A History of Philosophy: Key Thinkers and Concepts

Posted on Dec 5, 2024 in Philosophy and ethics

A History of Philosophy

Key Thinkers and Concepts

Idealism vs. Materialism

Idealism designates theories opposing materialism. Materialism argues that reality is knowable as it is. Idealism posits that the object of knowledge is pre-formed or constructed by cognitive activity. Materialismo

Foundational Philosophers

Genophanes and Parmenides created the third philosophical system.

Branches of Philosophy

  • Ethics: Studies human behavior and morality. Its fundamental value is moral value.
  • Aesthetics: Explores beauty and art theory.
  • Logic: Analyzes thought (concepts, judgments, reasoning).
  • Axiology: Investigates values (moral, aesthetic, religious, etc.) and their relations.
  • Epistemology: Studies the fundamentals and methods of scientific knowledge.
  • Ontology: Addresses the problem of being.
  • Theology: Studies divine entities.
  • Tautology: Repeating the same thought in different ways.
  • Teleology: The study of purpose or final causes.

Beginnings of Ethics

Immanuel Kant is considered a foundational figure in ethics.

Presocratic Philosophy

The Presocratics, also known as physical philosophers or cosmogonists, focused on nature.

Presocratic Schools

  • Ionian: Founded by Thales. Arche (fundamental principle): water (Thales), Apeiron (Anaximander), air (Anaximenes).
  • Eleatic: Founded by Parmenides. Being and thinking are identified; being is one, immutable, and eternal; non-being does not exist.
  • Pythagorean: Founded by Pythagoras. The soul is immortal; numbers are the basis of reality; the world is a harmonious combination of numbers.
  • Pluralist: Empedocles posited four elements (earth, water, air, fire) mixed by love and separated by discord. Anaxagoras introduced Homeomeries (seeds of things) and Nous (intelligence).
  • Atomist: Leucippus and Democritus proposed atoms and void as the fundamental constituents of reality.

Key Figures and Ideas

  • Parmenides: Precursor of the Eleatic school.
  • Aristotle: Considered the essence of all things to be water, air, Apeiron, and fire.
  • Empedocles: Founder of the theory of four elements.
  • Anaxagoras, Democritus, and Leucippus: Stated that all things are formed from homogeneous, indivisible particles (atoms).
  • Rationality: The senses deceive; reason and logical thought are the sources of knowledge.
  • Empiricism: Knowledge originates from experience and perception.
  • Criticism (Kant): Reason examines its own limits and conditions of validity.
  • Kant’s Major Works: Critique of Pure Reason, Perpetual Peace.
  • Marx’s Major Works: Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts, Das Kapital.
  • Hegel’s Major Works: Phenomenology of Spirit, Science of Logic, Philosophy of Right.
  • Hegelian Philosophy: Also known as Hegelianism.
  • Influence on Marx and Engels: Kant significantly influenced their thinking.
  • Plato’s School: The Platonic Academy.
  • Aristotle’s School: The Lyceum (also known as the Peripatetic School).
  • Plato’s Major Work: The Republic.
  • Plato’s Levels of Knowledge: Doxa (sensible world: conjecture, opinion) and Episteme (ideal world: true knowledge, science). Doxa includes Eikasia (belief in the senses) and Pistis (differentiation using mathematics). Episteme includes Dianoia (mathematical knowledge) and Noesis (dialectical knowledge).
  • Aristotle’s Logic: Organon.
  • Wonder (Aristotle): Admiration in the face of the unknown.
  • Descartes’ Method: Methodical doubt.
  • Etymology of Philosophy: Pythagoras is credited with the term.
  • Thought: The process of understanding the objects that produce our livelihoods.
  • Socrates: Sentenced to death for teaching.
  • Maieutics: Socrates’ method of eliciting knowledge through questioning.
  • Descartes’ Methodical Doubt: A method for searching for truth.
  • A Posteriori: Kantian judgments arising from experience.
  • Husserl: Developed the phenomenological method.
  • Hermeneutics: Interpretation.
  • Heidegger and Gadamer: Emphasized the circular relationship between understanding and interpretation.
  • Deconstruction: Jacques Derrida’s method of textual analysis.
  • Dialectic (Plato): A model for representing correct knowledge.
  • Dialectic (Aristotle): More fundamental than science.
  • Dialectic (Hegel): A method for understanding and showing the movement of thought in history.
  • Analysis of Language: A philosophical method focusing on precision and consequences of statements.
  • Descartes’ Fundamental Theses: Reason guarantees truth and knowledge; consciousness is the ontological and epistemological premise of philosophy.
  • Empiricism: Knowledge originates from experience and perception.
  • Myths: Narratives that present a magical vision of nature and people.
  • Heraclitus of Ephesus: Author of the aphorisms: “This world, the same for all, did not create any man or god, but always was, is, and will be an eternal fire that ignites and extinguishes according to measure.” and “Everything flows, nothing stands still.”
  • Xenocrates: Author of the aphorism: “If animals had hands, they would feel their God in their image and likeness.”
  • Medieval Philosophy: Developed largely in light of Aristotle’s works.
  • Thomas Aquinas: Distinguished philosophical and theological understandings of creation; maintained the possibility of an eternal, created universe; author of Summa Theologica.
  • Fernando Savater’s Major Works: Questions of Life, The Universe and Its Environs.

Political Philosophy

  • Machiavelli: Argued that a good ruler uses force or cunning to obtain and maintain power; believed that the end justifies the means; defined the modern individual as selfish and evil.
  • John Locke: Considered the father of political liberalism; argued that civil power should guarantee individual freedom and property.
  • John Locke: Suggested a separation of powers (legislature and executive).
  • Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Author of The Social Contract; distinguished between the state of nature and the state of society; believed that man is good by nature (Emile, or On Education); defined democracy as government based on the general will.
  • Utopia: Means “no place.”
  • Thomas More: Advocated for freedom of belief in Utopia; described a communist society.
  • Charles Fourier: A utopian socialist who proposed reforms and an ideal social system based on harmony; proposed adultery as a way of sharing love; described a society where passions are combined in The New World of Love.

The Polis

  • Plato: Described the Greek polis as based on a slave mode of production.
  • Aristotle: Defined humans as political animals; only gods and beasts can live outside the polis; wrote about the origin of the city in Politics.
  • Citizen: A term originating in Rome, referring to those with political rights.

Contemporary Social Problems

  • Chauvinism: Radical nationalism.
  • Xenophobia: Belief in racial superiority.
  • Religious Fundamentalism: Belief in a holy book as ultimate authority.
  • Ethnocentrism: Belief in one’s own culture’s centrality.
  • Diversity: The plurality of languages, traditions, religions, ideologies, and lifestyles.
  • Otherness: Coexistence with and respect for difference.
  • Xenophobia: Hatred or contempt for foreigners or those of different ethnicities, sexual orientations, or genders.
  • Ethnocentrism: Subjugating other peoples.
  • Kant’s Perpetual Peace: Inspired by the Thirty Years’ War; describes reasons for conflict between states.
  • Kant’s Three Articles for Perpetual Peace: Republican government; a federation of states; hospitality for foreigners.
  • Morality (Kant): An indispensable social value for achieving perpetual peace.
  • Important Social Rights: Peace, education, work, and health.
  • Bobbio on Peace: The need for a neutral third force (a universal or supranational state).
  • The Pacific: The desire to end war; rejection of destructive behavior.
  • Herbert Spencer: Wrote about the transition from military to industrial civilizations.
  • Bobbio on Peace: Peace is a prerequisite for protecting human rights.

The Meaning of Human Existence

  • Viktor Frankl: Argued that the main disease of our age is a life without purpose.
  • Frankl’s Observations: Unemployment leads to feelings of meaninglessness; engaging in meaningful activity alleviates depression.
  • Frankl’s Conclusion: Depression stems from questioning life’s meaning.
  • Industrial Society: A consumer society that fails to satisfy the will to meaning.
  • Existential Vacuums: Filled with things that provide temporary satisfaction.
  • Generation Without Direction: Prone to depression, addiction, aggression, and suicide.
  • Miguel León-Portilla: Identified cultural features supporting the presence of Mesoamerican character.
  • Duality (Mesoamerican): A characteristic of the Mesoamerican worldview, exemplified by Ometeotl.
  • Mesoamerican Pantheon: Most gods exist in pairs.
  • The Mexican (Samuel Ramos): Lives quietly in adversity, sometimes resorting to violence.
  • Mexican Inferiority Complex (Samuel Ramos): Self-denigration due to low self-esteem.
  • The Mexican (Octavio Paz): Machismo, submission, and apathy.
  • Ramos’ Analysis of Mexico: An inferiority complex due to self-denigration.
  • Passion (Fromm): Satisfies ego, vanity, or pride.

Love and Fear

  • Concept of Love (Popular): A feeling or emotion that brings pleasure.
  • Erich Fromm on Love: An art requiring knowledge and effort; paradoxical (two beings become one yet remain two).
  • Fromm on Romantic Relationships: Follow the pattern of market exchange.
  • Types of Love (Fromm): Maternal, sadomasochistic, parental, fraternal, erotic, self-love, love of God, homosexual.
  • Homosexuality in the 19th Century: Considered a disease.
  • Qualities for Loving: Overcoming narcissism; actively loving all people.
  • Arthur Schopenhauer on Human Beings: Possess a will that expresses itself through the body.
  • Schopenhauer’s Will: Leads to pain, suffering, and death; an endless cycle of birth, death, and rebirth.
  • Schopenhauer on Love: Compensation for death; applies to sexual acts.
  • Sexual Love (Schopenhauer): Manifests the force that rules the world.
  • Antonio Caso: Charity surpasses selfishness.
  • Christian Virtues: Faith and charity.
  • Montaigne on Fear: A strange passion that disrupts our view.
  • Fear: Anxiety about unknown circumstances or events.
  • Søren Kierkegaard on Anxiety: A fundamental category for understanding the individual’s relationship with the world.
  • Kierkegaard’s The Concept of Anxiety: Anxiety experienced in absolute nothingness.
  • Kierkegaard on the Danish Lutheran Church: Worldly and corrupt.

Existentialism

  • St. Augustine: Theology between Pelagianism and Manichaeism.
  • Pelagianism: Denies original sin.
  • Manichaeism: Reduces the world to a conflict between good and evil.
  • Free Will: The ability to make one’s own decisions.
  • Christian Conception of God: Creative, omnipotent, and paternal.
  • Religion: Dialogue linking people to a higher being.
  • Dual World Idea: A world of sense (imperfect) and an intelligible world (perfect).
  • Demiurge: The entity shaping the world of sense.
  • Faith and Reason: Understanding requires faith.
  • Creation (St. Augustine): A free act of God.
  • Evil (St. Augustine): Lack of being.
  • Jean-Paul Sartre: Defined humans as creators of their own world; responsible for their actions.
  • Action (Sartre): Intentional, though consequences may be unforeseen.
  • Mobiles (Sartre): Desires, emotions, and passions.
  • Death (Sartre): A pure fact that transforms us into exteriority.
  • Life (Sartre): A limited project.
  • Action of Freedom (Sartre): Action against what is defined and determined.
  • Selfhood (Sartre): Individuality; crucial for ethical commitment.
  • Domination and Possession (Sartre): Void relationships.
  • Albert Camus: Humans seek support when discovering their weakness.
  • Camus’ The Myth of Sisyphus: Suicide is the only serious philosophical problem.
  • The Absurd (Camus): Confrontation between reason and the irrational world.
  • Camus on Consciousness: Seeks solidarity among human beings.
  • The Rebel (Camus): Places dignity above all other values.
  • Friedrich Nietzsche: Proclaimed “God is dead”; believed that Christianity represents a morality of slaves.
  • Superman (Nietzsche): Confident, independent, and individualistic.
  • Transmutation (Nietzsche): Changing traditional values based on desire.
  • Superman (Nietzsche): Not the consummation of the human model, but its overcoming.
  • Will to Power (Nietzsche): The will to live.
  • Nihilism (Nietzsche): Pessimistic denial of life.
  • Nietzsche on the Self: The body is the true self.