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Where did philosophy come from?
Somewhere around 600 b.c. we have records from a thinker named Thales. He is called the very first philosopher.
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Pre-socratics 3 primary questions
- 1. Basic substance of the world.
- 2. Nature of change
- 3. Relationship between appearance and reality.
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Thales
Believed water was the basic substance of the world, and since it is, change happens because water requires change.
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Pythagorus
Believed the basic substance of the world was numbers.
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Heraclitus
- Believed the basic substance of the world was fire.
- Fire is always moving, so he stated that "nothing is real except change itself"
- Said there are not things only processes
- Believed the world was run by conflict.
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Parmenides
- Belived that for a thing to be real, it had to possess its properties for eternity
- All change is an illusion
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Anaxagoras
- Gave up on the notion that everything could be boiled down to one basic substance
- Had the first scientific point of view
- Believed the sun was burning gas, and the moon was a rock
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Two Criticisms of the Pre-Socratics
- 1. The pre-socratics missed asking about the human condition
- 2. Combined three lines of questioning
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Sophism
Started out as a movement reporting that they were able to teach wisdom.
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Protagoras
- Though goodness could be taught.
- Believed morality could be given through knowledge.
- Believed virtue is defined by your culture.
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Relativism
Morality is dependent on your culture
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Gorgias
- Famed for teaching persuasion.
- Claimed himself to be the best at teaching the art of persuasion, and proved this by making outrageous claims plausible.
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Gorgia's Outrageous Claims
- 1. The world does not exist.
- 2. Even if there was a world, you could not know it.
- 3. Even if you knew something about the world, you could not communicate it to others.
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Thrasymachus
- Moral Skepticism
- Political issues
- A rejection of all moral standards-Nihilism
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Critias
- Religion as politics
- Believed the purpose of religion was to keep everyone in line
- Church and State are one
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Plato's opinion of Athens youth as a result of Sophist teaching
- Believed they walked away with a selfish sense of morality.
- They learned to rationalize the pursuit of wealth by corrupt values.
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Socrates' pursuit
The pursuit of truth and wisdom were more important than rhetoric.
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3 groups of Socrates dialogue and examples
- Early- Euthyphro
- Middle- The Republic
- Late- Teachings of Plato
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First dialogue
The Apology
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Aristophans
Playwrite who disliked Socrates, and wrote a sattire on him called "The Clouds"
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Aristotle
- Student of Plato, wrote about Socrates.
- Distinguished between historical Socrates and Plato's Socrates
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Socrates
- A citizen of Athens, not wealthy.
- Father was a stone cutter.
- Served in the military as a foot solider.
- Was told by the oracle that he was the wisest man in the world.
- Exposed those who were considered to be the wisest men in Athens as frauds.
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Central idea of "The Euthyphro"
Finding piety
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The Socratic Method
- 1. States a thesis
- 2. Asks a series of questions
- 3. Discovers a contradiction
- 4. Gets the interlocutor to see the contradiction
This goes on until the interlocutor gets confused and leaves
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Epistimic humility
The goal of Socrates, to point out that you don't know everything
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The Euthyphro: What is piety?
- 1. Doing what I do
- 2. Piety is whatever is loved by the gods.
- 3. Piety is whatever is loved by all the gods.
- 4. Piety is part of justice.
- 5a. Piety is the care of the gods.
- 5b.Piety is to give service to the gods.
- 6. Piety is how to give and beg from the gods.
- 7. Whatever is loved by the gods is pious.
- 8. Euthyphro leaves.
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The Apology
Very first dialogue by Plato.
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The charges against Socrates
- 1. Corrupting youth
- 2. Not believing in the gods
- 3. inventing new gods
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Plot of the Apology
1. Meletus, can you be both a believer in gods and an athiest at the same time?
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