Philosophy

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Philosophy

Philosophy has come a long way. There have been many philosophers who have come and gone teaching the ways of many different views in philosophy. This Paper will do its best in writing about five of the best philosophers in history. Aristotle, Socrates, Plato, Descartes, Mills, are the five that are thought of being among the best.

Socrates was born about 10 years after the Battle of Salamis. His father, Sophronisus, was a friend of the family of Aristides, the founder of the Delian League, empire arose. The philosopher's mother, Phaenarete, acted as a "midwife". Socrates married late in life, Xantippe (Xanthi), whom he left three sons. One an infant. When his son Lamprocles got angry because of his mother's temper, Socrates taught him to be grateful for all the gifts a mother has given to child. Socrates was a good warrior; his outward appearances were grotesque, stout and with prominent eyes, snub nose, broad nostrils and wide mouth. "Intellectually the acutest man of his age, he was himself the dullest person and morally the purest. He had an ardent and amorous temperament. He liked to spend all his time in the streets, marketplace, and more particularly, gymnasia. He cared little for the country. He also talked freely to politicians, poets, and artisans about various subjects, of their notions, of right and wrong, familiar matters of their interest. Socrates, as a young man, was enthusiastically interested in "natural science", and so, familiarized himself with the nature.(Tredennick 6) That "Mind" is the source of all cosmic order because this meant, "everything is ordered as its best, as it should be" that the universe is a rational teleological system. He loved the "ethical", character and conduct both private and public, with "nature" at large. He was one of the eminent philosophers who believed in God and acknowledged his sovereignty. He practiced self-denial, repressed his appetites for sensual desires and turned away from material pleasures. He went to the mountains where he dwelt in cave. He dissuaded men from worshipping idols and taught them the way to God, the Lord of Mercy, until the ignorant rose up against him. They arrested him and put him in prison to death. (Tredennick 0) What a penetrating vision of philosophy this eminent man had! He is most distinguished of all philosophers and was well versed in wisdom. He had a profound knowledge of such sciences as were current amongst men and their minds. The sophists taught eristics or the skill of clever debate which aimed at winning arguments and legal battles at any cost and with little concern for the truth. The sophists were both scorned and sought after. Socrates' dialectical question / answer method was confused with the bellicose debate of the sophists. Socrates suggests that there will be no cessation of such troubles until philosophers become the rulers or the rulers pursue philosophy. The guardians must be the wisest. Socrates exhorts his listeners to keep their souls unspotted and follow the upward way in pursuing justice with wisdom, so that they will be dear to the gods in this life and the next. (Scott 87)

Plato was born around the year 48 BCE into an established Athenian household with a rich history of political connections including distant relations to both Solon and Pisistratus. Plato's parents were Ariston and Perictone, his older brothers were Adeimantus and Glaucon, and his younger sister was Potone. In keeping with his family heritage, Plato was destined for the political life. (Pappas 6) The biographical tradition is unanimous in its observation that Plato engaged in many forms of poetry as a young man, only later turning to philosophy. Aristotle tells us that sometime during Plato's youth the philosopher-to-be became acquainted with the doctrines of Cratylus, a student of Heraclitus, who, along with other Presocratic thinkers such as Pythagoras and Parmenides, provided Plato with the foundations of his metaphysics and epistemology. Upon meeting Socrates, however, Plato directed his inquiries toward the question of virtue. The formation of a noble character was to be before all else. Indeed, it is a mark of Plato's brilliance that he was to find in metaphysics and epistemology a host of moral and political implications. How we think and what we take to be real having an important role in how we act. Thus, Plato came to believe that a philosophical comportment toward life would lead one to being just and, ultimately, happy. It is difficult to determine the precise chain of events that led Plato to the intricate web of beliefs that unify metaphysics, epistemology, ethics and politics into a single inquiry. In what appears to be a matter of guilt-by-association, a general prejudice was ultimately responsible for bringing Socrates to trial in on the charges of corrupting the youth, introducing new gods into the city, atheism, and engaging in unusual religious practices. During his trial, which is documented in Plato's Apology, Socrates explained that he had no interest to engage in politics, because a certain divine sign told him that he was to foster a just and noble lifestyle within the young men of Athens. This he did in casual conversations with whomever he happened to meet on the streets. When Socrates told the court that if set free, he would not stop this practice, claiming that he must follow the voice of his god over the dictates of the state, the court found him guilty (though by a narrow margin), and he was executed one month later. This final sequence of events must have weighed heavily on Plato, who then turned away from politics, somewhat jaded by the unjust behavior of the Thirty, disappointed by the follies of the democracy, and forever affected by the execution of Socrates. Whether or not Plato began to write philosophical dialogues prior to Socrates' execution is a matter of debate. But most scholars agree that shortly after Plato began to write extensively. Although the order in which his dialogues were written is a matter of strong debate, there is some consensus about how the Platonic corpus evolved. This consensus divides Plato's writings into three broad groups. The first group, generally known as the "Socratic" dialogues, was probably written between the years and 87. These texts are called "Socratic" because here Plato appears to remain relatively close to what the historical Socrates advocated and taught. (Pappas 7) One of these, the Apology, was probably written shortly after the death of Socrates. The Crito, Laches, Lysis, Charmides, Euthyphro, Hippias Minor and Major, Protagoras, Gorgias and Ion, were probably written throughout this twelve year period as well, some of them, like the Protagoras and Gorgias, most likely at its end. Plato was forty the first time he visited Italy. Shortly thereafter, he returned to Athens and founded the Academy, located nearly a mile outside the city walls and named after the Attic hero Academus. The Academy included a nice grove of trees, gardens, a gymnasium and many shrines including one dedicated to Athena herself, the goddess of the city. Plato created his own cult association, setting aside a portion of the Academy for his purposes and dedicating his cult to the Muses. Soon this 'school' became rather well-known on account of its common meals and sympotic lifestyle, modified, of course, to suit a new agenda. Indeed, Plato's Academy was famed for its moderate eating and talks as well as all the appropriate sacrifices and religious observances. Overshadowing all of that was, of course, its philosophical activity. We know little of the remaining thirteen years in Plato's life. Probably sick of his wanderings and misfortunes in Sicily, Plato returned to the philosophical life of the Academy and, most likely, lived out his days conversing and writing. During this period, Plato could have written the so-called "later" dialogues, the Parmenides, Theatetus, Sophist, Statesman, Timaeus, Critias, Philebus and Laws, in which Socrates plays a relatively minor role and the metaphysical speculation of the "middle" dialogues is meticulously scrutinized. Plato died in 47, leaving the Academy to Speusippus, his sister's son. The Academy served as the model for institutions of higher learning until it was closed by the Emperor Justinian in 5 CE, almost one thousand years later.Write my Essay on Philosophy

Aristotle was born at Stagira, a Macedonian city two hundred miles to the north of Athens in the year 84 B.C. His father was the friend and physician to the king of Macedon, Amyntas. Aristotle was brought up in the odor of medicine, though many other philosophers were brought up in the odor of sanctity. There are many stories of Aristotle. One story takes him to Athens at the age of eighteen and puts him under the teachings of the great master, Plato. But even this likelier account there is sufficient echo of a reckless and irregular youth, living rapidly. (Durant 4) The reader may console himself by observing that in the story the philosopher anchors at last in the quiet groves of the academy. Under Plato he studied eight or twenty years. One would like to imagine these as very happy years; brilliant pupils guided by an incomparable teacher, walking like Greek lovers in the gardens of philosophy (Durant 4). But they were both geniuses, and it is notorious that geniuses accord with one another as harmoniously as gasoline and fire. Almost half a century separated them; it was difficult for understanding to bridge the gap of years and cancel the incompatibility of souls (Durant 50). While under Plato, Aristotle spent a lot of money on books, or in those days, manuscripts. He was the first, after Euripides, to gather a library. Plato spoke of Aristotle's home as "the house of the reader". The work of Aristotle was great. So great that it was not hard for him to find pupils. He eventually established a school called the Lyceum. This school was devoted to mathematics and speculative and political philosophy. The Lyceum was also attentive to science and biology. If we may believe Pliny, Alexander instructed his hunters, gamekeepers, gardeners, and fishermen to furnish Aristotle with all the zoological and botanical material he might desire (Durant 5). Another writer had many believe that he had over a thousand men scattered through out Greece and Asia collecting specimens. It makes you wonder where he got all the funds for this. Well, by the time this came about, Aristotle was a wealthy man. He had married into one of the most powerful men in Greece, Athenaeus. It was said that Alexander had given Aristotle some 800 talents, which would equal up to about four million dollars. Yet we should do Aristotle injustice if we were to ignore the almost fatal limitations of equipment which accompanied these unprecedented resources and facilities (Durant 54). He was compelled "to fix time without a watch, to compare degrees of heat without a thermometer, to observe the heavens without a telescope, and the weather without a barometer….Of all our mathematical, optical and physical instruments he possessed only the rule and compass, together with the most imperfect substitutes of some few others. Chemical analysis, correct measurements and weights, and a thorough application of mathematics to physics, were unknown. The attractive force of matter, the law of gravitation, electrical phenomena, the conditions of chemical combination, pressure of air and its effects, the nature of light, heat, combustion, ect., in short, all the facts on which the physical theories of modern science are based were wholly, or almost wholly, undiscovered."(Durant 55) The first great distinction of Aristotle is that almost without predecessors, almost entirely on his own he created a new science, logic. Logic simply means the art and method of correct thinking. In politics, Aristotle was conservative because of the turmoil and disaster that had come out of Athenian democracy. Like any other scholar or philosopher, he wanted peace, order, and security.

The first great philosopher of the modern era was RenDescartes, whose new approach won him recognition as the progenitor of modern philosophy. Descartes's pursuit of mathematical and scientific truth soon led to a profound rejection of the scholastic tradition in which he had been educated. Much of his work was concerned with the provision of a secure foundation for the advancement of human knowledge through the natural sciences. Fearing the condemnation of the church, however, Descartes was rightly cautious about publicly expressing the full measure of his radical views. The philosophical writings for which he is remembered are therefore extremely circumspect in their treatment of controversial issues. After years of work in private, Descartes finally published a preliminary statement of his views in the Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting the Reason 167. Since mathematics has genuinely achieved the certainty for which human thinkers yearn, he argued, we rightly turn to mathematical reasoning as a model for progress in human knowledge more generally. Expressing perfect confidence in the capacity of human reason to achieve knowledge, Descartes proposed an intellectual process no less unsettling than the architectural destruction and rebuilding of an entire town. In order to be absolutely sure that we accept only what is genuinely certain, we must first deliberately renounce all of the firmly held but questionable beliefs we have previously acquired by experience and education. At the outset of the Third Meditation, Descartes tried to use this first truth as the paradigm for his general account of the possibilities for achieving human knowledge. In the cogito, awareness of myself, of thinking, and of existence are somehow combined in such a way as to result in an intuitive grasp of a truth that cannot be doubted. Perhaps we can find in other cases the same grounds for indubitable truth. But what is it? The answer lies in Descartes's theory of ideas. Considered formally, as the content of my thinking activity, the ideas involved in the cogito are unusually clear and distinct.( Haldane and Ross 4) But ideas may also be considered objectively, as the mental representatives of things that really exist. According to a representative realist like Descartes, then, the connections among our ideas yield truth only when they correspond to the way the world really is. But it is not obvious that our clear and distinct ideas do correspond to the reality of things, since we suppose that there may be an omnipotent deceiver. In some measure, the reliability of our ideas may depend on the source from which they are derived. Descartes held that there are only three possibilities all of our ideas are either adventitious (entering the mind from the outside world) or factitious (manufactured by the mind itself) or innate (inscribed on the mind by god). But I don't yet know that there is an outside world, and I can imagine almost anything, so everything depends on whether god exists and deceives me.(Ariew )

The son of James Mill, a friend and follower of Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill was subjected to a rigorous education at home he mastered English and the classical languages as a child, studied logic and philosophy extensively, read the law with John Austin, and then embarked on a thirty-five career with the British East India Company at the age of seventeen.(Kemerling) Despite such a rich background, Mill credited the bulk of his intellectual and personal development to his long and intimate association with Harriet Hardy Taylor. They were devoted friends for two decades before the death of her husband made it possible for them to marry in 185; she died in Avignon six years later. Mill continued to write and to participate in political affairs, serving one term in Parliament. Philosophically, Mill was a radical empiricist who held that all human knowledge, including even mathematics and logic, is derived by generalization from sensory experience. In A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive he explained in great detail the canons for reasoning inductively to conclusions about the causal connections exhibited in the natural world.(Kemerling) Mills moral philosophy was a modified version of the utilitarian theory he had learned from his father and Bentham. In the polemical Utilitarianism Mill developed a systematic statement of utilitarian ethical theory. He modified and defended the general principle that right actions are those that tend to produce the greatest happiness of the greatest number of people, being careful to include a distinction in the quality of the pleasures that constitute happiness.(Kemerling) There Mill also attempted a proof of the principle of utility, explained its enforcement, and discussed its relation to a principle of justice. Mills greatest contribution to political theory occurs in On Liberty, where he defended the broadest possible freedom of thought and expression and argued that the state can justify interference with the conduct of individual citizens only when it is clear that doing so will prevent a greater harm to others. Mill also addressed matters of social concern in Principles of Political Economy and Considerations on Representative Government and eloquently supported the cause of womens rights in The Subjection of Women. Mills Utilitarianism is an extended explanation of utilitarian moral theory. In an effort to respond to criticisms of the doctrine, Mill not only argued in favor of the basic principles of Jeremy Bentham but also offered several significant improvements to its structure, meaning, and application. Although the progress of moral philosophy has been limited by its endless disputes over the reality and nature of the highest good, Mill assumed from the outset, everyone can agree that the consequences of human actions contribute importantly to their moral value. Against those who argue that the utilitarian theory unreasonably demands of individual agents that they devote their primary energies to the cold-hearted and interminable calculation of anticipated effects of their actions, Mill offered a significant qualification.(Kemerling) Precisely because we do not have the time to calculate accurately in every instance, he supposed, we properly allow our actions to be guided by moral rules most of the time. Partly anticipating the later distinction between act and rule utilitarianism, Mill pointed out that secondary moral principles at the very least perform an important service by providing ample guidance for every-day moral life. Finally, however, he emphasized that the value of each particular action�especially in difficult or controversial cases�is to be determined by reference to the principle of utility itself. Mill argued that social applications of the principle of utility are fully consistent with traditional concern for the promotion of justice. Justice involves respect for the property, rights, and deserts of individual citizens, along with fundamental presumptions in favor of good faith and impartiality. All of these worthwhile components of justice are adequately preserved by conscientious application of the principle of utility, Mill supposed, since particular cases of each clearly result in the greatest happiness of all affected parties. Although a retributive sentiment in favor of punishing wrong-doers may also be supposed to contribute to the traditional concept of justice, Mill insisted that the appropriately limited use of external sanctions on utilitarian grounds better accords with a legitimate respect for the general welfare. Mill also pointed out that the defence of individual human freedom is especially vital to living justly, but that had been the subject of another book.(Kemerling)

These philosophers have paved the way for newcomers and have pretty much raised the bar. Each philosopher,though, has their own perspective on life and different subjects, but they all have the same idea on preaching the gospel. They have done a great job giving people a reason to think about something deeper rather than giving a simple answer. They also give people the idea to ask questions to go deeper into an answer of a certain question.

Works Cited

Pappas, Nickolas. Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to Plato and the Republic. London; 15.

Haldane, E.S. and G.T.R. Ross. The Philosophical works of Descartes. Cambridge; 18.

Durant, Will. The Story of Philosophy. New York; January 15.

Ariew, Roger. Rene Descartes, Philosophical Essays and Correspondence. Hackett Publishing; March 000.

Tredennick, Hugh. Plato, The Last Dyas of Socrates. Penguin/Puffin Market; August 17.

Scott, Gary Alan. Does Socrates have a method? Rethinking the Elenchus in Plato's Dialogues and Beyond. Penn State; 00.

Sallis, John. Chorology On Beginning Platos Timaeus. Indiana University; October 1.

Kemerling, Garth. "John Stuart Mills." Philosophy Pages.

5 March 00.

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