1. A History of Western Thought Why We Think the Way We Do
Summer 2016
Ross Arnold

2. A History of Western Thought Why We Think the Way We Do Videos of lectures available at: under “8-Week Lectures” tab

3. A History of Western Thought Lecture Schedule
August 12 – Intro/Faith (Plato, Aristotle; Augustine;
Aquinas)
August 19 – Reason (Descartes, Locke, Hume)
August 26 – Experience (Kant, Schleiermacher)
September 2 – Process (Hegel, Marx, Darwin,
Whitehead)
September 9 – NO LECTURE
September 16 – Will (Machiavelli, James, Nietzsche)
September 23 – Meaning & Meaninglessness (Wittgenstein; Logical Positivists; Derrida)
September 30 – Where Do We Go From Here?
QUALIFIERS
*ONLY Western thought and Western philosophers.
*Not ALL Western philosophers – just those I think especially have affected the way we modern Westerners think – and you are free to disagree.
WHY philosophy is important.

4. Progression of Philosophical Thinking
Materialism - We know reality with our senses
Aristotle (c BC)
Thomas Aquinas ( )
(reason precedes faith)
John Locke ( ) (Empiricism)
David Hume ( )
(radical skepticism)
Idealism - We know reality with our minds
Plato (c BC)
St. Augustine ( )
(faith precedes reason)
Rene Descartes ( )
(rationalism, subjectivism)

5. Plato – Idealism – the “ideal” of the abstract and internal is more real than the material word.
Aristotle – Materialism – the only way reality can be known is through experience of the material world.
Augustine – Idealism – ”I believe that I might understand.” (start with the internal faith, applied to material world)
Aquinas – Materialism – “I understand that I might believe.” (start w/ reasoning about material experiences)
Descarte – Idealism – “I think, therefore I am” – radical subjectivism based on skepticism; reality is mental.
Locke – Materialism/Empiricism – people are blank tablets (tabula rasa) until experience of material world.
Hume – Materialism/Radical skepticism; no evidence for cause and effect; reality is where material experiences and reflection on those experiences collide.
After the Reformation, a period of theological stagnation set in as the Roman Catholic and Protestant orthodoxies faced one another in rigidly entrenched positions. In the 17th and 18th centuries, both camps were threatened by the rise of rationalist philosophy and empirical science. The long reign of theology as “queen of the sciences” was ending. In the face of these threats, 19th-century German theologian Friedrich Schleiermacher brought new life to theology. The authority of orthodoxy was gone, and the old natural theology had been discredited by two 18th-century philosophers, English skeptic David Hume and German idealist Immanuel Kant. Thus, Schleiermacher boldly made his appeal to regarding the present experience of the believing community as the new basis for theology. In his major work, The Christian Faith ( ), doctrine is treated as the transcript of experience. With Schleiermacher, the focus of theology seems to shift from God to humanity, and this was generally true of the liberal theology that dominated the 19th century. Its development was interrupted by the work of Karl Barth, whose monumental Church Dogmatics ( ) represents a return to biblical theology. In the last half of the 20th century, a variety of theological schools coexisted. Notable among them were the revitalized Roman Catholic theology springing from the Second Vatican Council ( ). Other schools employ the principles of 20th-century English philosopher Alfred North Whitehead, 20th-century German philosopher Martin Heidegger, and even 19th-century German political philosopher Karl Marx for theological construction.

6. Immanuel Kant (German, 1724-1804)
Perhaps most influential philosopher in
the history of Western philosophy.
Key thoughts
“What can I know?” (metaphysics)
“How can I know?” (epistemology)
The mind active in knowing (rationalism+
empiricism); Phenomenal vs. noumenal
Reason is absolute (“pure”) (a priori structure)
“What should I do?” (ethics)
“What is goodness/beauty?” (aesthetics)
“Ought implies can.” Morality as “practical reason” and the point of religion (without faith or miracles).
Long-term impact
Kant changed virtually every branch of philosophy by insisting on the mind as origin of the world as we know it, and our inability to know reality apart from our mind’s perceptions of it. (rationalism; subjectivism) Prepared way for existentialism; THE philosopher of the Enlightenment (“man’s emergence from self-incurred immaturity”).

7. Enlightenment is man’s leaving his self-caused immaturity
Enlightenment is man’s leaving his self-caused immaturity. Immaturity is the incapacity to use one's intelligence without the guidance of another. Such immaturity is self-caused if it is not caused by lack of intelligence, but by lack of determination and courage to use one's intelligence without being guided by another. Sapere Aude! [Dare to know!] Have the courage to use your own intelligence! is therefore the motto of the enlightenment.
  Through laziness and cowardice a large part of mankind, even after nature has freed them from alien guidance, gladly remain immature. It is because of laziness and cowardice that it is so easy for others to usurp the role of guardians. It is so comfortable to be a minor! If I have a book which provides meaning for me, a pastor who has conscience for me, a doctor who will judge my diet for me and so on, then I do not need to exert myself. I do not have any need to think; if I can pay, others will take over the tedious job for me.
Immanuel Kant, "What Is Enlightenment?“

8. Friedrich Schleiermacher (German, 1768-1834)
“He did not found a school, but an era.” Karl Barth
Key thoughts
Rejected Aquinas’ “natural theology” (reason
seeking God), and dogma as authoritative.
Bible not as divine revelation, but as record of
“religious experience;” “the sense & taste for the infinite.”
Sin not violation of divine law, but Man wanting to be free.
Redemption means regaining our sense of divine dependence.
Jesus not divine, but a model – one who walked so close to God you could say “God dwelled in him.”
Long-term impact
Made plausible the idea that religion is about ME rather than about God; subjective religious experience as focus; Bible as record of other people’s religious experience; and sin as limitation rather than violation... Making him the father of Modern Liberal Theology.

9. Progression of Philosophical Thinking
Materialism – We know reality from our senses
Aristotle (c BC)
Thomas Aquinas ( )
(reason precedes faith)
John Locke ( )
(Empiricism)
Hume ( )
(radical skepticism)
Idealism – We know reality
with our minds
Plato (c BC)
St. Augustine ( )
(faith precedes reason)
Rene Descartes ( )
(rationalism, subjectivism)
David
Immanuel Kant ( )
(rationalism; subjectivism; relativism)
Friedrich Schleiermacher ( ) (radical subjectivism; relativism)

10. How do we know? How do we know what is real?
How do we know what is true?
How do we know what is good?
This is where Philosophy Comes In
Literally, philosophy is a love of wisdom – phileo is Greek for “love,” sophos means “wisdom.”
Philosophy is the critical examination of our foundational beliefs concerning the nature of reality, knowledge and truth; and our moral and social values.
Broadly speaking, philosophy is the means and process by which we examine our lives and the meaning in our lives.
Philosophy is the attempt to think rationally and critically about life’s most important questions in order to obtain knowledge and wisdom about them.
BECAUSE…
Ideas matter. The ideas one believes largely determine the kind of person one becomes.
We all have a worldview – what we believe about the world and our place in it. Philosophy, rightly done, can give us a better worldview.
Philosophy examines assumptions, asks questions, seeks to clarify and analyze concepts, and seeks to organize facts into a rational system – for ALL disciplines.
Philosophy gives us a clearer understanding of life and what is important in life by teaching us to examine our core beliefs and ideas.
Philosophy makes us more human. Socrates said “An unexamined life is not worth living” – which meant that being able to examine our lives, to analyze and think critically, is necessarily at the core of what it means to be human.

11. Plato – Idealism; the “ideal” of the abstract and internal is more real than the material word.
Aristotle – Materialism; the only way reality can be known is through experience of the material world.
Augustine – Idealism; ”I believe that I might understand.” (start with the internal faith, applied to material world)
Aquinas – Materialism – “I understand that I might believe.” (start w/ reasoning about material experiences)
Descartes – Idealism; “I think, therefore I am” – radical subjectivism based on skepticism; reality is mental.
Locke – Materialism/Empiricism; people are blank tablets (tabula rasa) until experience of material world.
Hume – Materialism/Radical skepticism; no evidence for cause and effect; reality is where material experiences & reflection on those experiences collide.
Kant – Modified Idealism/subjectivism; reality is dependent on the mind and how it structures input from material experiences.
Schleiermacher – Idealism/radical subjectivism; all truth, even religious truth, is a matter of individual experience

12. A History of Western Thought Why We Think the Way We Do Videos of lectures available at: under “8-Week Lectures” tab