Origins/Nature of Philosophy
Aristotle--all men desire to know
Philosophy--Philo ("love") Sophia ("wisdom")
Know what?
1) nature of reality (human, natural, divine--often everything together as a single whole)
2) how should I live my life?
NOT unconnected questions--need to know in order to make as an informed a decision as possible
Three kinds (or methods) of "philosophy": (Love-of-Wisdom in action)
1) Science (relatively objective; investigations utilizing the scientific method; very strong element of quantification, measurement, etc.; very rigorous; not tradition-based (at least not beyond short stretches of time); self-correcting; falsifiable; makes concrete predictions; cumulative (probably); theories it produces are testable, lead to other new insights, and often unexpectedly mesh together.)
2) Art and Religion (Similarities between them: both are "stories" which utilize imaginative methods of conveying content--e.g., parables, characters, images, symbols; content involves questions of human nature, life, purpose, context, and destiny; both are "subjective" sorts of endeavors in that there is no clear, agreed upon method for distinguishing between superior and inferior variants, let alone for demonstrating the One True Answer. Differences between them: one is honest about being a story--the other is a story that, technically, may literally be true, but also may well be not; religion is more subject to tradition than art is; in art, innovation is often accepted at face-value, while in religion it is often fought against and, should it emerge victorious, is often claimed to be "more authentic" than what it has replaced; finally, religion's claims tend to lean more toward the realms of Truth--of AN answer (even if this answer is not wholly attainable in THIS world)--while Art is more suggestive, delicate, tentative, and balanced.)
3) "Traditional" Philosophy (deals in questions not amenable to the scientific method, but which are still open to reasoned discourse and argument; sometimes does contain religious or artistic elements, but these elements are not, in general, at the center; philosophy tends to remain highly open, uncertain, and debatable--real answers, in the end, apparently must be personal ones; if answers can objectively be established, philosophy becomes science; if answers are given in evocative, metaphorical, or character-driven forms, philosophy slides over toward the categories of Art or Religion; naturally, however, these categories are by no means watertight.)
Who is the "best" or "most real" philosopher, in my opinion? The fully open human being in possession of a deep and permanent passion for science, art, religion, and "traditional" philosophy. These differing roads to wisdom are mutually supportive ways of thinking and feeling about both ourselves and our world. They are all immensely valuable methods of seeing.
Four Philosophical States from "Pre-Socratics" to Plato:
* first state: "mythological philosophy"--a valid early/first approach to thinking about the nature of things; people taking their best shot given their circumstances--very imaginative; often involves placing (and, therefore, to at least some extent explaining) natural as well as social and political relations and facts in an at least partially "supernatural" or spiritual context; given details are placed and developed within character-driven narratives; "mythological" or "symbolic" truth is sometimes possibly achieved. Example: though the creation myths of many peoples may seem entirely bizarre, these stories should not be scorned since it can be argued that they have, in fact, recognized and tapped into a profound truth: that existence--the fact that anything is at all--is itself bizarre and that the "truth" all things came into being must be at least as paradoxical, nonsensical, and bizarre as any myth. Thus, the strangeness of the tales themselves seems to point toward this tremendous, mysterious truth.
* second state: cutting back on mythology on the one hand, while also using, to at least some extent, mythological or theological thinking to ponder reality as a whole and to investigate the structure, history, and cause(s) of Nature. (phusis) Often involve the search for an arche, a single source or cause or basic substance common to all things. With this we reach the early Pre-Socratics. Why or how this step from purely mythological to mytho-philosophical occurred, however, appears to be unknown.
* third state: combines accounts and arguments concerning phusis (Nature) with morality and other more specifically human issues--especially those concerning how to live; often involves a kind of return to mythological thinking, but on a higher plane; also sometimes addresses epistemology (how we know what we (think?) we know, etc.))
* fourth state: emphasis on way-of-life issues almost exclusively--more practical motivations combined with natural curiosity and a sense of duty toward others is the source. The goal is not merely knowledge, but knowledge for the sake of happiness, rightly understood.
Some Sample "Philosophers":
First State:
Epic of Gilgamesh (2nd millennium BC) (arrogant, earthly striving leading to death of Enkidu, Gilgamesh's best friend. He searches for the secret of escaping death. Finds Utnapishtim, a kind of Noah, who survives the world-wide flood and is made immortal. Gilgamesh finds him sitting around doing nothing. He wins the plant of eternal life--but the snake takes it. He returns to Uruk and praises its physicality and accomplishments)
Hesiod (8th century BC) (Theogony: creation from Chaos--then Ouranos, Gaia, Eros, etc.--natural forces/elements personified; change (cosmic/divine/natural evolution) is brought about by violence within this family until, finally, all god-wars end with Zeus)
Second State:
Thales (6th century BC) (world is Water--picks one element to be the arche--the one fundamental thing; "all things are full of gods"; also a practical man: predicted an eclipse, for instance)
Anaximander (6th century BC) (to apeiron--the indefinite, boundless, deathless--is the source of all four elements; countless worlds arising from and falling back in to the apeiron "according to necessity; for they pay penalty and retribution to each other for their injustice according to the assessment of time"; time, meanwhile, infinite both directions; ideas about mankind coming from animals; Earth in the very center of all)
* both Thales and Anaximander are from Miletus--probably knew each other
Third State:
Xenophanes (6th-5th century BC) (criticized Homer's treatment of the gods in terms of their behavior--an important step in demythologizing enquiry; attacks anthropomorphism, but still accepts the existence of gods; talks about one particular god a lot: This god, the greatest of them all, is "not at all like mortals in body or mind," "sees as a whole, thinks as a whole, and hears as a whole," "without out toil he moves everything by the thought of his mind," "he always remains in the same place, not moving at all, nor is it fitting for him to change his position at different times." Great quote: "Not from the beginning have the gods revealed all things to mortals, but by long seeking men find what is better." Also, "No man knows or ever will know the truth about the gods and about everything I speak of: for even if one chanced to say the complete truth, yet oneself knows it not; but seeming is wrought over all things."
Democritus
(5th century BC) (all is made of atoms
which exist in the void; they naturally "swerve," which
is how they get mixed up. Somehow all these atoms jostling about
produces us as well as the rest of the world. "Sweet exists
by convention, bitter by convention, colour by convention; atoms
and void (alone) exist in reality..." Also a great ethicist!!!
(Atoms and morals--together at last!)
Some good Democritus quotes: "He who chooses the advantage
of the soul chooses things more divine, but he who chooses those
of the body, chooses things human." "Men find happiness
neither by means of the body or through possessions, but through
uprightness and wisdom." "The wrongdoer is more unfortunate
than the man wronged." "Virtue consists, not in avoiding
wrong-doing, but in having no wish thereto." "Many much-learned
men have no intelligence." "For all men, good and true
are the same; but pleasant differs for different men." "The
cause of error is ignorance of the better." "The friendship
of one intelligent man is better than that of all the unintelligent."
"Life is not worth living for the man who has not even one
good friend." "Physical beauty is (merely) animal unless
intelligence be present." "Good things are obtained
with difficulty if one seeks; but bad things come without our
even seeking." "A woman must not practice argument:
this is dreadful." "It is the mark of the divine intellect
to be always calculating something noble." "(I would)
rather discover one cause than gain the kingdom of Persia."
"Education is an ornament for the prosperous, a refuge for
the unfortunate." And finally, "To a wise man, the whole
earth is open; for the native land of a good soul is the whole
earth."
fourth state:
Socrates (5th century BC): sets aside inquisitions into the physical nature of the universe--instead focuses on self-knowledge and a search for the best and proper activity in life. His answer appears, in large part, to be the act of philosophy itself. This is symbolized, I think, by the fact that, unlike the Pre-Socratics, he wrote nothing. His entire philosophical work was with his fellow living human beings. No writing means no distractions, no risk of having his writings turned against him, and no putting eggs into more than one basket. He lives and dies for Athens. Acts as a "gadfly" and "midwife" to, respectively, wake others up and help them give birth to understanding and wisdom without which life is not worth living. Serving his community, which has been so torn by the foolishness of internal strife and war. (When asked what penalty he should receive at his trial, he says he should be fed and housed by the state and the people's expense) With Socrates we have, in a sense, come full circle back to Gilgamesh.