The Ancient Greeks: The Ancient Greeks Understanding Reality What the early physicists did and said. Being and Becoming Parmenides vs Heraclitus The Atomists Material Determinism The Sophists Rhetoric and persuasion Plato In search of knowledge Aristotle Potential and Actual Happiness Looking for Ataraxia


Thales of Miletus (~ 585 BC): Thales of Miletus (~ 585 BC) Prior to Thales critical examination of the state of things was hit and miss – dogma dominated e.g. Pythagoras was both a mathematician and a mystic 'Abstain from beans' ‘favism’ or haemolytic anemia 'Do not look in a mirror beside a light' ??? Popper (1965) in his book Conjectures and Refutations 'I like to think that Thales was the first teacher who said to his pupils: ‘This is how I see things – how I believe that things are. Try to improve upon my teaching’. 'It was a momentous innovation… a tradition that admits a plurality of doctrines in which all try to approach the truth by means of critical discussion'


Thales’ Physics: Thales’ Physics Whilst the world is made up of many different substances there is in reality only one element – water (phusis) Gas, Liquid, Solid. Followers of Thales searching for the single universal element were called physicists Modern physicists are still searching. Thales claims were a radical step away from supernatural explanations of the world and the stuff of which it is made to a more naturalistic explanation. This kind of naturalism is fundamental to modern science which eschews any claims to supernaturalism However, we still seem to have a dualism in Psychology between mind and matter.


Anaximander of Miletus (~560 BC): Anaximander of Miletus (~560 BC) Disputed that water was the phusis Suggested that 'apeiron' which is not a recognizable element but was the basic building block of matter. There is no evidence that this criticism of Thales caused any kind of schism in the 'Ionian' School of which Thales was considered one of the Seven Sages. Interestingly Anaximander also predated Darwin in using fossil evidence to argue that the human primeval form must have been different to that which he saw around him.


Being and Becoming: Being and Becoming Parmenides (~475 BC) asserted that the underlying permanent reality of the universe was an unchanging IT, pure Being. The existence of pure Being suggests that there are eternal Truths and Values that exist beyond humanity and that we should search for these Truths/Values to guide our lives Heraclitus (~500 BC) suggested that the only reality in the Universe is change You can’t step in the same river twice. The odds are that over a 10 year period none of the molecules in our bodies will be the same. Becoming or change was fundamental to the working of the Universe. At about this time this conflict in understanding made clear that Appearance and Reality are not necessarily the same thing.


The Atomists: The Atomists Democritus of Adbera (~420 BC) Only 'atoms and Void exist in reality' There is no free will since there is no will to direct the atoms Nothing happens at random, it happens out of reason and necessity This is essentially a philosophical position which combines both Materialism and Determinism There is no soul, no will that can be free, there is only material (atoms) that operates in lawful ways. Finding those laws becomes essential in understanding the universe and ourselves. This leads to hedonism – the pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain as the only good.


The Polis: The Polis Like many cultures the key to success in Greece was politics – the working of the polis. The polis is a Greek city-state, a small, independent government consisting of a single city and its immediate environs. Some were democracies in which every male citizen voted on every government action. Some were oligarchies in which a few rich or aristocratic families cooperated and shared powers. Some were dictatorships in which a single military leader came to power. The two most influential city-states were Athens and Sparta. Athens was famous for its culture and art and intellectual life. Sparta was famous for its toughness and its martial lifestyle. The Peloponnesian War, a civil war between Sparta and Athens was eventually won by Sparta but so weakened Greece that eventually its conquests was achieved Philip of Macedon and his son Alexander (the Great)


The Sophists: The Sophists Political power depended on successfully persuading others to your point of view so that votes in the assembly of the polis would go in your favour. Sophists (experts) operated in the Athenian polis to teach and practice rhetoric (the art of persuasion). Whilst the sophists had no clear philosophical position Leahey (2004) suggests that fundamentally they were humanists. This can be seen to be the foundation of a relativist empiricism Truth is that which we experience. The search for the phusis is not truth in a practical way. Pragmatic truth is to be found not in some possible external reality but rather truth lies in how things appear to us humans. Different people make different sensory judgements, perceive things differently. Each is 'truthful' to the perceiver and no hidden reality is required.


Socrates (~470 BC): Socrates (~470 BC) Though not a sophist, the humanism implicit in sophist thinking lead Socrates to focus on the nature of human truths. E.g. What are Justice, Courage, Beauty, Goodness, etc? Importantly, if all such human values are all good, which intuitively seems to the case, what do they have in common. Socrates did not claim to know the answers to these questions but rather lived in a state of enlightened ignorance (aporia) However, Socrates believed that in essence everyone possesses moral truth. Through dialogues Socrates attempted to show people the virtues that they inherently know.


Death of Socrates: Death of Socrates Socrates' superior intellect made the prominent Athenians he publicly questioned look foolish, turning them against him and leading to accusations of wrongdoing Offending the Gods (in particular, Athena) and corrupting the youth of Athens. Offending Athena was a bad move since Athens was in the middle of the Peloponnesian War and Gods don’t like to be insulted when you’re asking for their help. Encouraging the youth of Athens to question the morality of the war soon made their elders annoyed Socrates insistence on knowledge being explicitly stated and defended led to his downfall. In the end, Socrates was condemned to death by hemlock. Hemlock contains coniine which is a neurotoxin that disrupts the workings of the central nervous system leading to respiratory failure.


Plato (~427 BC): Plato (~427 BC) If Socrates focussed on the virtues, Plato’s endeavour knew no such bounds: what is a cat, a fish, a dog, apart from the particular cat, fish, or dog? The inductive method common in science, that the same observation can be made over and over again, falls prey to Plato’s observation that what seems true today may well seem false tomorrow. Knowledge is true if an only if it is true in all times and all places Knowledge has to be rationally justifiable. Plato appealed to Forms, idealised, eternally existing perfect exemplars.


Ideal Forms: Ideal Forms Forms belong to the realm of Being The form of a cat is an idealised cat A particular cat is an ephemeral, temporary copy of its Form and thus belongs to the realm of Becoming. True knowledge is knowledge of Forms and not of things themselves But how do we come to that knowledge? Plato’s answer is a clear, if odd, statement of nativism, arguing that our character and knowledge are innate, being carried by the soul from its vision of the Forms and its previous incarnations.


Why do we do what we do?: Why do we do what we do? Plato believed that happiness and virtue (eudaemonia) are intrinsically features of human motivation. We seek happiness through virtuous action. Unlike Socrates, who believed that bad behaviour was a product of mistaken or absent beliefs, Plato viewed it as the failure of the individual rational soul to master the desiring soul. Reason, the rational, cognitive processes that direct our behaviour is divided from irrational passions and desires. Stoics attempted to eradicate emotions and to live by logic alone. Freud, viewed the rational ego as attempting to control the passionate id.


Aristotle (~384 BC): Aristotle (~384 BC) Aristotle spent 20 years studying with Plato in the latters Academy. Aristotle looked to the world to define what is and not to Platonic Forms. However, he did distinguish between forms and matter. A bronze statue’s form is what it actually is, e.g. a statue of Winston Churchill A bronze statue’s matter is the material it is made of, i.e. the bronze itself. A form is defined by causes Essential – what it actually is Efficient – how it came to be Final – the purpose for which it exists


The study of the soul: The study of the soul Aristotle rejected the separability of the soul and body. A body without a soul is dead, a soul without a body does not exist There are three forms of souls in Aristotle’s naturalism Nutritive (possessed by plants) Sensitive (possessed by animals) Rational (possessed by humans) Knowledge, which directs the rational soul, is acquired through the perception of individual objects until a generalised universal form is attained.


The structure of the human sensitive and rational soul (Leahey, 2004): The structure of the human sensitive and rational soul (Leahey, 2004) Vision Hearing Touch Taste Smell Common Sense Passive Mind Active Mind The Special Senses


Happiness: Happiness Following the conquest of the Hellene World by Alexander the Great and the later juggernaut, the Roman Empire, the democratic polis was destroyed. Hellenistic men and women rejected public life and began to focus on private pleasures In a changing and chaotic world people sought a form of happiness called ataraxia, a lesser form of happiness than eudaemonia, and emphasised what was personally, rather that socially achievable.


Happiness Therapies: Happiness Therapies Epicureanism – happiness was to be found by avoiding the passions and by living a simple life in the company of like minded other, but avoiding dependence on others Cynicism – happiness can be found by living outside worldly conventions but as naturally as possible. Diogenes 'the dog' was the most famous of the cynics Skepticism – If you do not belief anything strongly then you avoid the upset of finding out that you are wrong. A thoughtful state of aporia was recommended. Stoicism – a combination of absolute determinism and a complete explusion of an emotional life. Feeling unhappy about an unavoidable fate is within our control and a little ridiculous.


Summary: Summary Debate Phusis Naturalism Dualism Apeiron Evolution Being/Becoming Materialism Determinism Hedonism Sophism Humanism Relativism Empiricism Aporia Ideal Forms Eudaemonia Cognitions vs Emotion Causation Soul, Body andamp; Mind Ataraxia Therapies