Lesson 1: From the perspective of philosophy  wisest men of all (according to Dephi Oracle)

 wanted to discover the essential nature of

Philosophy – Love of wisdom knowledge, justice, beauty and goodness.
Philosopher – lover of wisdom  not a writer (no published/written book)
Greek words:  “The Dialogues”
“Philo” = Love Plato’s work/writing about his mentor’s thoughts.
“Sophia” = wisdom Prove that Socrates is a brilliant debater so Athenians
idolizes him.
 Athens of Ancient Greek (600 BCE) = birthplace of  Socrates died because of the Sophists insecurities
Philosophy and Center of the Western thought) towards him. They put him to trial and sentenced
 Questions centered on the universe and what to death.
possible role man may play in it.
 Greeks answers are both from cognitive and SOCRATIC METHOD/ DIALECTIC METHOD
scientific in nature. Goal: bring the person to final understanding and to make
 Greek philosophers in Miletus seek people think, seek and ask again and again.
√ natural explanations to events and phenomena Meaning: Involves the search for the correct/proper
X supernatural explanations from gods definition of a thing. Results cannot be refuted by socratic
 Philosophers observed changes in world and wanted reasoning.
to explain these changes by understanding the “Laws - X lecture ; √ would ask questions
of Nature”. Process: Socrates will ask like he did not know anything and
 Led to Idea of permanence would let the other person clarify ideas.
 EARLY PHILOSPHERS SHIFTED FROM Qualification: questioner should be skilled at detecting
misconceptions and at revealing them by asking the right
WORLD MAN
questions.
understand Sought to understand the
nature of Human Beings,
through elements, SOCRATES’S VIEW OF HUMAN NATURE
Math and science problems of morality and
“The unexamined life is not worth living.”
life Philosophy.
(atoms and Mission in life: seek the highest knowledge and convince
heavenly bodies) others to seek this knowledge with him.
SOCRATES
 His socratic method allowed him to question
PLATO “BIG THREE” of Philosophy
people’s belifes, ideas, exposing misconceptions
ARISTOTLE (shared academic bond)
and get them to touch their soul.
S mentor of P, P mentor of A.
Touching of the soul – helping the person to get in touch with
 th
5 century – Athens enjoyed the status of being a his true self
city and a democracy True self = soul
 During these times, to become powerful, one must
 Delphi Oracle named Socrates as the wisest of all
do it with words (Rhetoric)
men.
 Athenians settle arguments by discussion and debate.
 Socrates become confused
Sophist  After much contemplation, oracle meant that
- Skilled people who are good at oratory(art of public people were ignorant of what knowledge is most
speaking) ; good at debate and discussion. important.
- 1st teachers of the West KNOWLEDGE: HOW TO LIVE LIFE AND HOW TO
MAKE THEIR SOUL GOOD.
- Arguments were based on practical things and not with He knew the importance of this but was aware of
metaphysical speculations. his ignorance
 He was the wisest because he was the only one
who knew he did not know.

 stonemason with a sharp mind

  Real understanding comes from within the PLATO’S VIEW OF HUMAN NATURE
person. Socratic method forces people to use
their innate reason by reaching inside themselves  considered dialectic method as essential tool for
to their deepest nature. knowledge.
 Not all questions are answerable but what is  Knowledge lies within the person’s soul.
important is for them to realize that they do not
know anything.
HUMANS BEINGS UNIVERSE OR
WORLD
AS MICROCOSMS AS MACROCOSM
 Real name: ARISTOCLES
 Born in Athens; from an aristocratic family.  Everything in the universe
 Why plato?  Materials of the human body and the physical
Because of his physical built which means world are imperfect.
wide/broad. Humans have the immortal, rational soul.
 Left Athens for 12 yrs after the death of Socrates.
 Established “The Academy” Soul is created in the image of the divine.
 Wrote twenty dialogues with Socrates
Socrates as the protagonist. TRIPARTITE SOUL
 S and P believe that Philosophy is more than
analyses but rather is a way of life. THE REASON

Metaphysics - philosophical study on the THE SPIRITED

causes and nature of things
THE APPETITES
THEORY OF FORMS
THE REASON – rational ; motivation of goodness and truth.
 Plato’s metaphysics THE SPIRITED – non- rational, will or the drive toward action
 Discussed in “The Republic” THE APPETITES – irrational ; desire

Forms refers to what is real. Reason seeks the true goal of man (true nature)
They are not objects but can only be grasped Spirited and Appetites want worldly pleasures and can
intellectually. influence reason by making it believe the sensual pleasures as
Form’s Characteristics: (AE, UP, UI) source of happiness.

1. The Forms are Ageless and therefore eternal  People are intrinsically Good.
2. The Forms are Unchanging and therefore  Sometimes, Judgments are made in ignorance.
permanent.  Ignorance is equal to evil
3. The Forms are Unmoving and therefore indivisible.
PLATO’S THEORY OF LOVE AND BECOMING
Plato’s Dualism
 Allegory of the Cave
- 2 Realms that is interconnected to forms.
What people in the cave see are only shadows of
reality which they believe are real things and
1. The Realm of the Shadows
represents knowledge.
composed of changing, ‘sensible’ things which
Fail to see: Shadows are not real
are lesser entities and therefore imperfect and
“ONLY THE FORMS ARE REAL” – PLATO
flawed.
Once these people get out of the cave and into light,
2. The Realm of Forms
what they will see are the forms which is what real
composed of eternal things which are
knowledge is.
permanent and perfect. Source of all reality and
true knowledge.
 In knowing the truth, the person must become the
truth (Theory of Being)
“To know is to be” – Plato
the more the person knows, the more he is and the
better he is.
To recall or remember the Forms is to know the truth
and then to become just and wise.
Plato’s Symposium (another dialogue)
is the way by which people can
LOVE move from a state of imperfect
= knowledge and ignorance to state
of perfection and true
Force that ascend Way of knowing and realizing
to higher stages the truth. A process of seeking
of self-realization higher stages of being.
and perfection
Plato’s Love
begins with a feeling or experience that there is lacking. Then
drives the person to seek. Thoughts and efforts are then
directed towards the pursuit.
“The deeper the thought, the stronger the love”
“The greater the love, the more intellectual component it
will contain”
It is this pursuit that motivates man and transforms people
and societies.
“To love the highest, is to become the best”
INTRODUCTION
 Christianity’s domination after the fall of
Hellenistic-Roman eras.
 Christian philosophers of medieval era is also
theologians.
 Concern: man’s relationship with God.
 X believe that self-knowledge and happiness is
the ultimate goal.
 √ Man should rely on God’s commands and his
judgment of what constitutes good and evil.
 Christianity, sees man as sinners who reject/go
against a loving God’s commands.
 Plato’s Academy was closed due to church
ordered.
 St. Agustine of hippo rejected Christianity (could
not provide answers to his questions)
 He wanted to know about moral evil and why it
existed in people. (sufferings of the world)
ST. AGUSTINE’S VIEW OF HUMAN
NATURE
 HE STILL BECAME A PRIEST AND A BISHOP OF
HIPPO.
 HIS THOUGHTS FOCUSED ON 2 REALMS
1. God as the source of all reality and truth.
(without God as a source of all truth, man
could never understand eternal truths)
2. The sinfulness of man
(Freewill is the cause of the sin of man. Evil
does not live in God’s creatures but rather in
man. Moral goodness can only achieved
through the grace of God)
THE ROLE OF LOVE
 Real happiness can only found in God. (For God
is love and he created humans for them to also
love)
 Disordered love results when man loves the
wrong things which he believes will give him
happiness.
 Explains:
1. Love of physical objects leads to the sin of
GREED.
2. love for other people is not lasting and
excesive love for them is the sin of JEALOUSY.
3. Love for the self leads to the sin of PRIDE.
4. Love for God is the supreme virtue and only
thru loving God can man find real happiness.
“All things are worthy of love but they must be loved
properly.”
“If man loves God first, everything will fall into its
rightful place.”
 Father of Modern Philosophy.
 One of the Rationalist Philosophers of Europe(
group of philosophers that considered truth as a
universal concept and reason is superior to and
independent of sensory experience )
  Rationalists are so impressed by the scientific
method and math that they aimed to apply these
to their philosophy.
 invented Cartesian Method and Analytic
Geometry.
 He had 3 dreams(instructed him to construct a
system of knowledge using the human reason)
DESCARTES’ SYSTEM
 Using his dreams as guide
 He turned to mathematics, he discovered that
human mind has 2 powers.
1. Intuition
2. Deduction
Reasoning could produce absolute truth about nature.
The truth that are discovered are a priori. (this do not rely on
experience but innate in human mind)
DESCARTES’ VIEW OF HUMAN NATURE
‘I think therefore, I am’
to doubt is to think.
thinker – Is a thing that doubt, understands, affirms, denies,
wills and refuses and that also imagines and feels.
The cognitive aspect of human nature is his basis for existence
of the self.
THE MIND- BODY PROBLEM
- Soul/mind (also the self) is separate from the body.
All bodily processes are mechanical.
Body = machine controlled by the mind.
 Born in Wrington, England
 Son of a Puritan lawyer
 Interested in politics, defender of parliamentary
system.
 Published a book at age of 57.
 New era of thought “Enlightenment”
 Posteriori or objects that were experienced.
Involves 2 forms:
Sensation (experienced thru senses)
Reflection ( discover relationships that may exist
between object’s experienced and mind)
 Tabula Rasa = blank slate
 “Nothing exist in the mind that was not first in the
senses”
- What senses experienced are simple ideas which are
The raw materials from which knowledge begins.
Ideas = result of reflection which demonstrate the
power of thinking and volition or will.
 Born in Edinburgh, Scotland
 He lost his faith except in philosophy and general
learning.
 After reading the philosophy of Locke, ‘he never
again entertained any belief in religion’
 Giving Empiricisms clearest formula
 Beginning, uses scientific method believing it could
analyze human nature.
 Discovered limitations of mind.
His optimism turns to skepticism.
The Human Mind
Perception (mind receives materials from senses)
2 types of perceptions: (Make up the content of the
human mind)
1. Impressions (immediate sensations of external
reality)
2. Ideas(recollections of impressions)
 All begins at impressions, without impression,
there will be no formation of ideas.
 Imagination has ability to connect 2 ideas into
complex ideas.
Patterns of thinking:
3 principles
1. The principle of Resemblance
2. The principle of Contiguity
3. The principle of cause and effect
(cannot be basis for knowledge)
HUME’S VIEW OF HUMAN NATURE
 Self instead of Soul. Man does have an idea of
the so-called self because ideas rely on senses
impressions and people have no sense
impression of self.
 discovered sense impressions
 self (product of imagination)
 there’s no such thing as ‘personal identity’
 no permanent/unchanging self.
  lives In Konisberg in East Prussia (Western Russia)
 stayed away from the church (yet still deeply
spiritual)
 Asian philosophies
 French Philosopher Rousseau made him realized to
formulate his philosophical ideas.
 David Hume’s Philosophy awakened him to be the
founder of German Idealism.
 Wrote 3 books: Critique of Pure Reason, Critique of
Practical reason and Critique of Judgment
KANT’S VIEW OF MIND
 Contrary to empiricist, mind is not a just a passive
receiver of sense of experience but rather
actively participates in knowing the objects its
experiences.
 Instead of mind conforming the world, it is the
external world conforming to mind
 He combined the lacking philosophies of
Rationalism and Empiricism.
 Knowledge – as a result of human understanding
applied to sense experience.
KANTS VIEW OF HUMAN NATURE AND THE
SELF
 Transcendental apperception (self and its unity with
objects)
 All objects of knowledge, including self, are
phenomenal.
 The true nature of things are altogether unknown
and unknowable
 Austrian neurologists
 Psychodynamic Theory (has characteristics of
philosophical thoughts)
 Unconscious mind
 Psychopathology
 Hysteria
 Therapies : Free association and dream analysis
Structures of the mind
 Psychodynamic theory would tell that the workings of
the mind or one’s mental life impacts strongly on the
body resulting in either emotional stability or
psychological dysfunctions.
 TOPOGRAPHY OF MIND (USES ICEBERG TO SHOW
HOW THE MIND WORKS)
tip of the iceberg- represent conscious awareness.
Characterize the person as he deals with his external
world.
 Unconscious
 subconscious mind – repository of past
experiences, repressed memories, fantasies and
urges.
3 levels of Mind
1. Id- pleasure principle
2. Ego- reality principle
3. Superego- morality of actions
 Freud in his 1920 book, Beyond the Pleasure
Principle presented 2 kinds of instincts that
drive individual behavior.
 Eros – life instinct
 Thanatos – death instinct
 Energy of eros is called Libido (includes urges
for species survival like thirst, hunger and
sex)
 Sometimes, man’s behavior directed towards
destruction in the form of aggression and
violence (e.g. of thanatos)
FREUD’S VIEW OF HUMAN NATURE
 Psychoanalysis- sees man as a product of his past
lodged within his subconscious.
 Destructive death is said to be born with his ego
already.
 Man lives balancing the forces of life and death
(makes existence a challenge)
 English Philosopher
 Contradicted Cartesian Dualism, in his book entitled,
The concept of the mind.
 Argues that dualism ‘involves categorymistakes and
is a philosophical nonsense’
 The category mistakes involve ind in the mind-body
problem is how a non-material substance (mind) can
influence a physical, mental body.
 Many of philosophical problems caused by the
wrong use of language.
 Mind as the ‘Ghost in the Machine.’

RYLE’S VIEW OF HUMAN NATURE
 Freewill as a basis for determining if an action
deserves praise or blame
 Agrees with Kant that freewill involves moral
responsibility
 2 types of knowledge; he metioned in his presidential
address to the Aristotelian Society in 1945.
Distinguishes ‘ knowing-that and knowing-how’.
 ‘knowing-that’ is an empty intellectualism.
 Knowing involves an ability and not just an intellect.
 NEUROPHILOSOPHY – application of neurology in the
age-old problems in philosophy.
 Coined by Patricia Churchland, Canadian-american
philosopher (born on July 16, 1943) with husband
Paul Churchland, Canadian philosopher (born
October 21, 1942).
 Sought guide scientific theorizing with philosophy
and guide philosophy with scientific inquiry.
 Philosophy of neuroscience, is the study of the
philosophy of the mind, the philosophy of science,
neuroscience and psychology.
 Aims: to explore relevance of neuroscientifc
experiments/studies to the philosophy of mind
 Issue of brain-mind is central to this study
 Neuroscience is necessary in virtually understanding
the nature of the mind which in turn makes it
relevant to philosophy.
 Patricia claimed that man’s brain is responsible for
the self. The biochemical properties are really
responsible for man’s thoughts, feelings and
behavior.
CHURCHLANDS’ VIEW OF HUMAN NATURE
 Human nature is complicated
 Man is endowed with more than just physical or
neurological characteristics
 Neurophilosophy states that self is real. That it is a
tool that helps the person tune-in to the realities of
the brain and the extant reality. Can malfunction but
can also allow human beings to do amazing things.
 French Phenomenological philosopher
 Greatly influenced by Edmund Husserl and Martin
Heidegger.
 Wrote books on perception, art and political thought.
 Human body as the primary site of knowing the world
 Philosopher of the body (made use of the body
schema in discussions that ranged across a number of
cognitive and existential issues.)
The focus is on the relationship between self and the
experience of people.
MERLEAU-PONTY’S VIEW OF HUMAN NATURE
AND SELF
 CONCEPT OF BODY-SUBJECT
 Contended that Perceptions occur existentially
 The consciousness, the world and human body are all
interconnected as they mutually perceive the world.
 “The world and sense of self are emergent
phenomena in the ongoing process of man’s
‘becoming’.”
 Phenomenology of Perception(1945)
Book of Merleau-Ponty that described the nature of
man’s perceptual contact with the world.
Phenomenology provides a direct description of the
human experience
Perception forms the background of the experience
which serves to guide man’s conscious actions.
 The world is a field of perception, and human
consciousness assigns meaning to the world. Thus
man cannot separate himself from his perceptions of
the world.
 Consciousness is a process that includes sensing as
well as interpreting/reasoning.
 The meaning assigned to the particular object is
subject to change depending on the perspective upon
which it is seen.
 One object may be perceived from various
perspectives. As this phenomenon takes place, the
body seeks clarity for the meaning of this object by
constituting a perceptual gestalt (German word for
‘good form’)