Topic:1 PHILOSOPHY AS A SCIENCE

Philosophy (literally “love of wisdom”) is the study of general and fundamental

problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, values, reason and
mind.
Philosophical views originated in Greece, India and China at the same time, in
VII-VI centuries BC. Philosophical knowledge comes into being when mythology
in longer satisfies the human needs of understanding and explaining the world.
Mythology, Religion and Philosophy are historical types of world outlook.
World outlook is a more or less general idea of the man about the world and his
place in it. World outlook covers the whole experience of human life. The
experience of intellectual practice is reflected in world understanding, perception,
the emotional-psychological experience is reflected in world disposition.
Outlook can be thought on the scale of an age, a social estate, a political party, a
certain person.
There are distinguished two levels in outlook: practical and theoretical.
Mythology is the aggregate of myths of one people or another. On level of
everyday consciousness a myth means legend, tale. On the level of the
philosophical knowledge a myth is a way of understanding and explaining the
world. Mythological consciousness is metaphorical by nature, mythology operates
with images.
Philosophical knowledge is logical-conceptual by nature. It operates with c
Religion reflects the world in the form of fantastic imagination and is based on
belief in supernatural strengths.
The sections of philosophy: ontology, epistemology, axiology. Ontology deals with
being, epistemology deals with cognition, axiology deals with values.
The functions of philosophy: cognitive function, outlook function, methodological
function.
oncepts.
Topic 1: Philosophy, its subject and function
 The structure of outlook: ontology, epistemology, methodology and a problem
of man’s being. Historical types of outlook.
Philosophy is a science about the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality and
existence. From the ancient time (in Europe from VII-VI c. BC) philosophy as
theory about existence and conditions of its cognition becomes one of the
professional activities and comprehensive system of knowledge. Philosophers of
all stripes have concerned themselves with what is beautiful (aesthetics), what is
good (ethics, political philosophy), what things are in the world (metaphysics,
philosophy of mind) and what can be known about them (epistemology, theory of
knowledge). They search for answers to ‘eternal’ questions. For what do I live?
What shall I do? What can I hope? Is there fate? Am I free in my deeds and
decisions? What will happen with my ‘I’ after my physical death? These are the
questions of philosophy.
Philosophy is a theoretical form of outlook. Outlook is a way of spiritually-
practical person’s attitude towards world (and himself). It can be represented in the
form of such scheme ‘man <-> world’, which shows mutual influence and
dependence.
So what is philosophy? Literally the term philosophy is derived from the Greek
words philos ("loving") and sophia ("wisdom"), and means "the love of wisdom."
But philosophers do not always agree on the nature and function of philosophy.
Here are four definitions that attempt to explain what is generally meant by the
term philosophy. These definitions do not necessarily reflect a consensus of
philosophical opinion.
1. Philosophy analyzes the foundations and presuppositions underlying other
disciplines. Philosophy investigates and studies the underpinnings of science, art,
and theology. Philosophers do not ask "Are Pablo Picasso's paintings 'good' works
of art?" (as art critics do) but "Is aesthetic judgment a matter of personal taste, or
are there objective standards that we can apply to evaluate a work of art?"
Philosophers do not ask "Is the theory of evolution true?" (as biologists and
physical anthropologists do) but "How do we distinguish truth from error?"
2. Philosophy attempts to develop a comprehensive conception or
apprehension of the world. Philosophy seeks to integrate the knowledge of the
sciences with that of other fields of study to achieve some kind of consistent and
coherent world view. Philosophers do not want to confine their attention to a
fragment of human experience or knowledge, but rather, want to reflect upon life
as a totality. In speaking of this particular function, Charlie Dunbar Broad, an
English twentieth century philosopher, says: "Its object is to take over the results of
the various sciences, to add to them the results of the religious and ethical
experiences of mankind, and then to reflect upon the whole. The hope is that, by
this means, we may be able to reach some general conclusions as to the nature of
the universe, and as to our position and prospects in it," (Scientific Thought, New
York: Harcourt, 1923, p. 20)
3. Philosophy studies and critically evaluates our most deeply held beliefs and
attitudes; in particular, those which are often held uncritically. Philosophers have
an attitude of critical and logical thoughtfulness. They force us to see the
significance and consequences of our beliefs, and sometimes their inconsistencies.
They analyze the evidence (or lack of it) for our most treasured beliefs, and seek to
remove from our perspectives every taint and trace of ignorance, prejudice,
superstition, blind acceptance of ideas, and any other form of irrationality.
4. Philosophy investigates the principles and rules of language, and attempts to
clarify the meaning of vague words and concepts. Philosophy examines the role of
language in communication and thought, and the problem of how to identify or
ensure the presence of meaning in our use of language. It is a method—a practice
—which seeks to expose the problems and confusions which have results from the
misuse of language, and to clarify the meaning and use of vague terms in scientific
and/or everyday discourse.
Topic:2 ANCIENT INDIAN AND CHINESE PHILOSOPHY

Philosophical views originated in Greece, India and China at the same time, in
VII-VI centuries BC.
The first collection of Indian philosophy is the Vedas. The Vedas are “sacred
knowledge”. Philosophical teachings following the Vedas were named orthodox.
These are Hinduism, Yoga, Vedanta and others. These schools which didn’t
follow sacred books were called unorthodox. The most known of them are
Buddism, Charvaka- Lokayata, Jainism.
In China the first philosophical vievs created within Confucianism. Confucianism
is a system of ethical teachings founded by Confucius in VI-V centuries BC. The
first major philosopher was Lav Tru is the founder of the philosophy of Tavism.
The word “Tav” literally means the “way”. This shows the materialist orientation
of the first philosophical school.
PHILOSOPHY OF ANCIENT GREECE

The heart of philosophical knowledge in ancient Greece is Milesian school. The

famous members of this school: Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximences. Before
the Milesians natural phenomena were explained solely by the will of gods. The
Milesians defined all things by their quintessential substance. They thought it to be
water, or air fire, or earth. This views mean materialist tradition in philosophy.
Eleatic school was founded by Parmenides Other important members of the school
are Zenv, Xenophanes. They criticized the belief in a pantheon of gods.
Parmenides developed these ideas further concluding that the reality of the world
is “One Being”, an inchanging, timeless, indestructible whole unlike the visible
world. “One Being” is nothing else but a concept.
Zew is best known for his paradoxes by which he denied the reality of the visible
world.
Plato is one the world’s hest known and most widely read and studied
philosophers. He was the student of Socrates and the teacher of Aristotle. Central
to the philosophy of plato is the doctrine of ideas. According this theory the world
we know through the sense is only an imitation of the pure eternal, and
unchanging world of the ideas. This views mean idealistic tradition in philosophy.
Democritus maintained the impossibility of dividing things ad infinitum. He
supposed the atoms to be impenetrable and have a density proportionate to their
volume. The worlds which we see –with all their properties of immensity
resemblance, and dissimilitude-result from the endless multiplicity of falling
atoms. The atomistic theory of Democritus remained valued until the discovery of
the phenomenon of radioactivity in the XIX century.
Heraclitus was famous for his insistence on ever-present change as being the
fundamental essence of the universe, as it is stated in the saying, “No man ever
steps in the some river twice”. This position is considered as a naive dialectics.
Topic 2: Philosophy of Ancient India and Ancient China
The first collection of Indian philosophy that was written down was the Vedas. The
word ‘Veda’ comes from the Sanskrit ‘vid’, meaning knowledge - the Vedas are
‘sacred knowledge’. Their exact date is controversial, it is possible that the
knowledge dates back 10000 years BC, and this books were first written around
3000 BC. Vedas include knowledge concerning the nature of ultimate reality and
the proper human ways of relating thereto. Philosophical teachings following or
conforming to the Vedas named orthodox (astika). These are Hinduism, Mimansa,
Sankhya, Yoga, Nyaya, Vaishesika, Vedanta. Those schools which did not accept
authority of sacred books were called unorthodox (nastika). The most known of
them are Buddhism, Charvaka- Lokayata, Jainism. Hindus belief in reincarnation
and involving the worship of one or more of a large pantheon of gods and
goddesses, including Shiva and Vishnu (incarnate as Rama and Krishna), Kali,
Durga, Parvati and Ganesh. Hinduism also called Brahmanism as it early stage.
Brahma is the ultimate and impersonal divine reality from which all things
originates and to which they returns. So Brahma is the creator god, which has to do
with objective reality, who forms a triad with Vishnu and Shiva. Vishnu is an
originally a minor Vedic god, now regarded by his worshippers as the supreme
deity and saviour, by others as the preserver of the cosmos. Vishnu is considered
by Hindus to have had nine earthly incarnations or avatars, including Rama,
Krishna and the historical Buddha; the tenth avatar will herald the end of the
world. Shiva is worshiped in many aspects: as destroyer, ascetic, lord of the cosmic
dance and lord of beasts and through the symbolic lingam as a god associated with
the powers of reproduction (a phallus or phallic object is a symbol of divine
generative energy of Shiva).
According to Hinduism this material world is only illusion (maya). Real existence
refers to Atman or unchanging individual self, a person’s soul. Atman is a Sanskrit
word, literally translated as ‘essence, breath’. The understanding of this infinite
self-essence is a way to stop transmigrations of soul (samsara) and achieve the
transcendent state of blessedness and spiritual unity with Brahma (moksha).
Hindu society was traditionally based on a caste system. There were four varnas'
(classes): Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra. Brahmin is a representative of
the highest, priestly caste. Brahmins were unique in they right to learn Vedas.
Therefore they named the guru or spiritual teacher. Kshatriya is a member of the
second, military caste. The traditional function of the Kshatriyas is to protect
society by fighting in wartime and governing in peacetime. Vaishya is a mgmber
of the third caste, comprising the merchants and farmers. Shudra is a member of
the worker caste, lowest of the four varnas. Their only function in a society is a
submission to other classes.
One of the most significant unorthodox teachings of Ancient India was Buddhism.
This philosophy was founded by Siddhartha Gautama (c. 563-483 BC). ‘Buddha’
was a pseudonym which meant ‘enlightened’, ‘pure in spirit’. Buddhism has no
god and gives a central role to the doctrine of karma as the sum of a person’s
actions in this and previous states of existence, viewed as deciding their fate in
future existences. The ‘four noble truths’ of Buddhism state that all existence is
suffering, that the cause of suffering is desire, that freedom from suffering is
nirvana, and that this is attained through the ‘eightfold path’ of ethical conduct,
wisdom and mental discipline (including meditation). The final goal of Buddhism
is nirvana. Nirvana is a transcendent, highest spiritual state in which there is
neither suffering, desire, nor sense of self and the "subject is released from the
effects of karma.
The first major philosopher who lived in China was Lao Tzu (also Lao Tse, Lao
Tu, Lao Tsu, Lao Tze, Lao Zi, Laocius and other variations), about 600 BC. Lao
Tzu founded the philosophy of Taoism. The school derives its name from the word
‘Tao’ (‘Dao’) which literally means the ‘way’ or the ‘path’. There are two main
meaning of the Tao: 1) source and reason of all that exist; 2) the universal law
governing the world.
The meaning of Tao Lao Tzu described in his work ‘Tao-Te ching’ (‘The Book of
the Way and Its Power’) (the word ‘Te’ means incarnation of Tao in material
objects).
Taoism emphasizes inner contemplation and mystical union with nature; wisdom,
learning and purposive action should be abandoned in favour of simplicity and idea
of ‘wu-wei’ (‘non- action’), ‘doing by not doing’ or letting things take their natural
course). Lao Tzu believed that the way to happiness was for people to learn to ‘go
with the flow’. Instead of trying to get things done the hard way, people should
take the time to figure out the natural or easy way to do things, and then everything
would get done more simply. Lao Tzu also thought that everything alive in the
universe (plants, animals, people) shared in a universal life-force. There were two
sides to the life-force, which are called the yin and the yang. This picture is often
used to show how the yin and the yang are intertwined with each other: . The yin
(the dark side) is the side of women, the moon, things that are still like ponds, and
completion and death. The yang (the light side) is the side of men, the sun, things
that move like rivers, and creation and birth. While the yang energy rises to from
heaven, yin solidifies to become earth. Everyone has some yin and some yang in
them, and Taoism says that it is important to keep them balanced. Chinese doctors
believed that a lot of illnesses were caused by too much yin or too much yang. So
these two principles are mutually complementary. Confucianism is a system of
philosophical and ethical teachings founded by Confucius (c. 551— 479 BC) in
sixth-fifth century BC. Confucianism (as opposed to legalism) stress the
importance of education for moral development of the individual so that the state
can be governed by moral virtue rather than by the use of coercive laws. In his
main book ‘Mandate of Heaven’ Confucius stated such manifestations: 1) anyone
can become King, 2) the power and authority of the King or emperor is appointed
by Heaven, 3) only Kings or emperors were allowed to perform ritual of praying
and offering to Heaven, 4) all mortals must obey the order of Heaven, 5) since the
mandate is granted by Heaven, it is only natural to name the Heavenly Court as the
Celestial Court.
A specialized meaning in Confucianism has ‘ritual’. The term ‘ritual’ (‘li’) was
soon extended to include secular ceremonial behavior and eventually referred also
to the propriety or politeness which colors everyday life. One of the most
important Confucius’s creative works named ‘The Book of Filial Piety’. Filial
piety is considered among the greatest of virtues and must be shown towards both
the living and the dead (including even remote ancestors). The term ‘filial’
(Smeaning ‘of a child’) characterizes the respect that a child, originally a son,
should show to his parents. This relationship was extended by analogy to a series
of five relationships: 1) father to Son, 2) ruler to minister, 3) husband to wife, 4)
elder brother to younger brother, 5) friend to friend (the participants in this
relationship being equal to one another).
Confucius believed that social disorder often stemmed from failure to perceive,
understand and deal with reality. Fundamentally, then, social disorder can stem
from the failure to call things by their proper names and his solution to this was
‘zhengmmg’ (literally ‘rectification of terms’).
In the political realm, a ruler, who embodies the ideal, will care about and provide
for the people, who will be attracted to him; the moral example he sets will have a
transforming effect on the people. Confucius as great humanist accepted
meritocracy - a social system in which people get status or rewards because of
what they achieve, rather than because of their wealth or social status.

Topic 2: Ancient Philosophy.

Ancient philosophy is philosophy in antiquity, or before the end of the Roman
Empire. It usually refers to ancient Greek philosophy.
In the Western tradition, ancient philosophy was developed primarily by
Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Ancient philosophy, however, also includes the Pre-
Socratics, Hellenistic philosophy, and Roman philosophy.
Milesian school
The Milesian school was a school of thought founded in the 6th century BC. The
ideas associated with it are exemplified by three philosophers from the Ionian town
of Miletus, on the Aegean coast of Asia Minor: Thales, Anaximander, and
Anaximenes. They introduced new opinions contrary to the prevailing Belief of
how the world was organized, in which natural phenomena were explained solely
by the will of anthropomorphized gods. The Milesians conceived of nature in terms
of methodologically observable entities, and as such was one of the first truly
scientific philosophie These philosophers defined all things by their quintessential
archefof which the world was formed and which was the source of everything.
Thales thought it to be water. But as it was impossible to explain some things (such
as fire) as being composed of this element, Anaximander chose an unobserved,
undefined element, which he called apeiron (owrsipov "having no limit"). He
reasoped that if each of the four classical empedoclean elements (water, air, fire,
and earth) are opposed to the other three, and if they cancel each other out on
contact, none of them could constitute a stable, truly elementary form of matter.
Consequently, there must be another entity from which the others originate, and
which must truly be the most basic element of all.
The differences between the three philosophers was not limited to the nature of
matter. Each of them conceived of the universe differently. Thales held that the
world was floating in water. Anaximander placed the world at the center of a
universe composed of hollow, concentric wheels filled with fire, and pierced by
holes at various intervals, which appeared as the sun, the moon, and the other stars.
For Anaximenes, the sun and the moon were flat disks traveling around a heavenly
canopy, on which the stars were fixed.
Eleatic School
The Eleatic School is an early Pre-Socratic school of philosophy founded by
Parmenides in the 5th Century B.C. at Elea, a Greek colony in southern Italy.
Other important members of the school include Zeno of Elea, Melissus of Samos
(born c. 470 B.C.) and (arguably) the earlier Xenophanes of Colophon (570 - 480
B.C.)
Xenophanes in particular criticized the belief in a pantheon of anthropomorphic
gods which was then current, and Parmenides developed his ideas further,
concluding that the reality of the world is "One Being", an unchanging, timeless,
indestructible whole, in opposition to the theories of the early physicalist
philosophers. Later, he became an early exponent of the duality of appearance and
reality, and his work was highly influential on later Platonic metaphysics.
Zeno of Elea is best known for his paradoxes (see the Paradoxes section of the
page on Logic). But Aristotle has also called him the inventor of the dialectic (the
exchange of propositions and counter-propositions to arrive at a conclusion), and
Bertrand Russell credited him with having laid the foundations of modern Logic.
The Eleatics rejected the epistemological validity of sense experience,
preferring reason and logical standards of clarity and necessity to be the criteria of
truth. Parmenides and Melissus generally built their arguments up from indubitably
sound premises, while Zeno primarily attempted to destroy the arguments of others
by showing their premises led to contradictions ("reductio ad absurdum").
Although the conclusions of the Eleatics were largely rejected by the later Pre-
Socratic and Socratic philosophers, their arguments were taken seriously, and they
are generally credited with improving the standards of discourse and argument in
their time.
Plato
Plato is one of the world's best known and most widely read and studied
philosophers. He was the student of Socrates and the teacher of Aristotle, and he
wrote in the middle of the fourth century B.C.E. in ancient Greece. Though
influenced primarily by Socrates, to the extent that Socrates is usually the main
character in many of Plato's writings, he was also influenced by Heraclitus,
Parmenides, and the Pythagoreans.
There are varying degrees of controversy over which of Plato's works are
authentic, and in what order they were written, due to their antiquity and the
manner of their preservation through time. Nonetheless, his earliest works are
generally regarded as the most reliable of the ancient sources on Socrates, and the
character Socrates that we know through these writings is considered to be one of
the greatest of the ancient philosophers.s. It is most of all from Plato that we get
the theory of Forms, according to which the world we know through the senses is
only an imitation of the pure, eternal, and unchanging world of the Forms. Plato's
works also contain the origins of the familiar complaint that the arts work by
inflaming the passions, and are mere illusions. We also are introduced to the ideal
of "Platonic love:" Plato saw love as motivated by a longing for the highest Form
of beauty—The Beautiful Itself, and love as the motivational power through which
the highest of achievements are possible.
Democritus (460—370 B.C.E.)
Democritus expanded the atomic theory of Leucippus. He maintained the
impossibility ■ of dividing things ad infinitum. From the difficulty of assigning a
beginning of time, he argued the eternity of existing nature, of void space, and of
motion. He supposed the atoms, which are originally similar, to be impenetrable
and have a density proportionate to their volume. All motions are the result of
active and passive affection. He drew a distinction between primary motion and its
secondary effects, that is, impulse and reaction. This is the basis of the law of
necessity, by which all things in nature are ruled. The worlds which we see — with
all their properties of immensity, resemblance, and dissimilitude — result from the
endless multiplicity of falling atoms. The human soul consists of globular atoms of
fire, which impart movement to the body. Maintaining his atomic theory
throughout, Democritus introduced the hypothesis of images or idols (eidola), a
kind of emanation from external objects, which make an impression on our senses,
and from the influence of which he deduced sensation (aesthesis) and thought
(noesis).
Heraclitus
Heraclitus was famous for his insistence on ever-present change as being the
fundamental essence of the universe, as stated in the famous saying, "No man ever
steps in the same river twice" (see panta rhei, below). This position was
complemented by his stark commitment to a unity of opposites in the world,
stating that "the path up and down are one and the same". Through these doctrines
Heraclitus characterized all existing entities by pairs of contrary properties,
whereby no entity may ever occupy a single state at a single time. This, along with
his cryptic utterance that "all entities come to be in accordance with this Logos"
(literally, "word", "reason", or "account") has been the subject of numerous
interpretations.

Topic:3 MEDIEVAL AGES AND RENAISSANCE PHILOSOPHY

Middle ages is a long period of formation and development of feudal relations
(from the fall of the Western Roman Empire in V century CE the Renaissance).
Medieval philosophy is characteristically theological, it is as the handmaiden of
theology. The main task of philosophy in this period was to provide rational
justification of faith.
The history of medieval philosophy is divided into two periods: Patristic and
Scholastic.
During the first period philosophical questions are developed through theological
writings. The most prominent figure among the patristic fathers is st. Augustine,
the author of Confessions, an earnest, seared autobiography of the great intellect.
The most prominent figures of scholastic are Anselm of Canterbury (XI c.).
Saint Anselm is most famous in philosophy for having provided the so called
“ontological argument”.
P.Abelard is best –known as the father of nomenalism. Nominalism is associated
with the problem of universals. Central nominalist tenet: only particulars exist,
universals are mere words (nomen).
Realism asserts the reality of universals.
Nominalism and realism are two direction in the medieval philosophy.
RENAISSANCE PHILOSOPHY
European Renaissance covers XIV-XVII, contures. The richnes of this epoch is
determined by the word “humanism”. The basic principle of Renaissance
philosophy –anthropocentrism (in ancient philosophy-cosmocentrism, in medieval
philosophy the centrism). A simbol of rebirth – a creative artist.
Outstanding representatives of philosophical and scientific thought: N.Copernicus
and G.Bruno. their natural – scientific researches are the philosophy of the
Renaissance. Copermicus formulated the doctrine. of heliocentric, opposed to
geocentrism, the teachings of the church. From the Copernican revolution traces
its history science as a social institution.
Topic 3 : Medieval philosophy
Medieval philosophy is the philosophy in the era now known as medieval or the
Middle Ages, the period roughly extending from the fall of the Western Roman
Empire in the 5th century C.E. to the Renaissance in the 16th century.
The history of medieval philosophy is traditionally divided into two main
periods: the period in the Latin West following the Early Middle Ages until the
12th century, when the works of Aristotle and Plato were preserved and cultivated
and the 'golden age’ of the 12th, 13th and 14th centuries in the Latin West, which
witnessed the culmination of the recovery of ancient philosophy.
The medieval era was disparagingly treated by the Renaissance humanists, who
saw it as a barbaric 'middle' period between the classical age of Greek and Roman
culture, and the 'rebirth' or renaissance of classical culture. Modern historians
consider the medieval era to be one of philosophical development, heavily
influenced by Christian theology. One of the most notable thinkers of the era,
Thomas Aquinas, never considered himself a philosopher, and criticized
philosophers for always "falling short of the true and proper wisdom to be found in
Christian revelation".
The problems discussed throughout this period are the relation of faith to reason,
the existence and simplicity of God, the purpose of theology and metaphysics, and
the problems of knowledge, of universals, and of individuation.
Medieval philosophy is characteristically theological. With the possible exceptions
of Avicenna and Averroes, medieval thinkers did not consider themselves
philosophers at all: for them, the philosophers were the ancient pagan writers such
as Plato and Aristotle. However, their theology used the methods and logical
techniques of the ancient philosophers to address difficult theological questions
and points of doctrine. Thomas Aquinas, following Peter Damian, argued that
philosophy is the handmaiden of theology (ancilla theologiae).
One of the most heavily debated topics of the period was that of faith versus
reason. Avicenna and Averroes both leaned more on the side of reason. Augustine
stated that he would never allow his philosophical investigations to go beyond the
authority of God. Anselm attempted to defend
against what he saw as partly an assault on faith, with an approach allowing for
both faith and reason. The Augustinian solution to the faith/reason problem is to
(1) believe, and then (2) seek to understand.
All the main branches of philosophy today were a part of Medieval philosophy.
Medieval philosophy also included most of the areas originally established by the
pagan philosophers of antiquity, in particular Aristotle. However, the discipline
now called Philosophy of religion was, it is presumed, a unique development of the
Medieval era, and many of the problems that define the subject first took shape in
the Middle Ages, in forms that are still recognisable today.
Medieval philosophy is characteristically theological. Subjects discussed in this
period include: The problem of the compatibility of the divine attributes: How are
the attributes traditionally ascribed to the Supreme Being, such as unlimited power,
knowledge of all things, infinite goodness, existence outside time, immateriality,
and so on, logically consistent with one another?
The problem of evil: The classical philosophers had speculated on the nature of
evil, but the problem of how an all-powerful, all-knowing, loving God could create
a system of things in which evil exists first arose in the medieval period.
The problem of free will: A similar problem was to explain how 'divine
foreknowledge' - God's knowledge of what will happen in the future - is
compatible with our belief in our own free will. Questions regarding the
immortality of the intellect, the unity or non-unity between the soul and the
intellect, and the consequent intellectual basis for believing in the immortality of
the soul.
The question of whether there can be substances which are non-material, for
example, angels.

Renaissance philosophy
The designation "Renaissance philosophy" is used by scholars of intellectual
history to refer to the thought of the period running in Europe roughly between
1355 and 1650 (the dates shift forward for central and northern Europe and for
areas such as Spanish America, India, Japan, ' and China under European
influence). It therefore overlaps both with late medieval philosophy, which in the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries was influenced by notable figures such as Albert
the Great, Thomas Aquinas, William of Ockham, and Marsilius of Padua, and
early modern philosophy, which conventionally starts with René Descartes and his
publication of the Discourse on Method in 1637. Philosophers usually divide the
period less finely, jumping from medieval to early modern philosophy, on the
assumption that no radical shifts in perspective took place in the centuries
immediately before Descartes. Intellectual historians, however, take into
considerations factors such as sources, approaches, audience, language, and literary
genres in addition to ideas. This article reviews both the changes in context and
content of Renaissance philosophy and its remarkable continuities with the past.
Particularly since the recovery of a great portion of Aristotelian writings in the
twelfth and thirteenth centuries, it became clear that, in addition to Aristotle’s
writings on logic, which had already been known, there were numerous others
roughly having to do with natural philosophy, moral philosophy, and metaphysics.
These areas provided the structure for the philosophy curriculum of the emerging
universities. The general assumption was that the most ‘scientific’ branches of
philosophy were those that were more theoretical and therefore more widely
applicable. During the Renaissance too, many thinkers saw these as the main
philosophical areas, with logic providing a training of the mind to approach the
other three.
While generally the Aristotelian structure of the branches of philosophy stayed
in place, interesting developments and tensions were taking place within them. In
moral philosophy, for instance, a position consistently held by Thomas Aquinas
and his numerous followers was that its three subfields (ethics, economics, politics)
were related to progressively wider spheres (the individual, the family and the
community). Politics, Thomas thought, is more important than ethics because it
considers the good of the greater number. This position came under increasing
strain in the Renaissance, as various thinkers claimed that Thomas’s classifications
were inaccurate, and that ethics were the most important part of morality. [6] Other
important figures, such as Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) (1304-1374), questioned
the whole assumption that the theoretical aspects of philosophy were the more
important ones. He insisted, for instance, on the value of the practical aspects of
ethics. Petrarch’s position, expressed both strongly and amusingly in his invective
On His Own Ignorance and That of Many Others (De sui ipsius ac multorum
ignorantia) is also important for another reason: it represents the conviction that
philosophy should let itself be guided by rhetoric, that the purpose of philosophy is
therefore not so much to reveal the truth, but to encourage people to pursue the
good. This perspective, so typical of Italian humanism, could easily lead to
reducing all philosophy to ethics, in a move reminiscent of Plato’s Socrates and of
Cicero.
If, as mentioned above, scholasticism continued to flourish, the Italian
humanists (i.e., lovers and practitioners of the humanities) challenged its
supremacy. As we have seen, they believed that philosophy could be brought under
the wing of rhetoric. They also thought that the scholarly discourse of their time
needed to return to the elegance and precision of its classical models. They
therefore tried dressing philosophy in a more appealing garb than had their
predecessors, whose translations and commentaries were in technical Latin and
sometimes simply transliterated the Greek. In 1416/1417 Leonardo Bruni, the pre-
eminent humanist of his time and chancellor of Florence, re-translated Aristotle’s
Ethics into a more flowing, idiomatic and classical Latin. He hoped to
communicate the elegance of Aristotle’s Greek while also making the text more
accessible to those without a philosophical education. Others, including Nicolo
Tignosi in Florence around 1460, and the Frenchman Jacques Lefèvre d’Etaples in
Paris in the 1490s, tried to please the humanists either by including in their
commentaries on Aristotle appealing historical examples or quotations from
poetry, or by avoiding the standard scholastic format of questions, or both. The
driving conviction was that philosophy should be freed of its technical jargon so
that more people would be able to read it. At the same time, all kinds of
summaries, paraphrases, and dialogues dealing with philosophical issues were
prepared, in order to give their topics a wider dissemination. Humanists also
encouraged the study of Aristotle and other writers of antiquity in the original.
Desiderius Erasmus, the great Dutch humanist, even prepared a Greek edition of
Aristotle, and eventually those teaching philosophy in the universities had to at
least pretend that they knew Greek. Humanists were not, however, great fans of the
vernacular. There is only a handful of examples of dialogues or translations of
Aristotle’s works into Italian during the fifteenth century. Once it had been
determined, however, that Italian was a language with literary merit and that it
could carry the weight of philosophical discussion, numerous efforts in this
direction started to appear, particularly from the 1540s onward. Alessandro
Piccolomini had a programme to translate or paraphrase the entire Aristotelian
corpus into the vernacular. Other important figures were Benedetto Varchi,
Bernardo Segni and Giambattista Gelli, all of them active in Florence. Efforts got
underway to present Plato’s doctrines in the vernacular as well. This rise of
vernacular philosophy, which quite predated the Cartesian approach, is a new field
of research whose contours are only now beginning to be clarified.
It is very hard to generalize about the ways in which discussions of
philosophical topics shifted in the Renaissance, mainly because to do so requires a
detailed map of the period, something we do not yet have. We know that debates
about the freedom of the will continued to flare up (for instance, in the famous
exchanges between Erasmus and Martin Luther), that Spanish thinkers were
increasingly obsessed with the notion of nobility, that duelling was a practice that
generated a large literature in the sixteenth century (was it permissible or not?).
In conclusion, like any other moment in the history of thought Renaissance
philosophy cannot be considered to have provided something entirely new nor to
have continued for centuries to repeat the conclusions of its predecessors.
Historians call this period the ‘Renaissance’ in order to indicate the rebirth that
took place of ancient (particularly classical) perspectives, sources, attitudes toward
literature and the arts. At the same time, we realize that every reappropriation is
constrained and even guided by contemporary concerns and biases. It was no
different for the period considered here: the old was mixed with and changed by
the new, but while no claims can be made for a revolutionary new starting point in
philosophy, in many ways the synthesis of Christianity, Aristotelianism, and
Platonism offered by Thomas Aquinas was torn apart in order to make way for a
new one, based on more complete and varied sources, often in the original, and
certainly attuned to new social and religious realities and a much broader public.
Renaissance philosophers:
Coluccio Salutati (1331-1406)
Gemistus Pletho (1355-1452)
Leonardo Bruni (1370-1444)
Nicholas of Cusa (1401-1464)
Scholasticism
Scholasticism is a method of critical thought which dominated teaching by
the academics ("scholastics," or "schoolmen") of medieval universities in Europe
from about 1100 to 1700, and a program of employing that method in articulating
and defending dogma in an increasingly pluralistic context. It originated as an
outgrowth of and a departure from Christian monastic schools at the earliest
European universities.111 The first institutions in the West to be considered
universities were established in Italy, France, Spain, and England in the late 11th
and the 12th centuries for the study of arts, law, medicine, and theology,^such as
Schola Medica Salernitana, the University of Bologna, and the University of Paris.
It is difficult to define the date at which they became true universities, although the
lists of studia generalia for higher education in Europe are a useful guide, held by
the Catholic Church and its various religious orders.
Peter Abelard (1079—1142)
Peter Abelard (1079-1142) was the preeminent philosopher of the twelfth century
and perhaps the greatest logician of the middle ages. During his life he was equally
famous as a poet and a composer, and might also have ranked as the preeminent
theologian of his day had his ideas earned more converts and less condemnation. In
all areas Abelard was brilliant, innovative, and controversial. He was a genius. He
knew it, and made noapologies. His vast knowledge, wit, charm, and even
arrogance drew a generation of Europe's finest minds to Paris to learn from him.
Philosophically, Abelard is best known as the father of nominalism. For
contemporary philosophers, nominalism is most closely associated with the
problem of universals but is actually a much broader metaphysical system. Abelard
formulated what is now recognized as a central nominalist tenet: only particulars
exist. However, his solution to the problem of universals is a semantic account of
the meaning and proper use of universal words. It is from Abelard's claim that only
words (потел) are universal that nominalism gets its name. Abelard would have
considered himself first a logician and then later in his life a theologian and
ethicist. He may well have been the best logician produced in the Middle Ages.
Several innovations and theories that are conventionally thought to have originated
centuries later can be found in his works. Among these are a theory of direct
reference for nouns, an account of purely formal validity, and a theory of
propositional content once thought to have originated with Gottlob Frege. In ethics,
Abelard develops a theory of moral responsibility based on the agent's intentions.
Moral goodness is defined as intending to show love of God and neighbor and
being correct in that intention.
Anselm of Canterbury (1033—1109)
Saint Anselm was one of the most important Christian thinkers of the eleventh
century. He is most famous in philosophy for having discovered and articulated the
so-called “ontological argument;” and in theology for his doctrine of the
atonement. However, his work extends to many other important philosophical and
theological matters, among which are: understanding the aspects and the unity of
the divine nature; the extent of our possible knowledge and understanding of the
divine nature; the complex nature of the will and its involvement in free choice; the
interworkings of human willing and action and divine grace; the natures of truth
and justice; the natures and origins of virtues and vices; the nature of evil as
negation or privation; and the condition and
implications of original sin.
In the course of his work and thought, unlike most of his contemporaries, Anselm
deployed argumentation that was in most respects only indirectly dependent on
Sacred Scripture, Christian doctrine, and tradition. Anselm also developed
sophisticated analyses of the language used in discussion and investigation of
philosophical and theological issues, highlighting the importance of focusing on
the meaning of the terms used rather than allowing oneself to be misled by the
verbal forms, and examining the adequacy of the language to the objects of
investigation, particularly to the divine nature. In addition, in his work he both
discussed and exemplified the resolution of apparent contradictions or paradoxes
by making appropriate distinctions. For these reas reasons, one title traditionally
accorded him is the Scholastic Doctor, since his approach to philosophical and
theological matters both represents and contributed to early medieval Christian
Scholasticism.
The Patristic Period
With Proclus ancient philosophy comes to a close. The first period embraces nearly
a thousand years, from Thales, 640 B.C., to Proclus' death, 485 A.D. The second
period reaches to the beginning of the sixteenth century, to the time of the
Reformation, and includes also about a thousand years. Hitherto philosophy fell
within the heathen world. From this point onwards it has its place in the Christian
world. A new religion has entered the world— Christianity, and with its advent a
new note has been struck. Christianity has become a force in life and thought
which has to be reckoned with. An event has taken place in the world's history
which claims to be all-important for the understanding of God and man. The
dualism between subject and object, the separation between the human and the
divine which ancient philosophy attempted to overcome, was met in a practical
way by the Christian religion.
With that first period the history of philosophy has little to do, except to mention
some of the great theologians, whose work it was to formulate the faith of the
Church and defend it against heresies within and attacks from without. Some of
these we have already referred to when speaking of the leaders of the Alexandrian
school, such as Justin Martyr, irenaeus, and Hypolitus, Clemens and Origen. We
have also to mention the name ofCyprian, who was born at Carthage about A.D.
200, and was the greatest theologian of the so-called African school. As one of the
great teachers of the Church, he cannot be passed over, but his work lay not so
much in the field of theology or philosophy as that of Church government and
discipline.
The most prominent figure among the patristic fathers was St. Augustine, who was
born at Tagaste, in Numidia, in 354 A.D. He continued a Pagan till advanced in
years, but through the influence of his mother was converted to Christianity. In 397
appeared his Confessions. It is an earnest, sacred, autobiography of one of the
greatest intellects the world has ever seen. In 426 he finished his De Civitate Dei,
his most powerful work. It is a splendid vindication of the Christian Church,
conceived of as a new order rising on the ruins of the old Roman empire, and is not
only the most philosophic treatise of Christian theology, but one of the most
profound and lasting monuments of human genius.

Topic:4 MODERN PERIOD PHILOSOPHY

Modern time is a period of creation and development of bourgeois relationships
(XVII-XIX centuries). Capitalism stimulates progress of natural sciences. Central
to modern time philosophy is epistemology problems, first of all the method
problem. Philosophers are divided into two main direction: empiricism and
rationalism.
Empiricism asserts that knowledge comes via sensory experience. Rationalism
begins with R.Descartes and his dictum “I think, therefore I am”.
Enlightenment is the name of the ideology of the English bourgeoisie. Through
science and education of the masses the British bourgeoisie is trying to undermine
the foundations of the Church, this Bastion of feudalism.
The ideas of the English Enlightenment received a vivid development on French
soil. Outstanding representatives of French Enlightenment. Voltaire, Diderot,
Montesquieu, Holbach. Their writings are permeated with the spirit of materialism
and atheism. Encyclopedia founded by Diderot, became a source of proliferation
of materialistic and atheistic views.

GERMAN CLASSIC PHILOSOPHY

German classic philosophy covers the end of the XVIIIth century and the first
third of the XIXth century. The founder of this philosopy-kant; outstanding
representatives: Hegel and L.Fenerback. Kant in his cosmological work “
Universal natural-history and theory of heaven” explores the animal world,
explaining it from evolution. This, kant introduces the principle of historism.
Subsequent philosophers spread this principle to the culture of the people.
Hegel explores the history of society as a complex process of development.
Exploring the source of development, mechanism of development and the direction
of development, Hegel formulates the three ears of dialectic: the law of unity and
struggle of opposites, the law of mutual transition of quantitative and qualitative
changes, the law of negation of negation.
L.Fenerbach in his work “The Essence of Christianity”, trying to explain the
person of Jesus Christ, comes to the following conclusion: Out of nature and
human there is nothing else; a supernatural being –a product of our religions
imagination. This is the materialistic point of view, which strikes the idealism of
German classic philosophy.
Topik 4: Modern time philosophy
Modern philosophy is philosophy developed in the modern era and associated
with modernity. It is not a specific doctrine or school (and thus should not be
confused with Modernism), although there are certain assumptions common to
much of it, which helps to distinguish it from earlier philosophy.
 The 17th and early 20th centuries roughly mark the beginning and the end of
modern philosophy. How much if any of the Renaissance should be included is a
matter for dispute; likewise modernity may or may not have ended in the twentieth
century and been replaced by postmodernity. How one decides these questions will
determine the scope of one's use of "modern philosophy."
The major figures in philosophy of mind, epistemology, and metaphysics
during the 17th and
18th centuries are roughly divided into two main groups. The "Rationalists,"
mostly in France and Germany, argued all knowledge must begin from
certain"innate ideas" in the mind. Major rationalists were Descartes, Baruch
Spinoza, Gottfried Leibniz, and Nicolas Malebranche. The "Empiricists," by
contrast, held that knowledge must begin with sensory experience. Major figures in
this line of thought are John Locke, George Berkeley, and David Hume (These are
retrospective categories, for which Kant is largely responsible.) Ethics and political
philosophy are usually not subsumed under these categories, though all these
philosophers worked in ethics, in their own distinctive styles. Other important
figures in political philosophy include Thomas Hobbes and Jean-Jacques
Rousseau.
In the late eighteenth century Immanuel Kant set forth a groundbreaking
philosophical system which claimed to bring unity to rationalism and empiricism.
Whether or not he was right, he did not entirely succeed in ending philosophical
dispute. Kant sparked a storm of philosophical work in Germany in the early
nineteenth century, beginning with German idealism. The characteristic theme of
idealism was that the world and the mind equally must.be understood according to
the same categories; it culminated in the work of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel,
who among many other things said that "The real is rational; the rational is real."
Hegel's work was carried in many directions by his followers and critics. Karl
Marx appropriated both Hegel's philosophy of history and the empirical ethics
dominant in Britain, transforming Hegel's ideas into a strictly materialist form,
setting the grounds for the development of a science of society. Soren Kierkegaard,
in contrast, dismissed all systematic philosophy as an inadequate guide to life and
meaning. For Kierkegaard, life is meant to be lived, not a mystery to be solved.
Arthur Schopenhauer took idealism to the conclusion that the world was nothing
but the futile endless interplay of images and desires, and advocated atheism and
pessimism. Schopenhauer's ideas were taken up and transformed by Nietzsche,
who seized upon their various dismissal's of the world to proclaim "God is dead"
and to reject all systematic philosophy and all striving for a fixed truth
transcending the individual. Nietzsche found in this not grounds for pessimism, but
the possibility of a new kind of freedom.
Rationalism
Modern philosophy traditionally begins with René Descartes and his dictum "I
think, therefore I am". In the early seventeenth century the bulk of philosophy was
dominated by Scholasticism, written by theologians and drawing upon Plato,
Aristotle, and early Church writings. Descartes argued that many predominant
Scholastic metaphysical doctrines were meaningless or false. In short, he proposed
to begin philosophy from scratch. In his most important work, Meditations on First
Philosophy, he attempts just this, over six brief essays. He tries to set aside as
much as he possibly can of all his beliefs, to determine what if anything he knows
for certain. He finds that he can doubt nearly everything: the reality of physical
objects, God, his memories, history, science, even mathematics, but he cannot
doubt that he is, in fact, doubting. He knows what he is thinking about, even if it is
not true, and he knows that he is there thinking about it. From this basis he builds
his knowledge back up again. He finds that some of the ideas he has could not have
originated from him alone, but only from God; he proves that God exists. He then
demonstrates that God would not allow him to be systematically deceived about
everything; in essence, he vindicates ordinary methods of science and reasoning, as
fallible but not false. Rationalists:
René Descartes Baruch Spinoza Gottfried Leibniz Empiricism
Empiricism is a theory of knowledge which opposes other theories of
knowledge, such as rationalism, idealism and historicism. Empiricism asserts that
knowledge comes (only or primarily) via sensory experience as opposed to
rationalism, which asserts that knowledge comes (also) from pure thinking. Both
empiricism and rationalism are individualist theories of knowledge, whereas
historicism is a social epistemology. While historicism also acknowledges the role
of experience, it differs from empiricism by assuming that sensory data cannot be
understood without considering the historical and cultural circumstances in which
observations are made. Empiricism should not be mixed up with empirical research
because different epistemologies should be considered competing views on how
best to do studies, and there is near consensus among researchers that studies
should be empirical. Today empiricism should therefore be understood as one
among competing ideals of getting knowledge or how to do studies. As such
empiricism is first and foremost characterized by the ideal to let observational data
"speak for themselves", while the competing views are opposed to this ideal. The
term empiricism should thus not just be understood in relation to how this term has
been used in the history of philosophy. It should also be constructed in a way
which makes it possible to distinguish empiricism among other epistemological
positions in contemporary science and scholarship. In other words: Empiricism as
a concept has to be constructed along with other concepts, which together make it
possible to make important discriminations between different ideals underlying
contemporary science.
Empiricists:
John Locke George Berkeley David Hume