Great Ideas of Philosophy

More documents

Recommendations

Info

1. Socrates did not live in our technical world of microsurgery and pharmacology; thus, in Plato’sRepublic, he considers prisoners in the depths of a cave who have objects and events projected onsome parapet in front of them. They think they are experiencing reality, but this reality is no more thanmere shadows and illusion.2. What Socrates makes clear is that behind every experience, there is room for an interpretation of themeaning of that experience. It’s in the interpretation, the examination of what life amounts to, that infact, life becomes worth living. For Socrates, it’s not the sequence of passive experiences but theintegration of those experiences into some intelligible whole that constitutes a form of life, and onesubject to refinement through self-critical reflection.B. This returns us to the Delphic pronouncement: “Know thyself.” But how we can do this?1. We must know what it means to be a certain kind of being, in this case, what it means to be a humanbeing. The answer must reach toward something other than mere biology, which may be a way tounderstand a particular species but certainly can’t answer the question: “What kind of person am Iessentially?”2. Socrates’s life as a teacher was devoted to the question: “What kinds of beings are we?” Only afterreaching a defensible position on that question might we proceed to “How should we live our lives?What is the right form of government? What’s the relationship between the individual and the polis?”C. To know thyself presupposes the capacity to know anything. You may know many things and not “knowthyself” in the Socratic sense. But to know thyself is, minimally, to know. Thus, Socrates begins with thatcore problem of knowledge: How do we know anything?1. If the skeptics are right in that we can’t know anything for certain, then we certainly cannot knowourselves in any settled and certain way, and that means that one’s life is uselessly examined. Whatwould the examined life be? Simply a constellation of prejudices and self-deceptions.2. What must be defeated here is skepticism. We must come up with at least one kernel of truth that wecan settle on as true and that will answer the root epistemological question: Is it possible to knowanything? If we can settle on one thing that is true, then we can know that it is possible to know, and ifwe know the method by which we arrived at that truth, then perhaps we can use it to know otherthings.D. We begin to see that the Socratic agenda is a fairly broad one. First, one must do philosophical battle withskepticism and cynicism. One must also contend with the problem of conduct. What kind of life is right forbeings such as ourselves? Should we aim solely at happiness and pleasure? What of our values? Are theysimply reflections of our own prejudices, giving us no right or reason to impose them on others or expectthem to be shared?E. Finally, what of the problem of governance and the vaunted “democracy” of the Athenian state?1. The Athenians treasured the democratic character of the polis, and a philosopher could well expecttrouble when challenging its core precepts. Socrates raised grave questions about such precepts, whileothers, including Aristotle, defended them.2. Nonetheless, Socrates reserves to himself the right at least to raise the question: How should we begoverned? This question cannot be answered in the abstract. We can’t answer the question of how weshould be governed unless we have already established the right kind of life to live. And we can’tanswer that question until we’ve settled the question of what kind of beings we are and how we cancome to know as much.3. Until we have successfully defeated a skeptical position on knowledge as such, we can’t have adefensible position on ethics. And until we’ve handled the ethical dimensions of life, we can’t pinpointwhat the political organization of the polis should be.4. It is a credit to the lasting genius of Socrates that he understands the interconnectedness of thesequestions, that the problem of knowledge, the problem of conduct, and the problem of governance arevarious phases of the same problem: how we come to know ourselves and realize our humanity in thecourse of a lifetime. This, of course, will be the central agenda of the program of philosophy forcenturies to come.Recommended Reading:Robinson, D. N. An Intellectual History of Psychology, 3 rd ed. University of Wisconsin Press, 1995, chapter 2.18©2004 The Teaching Company Limited Partnership
Xenophon. Memorabilia. Cornell University Press, 1994.Questions to Consider:1. Socrates assembles his friends in the years following the defeat of Athens at the hands of Sparta. Explainwhether Socrates’s philosophy is the thought of the “losing side.”2. If Socrates was undermining the values and received wisdom of his polis, conclude whether he was justlyprosecuted.©2004 The Teaching Company Limited Partnership 19
Page 3 and 4: Daniel N. Robinson, Ph.D.Philosophy
Page 6 and 7: Lecture OneFrom the Upanishads to H
Page 8 and 9: E. The Upanishads would merge us wi
Page 10 and 11: 2. Despite their oracles, priests,
Page 12 and 13: 4. Looking at geometry, we are told
Page 15 and 16: E. The contribution of pre-Socratic
Page 17 and 18: of the mystery of earth itself impe
Page 19 and 20: Lecture SixHerodotus and the Lamp o
Page 21: Lecture SevenSocrates on the Examin
Page 25 and 26: II. A philosopher is engaged in the
Page 27 and 28: Lecture NineCan Virtue Be Taught?Sc
Page 29 and 30: Lecture TenPlato’s Republic⎯Man
Page 31 and 32: Annas, J. “Classical Greek Philos
Page 33 and 34: III. The dominant school of Greek m
Page 35 and 36: 1. Epistemonikon is a special featu
Page 37 and 38: Timeline800-600 B.C.E. ............
Page 39 and 40: 1705...............................
Page 41 and 42: 1873...............................
Page 43 and 44: Functionalism: The view that consci
Page 45 and 46: Tabula rasa: A blank slate. In the
Page 47 and 48: progress in one of its most summoni
Page 49 and 50: John Locke (1632-1704): Physician a
Page 51: The Great Ideas ofPhilosophy, 2 nd
Page 54 and 55: Table of ContentsThe Great Ideas of
Page 56 and 57: Lecture ThirteenAristotle on Friend
Page 58 and 59: C. Aristotle is recovering the Home
Page 60 and 61: III. The problem of conduct is then
Page 62 and 63: C. The Stoic account relies on the
Page 64 and 65: Lecture SixteenThe Stoic Bridge to
Page 66 and 67: Recommended Reading:Bede. A History
Page 68 and 69: III. Roman law successfully permitt
Page 70 and 71: Lecture EighteenThe Light Within⎯
Page 72 and 73:
B. Augustine approaches the problem
Page 74 and 75:
B. Very early, the Islamic commitme
Page 76 and 77:
Lecture TwentySecular Knowledge⎯T
Page 78 and 79:
IV. The third great institutional c
Page 80 and 81:
1. Scholasticism was an attempt to
Page 82 and 83:
Lecture Twenty-TwoScholasticism and
Page 84 and 85:
E. Further, to the intellectual vir
Page 86 and 87:
historical volumes tell Florentines
Page 88 and 89:
Lecture Twenty-FourLet Us Burn the
Page 90 and 91:
1. First, the courts required a doc
Page 92 and 93:
650-850 C.E. ......................
Page 94 and 95:
1794...............................
Page 96 and 97:
Apatheia: Freedom from pathos and s
Page 98 and 99:
ut cannot know what it is. Ultimate
Page 100 and 101:
Biographical NotesAeschylus (525-45
Page 102 and 103:
Claude Adrien Helvetius (1715-1771)
Page 104 and 105:
Socrates (c. 469-399 B.C.): Greek p
Page 107 and 108:
Daniel N. Robinson, Ph.D.Philosophy
Page 109 and 110:
Scope:The Great Ideas of Philosophy
Page 111 and 112:
B. This expansion, however, does no
Page 113 and 114:
1. This standard essentially rules
Page 115 and 116:
Lecture Twenty-SevenNewton⎯The Sa
Page 117 and 118:
Lecture Twenty-EightHobbes and the
Page 119 and 120:
Recommended Reading:Hobbes, T. Levi
Page 121 and 122:
B. Other things can be known to be
Page 123 and 124:
Lecture ThirtyNo Matter? The Challe
Page 125 and 126:
Lecture Thirty-OneHume and the Purs
Page 127 and 128:
Lecture Thirty-TwoThomas Reid and t
Page 129 and 130:
efore him were not always faithful
Page 131 and 132:
2. His Letters on the English makes
Page 133 and 134:
Lecture Thirty-FourThe Federalist P
Page 135 and 136:
VI. The Federalist Papers and the g
Page 137 and 138:
III. Kant argues that there is some
Page 139 and 140:
Lecture Thirty-SixMoral Science and
Page 141 and 142:
Questions to Consider:1. A hypothet
Page 143 and 144:
650-850 C.E. ......................
Page 145 and 146:
1794...............................
Page 147 and 148:
Apatheia: Freedom from pathos and s
Page 149 and 150:
ut cannot know what it is. Ultimate
Page 151 and 152:
Biographical NotesAeschylus (525-45
Page 153 and 154:
Claude Adrien Helvetius (1715-1771)
Page 155:
Socrates (c. 469-399 B.C.): Greek p
Page 159 and 160:
Daniel N. Robinson, Ph.D.Philosophy
Page 161 and 162:
Scope:The Great Ideas of Philosophy
Page 163 and 164:
C. Though his system would be mocke
Page 165 and 166:
1. There is nothing in the physics
Page 167 and 168:
F. To include Hegel within the trad
Page 169 and 170:
Lecture FortyThe Aesthetic Movement
Page 171 and 172:
insisted that our very character is
Page 173 and 174:
III. Nietzsche was an admirer and o
Page 175 and 176:
B. In the final state, we’re all
Page 177 and 178:
Lecture Forty-ThreeDarwin and Natur
Page 179 and 180:
2. There is room for altruism but o
Page 181 and 182:
1. He is a Hegelian who stands Hege
Page 183 and 184:
Lecture Forty-FiveThe Freudian Worl
Page 185 and 186:
B. How can repressed elements be un
Page 187 and 188:
III. What figures in the human imag
Page 189 and 190:
Lecture Forty-SevenWilliam James’
Page 191 and 192:
Questions to Consider:1. Conclude w
Page 193 and 194:
III. As long as we subscribe to a
Page 195 and 196:
Timeline800-600 B.C.E. ............
Page 197 and 198:
1705...............................
Page 199 and 200:
1873...............................
Page 201 and 202:
Functionalism: The view that consci
Page 203 and 204:
Tabula rasa: A blank slate. In the
Page 205 and 206:
progress in one of its most summoni
Page 207 and 208:
John Locke (1632-1704): Physician a
Page 209:
The Great Ideas ofPhilosophy, 2 nd
Page 212 and 213:
Table of ContentsThe Great Ideas of
Page 214 and 215:
Lecture Forty-NineAlan Turing in th
Page 216 and 217:
C. Searle thinks that the missing i
Page 218 and 219:
3. Even activities could be simulat
Page 220 and 221:
B. The inclination to classify is a
Page 222 and 223:
Lecture Fifty-TwoPhilosophy of Scie
Page 224 and 225:
V. These debates illustrate a far l
Page 226 and 227:
1. The two had in common the idea t
Page 228 and 229:
Questions to Consider:1. What does
Page 230 and 231:
C. Locke and others emphasized that
Page 232 and 233:
Lecture Fifty-FiveWhat Makes a Prob
Page 234 and 235:
B. Kant suggests that the moral law
Page 236 and 237:
1. Proponents have argued that so m
Page 238 and 239:
Lecture Fifty-SevenOn the Nature of
Page 240 and 241:
2. So far as it can coexist with th
Page 242 and 243:
3. Slavery is commonplace in all of
Page 244 and 245:
3. Does the just-war theorist have
Page 246 and 247:
B. The quadrivium comprised arithme
Page 248 and 249:
2. He argues that the former is pre
Page 250 and 251:
1. The objects of the knowable worl
Page 252 and 253:
etween a world of beauty and one of
Page 254 and 255:
⎯⎯⎯. On Free choice of Will.
Page 256 and 257:
Herodotus. The Persian Wars. G. Raw
Page 258:
———. Toward a Science of Huma
show all

Great Ideas of Philosophy

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?