PHILOSOPHY

PresocraticsSocrates and

studentsCopyright Polly Hoover

Beginning of Philosophy

How was the world created? Who am I? Am I happy? How do I know anything? What is the world made of? Is there a divinity or divinities? What do we mean by knowledge?

Hesiod, Theogony

Gaia and Uranus create the world Organized through hierarchy of gods Human experience reflects explanation

Sexual intercourse as universal Mythology as philosophy ~750 BCE (contemporary of “Homer”)

Alcman

World created through organization of material

Vocabulary Metaphor Narrative Examples

Goal, craftsman, bronze material

Presocratics

Materialists What material is the world made of?

Thales – water Heraclitus – Fire (with logos) Empedocles – Fire, air, water, earth

(with Strife and Love)

Pythagoras

Influenced Socrates and Plato Wrote nothing? Immortality of the soul Greek modal system in music Pythagorean theorem Mathematics as ‘substance’ of the

world

Aristotle

Four ‘causes’ of a thing Material – what a thing is made of Formal – explanation of form, its essence Efficient – primary source (cause in

modern sense) Final – purpose (the purpose of walking is

health, the purpose of the acorn is an oak)

Uncaused Causer or Unmoved mover

Plato, Symposium

Banquet for men only Philosophical discussion among

friends Lots of wine and teasing/flirting

What is love?

What does it mean to be a man? How do we know that we’re in love? Is it universal (the same for

everyone) or particular (different for everyone)?

Does it matter whom you love? What is the Western Christian view

of love?

Guests Give Opinions

Phaedrus Pausanias: 2 Eros Eryximachus:

Eros in nature Ridicule of scientific arguments

Aristophanes

Comic poet Three sexes Folktale and narrative

Not philosophical argument Why?

Agathon

Encomium (praise-poem) of Eros

Socrates interrogates Agathon

Desire for something or nothing? Desire for something we don’t have? Eros desires beauty. Therefore, Eros is not beautiful. Good is beautiful. Therefore, Eros does not have what

is good.

Diotima

Role reversal? Eros is intermediary between

divine and human

Alicibiades

Praise of Socrates

Questions

What were the Presocratic approaches to explaining the world?

How did these differ from that of mythology?

Does Socrates include sexual desire in his meaning of love?

Is love universal or particular, according to Socrates?

More Questions?

What does Socrates mean by happiness?

What does Plato/Socrates think is real?

Is this philosophy? What are the differences between a

philosophical argument and a mythological story?