PART ONE Introduction to Philosophy

The Nature & Value of Philosophy What is Philosophy?  Love of Wisdom  Subject Matter  Questions  Science  Religion Branches of Philosophy  Introduction

The Nature & Value of Philosophy Aesthetics  Defined  Problems  Questions  Aestheticians, Critics & Artists Epistemology  Defined  Problems  Questions

The Nature & Value of Philosophy Ethics  Morality  Descriptive  Meta  Normative  Applied  Problems  Questions Logic  Defined  Varieties  Questions

The Nature & Value of Philosophy Metaphysics  Defined  Ontology  Problems  Questions Social Philosophy  Defined  Problems  Questions

The Nature & Value of Philosophy Other Branches  Regional  Gender/Ethnic Based  Feminism  Hispanic  African-America  Native American  Other  History of Philosophy  Philosophy of Language  Philosophy of Literature  Philosophy of Mathematics  Philosophy of Mind  Philosophy of Religion  Philosophy of Science

Popular Misconceptions Regarding Philosophy Philosophy is Just a Matter of Opinion  Opinions  Misconception  Assumptions  Assumptions  Opinions?  Are all opinions equally good?  Relativism & Subjectivism  Plato’s Reply  Conclusion

Popular Misconceptions Regarding Philosophy Philosophy is Useless  Useful or Useless?  Useless  Useful  Contributions of Philosophy/Philosophers  Science  Logic & Math  Society  Ethics  Benefits of Philosophy  Skills  Broadens the Mind  Side effects

Argument Basics

Argument Concepts  Defined  General Assessment: Reasoning  General Assessment: Are the Premises True?

Deductive Arguments Introduction to Deductive Arguments  Defined  Use  Assessment  Valid/Invalid, Sound/Unsound Some Common Valid Deductive Arguments Reductio Ad Adsurdum  Defined  Form #1/Form #2  Example

Inductive Arguments Introduction to Inductive Arguments  Defined  Assessment  Strong & Weak Arguments

Analogical Argument Introduction  Definition  Uses Form  Informal  Strict Form  Premise 1: X has properties P, Q, and R.  Premise 2: Y has properties P, Q, and R.  Premise 3: X has property Z as well.  Conclusion: Y has property Z.

Analogical Argument Assessment  The strength of the argument depends on  The number of properties X & Y have in common.  The relevance of the shared properties to Z.  Whether X & Y have relevant dissimilarities.  Example

Argument from/by Example Introduction  Defined Form  Informal  Form Premise 1: Example 1 is an example that supports claim P. Premise 2: Example 2 is an example that supports claim P. Premise n: Example n is an example that supports claim C. Conclusion: Claim P is true.

Argument from/by Example Standards of Assessment  Standards  The more examples, the stronger the argument.  The examples must be relevant.  The examples must be specific & clearly identified.  Counter-examples must be considered.

Argument from Authority Introduction  Defined  Use Form  Premise 1: Person A is an authority on subject S.  Premises 2: Person A makes claim C about subject S.  Premises 3: Therefore, C is true.

Argument from Authority Assessment  Standards  The person has sufficient expertise in the subject.  The claim is within the expert’s area of expertise.  There is an adequate degree of agreement among experts.  The expert is not significantly biased.  The area of expertise is a legitimate area or discipline.  The authority must be properly cited.

The Origin of Western Philosophy

Greek Poets  Poets  Greek Gods Homer & Other Poets  Background  The Natural Order  Morality  Four Concepts of Order  Purposeful Agents  Random, purposeless events.  The amoral fates  Gods sometimes acting on the basis of objective moral principles.  Starting Point for Greek Science & Philosophy

The Origin of Western Philosophy  Introduction  Thales  Influences Thales  Background  Problem of the One & The Many  Water  The Problem of Permanence & Change  Importance  Monism  Materialism  Theoretical understanding  No appeal to tradition or authority.

The Sophists Historical Background  An Age of Gold  An Age of Irony  Causal Factors  Decline of traditional authority  Relativism  Democracy & individualism  Skepticism  Practical  The masses Rise of the Sophists  Rise of the Sophists  Skepticism, Relativism & Success  Nomos vs. Physis Importance of the Sophists  Influence on Socrates & Plato  Important contributions

Socrates Background  Life & Death ( B.C.)  Wisdom  The Real Socrates?  Socrates & the Sophists  Ignorance The Socratic Method: Questioning  The Dialectic  Stages  Philosophical conversation  A key concept  Ignorance & confusion  Clarification  A better definition & repetition  Realization of ignorance

Socrates The Socratic Method: Questioning  Life & Death ( B.C.) The Socratic Method: Questioning  Finding Flaws  Finding a Structural Flaw  The definition is circular  The definition takes a part to be the whole  The definition is a list of examples  Reductio Ad Absurdum (Reducing to Absurdity)  Assume P  Derive Q from P  Show that Q is absurd or contradictory  Conclude P is false.

Socrates  The Method of Counterexample  Too broad  Too narrow Reasoning & Definitions  Introduction  Inductive Reasoning  Generalization  Universal Definitions  Natural categories Metaphysics  Introduction  Greek accounts of the soul/psyche  Socrates’ Account

Socrates Ethical Theory  Virtue  Why be moral?  Ethical Intellectualism  Knowledge & Goodness, Ignorance & Evil Social & Political Philosophy  Distrust of Democracy  Laws  Social Contract Theory  Natural Law Theory Socrates’ Contributions  Plato  Ethical Theory  Personality

Plato Background  The Death of Socrates  Life 428/ /347 B.C.  Comprehensive Philosophy

The Apology Opening of the Trial  Charges Wisdom & Socrates’ Task  Wisdom  Politicians  Poets  Artisans  Wisdom The Charges  The Youth  A villainous misleader of the youth  Teaching  Having no gods  Making the worse appear the better cause.

The Apology  The Accusers  Meletus-Poets  Anytus-craftsmen & politicians  Lycon-rhetoricians  Charges Meletus  Charges  A doer of evil who corrupts the youth  Does not believe in the gods of the state but has his own divinities  The Corrupter of the Youth  Socrates will prove Meletus is A doer of evil Pretending to be earnest Is eager to bring men to trial  Questioning Meletus  Meletus claims to think a great deal about the youth  Socrates asks Meletus to tell the judges who improves the youth  Every Athenian, except the sole corrupter Socrates, improves the youth

The Apology  Socrates’ Horse Trainer Analogy  One is able to do the horses good  The trainer does the horses good  Others injure the horses  This is true of horses and any animals  The youth would be happy with one corrupter and everyone else improving them  Meletus shows he has never thought about the young.

The Apology  The Unintentional Argument  Meletus Agrees It is better to live among good citizens than bad The good do their neighbors good, the evil do evil No one would rather be injured than benefited No on likes to be injured  Meletus accused Socrates of intentionally corrupting the youth.  Meletus admitted the good do good and the evil do evil  Socrates knows that if he corrupts a man he has to live with, he is likely to be harmed  Socrates either does not corrupt or corrupts unintentionally.  Either way Meletus is lying  If his offense is unintentional, Meletus should have corrected him  Meletus has no care about the matter.

The Apology  Religious Charges Against Socrates  Socrates teaches new divinities  Socrates asks if Meletus claims he Believes in some gods and is not an atheist Or that they are not the gods the city recognizes  Meletus claims Socrates is an atheist and teacher of atheism  Socrates’ Reply  Meletus contradicts himself  Analogy Human things and not human beings Horsemanship and not horses Flute playing and not flute players Spiritual and divine agencies and not spirits and demigods.

The Apology  Meletus: Socrates teaches and believes in divine beings  If Socrates believes in divine beings he must believe in spirits or demigods.  Meletus’s Facetious riddle: The demigods/spirits are gods, but Meletus claims Socrates does not believe in gods  Meletus claims Socrates believes in gods-if he believes in demigods. If demigods are sons of gods, there must be gods. Otherwise, one might as well affirm the existence of mules and deny that of horses and asses.  Meletus cannot prove that one can believe in divine and superhuman beings and not believe in gods, demigods and heroes.

The Apology Wisdom  Fear, Wisdom & Death  Fear of death is the pretense of wisdom  Socrates knows  If they offer him freedom if he stops being a philosophy, he will obey god.  The Gadfly  Socrates is the gadfly to the horse of the state  Why He Did Not Advise the State  One who fights for the right, if he would live even briefly, must have a private and not public station.  The Vote  Socrates is found guilty

The Apology Penalties & Death  Penalty  Prytaneum  A fine  Life & Death  He would rather die than speak in their manner and live  The difficulty is not to avoid death, but to avoid unrighteousness.  Prophecy  By killing men they cannot prevent someone from censoring their evil lives  The easiest and noblest way is not disabling others, but improving yourself.  The Voice  His internal oracle did not give him any sign

The Apology  Death is Nothing to Fear  Death is a state of nothingness or a migration from this world.  If death is a state of nothingness, it is an unspeakable gain.  If death is a journey, no good can be greater.  Death is nothing to fear.  No Evil Can Befall the Good  No evil can happen to a good main, either in life or after death.  The time has arrived  So, the oracle gave no sign  Favor  To trouble his sons as Socrates troubled others.  The End  The hour of departure has arrived, and we go our ways-I to die and you to live.  Which is better, god only knows.