The Garden of Eden-pg 2 Sophie is introduced to two questions she has not really thought about, but is very important questions to philosophers. She realizes that these questions are really important but most people take these questions for granted. When we are little children, we are easily amazed by many things that older people see as bland since they are used to it. Philosophers are like children that never grew up because these things still amazes them. Myths-pg 23.
Before people had actual solutions to natural phenomena, they make up stories that try to explain this. One very common story is that the world was created by God. The philosophers in Greece were one of the first to question these stories while also looking for more reasonable answers. Philosophical questions are not easily answered by mere stories, but by carefully studying them. Natural Philosophers-pg 31 Parmenides said that the world doesn’t change; it is just that our senses tell us that it has changed. Since our senses can trick us, we must only trust our reason.
Heraclites’ idea was the complete opposite, he said that our senses are what tells us everything about the world and that the world is changing. Empedocles’ came up with the idea of four basic substances that can settle the debate over reason over senses. Democritus-pg 44 Philosophy applies to everything that we do in our lives. Scientists today still depend on the philosophies of the ancient Greeks. Science is really similar to philosophies since they both try to explain things relating to the world. Fate-pg 50 The ancient Greeks believed in fate.
Fate is where your life is predetermined. Philosophers that questioned fate were historians Herodotus and Thucydides and a doctor named Hippocrates. They tried to come up with more natural solutions to why things happen throughout a person’s life. Plato-pg 79 Plato’s teacher Socrates studied morals and human interactions while Plato himself was more into unifying the theories of the natural world and humanity. Philosopher’s added their ides to ides of philosophers before them. Aristotle-pg 107 He showed us that you can come up with new ides by studying older ideas.
He believed in sense over reason and came up with the idea of causality. We must not stop studying the ideas of philosophers just because they come up with a few that we don not agree with, like Aristotle’s view towards women. Hellenism-pg 121 Centuries after Aristotle, ideas in religion started to mix with those of philosophers. Cynics believed that material goods do not lead to happiness in a person’s life. Stoics thought that everyone was governed by a universal law. Plotinus, a Neo-Platonist, believed that the world is divided up into light, the One, and darkness.
He thinks that there is light in everyone’s soul, therefore we are all a part of the One. Two Cultures-pg 151 Most of the people in Europe and India believed that there is more than one God and that the most important of our senses was sight. The Semitic culture, including Islam, Christianity, and Judaism, believed in only one God. The Middle Ages-pg 167 St. Augustine bought Plato’s teachings to Christianity and united the teachings of the Greeks and the Jews. He wrote a book called City of God which said that salvation is only achieved through the Church. St.
Thomas Aquinas bought Aristotle’s ideas to Christianity and tried to show that reason does not conflict with faith. Renaissance-pg 190 This is the period where Europe came out of the dark ages and culture finally began to prosper. People started to believe that God was present throughout nature. Science also began to flourish such as Newton’s laws of physics. The Baroque-pg 218 During this period, philosophy was either characterized as idealism or materialism. Descartes-pg 235 He did not believe in old philosophical ideas so he began to come up with his own.
His ideas were of knowledge that we can be sure of and relations of the mind and body. He never believed in anything that he couldn’t be certain of, but he did believe that God is real. Descartes ideas of extension show the world as thought and matter. Spinoza-pg 250 Spinoza was influenced by Descartes. He believed that the whole world was a part of God, that thought and extensions were just traits of God that we can see in ourselves, and that God controls everything. Locke-pg 259 Locke believed that the most simple of our senses can build up very complex questions.
The world consists of two qualities. The primary qualities involve things that do not change. The secondary qualities involve things that vary from person to person. Hume-pg 272 He believed that what we see is based on our experiences and ideas, and we do not act with reason. Imagination creates complex ideas. Hume opposed the idea of an eternal soul, and questioned the laws of nature and existence of God. Berkeley-pg 282 Berkeley suggested that external reality has no substance. Everything we think and feel comes from our souls like our dreams. Kant-pg 328.
Kant thought that how we think changes how we experience the world. The world is divided in two; how the world really is and how we think it is. There are questions out there that we cannot answer because they surpass human reason. These questions can only be answered as our lives progress. Romanticism-pg 349 This was a period of people praised individual and freedom. Art was used to express freedom. Later, National Romanticism was created which was more about history, language, and culture. Hegel-pg 362 He believed that world spirit was made of human interactions.
Reason changes with each generation and we also gain more reason as we age. Believes in communities over individuals and language is what forms people. Darwin-pg 411 His idea of evolution shows that all organisms come from one single organism. The idea of natural selection was frowned upon by the Bible’s teaching of Creationism. His idea of natural selection came from the domestication of animals. Adaptation causes organisms to change so they can live in a certain environment but it will not create the perfect organism. Freud-pg 433 Our unconscious mind drives us to do things without knowing.
Learning about a person’s thought can help heal mental disorders. He believed that there are three parts of the brain. The id contains our desire for pleasure. The ego governs action rationally. The superego enforces moral standards. Dreams can show us what we want. Our Own Time-pg 457 Sartre believed that we are aware of our existence. Human nature is created by us so no one is the same. Our actions and existence is our own responsibility. Big Bang-pg 506 There may be more to life than what we see. The meaning of our life may be found as our lives progress.