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Philosophy of the Humanities 1 - Detailed seminar notes
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- Universiteit Van Amsterdam (UvA)
This document contains detailed seminar notes for all weeks of the Philosophy of the Humanities 1 course.
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Week 1Plato: “The Allegory of the Cave” (The Republic, 380BC)
▪ Plato - precursor to philosophy of science
▪ how is knowledge of the world possible and how is growth of such knowledge possible? (cf.
logical positivism and Popper)
Theory of forms: material world as it seems to us is not necessarily the real world, it’s merely
an image, theory of Forms (or theory of Ideas) typically refers to the belief that the material
world as it seems to us is not the real world, but only an "image" or "copy" of the real world.
In some of Plato's dialogues, this is expressed by Socrates, who spoke of forms in formulating a
solution to the problem of universals, the forms, according to Socrates,
are archetypes or abstract representations of the many types of things, and properties we feel and
see around us, that can only be perceived by reason. (that is, they are universals)
• in other words, Socrates was able to recognize two worlds: the apparent world, which
constantly changes, and an unchanging and unseen world of forms, which may be the cause of
what is apparent.
▪ allegory of the cave as most important passage in history of philosophy
▪ it should be read allegorically, representing something else
• allegory: kind of a story, an allegorical story is where the characters and the events in the story
are meant to represent or symbolize something else, very often something real, sometimes and
in this case allegorical story has a one to one relationship
• not all stories are allegories, for example lord of the rings, tolkien was clear that the ring does
not meant to symbolize the atomic bomb or anything so he wanted the reader to take the story he
presented as it is
▪ Glaucon (Plato’s brother) listens to Socrates
▪ epistemological theory
Plato’s Proto-Cinema
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,▪ L/DeVries: Aristotle rejects the Pythagorean-Platonic conception that ideal mathematical
forms and relations are more real than the observable world of phenomena (p. 44)
▪ what is ‘more real’ in the cave?
▪ on the people in the cave: will he not fancy that the shadows (...) are truer (...), will he not have
a pain in his eyes? (515)
▪ but what happens: what our senses observe is less than what lays out there in the background
‘The Allegory of the Cave’ summary:
▪ cave dwellers (prisoners), bound up in chains, can’t turn their head around, only talk to each
other, looking at shadows casted on the wall, coming from behind a low wall and a fire’s light,
shadows of what people are holding up, noises are echoing in the cave, up above the cave there
is an exit to the sunlight
▪ Glaucon: “You have shown me a strange image, and they are strange prisoners.“ Socrates:
“Like ourselves, I replied” (515)
▪ we are the prisoners in the cave
• when you name something you see or are doing, you identify it -> how do we learn? as kids,
we learn by naming things, we learn by rendering our world intelligible to us, humans are able
to carry out this unique activity, us humans have a natural impulse to try and understand what is
in front of us
• activity of naming is the activity of reason, i.e. our reason coming to intelligently apprehending
an intelligible world
▪ to the prisoners, the truth would be literally nothing but the shadows of the images • what the
prisoners see, in this case like the horse or the bird, that we see here, is not the horse or the tree
it is a shadow of a statue, which is itself a copy of the real horse they are many times removed
from really identifying the things giving the things the name that they properly deserve the name
• they simply do not know any better as they have been in the cave their entire lives ▪ we don’t
exactly get to know how (he is compelled to stand up) but one of the prisoners is released into
the sunlight: the sun represents truth, knowledge, he now has access to the truth, critical
knowledge
▪ he sees himself in relation to the light, the world
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,▪ a world of ideas is ideal for Plato, in contrast to a phenomenal world, a world of appearances
(images, shadows)
• BUT he is in pain because of the light of the fire, his response is sceptical and he’s ‘unhappy’
• when going back down, other prisoners would believe he’d been hurt: “Men would say of him
that up he went and down he came without his eyes; and that it was better not even to think of
ascending; and if anyone tried to lose another and lead him up to the light, let them only catch
the offender, and they would put him to death.“ (517)
• passage as reference to Socrates being killed in Athens
out of the cave, into the light...
▪ What is the usual end of the allegory? -> when it is clear that the path to light is the path out of
the cave
▪ even if you are in the light, you could still be ignorant, it’s up to you 🖉 philosophy and
knowledge lie in the soul
• seeing vs light: Socrates talks about education and how humans exist in the world, education
helps humans to better see the world/enlighten us BUT even if you’re in the light, you can still
be ignorant, it’s up to individuals to see what life brings about/find out if there is another world
philosophy of the humanities: media studies notes
• “The eyes may be blinded in two ways, by excess or by defect of light.“ (518, p. 4)
▪ 519 (p. 5): last opportunity
▪ notice how “he” distinguished from “they”
• first separate from the group (515-516)
• later even against the group (517)
▪ we all have the capacity to learn
▪ at the same time, Socrates makes clear that ‘true or false’ is a too narrow framework: when it
concerns knowledge, it is about ‘the idea of the good’
• also inferred to be the universal author of all things beautiful ad right (517) • philosophers have
virtue of wisdom which can either be turned towards bad/evil or good 🖉 education towards
knowledge/good, only the educated can serve the state + rulers are ideally reluctant to rule
(philosophers ideally don’t seek power) ...but then back into the cave!
▪ the business of us who are the founders of the State will be (...) to descend again among the
prisoners (519)
3
, • not ‘they vs he’ anymore but ‘us’
• in the divine state it’s about the fact that citizens become each other’s ‘benefactors’ (520)
▪ ‘double duty’ (520, p. 6)
• not longer limited to ‘bodily qualities’ but will contain ‘the virtue of wisdom’ a ‘divine
element’ (518)
• ‘cleverness’ is not enough
• reward: (they will be) truly rich, not in silver and gold, but in virtue and wisdom (521)
• overall condition: the morals that are given to us (by the light) cause us to descend back into
the cave and teach others (double duty)
▪ ascending from opinion (doxa) to knowledge (episteme)
Week 2
Immanuel Kant: “The Conflict of the Faculties” (1794)
▪ Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)
▪ Königsberg (after WWI, Kaliningrad)
▪ Critique of Pure Reason (1781) -> epistemology
▪ Critique of Practical Reason (1788) -> ethics
▪ Critique of Judgement (1790) -> aesthetics
▪ Political Writings (4th Critique) -> conflict of the faculties (1794), “To Perpetual Peace” (1795)
beyond Kant’s Copernican Revolution
▪ before Copernicus, people thought that heavenly bodies surround the world (mind’s are
surrounding the physical world), Copernicus said that it’s the world surrounding these heavenly
bodies
▪ Kant’s answer: instead of our mind confirming the world, the world confirms our mind
🖉 Kant’s Copernican Revolution: synthetic a priori against vulnerability to the scepticism of
Hume 1711-76
🖉 first metaphysical distinction between phenomena and noumena – leading to ground breaking
statement:
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