Exploring the Philosophical Journey: From Myth to Reason
Theme 1: Philosophy and Its Questions
Rational Knowledge
Animals exhibit innate, instinctive behavior. These instincts allow them to fulfill their needs without conscious thought about causes, purpose, or methods. This is practical, concrete knowledge.
Humans, as rational beings, seek to understand and interpret their environment. To solve existential problems, they require knowledge that goes beyond instinct.
Pre-Rational Explanations: Magic and Myth
Humans are characterized by their capacity for self-awareness and understanding of their surroundings. Early attempts at understanding were irrational: magic and myth.
Magic aimed to solve practical problems. It was based on the belief that all things possess a spirit (animism).
Myth is a narrative, a symbolic sacred legend, recounting major events and explaining natural and social phenomena. Myths justify actions, values, and human morals, serving as models for behavior. They are based on the authority of tradition.
The primary purpose of magic and myth is to offer an explanation of the universe and the individual. They represent irrational knowledge.
Reason: Supernatural
Source: Emotional and imaginative activity
Elements: Symbolic representations, anthropomorphic gods
Type of Explanation: Analogy
Origin and Nature of Rational Beings
Myth and the Arbitrariness of Logos:
In Greece, mythological narratives ceased to serve as explanatory models. The prevailing sense of unpredictability and arbitrariness led to the concept of fate—the idea that things are knowable and predictable.
This gave rise to the desire to explain natural reality through reason, seeking rational and immanent explanations.
Human reason questions its own nature and cause. Unlike magic, rational knowledge employs a method.
A pre-rational explanation offers no logical connection between supernatural and natural phenomena; the explanation is arbitrary.
The Greek Origin: Admiration and the Pursuit of Truth
Western philosophy emerged in the Greek colonies of Asia Minor in the 6th century BC. While rational knowledge, astronomy, and geometry already existed in Egypt, the first Greek thinkers sought uniquely rational explanations.
Philosophy was born as a critique of traditional knowledge, specifically myths. It aimed to answer the same fundamental questions from a logical perspective. This shift is known as the transition from myth to logos.
Theocentrism places God as the omnipotent, necessary, and sole cause of the universe’s order. In contrast, creations are contingent and finite. Humans hold a special place; their souls are immortal, and their bodies will be resurrected at the end of time. This introduces the concept of free will and accountability.
Contemporary philosophy spans the 19th and 20th centuries.
Kant is considered to mark the completion of a philosophical stage due to his critical approach.
Subsequent philosophical reflection is characterized by a multiplicity of interests and schools, united by Kantian influence, either in agreement or opposition.
The central themes are the human being and society.
The main interests and questions of contemporary philosophy can be summarized as follows:
- Philosophy: What is its role today?
- Truth: What is it?
- Culture: What is it?
- Morality, Politics, and Human Rights: What is happiness?
What is Philosophy?
Ortega y Gasset defined philosophy as a passion that engages the whole person, an essential part of the human mind. It seeks ultimate explanations, beyond which one cannot go.
Philosophy addresses disorientation by using reason to inquire about all things, seeking root causes and addressing human concerns. It attempts to answer the fundamental human need to know the truth.
Characteristics of Philosophy
All philosophical approaches share these characteristics:
- Universality: Philosophy wonders about all of reality. It questions everything humans can think, rationalize, feel, imagine, and create. It is interested in the entirety of human experience, a key difference from the sciences.
- Radical Knowledge: Philosophy aims to reach the ultimate explanatory principles of reality, seeking the “why” and not just the “how.” It questions the cause of all reality.
- Rational Knowledge: To understand and interpret reality rationally, philosophy uses arguments, structured reasoning, justification, and consistent, objective, contradiction-free statements. Rationality provides theoretical explanations and has a practical dimension: learning to live.
- Critical Knowledge: Philosophy constantly re-evaluates accepted knowledge, never accepting established ideas simply because they are traditional. It challenges dogma. Being critical means analyzing, dividing, and differentiating the elements of a problem to reach a conclusion.