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Summary Philosophy 144 - Greek Philosophy
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- Stellenbosch University (SUN)
These are notes on all work needed for philosophy 144. Slides and summaries combined. Only Greek philosophy - Term 3
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Philosophy 144Ancient Greek and Medieval Philosophy
(Textbook, lecture and slideshow notes)
Key:
* = therefore
Italics = the philosopher’s thoughts/ views
E.g. Plato: universal forms are the objects of true knowledge (his view/ theory)
A Brief Intro to Philosophy & its roots:
The Phases
1. Cosmological (585 – 5th BCE)→ characteristics of nature/ reality, cosmos, external world
2. Anthropological (5th to 399BCE) → attention turned away from cosmos to human centred issues
3. Systematic philosophy (399 – 322 BCE→ comprehensive philosophical system
4. Post-Aristotelian Philosophy → attention on individualistic, practical issues
The Early Philosophers:
• Dealt with issues fundamental to human experience → everyone must face them
• Ideas of early philosophers still alive today → in Western traditions and shaped thinking over time
Philosophy as ‘Western’:
• Not the only source of philosophy in the world
• Ancient Greeks generally seen as first philosophers (in terms of current understanding of the subject)
• Europeans/ westerns were themselves influenced by other civilisations (Egypt, Persia… through trade)
Reasons for starting with the Greeks:
• Source of university
• Source of philosophy/ science as a discipline – new way of thinking
• Fragments of texts and ideas survived
o Largest surviving/ earliest texts about systematic philosophy
Ideas are like colds…
• ‘Catch’ our beliefs and values like a cold
• Ideas/ values floating around in our cultures → absorbed without thinking/ questioning → become
your beliefs and values
• *By studying philosophy… Understand own beliefs, where they come from, their strengths and
weaknesses
o Then can judge them critically/ decide whether to keep them
o Value of philosophy: Can exercise rational thought and reasoning capabilities
• Many of our beliefs, concepts and values come from Ancient Greeks via the middle ages (especially
through Islam, Christianity and Judaism)
What is Philosophy?
‘The human attempt to systematically study the most fundamental structures of our entire experience
in order to arrive at beliefs that are clear, experientially confirmed and rationally coherent.’
• ‘Human attempt’ → never finished with philosophy, constantly needs to be relooked/ readdressed
• Not about what you believe, but your reasons for having your beliefs
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, • Branches of philosophy:
o Epistemology → theory of knowledge (What is truth/ mean to think)
o Metaphysics/ ontology → theory of reality (What is the basic substance of things/ relation of
things in the world)
o Ethics: What is wrong/ right, who gets what, who decides
o Logic (study of principles of reasoning)
o Social & Political philosophy (what does ideal state look like, what is purpose of government)
o Philosophy of religion
• = ‘the love of wisdom’
o Why is it like love?
▪ Do not tire of discovering/ learning
▪ Constantly striving to knowing/ understanding the other
Philosophical criteria:
• Conceptual clarity → making concepts understandable/ no vague terms
• Experiential confirmation
o must not conflict with any well-established facts
o Must be supported by experience
• Rational coherence → must not contain a contradiction/ conflict with itself
Strategy for understanding philosophy:
• F → facts: where, when, why, what (basic questions)
• O →Outlook: try to adopt the other’s point of view (their resources/ experiences?)
• C → critique the philosopher’s ideas and arguments: sift through ideas, judge them for yourself,
establish what is solid/ weak
• US → undergo self-examination: ask self how you would answer question and WHY (understanding
reasoning behind your worldview)
Ancient Greeks & Philosophy:
Greeks:
• Had different stories for same things all over the world
o *Stories about things = culturally dependent → * some might conflict
▪ Something in stories therefore inaccurate/ incomplete because thing itself stays the
same, but there are different stories
• Greeks began to see regardless of different myths, things stayed the same
o Therefore, an order underlying the world, not necessarily mythology
• Greek philosophy permeated throughout the world through religion and science
The Role of the Poets (Homer & the rest of them):
• Story of philosophy begins with poetry
• Poets seen as historians, scientists, astrologers, educators, astronomers * held central position in Greek
culture/ shaped Greek worldview
o Developed, preserved, conveyed the historical, scientific and religious truths of the time
o Attempted to answer cosmological questions about workings/origins of universe, events in
nature
o Religious function → told stories of the gods (explained myths through poetry)
o Accounts considered authoritative
• Greeks believed that the poets were inspired by The Muses (goddesses of literature and arts)
o * considered to possess a divine spirit no less than biblical writers
• Had ethical element → explained how heroes triumphed/ fell, how destiny controlled → * suggested
the advantageous course that should be taken in life/ how one should live/ act (ethics)
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, • Poets tried to create (through myths) a comprehensive view of the world and one’s place in it
Myths:
• Appeared in poetry
• Attempt to explain the unfamiliar (e.g. change in nature), gain understanding of mysterious in terms of
what is familiar (e.g. grief) and observable
• Primary model of explanation of how world worked was that of human motives and actions → * Greek
gods are very human
o Human emotions, wilful, don’t follow objective moral order but driven by own desire (unlike
Judeo-Christian god)
o Events attributed to anger or goodwill of gods
Homer:
• The Iliad and The Odyssey – his writings
o Foundational to Greek culture, self-understanding & understanding way world works
o Myths conveyed through Iliad and Odyssey
• World according to Homer:
o Events caused by Gods → but fickle & impulsive
o Elements of randomness
▪ Means that there are occurrences in world that can never be explained = fate
o Humans and gods are subject to fate
▪ Unyielding, amoral order that can never be escaped
▪ E.g. Oedipus → in trying to escape fate, actually fell into his destiny
o Gods didn’t demand moral goodness, but rather reverence → could also be flattered and bribed
& obeyed out of fear
▪ Only exception is Zeus → got angry due to immoral behaviour
▪ Hesiod eventually develops this exception into the idea of an impersonal, universal
moral order
• Source of virtues/ moral code for ancient Greeks
o Homer’s virtues = virtues/ values of warrior heroes
o Can be summarized under heading of ‘excellence’ → success, honour, power, wealth,
moderation and security
o Moral duties are followed with intent of preserving honour and status → even gods
• Conflicts within Homer’s world view:
1. Some events are caused by purposeful divine or human agents
➔ But some events are random and as purposeless as the throw of a pair of dice
2. Both humans and gods are subject to fate
➔ But sometimes the gods respond to moral order and judge mortals by a standard of
objective justice
o Doesn’t make clear what happens when 2 or more of these forces collide → Conflicts/
dissatisfaction with homer’s view → emergence of PHILOSOPHY/ SCIENCE because more
coherent view of world needed
o Idea of ‘fate’ → leads to idea of natural laws (force independent of will of any agent, divine or
human)
BEGINNING OF PHILOSOPHY:
• Solar eclipse predicted by Thales (sage) – 28 May 585 BCE → SIGNIFICANT EVENT
o Had a lot of knowledge due to travel and sharing of ideas from Persia, Egypt, Babylonia etc
o Therefore, he realised that events in world were not:
▪ Result of unpredictable will of the gods
▪ Blind chance
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