Exploring the Depths of Philosophy

Philosophy • Philosophyφιλοσοφία (philosophía) – “love of wisdom” (Pythagoras) • the study of general problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, truth, beauty, justice, validity, mind, language … Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing these questions (such as mysticism or mythology) by its critical and systematic approach.

Branches of philosophy • Metaphysics - the nature of being and reality (ontology, cosmology, but also mysticism, theology …). • Epistemology - nature and scope of knowledge and believe (truth, justification ..., methodology) • Ethics, or 'moral philosophy', concerned with questions of how persons ought to act (morality, virtue) • Political philosophy - study of government and the relationship of individuals and communities to the society and state (justice, the good, law, property, rights obligations of the citizen). • Aesthetic deals with beauty (art, enjoyment, sensory-emotional values). • Logic deals with patterns of thinking that lead from true premises to true conclusions. • Philosophy of mind deals with the nature of the mind and its relationship to the body (dualism x monism, cognitive science) • Philosophy of language - inquiry into the nature, origins, and usage of language. • Etc.

Western philosophy – historical division • Ancient philosophy (Greece 6th ct BC – 6th AC) • Medieval philosophy (6th AC - 14th AC), Muslim, Jewish, Christian … • Renaissance(14th AC – 17th) • Early modern phil. (17th – 19th) • Nineteenth cent. phil. • Contemporary philosophy

Eastern philosophy Belongs Eastern thinking to philosophy? No – Hegel, “Philosophy” – label only for western thinking? Europocentrism? Different nature of Eastern ph. (interconnection with mythology, religious nature) – but not of whole. Not one philosophy, but various philosophies Persian philosophy (e.g. Zoroastrianism) Indian philosophy (Buddhism, Hindu …) Chinese philosophy (Taoism, Konfucionalism …) Korean, Japanese, … African ….

Ancient western philosophy – temporal division • Pre-Socratic period • Classical periods (Socrates, Plato, Aristotle) • Hellenistic(post-Aristotelian) period • Christian(and Neo-Platonist) philosophy

Mythological background of philosophy Myth – philosophy – science (August Comte) + applied science - technology • All ethnics have their own myths. • Traditional myths, artificial (modern) myths (fakes?) Myths and fairytales. • Passed by word of mouth (life of myths) • Written form (eposes) – fixation, petrification

Mythological background of philosophy Role of myths • Entertainment – dramatic stories • Formation and encourage group self consciousness, formation of tribe, ethnics, nation (justification why our tribe is super ordinate) • Formation and consolidation of moral and social system (model phenomena - archetypes: gods, heroes, solutions of situations) (C. G. Jung) • Base of religion • From epistemological view: There is a (non visible, metaphysical) world that controls our visible (physical) world.

Mythological background of philosophy • Myths in ancient Greece • Homer`epics (9th century BC) and Homeric mythology (no moral order, gods capriciously play with human fates) • Hesiod (8th century BC): concept of moral order that is given by chief god Zeus to humans • Other systems: Orphism, Pythagoras sect, Empedocles …

Mythological background of philosophy • Truth of myth – implicit expressions, metaphors, model situations • Judgement of Paris - bone of contention – in Czech “apple of contention” • Mythological truth and literal truth (art, literature, theatre, film, photography…) • Truth of religion ? • Truth of science • Truth in philosophy

Conditions for formation of philosophy • SCHOLE (free time, leisure) • Developed language (abstract concepts) • Naivety of Homeric mythology – religion (anthropomorphism) • Exchange of ideas and cultural influences (connection with other civilisations…) • ----------------------- • Material conditions (but cynics, Eastern sages…) • Fine climate • Freedom (but among philosophers there were also slaves…)

Presocratic philosophyMilesians (Milesian school) Thales of Miletus(about 625 - 545 BC) „first philosopher“ politics, astronomy, geometry…(Thales theorem, Thales circle, rangefinder, division of celestial sphere …) • Flat Earth floating on ocean • Solar eclipse 28. May 585 BC • Search for ARCHE (PRINCIPIUM) • Water (HYDOR) – why just water? (Magnet – soul (PSYCHE) as another principle of motion and gods)

Presocratic philosophyMilesian School Anaximander of Miletus (about 610 – 546 BC) • Quadrant, GNOMON (sundial), celestial globe, map of the world ARCHE – APEIRON (indefinite boundless, infinity…) Things arise by process of separation „evolutionary theory“: IN THE BEGINNING MEN WERE BORN FROM CREATURES OF A DIFFERENT SORT, BECAUSE THE OTHER ANIMALS QUICKLY MANAGE TO FEED THEMSELVES, BUT MAN ALONE REQUIRES A LONG PERIOD OF NURSING; HENCE HAD HE BEEN LIKE THAT IN THE BEGINNING TOO, HE WOULD NEVER HAVE SURVIVED

Presocratic philosophyMilesian School ... THE EATRH IS IN MID-AIR , OVERPOWERED BY NOTHING, AND STAYING WHERE IT IS ON ACOUNT OF ITS SIMILAR DISTANCE FROM EVERYTHING • Existence of antipodes

Presocratic philosophyMilesian School Anaximenes(about 585 – 528 BC) • ARCHE – AER APEIROS • AER (air, gas) – PNEUMA (SPIRIT) • Everything is breathing (later accepted by Stoics) • Things arise by changes of concentration of AER. (MANOSIS and PYKNOSIS) • The change of quantity into quality • Flat Earth floating in air (also Moon)

Heritage of Milesians • Reductionism – complex can be reduced to simple, many to few or even one • Monism – everything comes from one principle – but inconsistent • All rational approach and all science is based on reduction (inner and outer reductionism) • Basic difference to Eastern thinking – HOLISM • Problems of HOLISM, intuition. Meditation. • Capra, Bohr and Eastern philosophy. • HYLOZOISM (paradox of hylozoism, modern science – „hylonekrism“)

The end of Milesians • 547 BC - Miletus fell under Persia – the end of Milesian philosophy • 479 BC - Miletus rebuilt • 334 BC - captured by Alexander the Great • 133 - part of Roman empire, Byzantine empire • 1328 AD till now - under Turkish rule (Balat)

Presocratic philosophyPythagoras and Pythagoreans Pythagoras of Samos(about 572 - 494 BC) Disciple of Anaximander ? visited Egypt (perhaps he knew read hieroglyphs), India (not probable) Rule of tyrant Polycrates, migration to southern Italy, Croton Pythagorean School philosopher and thaumaturgist

Pythagoras of Samos School of Pythagoras - Number or limit is the basic principle → mathematics and numerology THEORIA (theory) – originally (watching) religious festival, narrating about r.f. → looking by inner sight MATHEMATICA (mathematics), MATHEMA – theorem, doctrine teaching: esoteric and exoteric COSMOS (order, jewel) → HARMONY → UNIVERSE

HARMONIA (harmony) – joint, fastening → principle of unification MUSICA (music), laws of acoustic, (P. tuning) monochorde – sound of string, musical intervals, music of spheres (we are accustomed with it), MUSIC THERAPY ARITHMOS and LOGOS (ratio) Pythagoras´ theorem and crisis of mathematics Irrational numbers

Pythagoras PSYCHE (soul) – principle of personal identity METEMPSYCHOSIS and problems of personal identity • Other problems of REINKARNATION (deja vu, belief in fairness, vegetarianism, original sin, psychotherapy) • ONCE THEY SAY THAT PYTHAGORAS WAS PASSING BY WHEN A DOG WAS BEING BEATEN AND SPOKE THIS WORD: "STOP! DON'T BEAT IT! FOR IT IS THE SOUL OF A FRIEND OF MINE – I RECOGNIZED HIM BY HIS VOICE."

Pythagoras Medicine – the most honourable art (TECHNE), principle of HARMONY at work Body as a musical instrument Health – harmony Metrology – unifying measures, units of length and weight

Same of later Pythagoreans Alcmaeon from Croton(5 cent. BC) Astronomer, physician, concept of divine or animated planets (Giordano Bruno +1600) Closed time – Great year, Calpa and the age of Earth Modern concepts of closed time Autopsy (nerves, brain) Philolaos of Croton (end of 5th cent. BC) The first non-geocentric system (10 planets, Anti-earth), central fire of Cosmos (nucleus of our Galaxy?)

Same of later Pythagoreans Archytas from Tarentum(cca 400 – 365 BC) Ruler of Tarentum (Tarano, Italy) friend of Plato Study of mathematics, acoustics (sound of moving bodies, pipes) Mechanical dove Finite universe: IF I AM AT THE EXTREMITY OF THE HEAVEN OF THE FIXED STARS, CAN I STRETCH OUTWARD MY HAND OR STAFF? IT IS ABSURD TO SUPPOSE THAT I COULD NOT. IF I CAN, WHAT IS OUTSIDE MUST BE EITHER BODY OR SPACE. WE MAY THEN IN THE SAME WAY GET TO THE OUTSIDE OF THAT AGAIN, AND SO ON. IF THERE IS ALWAYS A NEW PLACE TO WHICH THE STAFF MAY BE HELD OUT, THIS CLEARLY INVOLVES EXTENSION WITHOUT LIMIT.

Neopythagoreism Numerology Kepler – Cosmographic mystery Physics and numerological from 1-st century BC to 5-th AC) – new ideas packed in the form of old time-honoured teaching Heritage of Pythagoreism: Mathematics – ARITHMOLOGY speculative approaches

Heraclitus of Ephesus Heraclitus of Ephesus(about 535 - 475 BC) noble from the Androclus family (founder of Ephesus) Contempt for the mass of mankind, loner, against democracy (DEMOS =people) advocated ARISTOCRACY (ARISTOS = the best) Treatise deposited in the temple of Artemis SKOTEINOS - dark

Dynamical approach YOU CANNOT STEP TWICE INTO THE SAME RIVER. The learning of many things teaches not understanding. IF YOU DO NOT EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED, YOU WILL NOT FIND IT… NATURE LOVES TO HIDE. THE EYES ARE MORE EXACT WITNESSES THAN THE EARS.

TO GOD ALL THINGS ARE FAIR AND GOOD AND RIGHT, BUT PEOPLE HOLD SOME THINGS WRONG AND SOME RIGHT. IT IS NOT GOOD FOR PEOPLE TO GET ALL THEY WISH TO GET. IT IS SICKNESS THAT MAKES HEALTH PLEASANT; EVIL, GOOD; HUNGER, PLENTY; WEARINESS, REST. A PERSON'S CHARACTER IS HIS FATE.

THIS WORLD, WHICH IS THE SAME FOR ALL, NO ONE OF THE GODS OR HUMANS HAS MADE; BUT IT WAS EVER, IS NOW, AND EVER WILL BE AN EVER-LIVING FIRE, WITH MEASURES OF IT KINDLING, AND MEASURES GOING OUT. EPYROSIS ? Conflagration THE WAKING HAVE ONE COMMON WORLD, BUT THE SLEEPING TURN ASIDE EACH INTO A WORLD OF HIS OWN.

Some later reflection and similarities of Heraclitus Cratylus: YOU CANNOT STEP EVEN ONCE INTO THE SAME RIVER. Heraclitus and Taoism • Laoze (Lao Tzu) • Dynamic approach Stoic philosophy EKPYROSIS, LOGOS, PANTA REI, “Everything flows” Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, Heidegger …

The Eleatic school Xenophanes of Colophone(570 - 475 BC) HOMER AND HESIOD HAVE ASCRIBED TO THE GODS ALL THINGS THAT ARE A SHAME AND A DISGRACE AMONG MORTALS, STEALING AND ADULTERIES AND DECEIVING OF ANOTHER One god(atheism, monotheism, metaphysical theology?) MEN MAKE GODS IN THEIR OWN IMAGE. THOSE OF THE ETHIOPIANS ARE BLACK AND SNUB-NOSED, GODS OF THE THRACIANS HAVE BLUE EYES AND RED HAIR.IF HORSES OR OXEN OR LIONS HAD HANDS AND COULD PRODUCE WORKS OF ART, THEY TOO WOULD REPRESENT THE GODS AFTER THEIR OWN FASHION. The One. If there had ever been a time when nothing existed, nothing could ever have existed.

The Eleatic school Parmenides (circa 540 - after 470 BC) „PERI FYSEOS“ COME NOW, I WILL TELL YOU AND DO YOU LISTEN TO MY SAYING AND CARRY IT AWAY, THE ONLY TWO WAYS OF SEARCH THAT CAN BE THOUGHT OF. THE FIRST, NAMELY, THAT IT IS,AND THAT IT IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR IT NOT TO BE, IS THE WAY OF BELIEF, FOR TRUTH IS ITS COMPANION. THE OTHER, NAMELY, THAT IT IS NOT, AND THAT IT MUST NEEDS NOT BE,THAT, I TELL YOU, IS A PATH THAT NONE CAN LEARN OF AT ALL. FOR YOU CANNOT KNOW WHAT IS NOT THAT IS IMPOSSIBLENOR UTTER IT; FOR IT IS THE SAME THING THAT CAN BE THOUGHT (CONCEIVED) AND THAT CAN BE.

The Eleatic school Melissus of Samos (5th century BC) NOR IS ANYTHING EMPTY; FOR WHAT IS EMPTY IS NOTHING; SO NOTHING WILL NOT BE BEING OF NOTHING IS NOT BEING. Horror vacui, paradox of vacuum and it`s solution Descartes, Thomas Hobes and Boyles works on gas dynamics

The Eleatic school Epistemology: Paradox of negative concepts (myth about giant Polyphemos) Paradoxes of infinity

The Eleatic school • Zeno of Elea(about 489 BC) • Proof by contradiction • Zeno arguments against multiplicity, and against motion. APORIA • Bisection of line • The flying arrow • Achilles and the tortoise • 1 + ½ + ¼ + … + 1/2n = 2 • Concept of infinity. Continuum. Classical (Cantor) set theory and Alternative set theory (AST, Vopěnka)

The way to materialism Empedocles(circa 490 - 430 BC) Religion of Orphic type, underworld. Poem “On Nature” (PERI PHYSEOS), and “Purifications” (KATHARMOI). Death in vulcano Etna. Love (PHILIA) – attraction Strife (NEIKOS) – separation NOW BY LOVE ALL COMING TOGETHER INTO ONE, NOW AGAIN EACH CARRIED APART BY THE ENMITY OF STRIFE roots (RIZOMATA) -- fire, air, earth, and water (THERE IS) ONLY A MINGLING AND INTERCHANGE OF WHAT HAS BEEN MINGLED. SUBSTANCE (PHYSIS) IS BUT A NAME GIVEN TO THESE THINGS BY MEN. KLEPSHYDRA – existence of air (experimental proof!) Questions

The way to materialism Anaxagorasof Clazomenae(about 500 - 428 BC) brought philosophy to Athens Sun – great stone bigger than Pelopones Seeds – SPERMATA NOUS – reason IN EVERYTHING THERE IS PRESENT A PORTION OF EVERYTHING EXCEPT MIND (NOUS); AND IN SOME THINGS MIND TOO IS PRESENT. (ANAXAGORAS) WAS THE FIRST TO ADD MIND (NOUS) TO MATTER, BEGINNING HIS BOOK, WHICH IS PLEASANTLY AND GRANDLY RITTEN, THUS: “ALL THINGS WERE TOGETHER; THEN MIND CAME AND ARRANGED THEM“

The way to materialism Anaxagoras – criticism: Plato in his dialogue “Phaedo“: PROCEEDING AND READING ON, I SEE THE MAN MAKING NO USE OF MIND (NOUS), NOR INDICATING ANY EXPLANATIONS FOR THE ORDERING OF THINGS, BUT MAKING EXPLANATIONS OF AIRS AND ETHERS AND WATERS AND MANY OTHER SUCH ABSURDITIES Aristotle in his book of “Metaphysics” :ANAXAGORAS USES MIND (NOUS) AS A THEATRICAL DEVICE (MECHANE) FOR HIS COSMOLOGY; AND WHENEVER HE IS PUZZLED OVER THE EXPLANATION OF WHY SOMETHING IS FROM NECESSITY, HE WHEELS IT IN; BUT IN THE CASE OF OTHER HAPPENINGS HE MAKES ANYTHING THE EXPLANATION RATHER THAN MIND. ANAXAGORAS ADVOCATED THE METHOD PROPER TO NATURAL SCIENCE

The way to materialism – atomism Leucippus(about 500 - 440 BC) Postulated existence of free space (voids, vacuum) NO THING COMES ABOUT IN VAIN, BUT EVERYTHING FOR A REASON (LOGOS) AND BY NECESSITY (ANANKE). Principle of causality (?).

The way to materialism – atomism • Democritus(460-370 BC) • MACROCOSMOS and MICROCOSMOS • Ethical teaching of Democritus • INSTEAD OF ENJOYING LIFE FOR WHAT IT IS, THEY HATE IT FOR WHAT IT IS NOT ... THEY WANT TO PROLONG THE LIFE THEY HATE, IN ORDER TO POSTPONE DEATH. IT WOULD BE HARD TO FIND A BETTER EXAMPLE OF MAN BEING HIS OWN WORST ENEMY THROUGH STUPID DISREGARD OF THE LIMIT. • theory of knowledge – moving images (EIDOLA)

Presocratic philosophy Atomism • Free space • Atoms • Differences between ancient and modern atoms • Crisis of atomism • Order of necessity ANANKE • (The atomists say that the universe is) NEITHER ANIMATE NOR GOVERNED BY PURPOSE, BUT BY A SORT OF IRRATIONAL NATURE (PHYSIS ALOGOS).

Presocratic philosophy Atomism • ANANKE • Inferences of ANANKE • No chance • No freedom („free will“) • No responsibility • Fatalism • EVERYTHING HAPPENS BY FATE, IN THE SENSE THAT FATE APPLIES THE FORCE OF NECESSITY • (Democritus said that) HE WOULD RATHER FIND A SINGLE CAUSAL EXPLANATION (AITIOLOGIA) THAN GAIN THE KINGDOM OF PERSIA.

Presocratic philosophy Atomism • (Absolute) determinism (Stoics, P. S. Laplace) • AN INTELLECT WHICH AT A GIVEN INSTANT KNEW ALL THE FORCES ACTING IN NATURE, AND THE POSITION OF ALL THINGS OF WHICH THE WORLD CONSISTS - SUPPOSING THE SAID INTELLECT WERE VAST ENOUGH TO SUBJECT THESE DATA TO ANALYSIS - WOULD EMBRACE IN THE SAME FORMULA THE MOTIONS OF THE GREATEST BODIES IN THE UNIVERSE AND THOSE OF THE SLIGHTEST ATOMS; NOTHING WOULD BE UNCERTAIN FOR IT, AND THE FUTURE, LIKE THE PAST, WOULD BE PRESENT TO ITS EYES. • Laplace demon

Presocratic philosophy Atomism Further history of the paradox • Two meanings of „determination“ (passive and active mode) • Epicurus – introduction of PARENCLISIS • Stoics – no freedom but spontaneity (voluntarity), one LOGOS (also Boethius – there is no contradiction between foreknowledge and freedom) • Modern history – quantum mechanics (Copenhagen interpretation) and TYCHISM • „Free will“ antinomy (Plotinos …) • IF I WISH, I COULD GIVE AWAY MY PROPERTY TO THE POOR, BUT I CANNOT WISH TO WISH.A. Schopenhauer

Presocratic philosophy The Sophists 5th cent. BC, democracy - growing demand for education. Sophists - teachers of wisdom(?) or spurious learning, ancient enlightment. Rhetorics, politics, grammar, history, physics, mathematics . Sophistry – the use of fallacious argument knowing them to be such Negative approaches (relativism, agnosticism, subjectivism, deconstruction od ethics) Gorgias(483 - 378 BC) „On Nature, or the Non-existent“: NOTHING EXISTS; IF ANYTHING EXISTED, IT COULD NOT BE KNOWN; IF ANYTHING DID EXIST, AND COULD BE KNOWN, IT COULD NOT BE COMMUNICATED. Agnosticism or parody on eleatism? Rhetoric – art of persuasion

Presocratic philosophy The Sophists • Protagoras(480 - 411 BC) of Abdera, Pericles debated with him “On the Gods” (PERI THEON) RESPECTING THE GODS, I AM UNABLE TO KNOW WHETHER THEY EXIST OR DO NOT EXIST. “ On Truth” (ALETHEIA) MAN IS THE MEASURE OF ALL THINGS; OF WHAT ARE THAT (how?) THEY ARE; OF WHAT ARE NOT THAT (how?) THEY ARE NOT. • Plato: why men and not horse or pig? (Theaithetos)

Presocratic philosophy The Sophists Thrasymachus (4 th century BC) injustice is preferred to a life of justice, unjust person superior i character and intelligence. Justice is pursued by simpletons and leads to weakness. Reduction of morality to power (nihilism towards thruth and ethics)

Presocratic philosophy The Sophists Sophists and atheism Rise of W. philosophy connected with overcoming mythology and (naive, anthropomorfic) religion. Diagoras - his opponent violated an oath and remain unpunished – non-existence of gods Critias – religion – device of rulers, instrument against breaking rules when nobody observes. Sophists and post-modern philosophy Modern science disappointed many people, the fail of communism – rejection of old values, old science, old aims, evolution, progress. The rise of negative approaches (irrationality, immorality, subjectivism) Negative stage – positive value – clear space from obsolete conceptual schemes. Must be followed by positive stage. In ancient Greece Socrates directed thinking in a positive way. Unraveled logical inconsistencies of Sophists,

Classical PeriodSocrates and Socratic schools Socrates(469 - 399 BC) Directed sophistic thinking in a positive way Golden age of Athens Aischylus, Euripides, Sophocles, Pericles, builded parthenon on Acropolis. Persia defeated, Athens was naval power Father sculptor (stonemason), mother midwife Socrates practised craft of sculptor, married Xanthyppe (famous for quarrelsomeness) Admolished by „divine call“ gave up occupation and devote himself to moral and intelectual reform of society • Socrates` trial • Athens under Pericles, Socrates could pursue his calling as a gadfly. War with Sparta, betrayal of Alcibiades, accusations of impiety, of corrupting the young, Socrates sentenced to death • Self-knowledge is the starting point, he realised how little we know about anything

Socrates and Socratic schools Socratic method – dialectic method, based on dialogues Self-knowledge – the starting point Socrates did not write (Plato, Aristophanes, Xenophon) • Negative stage (assumed ignorance, Socratic irony) • Positive stage (“intellectual midwifery”), series of questions - the opponent acknowledges his ignorance knowledge through concepts WHATEVER EXISTS FOR A USEFUL PURPOSE MUST BE THE WORK OF SOME INTELLIGENCE (GOD?).

Socrates and Socratic schools Socratic moral paradox Knowledge – virtue Ignorance – evil Sin – the lack of knowledge If anybody does evil, he should not be punished, but instructed what not to do. Ethics – epistemology NO ONE FREELY GOES FOR BAD THING OR THING HE BELIEVES TO BE BAD… Aristotle ACRASIA – weakness of will, passions and instinct prevail. Humans are not rational creatures.

Exploring the Depths of Philosophy