who founded the philosophical mode known as phenomenology. Husserl's approach to philosophical method indirectly inspired a wide range of important thinkers in the twentieth century. Through the writings of Catholic thinkers, such as Edith Stein and Karol Wojtyla (Pope John Paul II) phenomenology was coupled with Thomistic thought to investigate the nature of the dignity of the human person. Coupled with existentialism, the phenomenology of Martin Heidegger influenced thinkers as diverse as Karl Jaspers, Hannah Arendt, Paul Ricoeur, and Jacques Derrida.

Related Topics:
Husserl - Edith Stein - Pope John Paul II - Martin Heidegger - Karl Jaspers - Hannah Arendt - Paul Ricoeur - Jacques Derrida

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