Write a summary of Philosophy: of the book in journal format of A Historical Survey with Essential Readings 11th Edition from chapter 1 to chapter 13
300 to 600 words
Here’s an example of what I’m looking for in the journal:
The textbook begins with a discussion of the Presocratic philosophers. We have very little of their material left to us, but we do know that they were concerned with the question of reality. The first three of the Presocratics were all monists, claiming that all of reality is one and not many. This was followed by Pythagoras, who thought that the nature of the world was material on one hand, but numerical on the other. Such a view is known as ‘dualism’. By the time we get to Heraclitus, we find a thinker who claims that there is no permanence. Interestingly, he is argued against by Parmenides and his student Zeno. Together, through the use of Parmenides’ Poem and Zeno’s Paradoxes, we find arguments to prove the exact opposite of Heraclitus’ view. That is to say: all is one. The chapter finishes with a pluralist: Empedocles, another dualist: Anaxagoras, and finally the Atomists.
Socrates and the Sophists is the second chapter. Here we are introduced to Socrates. He claimed to know nothing himself, but was always willing to point out to others’ where they were wrong as well. He was tried and put to death for his relentless questioning and criticism of his nation: Athens. His opponents were the Sophists. They could be compared to modern day politicians who care nothing for justice or truth. Instead, they are relentless in their arguments that justice and truth are mere illusions.
Chapter 3 is on the student of Socrates: Plato. He wrote many books called dialogues. These books are accounts of Socrates and his opponents arguing. The bulk of the chapter covers Plato’s most famous work: The Republic. It is in this book that we are introduced to the theory of the Forms, by which Plato tries to explain how we might know truth, reality, and justice. The Timaeus is covered at the end. This is Plato’s attempt at describing and explaining the material universe.
Then there is Aristotle, Plato’s student. He was also a prolific author, though he differed from his teacher. Plato saw reality as otherworldly, whereas Aristotle saw it as worldly. Also, Aristotle established a different tripartite theory of soul. Whereas Plato had it as reason, spirit, and appetite; Aristotle had it as rational, sensitive, and vegetative, which mirrored his more scientific views.
St. Thomas Aquinas takes us to Medieval Christian philosophy in the 1200’s A.D. He attempted to prove God’s existence through cosmological and teleological proofs. Also, he attempted to prove the existence of angels and demons by showing a gap on his Chain of Being. He was retorted by thinkers like Scotus (who saw God as all-powerful only), Ockham (who rejected universals) and Eckhart (who embraced mysticism).
Descartes founded Modern Philosophy as a reaction to the failures of both Medieval and Ancient Philosophy. He showed that only one truth is undeniable: that we exist as long as we are thinking. On this bedrock, he could then show the reality of soul, God, and physical objects. He did struggle with the mind-body problem, as there was no good way to show how they could interact, being so radically different.
Locke, Berkeley, and Hume are the British Empiricists. They all hold that all knowledge comes from sense experience. Locke holds that all we experience comes from substance. Berkeley overturns that view, claiming all experience comes from God. Then Hume overturns them both, claiming that we have no idea where our perceptions come from, we can only know that we do have them!
The readings end with Kant, as he tries to rescue philosophy from the extreme skepticism of David Hume. He claimed that although experience is the go-kart of knowledge, not all knowledge comes from it. He claimed that some knowledge (synthetic a priori knowledge) comes from the intelligent mind itself.
