HZT 4M ~ 2011/2012 ~ Mr. Armour

UNIT ONE: ANCIENT GREECE AND THE FOUNDATIONS OF WESTERN EPISTEMOLOGY

Philosophia

                                                        philo - love , sophia - light
What is Philosophy?
            -use of reason and arguement to search for truth and knowledge about reality

PROCESS OF PHILOSOPHIC INQUIRY (major aspects)
           - we must reason and think philosophically
           - we must understand and judge the words and actions of others to develop
             our own opinions
     Determine what's important to us in life and society.
Key Components- form and ask a question
                           - gather information
                           - reason and evaluation of evidence and point of view
                           - form and defend your conclusion

PLATO'S CAVE ALLEGORY

                        - everything we believe is not the truth, it has a relation to truth

     - sometimes we have a tendency to be satisfied to quickly
and easily about nature, entertainment and the universe

ANALOGY OF THE CAVE     - an illustration of the progress of the mind from

darkness (ignorance) to light (understanding truth)

Progress to enlightenment. 

My P.O.V
- after you enter the light and discover the real world, you find yourself still searching for an escape

THALES OF MILETUS
- first natural scientist and analytical philosopher in Western intellectual history- first philosopher of Ancient Greece (founder of Western philosophy)
- was a major centre of development for both science and philosophy in Ancient Greece
- probably born around 620 BC
- claimed that the fundamental nature and element of the world is water (no life could exist without the presence of H20)
- according to his metaphysics, water was the first principle of life and the material world
- professed that flat earth floated on water
- his metaphysical speculations have been clearly mistaken
- correctly predicted that there would be a solar eclipse in 585 BC during a battle between the Medes and the     Lydians
- made a fortune investing in oil-presses before a heavy olive crop
- claimed that god is in all things ( Pantheism) believed mind of the world is god

PYTHAGORAS OF SAMOS- born around the mid-sixth century BC
- believed the ultimate nature of reality is number, numbers had mystical value
- his religious teaching consisted in the claim that music has a special power over the soul therefore his belief came bias to conformity
- believed that certain numbers were responsible of real forces and could be used to manipulate objects and forces (manipulate stone into a bridge)
numerology- the science of forecasting the future with numbers

XENOPHANES OF COLOPHON
- If horses could draw, they would draw their gods like horses.- critized the Homerian concept of anthropomorphic gods (creating anthropomorphic gods was misleading and childish)
- Like Thales, Xenophanes speculated about the underlying principles of natural phenomena
- proposed the possibility of the central element being mud meaning matter is generated from mud
- there is no way for certain that things are as we think they are (there are limits to how certain we can be)
- though we can't prove ultimately what is true, we can prove what is false
- to prove you need proof