Western Philosophy (Greek philosophia, “love of wisdom”), the rational and critical inquiry into basic principles. Philosophy is often divided into four main branches: metaphysics, the investigation of ultimate reality; epistemology, the study of the origins, validity, and limits of knowledge; ethics, the study of the nature of morality and judgment; and aesthetics, the study of the nature of beauty in the fine arts.
As used originally by
the ancient Greeks, the term philosophy
meant the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake. Philosophy comprised
all areas
of speculative thought and included the arts, sciences, and religion. As
special methods and principles were developed in the various areas of
knowledge, each area acquired its own philosophical aspect, giving rise
to the
philosophy of art, of science, and of religion. The term philosophy
is
often used popularly to mean a set of basic values and attitudes toward
life,
nature, and society—thus the phrase “philosophy of life.” Because the
lines of
distinction between the various areas of knowledge are flexible and
subject to
change, the definition of the term philosophy remains a subject
of
controversy.
Western philosophy from
Greek antiquity to the present
is surveyed in the remainder of this article. For information about
philosophical thought in Asia and the Middle East, see Chinese
Philosophy; Islam; Buddhism; Daoism (Taoism); Confucianism; Indian
Philosophy.
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GREEK PHILOSOPHY
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Western philosophy is
generally considered to have begun
in ancient Greece as speculation about the underlying nature of the
physical
world. In its earliest form it was indistinguishable from natural
science. The
writings of the earliest philosophers no longer exist, except for a few
fragments cited by Aristotle in the 4th century bc
and by other writers of later times.
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The Ionian
School
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The first philosopher
of historical record was Thales,
who lived in the 6th century bc
in
Miletus, a city on the Ionian coast of Asia Minor. Thales, who was
revered by
later generations as one of the Seven Wise Men of Greece, was interested
in
astronomical, physical, and meteorological phenomena. His scientific
investigations led him to speculate that all natural phenomena are
different
forms of one fundamental substance, which he believed to be water
because he
thought evaporation and condensation to be universal processes.
Anaximander, a
disciple of Thales, maintained that the first principle from which all
things
evolve is an intangible, invisible, infinite substance that he called apeiron,
“the boundless.” This substance, he maintained, is eternal and
indestructible. Out of its ceaseless motion the more familiar
substances, such
as warmth, cold, earth, air, and fire, continuously evolve, generating
in turn
the various objects and organisms that make up the recognizable world.
The third great Ionian
philosopher of the 6th
century bc, Anaximenes,
returned
to Thales’s assumption that the primary substance is something familiar
and
material, but he claimed it to be air rather than water. He believed
that the
changes things undergo could be explained in terms of rarefaction
(thinning) and condensation of air. Thus Anaximenes was the first
philosopher
to explain differences in quality in terms of differences in size or
quantity,
a method fundamental to physical science.
In general, the Ionian
school made the initial
radical step from mythological to scientific explanation of natural
phenomena.
It discovered the important scientific principles of the permanence of
substance, the natural evolution of the world, and the reduction of
quality to
quantity.
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The Pythagorean
School
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About 530 bc at Croton
(now Crotona), in southern Italy, the philosopher Pythagoras founded a
school
of philosophy that was more religious and mystical than the Ionian
school. It
fused the ancient mythological view of the world with the developing
interest
in scientific explanation. The system of philosophy that became known as
Pythagoreanism combined ethical, supernatural, and mathematical beliefs
with
many ascetic rules, such as obedience and silence and simplicity of
dress and
possessions. The Pythagoreans taught and practiced a way of life based
on the
belief that the soul is a prisoner of the body, is released from the
body at death,
and migrates into a succession of different kinds of animals before
reincarnation into a human being. For this reason Pythagoras taught his
followers not to eat meat. Pythagoras maintained that the highest
purpose of
humans should be to purify their souls by cultivating intellectual
virtues,
refraining from sensual pleasures, and practicing special religious
rituals.
The Pythagoreans, having discovered the mathematical laws of musical
pitch,
inferred that planetary motions produce a “music of the spheres,” and
developed
a “therapy through music” to bring humanity in harmony with the
celestial
spheres. They identified science with mathematics, maintaining that all
things
are made up of numbers and geometrical figures. They made important
contributions to mathematics, musical theory, and astronomy.
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The Heraclitean
School
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Heraclitus of Ephesus,
who was active around 500 bc,
continued the search of the Ionians
for a primary substance, which he claimed to be fire. He noticed that
heat
produces changes in matter, and thus anticipated the modern theory of
energy.
Heraclitus maintained that all things are in a state of continuous flux,
that
stability is an illusion, and that only change and the law of change, or
Logos,
are real. The Logos doctrine of Heraclitus, which identified the laws of
nature
with a divine mind, developed into the pantheistic theology of Stoicism.
(Pantheism is the belief that God and material substance are one, and
that
divinity is present in all things.)
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The Eleatic
School
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In the 5th century bc, Parmenides founded a
school of philosophy at Elea, a
Greek colony on the Italian peninsula. Parmenides took a position
opposite from
that of Heraclitus on the relation between stability and change.
Parmenides
maintained that the universe, or the state of being, is an indivisible,
unchanging, spherical entity and that all reference to change or
diversity is
self-contradictory. According to Parmenides, all that exists has no
beginning
and has no end and is not subject to change over time. Nothing, he
claimed, can
be truly asserted except that “being is.” Zeno of Elea, a disciple of
Parmenides, tried to prove the unity of being by arguing that the belief
in the
reality of change, diversity, and motion leads to logical paradoxes. The
paradoxes of Zeno became famous intellectual puzzles that philosophers
and
logicians of all subsequent ages have tried to solve. The concern of the
Eleatics with the problem of logical consistency laid the basis for the
development of the science of logic.
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The Pluralists
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The speculation about
the physical world begun by the
Ionians was continued in the 5th century bc
by Empedocles and Anaxagoras, who developed a philosophy replacing the
Ionian
assumption of a single primary substance with an assumption of a
plurality of
such substances. Empedocles maintained that all things are composed of
four
irreducible elements: air, water, earth, and fire, which are alternately
combined and separated by two opposite forces, love and strife. By that
process
the world evolves from chaos to form and back to chaos again, in an
eternal
cycle. Empedocles regarded the eternal cycle as the proper object of
religious
worship and criticized the popular belief in personal deities, but he
failed to
explain the way in which the familiar objects of experience could
develop out
of elements that are totally different from them. Anaxagoras therefore
suggested that all things are composed of very small particles, or
“seeds,”
which exist in infinite variety. To explain the way in which these
particles
combine to form the objects that constitute the familiar world,
Anaxagoras
developed a theory of cosmic evolution. He maintained that the active
principle
of this evolutionary process is a world mind that separates and combines
the
particles. His concept of elemental particles led to the development of
an
atomic theory of matter.
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The Atomists
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It was a natural step
from pluralism to
atomism, the theory that all matter is composed of tiny, indivisible
particles
differing only in simple physical properties such as size, shape, and
weight.
This step was taken in the 4th century bc
by Leucippus and his more famous associate Democritus, who is generally
credited with the first systematic formulation of an atomic theory of
matter.
The fundamental assumption of Democritus’s atomic theory is that matter
is not
infinitely divisible but is composed of numerous indivisible particles
that are
too small for human senses to detect. His conception of nature was
thoroughly materialistic
(focused on physical aspects of matter), explaining all natural
phenomena in
terms of the number, shape, and size of atoms. He thus reduced the
sensory
qualities of things, such as warmth, cold, taste, and odor, to quantitative
differences among atoms—that is, to differences measurable in amount
or
size. The higher forms of existence, such as plant and animal life and
even
human thought, were explained by Democritus in these purely physical
terms. He
applied his theory to psychology, physiology, theory of knowledge,
ethics, and
politics, thus presenting the first comprehensive statement of deterministic
materialism, a theory claiming that all aspects of existence rigidly
follow, or are determined by, physical laws.
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The Sophists
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Toward the end of the
5th century bc, a group
of traveling teachers called
Sophists became famous throughout Greece. The Sophists played an
important role
in developing the Greek city-states from agrarian monarchies into
commercial
democracies. As Greek industry and commerce expanded, a class of newly
rich,
economically powerful merchants began to wield political power. Lacking
the
education of the aristocrats, they sought to prepare themselves for
politics
and commerce by paying the Sophists for instruction in public speaking,
legal
argument, and general culture. Although the best of the Sophists made
valuable
contributions to Greek thought, the group as a whole acquired a
reputation for
deceit, insincerity, and demagoguery. Thus the word sophistry has
come
to signify these moral faults.
The famous maxim of Protagoras,
one of the
leading Sophists, that “man is the measure of all things,” is typical of
the
philosophical attitude of the Sophist school. Protagoras claimed that
individuals have the right to judge all matters for themselves. He
denied the
existence of an objective (demonstrable and impartial) knowledge,
arguing instead that truth is subjective in the sense that different
things are
true for different people and there is no way to prove that one person’s
beliefs are objectively correct and another’s are incorrect. Protagoras
asserted that natural science and theology are of little or no value
because
they have no impact on daily life, and he concluded that ethical rules
need be
followed only when it is to one’s practical advantage to do so.
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Socratic
Philosophy
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Perhaps the greatest philosophical
personality in
history was Socrates, who lived from 469 to 399 bc.
Socrates left no written work and is known through the writings of his
students, especially those of his most famous pupil, Plato. Socrates
maintained
a philosophical dialogue with his students until he was condemned to
death and
took his own life. Unlike the Sophists, Socrates refused to accept
payment for
his teachings, maintaining that he had no positive knowledge to offer
except
the awareness of the need for more knowledge. He concluded that, in
matters of
morality, it is best to seek out genuine knowledge by exposing false
pretensions. Ignorance is the only source of evil, he argued, so it is
improper
to act out of ignorance or to accept moral instruction from those who
have not
proven their own wisdom. Instead of relying blindly on authority, we
should
unceasingly question our own beliefs and the beliefs of others in order
to seek
out genuine wisdom.
Socrates taught that every
person has full
knowledge of ultimate truth contained within the soul and needs only to
be
spurred to conscious reflection to become aware of it. In Plato’s
dialogue Meno,
for example, Socrates guides an untutored slave to the formulation of
the
Pythagorean theorem, thus demonstrating that such knowledge is innate in
the
soul, rather than learned from experience. The philosopher’s task,
Socrates
believed, was to provoke people into thinking for themselves, rather
than to
teach them anything they did not already know. His contribution to the
history
of thought was not a systematic doctrine but a method of thinking and a
way of
life. He stressed the need for analytical examination of the grounds of
one’s
beliefs, for clear definitions of basic concepts, and for a rational and
critical
approach to ethical problems.
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Platonic
Philosophy
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Plato, who lived from
about 428 to 347 bc, was
a more systematic and positive
thinker than Socrates, but his writings, particularly the earlier
dialogues,
can be regarded as a continuation and elaboration of Socratic insights.
Like
Socrates, Plato regarded ethics as the highest branch of knowledge; he
stressed
the intellectual basis of virtue, identifying virtue with wisdom. This
view led
to the so-called Socratic paradox that, as Socrates asserts in
the Protagoras,
“no man does evil voluntarily.” (Aristotle later noticed that such a
conclusion
allows no place for moral responsibility.) Plato also explored the
fundamental
problems of natural science, political theory, metaphysics, theology,
and
theory of knowledge, and developed ideas that became permanent elements
in
Western thought.
The basis of Plato’s philosophy
is his theory
of Ideas, also known as the doctrine of Forms. The theory
of
Ideas, which is expressed in many of his dialogues, particularly the Republic
and the Parmenides, divides existence into two realms, an
“intelligible
realm” of perfect, eternal, and invisible Ideas, or Forms, and a
“sensible
realm” of concrete, familiar objects. Trees, stones, human bodies, and
other
objects that can be known through the senses are for Plato unreal,
shadowy, and
imperfect copies of the Ideas of tree, stone, and the human body. He was
led to
this apparently bizarre conclusion by his high standard of knowledge,
which
required that all genuine objects of knowledge be described without
contradiction. Because all objects perceived by the senses undergo
change, an
assertion made about such objects at one time will not be true at a
later time.
According to Plato, these objects are therefore not completely real.
Thus,
beliefs derived from experience of such objects are vague and
unreliable,
whereas the principles of mathematics and philosophy, discovered by
inner
meditation on the Ideas, constitute the only knowledge worthy of the
name. In
the Republic, Plato described humanity as imprisoned in a cave
and
mistaking shadows on the wall for reality; he regarded the philosopher
as the
person who penetrates the world outside the cave of ignorance and
achieves a
vision of the true reality, the realm of Ideas. Plato’s concept of the
Absolute
Idea of the Good, which is the highest Form and includes all others, has
been a
main source of pantheistic and mystical religious doctrines in Western
culture.
Plato’s theory of Ideas
and his rationalistic view
of knowledge formed the foundation for his ethical and social idealism.
The
realm of eternal Ideas provides the standards or ideals according to
which all
objects and actions should be judged. The philosophical person, who
refrains
from sensual pleasures and searches instead for knowledge of abstract
principles, finds in these ideals the basis for personal behavior and
social
institutions. Personal virtue consists in a harmonious relation among
the three
parts of the soul: reason, emotion, and desire. Social justice likewise
consists in harmony among the classes of society. The ideal state of a
sound
mind in a sound body requires that the intellect control the desires and
passions, as the ideal state of society requires that the wisest
individuals
rule the pleasure-seeking masses. Truth, beauty, and justice coincide in
the
Idea of the Good, according to Plato; therefore, art that expresses
moral
values is the best art. In his rather conservative social program, Plato
supported the censorship of art forms that he believed corrupted the
young and
promoted social injustice.
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Aristotelian
Philosophy
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Aristotle, who began study
at Plato’s Academy at
age 17 in 367 bc, was the
most
illustrious pupil of Plato, and ranks with his teacher among the most
profound
and influential thinkers of the Western world. After studying for many
years at
Plato’s Academy, Aristotle became the tutor of Alexander the Great. He
later
returned to Athens to found the Lyceum, a school that, like Plato’s
Academy,
remained for centuries one of the great centers of learning in Greece.
In his
lectures at the Lyceum, Aristotle defined the basic concepts and
principles of
many of the sciences, such as logic, biology, physics, and psychology.
In
founding the science of logic, he developed the theory of deductive
inference—a
process for drawing conclusions from accepted premises by means of
logical
reasoning. His theory is exemplified by the syllogism (a
deductive
argument having two premises and a conclusion), and a set of rules for
scientific method.
In his metaphysical theory,
Aristotle criticized
Plato’s theory of Forms. Aristotle argued that forms could not exist by
themselves but existed only in particular things, which are composed of
both
form and matter. He understood substances as matter organized by a
particular
form. Humans, for example, are composed of flesh and blood arranged to
shape
arms, legs, and the other parts of the body.
Nature, for Aristotle,
is an organic system of things
whose forms make it possible to arrange them into classes comprising
species
and genera. Each species, he believed, has a form, purpose, and mode of
development in terms of which it can be defined. The aim of science is
to
define the essential forms, purposes, and modes of development of all
species
and to arrange them in their natural order in accordance with their
complexities of form, the main levels being the inanimate, the
vegetative, the
animal, and the rational. The soul, for Aristotle, is the form of the
body, and
humans, whose rational soul is a higher form than the souls of other
terrestrial species, are the highest species of perishable things. The
heavenly
bodies, composed of an imperishable substance, or ether, and moved
eternally in
perfect circular motion by God, are still higher in the order of nature.
This
hierarchical classification of nature was adopted by many Christian,
Jewish,
and Muslim theologians in the Middle Ages as a view of nature consistent
with
their religious beliefs.
Aristotle’s political
and ethical philosophy similarly
developed out of a critical examination of Plato’s principles. The
standards of
personal and social behavior, according to Aristotle, must be found in
the
scientific study of the natural tendencies of individuals and societies
rather
than in a heavenly or abstract realm of pure forms. Less insistent
therefore
than Plato on a rigorous conformity to absolute principles, Aristotle
regarded
ethical rules as practical guides to a happy and well-rounded life. His
emphasis on happiness, as the active fulfillment of natural capacities,
expressed the attitude toward life held by cultivated Greeks of his
time. In
political theory, Aristotle agreed with Plato that a monarchy ruled by a
wise
king would be the ideal political structure, but he also recognized that
societies differ in their needs and traditions and believed that a
limited
democracy is usually the best compromise. In his theory of knowledge,
Aristotle
rejected the Platonic doctrine that knowledge is innate and insisted
that it
can be acquired only by generalization from experience. He interpreted
art as a
means of pleasure and intellectual enlightenment rather than an
instrument of
moral education. His analysis of Greek tragedy has served as a model of
literary criticism (see Criticism, Literary).
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HELLENISTIC AND
ROMAN
PHILOSOPHY
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From the 4th century bc to the rise of Christian
philosophy in the 4th century ad,
Epicureanism, Stoicism, Skepticism,
and Neoplatonism were the main philosophical schools in the Western
world.
Interest in natural science declined steadily during this period, and
these
schools concerned themselves mainly with ethics and religion. This was
also a
period of intense intercultural contact, and Western philosophers were
influenced by ideas from Buddhism in India, Zoroastrianism in Persia,
and
Judaism in Palestine.
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Epicureanism
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In 306 bc Epicurus founded
a philosophical school in Athens. Because his followers met in the
garden of
his home they became known as philosophers of the garden. Epicurus
adopted the
atomistic physics of Democritus, but he allowed for an element of chance
in the
physical world by assuming that the atoms sometimes swerve in
unpredictable
ways, thus providing a physical basis for a belief in free will. The
overall
aim of Epicurus’s philosophy was to promote happiness by removing the
fear of
death. He maintained that natural science is important only if it can be
applied in making practical decisions that help humans achieve the
maximum
amount of pleasure, which he identified with gentle motion and the
absence of
pain. The teachings of Epicurus are preserved mainly in the
philosophical poem De
Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things) written by the Roman
poet
Lucretius in the 1st century bc.
Lucretius contributed greatly to the popularity of Epicureanism in Rome.
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Stoicism
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The Stoic school, founded
in Athens about 310 bc
by Zeno of Citium, developed out of
the earlier movement of the Cynics, who rejected social institutions and
material
(worldly) values. Stoicism became the most influential school of the
Greco-Roman world, producing such remarkable writers and personalities
as the
Greek slave and philosopher Epictetus in the 1st century ad and the 2nd-century Roman
emperor
Marcus Aurelius, who was noted for his wisdom and nobility of character.
The
Stoics taught that one can achieve freedom and tranquility only by
becoming
insensitive to material comforts and external fortune and by dedicating
oneself
to a life of virtue and wisdom. They followed Heraclitus in believing
the
primary substance to be fire and in worshiping the Logos, which they
identified
with the energy, law, reason, and providence (divine guidance)
found
throughout nature. The Stoics argued that nature was a system designed
by the
divinities and believed that humans should strive to live in accordance
with
nature. The Stoic doctrine that each person is part of God and that all
people
form a universal family helped break down national, social, and racial
barriers
and prepare the way for the spread of Christianity. The Stoic doctrine
of
natural law, which makes human nature the standard for evaluating laws
and
social institutions, had an important influence on Roman and later
Western law.
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Skepticism
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The school of Skepticism,
which continued the
Sophist criticisms of objective knowledge, dominated Plato’s Academy in
the 3rd
century bc. The Skeptics
discovered,
as had Zeno of Elea, that logic is a powerful critical device, capable
of
destroying any positive philosophical view, and they used it skillfully.
Their
fundamental assumption was that humanity cannot attain knowledge or
wisdom
concerning reality, and they therefore challenged the claims of
scientists and
philosophers to investigate the nature of reality. Like Socrates, the
Skeptics
insisted that wisdom consisted in awareness of the extent of one’s own
ignorance. The Skeptics concluded that the way to happiness lies in a
complete
suspension of judgment. They believed that suspending judgment about the
things
of which one has no true knowledge creates tranquility and fulfillment.
As an
extreme example of this attitude, it is said that Pyrrho, one of the
most noted
Skeptics, refused to change direction when approaching the edge of a
cliff and
had to be diverted by his students to save his life.
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Neoplatonism
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During the 1st century
ad the
Jewish-Hellenistic philosopher Philo of Alexandria
combined Greek philosophy, particularly Platonic and Pythagorean ideas,
with
Judaism in a comprehensive system that anticipated Neoplatonism and
Jewish,
Christian, and Muslim mysticism. Philo insisted that the nature of God
so far transcended
(surpassed) human understanding and experience as to be indescribable;
he
described the natural world as a series of stages of descent from God,
terminating in matter as the source of evil. He advocated a religious
state, or
theocracy, and was one of the first to interpret the Old Testament for
the
Gentiles.
Neoplatonism, one of the
most influential
philosophical and religious schools and an important rival of
Christianity, was
founded in the 3rd century ad
by
Ammonius Saccus and his more famous disciple Plotinus. Plotinus based
his ideas
on the mystical and poetic writings of Plato, the Pythagoreans, and
Philo. The
main function of philosophy, for him, is to prepare individuals for the
experience of ecstasy, in which they become one with God. God, or the
One, is
beyond rational understanding and is the source of all reality. The
universe
emanates from the One by a mysterious process of overflowing of divine
energy
in successive levels. The highest levels form a trinity of the One; the
Logos,
which contains the Platonic Forms; and the World Soul, which gives rise
to
human souls and natural forces. The farther things emanate from the One,
according to Plotinus, the more imperfect and evil they are and the
closer they
approach the limit of pure matter. The highest goal of life is to purify
oneself of dependence on bodily comforts and, through philosophical
meditation,
to prepare oneself for an ecstatic reunion with the One. Neoplatonism
exerted a
strong influence on medieval thought.
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MEDIEVAL
PHILOSOPHY
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During the decline of
Greco-Roman civilization,
Western philosophers turned their attention from the scientific
investigation
of nature and the search for worldly happiness to the problem of
salvation in
another and better world. By the 3rd century ad,
Christianity had spread to the more educated classes of the Roman
Empire. The
religious teachings of the Gospels were combined by the Fathers of the
Church
with many of the philosophical concepts of the Greek and Roman schools.
Of
particular importance were the First Council of Nicaea in 325 and the
Council
of Ephesus in 431, which drew upon metaphysical ideas of Aristotle and
Plotinus
to establish important Christian doctrines about the divinity of Jesus
and the
nature of the Trinity.
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Augustinian
Philosophy
|
The process of reconciling
the Greek emphasis on
reason with the emphasis on religious emotion in the teachings of Christ
and
the apostles found eloquent expression in the writings of Saint
Augustine
during the late 4th and early 5th centuries. He developed a system of
thought
that, through subsequent amendments and elaborations, eventually became
the
authoritative doctrine of Christianity. Largely as a result of his
influence,
Christian thought was Platonic in spirit until the 13th century, when
Aristotelian philosophy became dominant. Augustine argued that religious
faith
and philosophical understanding are complementary rather than opposed
and that
one must “believe in order to understand and understand in order to
believe.”
Like the Neoplatonists, he considered the soul a higher form of
existence than
the body and taught that knowledge consists in the contemplation of
Platonic
ideas as abstract notions apart from sensory experience and anything
physical
or material.
The Platonic philosophy
was combined with the Christian
concept of a personal God who created the world and predestined
(determined in advance) its course, and with the doctrine of the fall of
humanity, requiring the divine incarnation in Christ. Augustine
attempted to provide
rational understanding of the relation between divine predestination and
human
freedom, the existence of evil in a world created by a perfect and
all-powerful
God, and the nature of the Trinity. Late in his life Augustine came to a
pessimistic view about original sin, grace, and predestination: the
ultimate
fates of humans, he decided, are predetermined by God in the sense that
some
people are granted divine grace to enter heaven and others are not, and
human
actions and choices cannot explain the fates of individuals. This view
was
influential throughout the Middle Ages and became even more important
during
the Reformation of the 16th century when it inspired the doctrine of
predestination put forth by Protestant theologian John Calvin.
Augustine conceived of
history as a dramatic struggle
between the good in humanity, as expressed in loyalty to the “city of
God,” or
community of saints, and the evil in humanity, as embodied in the
earthly city
with its material values. His view of human life was pessimistic,
asserting
that happiness is impossible in the world of the living, where even with
good
fortune, which is rare, awareness of approaching death would mar any
tendency
toward satisfaction. He believed further that without the religious
virtues of
faith, hope, and charity, which require divine grace to be attained, a
person
cannot develop the natural virtues of courage, justice, temperance, and
wisdom.
His analyses of time, memory, and inner religious experience have been a
source
of inspiration for metaphysical and mystical thought.
The only major contribution
to Western philosophy
in the three centuries following the death of Augustine in ad 430 was made by the
6th-century Roman
statesman Boethius, who revived interest in Greek and Roman philosophy,
particularly Aristotle’s logic and metaphysics. In the 9th century the
Irish
monk John Erigena developed a pantheistic interpretation of
Christianity,
identifying the divine Trinity with the One, Logos, and World Soul of
Neoplatonism and maintaining that both faith and reason are necessary to
achieve the ecstatic union with God.
Even more significant
for the development of Western
philosophy was the early 11th-century Muslim philosopher Avicenna. His
work
modifying Aristotelian metaphysics introduced a distinction important to
later
philosophy between essence (the fundamental qualities that make a
thing
what it is—the treeness of a tree, for example) and existence
(being, or
living reality). He also demonstrated how it is possible to combine the
biblical view of God with Aristotle’s philosophical system. Avicenna’s
writings
on logic, mathematics, physics, and medicine remained influential for
centuries.
|
B
|
Scholasticism
|
In the 11th century a
revival of philosophical
thought began as a result of the increasing contact between different
parts of
the Western world and the general reawakening of cultural interests that
culminated in the Renaissance. The works of Plato, Aristotle, and other
Greek
thinkers were translated by Arab scholars and brought to the attention
of
philosophers in Western Europe. Muslim, Jewish, and Christian
philosophers
interpreted and clarified these writings in an effort to reconcile
philosophy
with religious faith and to provide rational grounds for their religious
beliefs. Their labors established the foundations of Scholasticism.
Scholastic thought was
less interested in discovering
new facts and principles than in demonstrating the truth of existing
beliefs.
Its method was therefore dialectical (based upon logical
argument), and
its intense concern with the logic of argument led to important
developments in
logic as well as theology. The Scholastic philosopher Saint Anselm of
Canterbury adopted Augustine’s view of the complementary relation
between faith
and reason and combined Platonism with Christian theology. Supporting
the
Platonic theory of Ideas, Anselm argued in favor of the separate
existence of
universals, or common properties of things—the properties Avicenna had
called
essences. He thus established the position of logical realism—an
assertion that
universals and other ideas exist independently of our awareness of
them—on one
of the most vigorously disputed issues of medieval philosophy.
The contrary view, known
as nominalism, was
formulated by the Scholastic philosopher Roscelin, who maintained that
only
individual, solid objects exist and that the universals, forms, and
ideas,
under which particular things are classified, constitute mere sounds or
names,
rather than intangible substances. When he argued that the Trinity must
consist
of three separate beings, his views were deemed heretical and he was
forced to
recant in 1092. The French Scholastic theologian Peter Abelard, whose
tragic
love affair with Héloïse in the 12th century is one of the most
memorable
romantic stories in medieval history, proposed a compromise between
realism and
nominalism known as conceptualism, according to which universals exist
in
particular things as properties and outside of things as concepts in the
mind.
Abelard maintained that revealed religion—religion based on divine
revelation,
or the word of God—must be justified by reason. He developed an ethics
based on
personal conscience that anticipated Protestant thought.
The Spanish-Arab jurist
and physician Averroës, the most
noted Muslim philosopher of the Middle Ages, made Aristotelian science
and
philosophy a powerful influence on medieval thought with his lucid and
scholarly commentaries on the works of Aristotle. He earned himself the
title
“the Commentator” among the many Scholastics who came to regard
Aristotle as
“the Philosopher.” Averroës attempted to overcome the contradictions
between
Aristotelian philosophy and revealed religion by distinguishing between
two
separate systems of truth, a scientific body of truths based on reason
and a
religious body of truths based on revelation. His view that reason takes
precedence over religion led to his exile in 1195. Averroës’s so-called
double-truth doctrine influenced many Muslim, Jewish, and Christian
philosophers; it was rejected, however, by many others, and became an
important
issue in medieval philosophy.
The Jewish rabbi and physician
Moses
Maimonides, one of the greatest figures in Judaic thought, followed his
contemporary
Averroës in uniting Aristotelian science with religion but rejected the
view
that both of two conflicting systems of ideas can be true. In his Guide
for
the Perplexed (1190?) Maimonides attempted to provide a rational
explanation of Judaic doctrine and defended religious beliefs (such as
the
belief in the creation of the world) that conflicted with Aristotelian
science
only when he was convinced that decisive evidence was lacking on either
side.
Abelard, Averroës, and
Maimonides were each accused of
blasphemy because their views conflicted with religious beliefs of the
time.
The 13th century, however, saw a series of philosophers who would come
to be
worshiped as saints. The Italian Scholastic philosopher Saint
Bonaventure
combined Platonic and Aristotelian principles and introduced the concept
of
substantial form, or nonmaterial substance, to account for the
immortality of
the soul. Bonaventure’s view tended toward pantheistic mysticism in
making the
aim of philosophy the ecstatic union with God.
The 13th-century German
Scholastic philosopher Saint
Albertus Magnus was the first Christian philosopher to endorse and
interpret
the entire system of Aristotelian thought. He studied and admired the
writings
of the Muslim and Jewish Aristotelians and wrote commentaries on
Aristotle in
which he attempted to reconcile Aristotle’s thought with Christian
teachings.
He also took a great interest in the natural science of his day. The
13th-century English monk Roger Bacon, one of the first Scholastics to
take an
interest in experimental science, realized that a great deal remained to
be
learned about nature. He criticized the deductive method of his
contemporaries
and their reliance on past authority, and called for a new method of
inquiry
based on controlled observation (see Deduction).
The most important medieval
philosopher was Saint
Thomas Aquinas, a Dominican monk who was born in Italy in 1225 and later
studied under Albertus Magnus in Germany. Aquinas combined Aristotelian
science
and Augustinian theology into a comprehensive system of thought that
later
became the authoritative philosophy of the Roman Catholic Church. He
wrote on
every known subject in philosophy and science, and his major works, Summa
Theologica and Summa Contra Gentiles, in which he presents a
persuasive and systematic structure of ideas, still constitute a
powerful
influence on Western thought. His writings reflect the renewed interest
of his
time in reason, nature, and worldly happiness, together with its
religious
faith and concern for salvation.
Aquinas made many important
investigations into the
philosophy of religion, including an extremely influential study of the
attributes of God, such as omnipotence, omniscience, eternity, and
benevolence.
He also provided a new account of the relationship between faith and
reason,
arguing against the Averroists that the truths of faith and the truths
of
reason cannot conflict but rather apply to different realms. The truths
of
natural science and philosophy are discovered by reasoning from facts of
experience, whereas the tenets of revealed religion, the doctrine of the
Trinity, the creation of the world, and other articles of Christian
dogma are
beyond rational comprehension, although not inconsistent with reason,
and must
be accepted on faith. The metaphysics, theory of knowledge, ethics, and
politics of Aquinas were derived mainly from Aristotle, but he added the
Augustinian virtues of faith, hope, and charity and the goal of eternal
salvation through grace to Aristotle’s naturalistic ethics with its goal
of
worldly happiness.
|
C
|
Medieval
Philosophy After
Aquinas
|
The most important critics
of Thomistic philosophy
(adherence to the theories of Aquinas) were the 13th-century Scottish
theologian
John Duns Scotus and 14th-century English Scholastic William of Ockham.
Duns
Scotus developed a subtle and highly technical system of logic and
metaphysics,
but because of the fanaticism of his followers the name Duns later
ironically
became a symbol of stupidity in the English word dunce. Scotus
rejected
the attempt of Aquinas to reconcile rational philosophy with revealed
religion.
He maintained, in a modified version of the double-truth doctrine of
Averroës,
that all religious beliefs are matters of faith, except for the belief
in the
existence of God, which he regarded as logically provable. Against the
view of
Aquinas that God acts in accordance with his rational nature, Scotus
argued
that the divine will is prior to the divine intellect and creates,
rather than
follows, the laws of nature and morality, thus implying a stronger
notion of
free will than that of Aquinas. On the issue of universals, Scotus
developed a
new compromise between realism and nominalism, accounting for the
difference between
individual objects and the forms that these objects exemplify as a
logical
rather than a real distinction.
William of Ockham formulated
the most radically
nominalistic criticism of the Scholastic belief in intangible, invisible
things
such as forms, essences, and universals. He maintained that such
abstract
entities are merely references of words to other words rather than to
actual
things. His famous rule, known as Ockham’s razor—which said that one
should not
assume the existence of more things than are logically necessary—became a
fundamental principle of modern science and philosophy.
In the 15th and 16th centuries
a revival
of scientific interest in nature was accompanied by a tendency toward
pantheistic mysticism—that is, finding God in all things. The Roman
Catholic
prelate Nicholas of Cusa anticipated the work of the Polish astronomer
Nicolaus
Copernicus in his suggestion that the Earth moved around the Sun, thus
displacing humanity from the center of the universe; he also conceived
of the
universe as infinite and identical with God. The Italian philosopher
Giordano
Bruno, who similarly identified the universe with God, developed the
philosophical implications of the Copernican theory. Bruno’s philosophy
influenced subsequent intellectual forces that led to the rise of modern
science and to the Reformation.
|
V
|
MODERN
PHILOSOPHY
|
The word modern in philosophy
originally
meant “new,” distinguishing a new historic era both from antiquity and
from the intervening Middle Ages. Many things had occurred in the
intellectual,
religious, political, and social life of Europe to justify the belief of
16th-
and 17th-century thinkers in the genuinely new character of their times.
The
explorations of the world; the Protestant Reformation, with its emphasis
on
individual faith; the rise of commercial urban society; and the dramatic
appearance during the Renaissance of new ideas in all areas of culture
stimulated the development of a new philosophical worldview.
The medieval view of the
world as a
hierarchical order of beings created and governed by God was supplanted
by the
mechanistic picture of the world as a vast machine, the parts of which
move in
accordance with strict physical laws, without purpose or will. In this
view of
the universe, known as Mechanism, science took precedence over
spirituality,
and the surrounding physical world that we experience and observe
received as
much, if not more, attention than the world to come. The aim of human
life was
no longer conceived as preparation for salvation in the next world, but
rather
as the satisfaction of people’s natural desires. Political institutions
and
ethical principles ceased to be regarded as reflections of divine
command and
came to be seen as practical devices created by humans.
The human mind itself
seemed an inexhaustible
reality, on a par with the physical reality of matter. Modern
philosophers had
the task of defining more clearly the essence of mind and of matter, and
of
reasoning about the relation between the two. Individuals ought to see
for
themselves, they believed, and study the “book of Nature,” and in every
case
search for the truth with their own reason.
Since the 15th century
modern philosophy has been
marked by a continuing interaction between systems of thought based on a
mechanistic, materialistic interpretation of the universe and those
founded on
a belief in human thought as the only ultimate reality. This interaction
has
reflected the increasing effect of scientific discovery and political
change on
philosophical speculation.
|
A
|
Mechanism and
Materialism
|
In the new philosophical
climate, experience and
reason became the sole standards of truth. The first great spokesman for
the
new philosophy was the English philosopher and statesman Francis Bacon,
who
denounced reliance on authority and verbal argument and criticized
Aristotelian
logic as useless for the discovery of new laws. Bacon called for a new
scientific method based on reasoned generalization from careful
observation and
experiment. He was the first to formulate rules for this new method of
drawing
conclusions, now known as inductive inference (see Induction).
The work of Italian physicist
and astronomer Galileo
was of even greater importance in the development of a new worldview.
Galileo
brought attention to the importance of applying mathematics to the
formulation
of scientific laws. This he accomplished by creating the science of
mechanics,
which applied the principles of geometry to the motions of bodies. The
success
of mechanics in discovering reliable and useful laws of nature suggested
to
Galileo and to later scientists that all nature is designed in
accordance with
mechanical laws.
These great changes of
the 15th and 16th centuries
brought about two intellectual crises that profoundly affected Western
civilization. First, the decline of Aristotelian science called into
question
the methods and foundations of the sciences. This decline came about for
a
number of reasons including the inability of Aristotelian principles to
explain
new observations in astronomy. Second, new attitudes toward religion
undermined
religious authority and gave agnostic and atheistic ideas a chance to be
heard.
|
A1
|
Descartes
|
During the 17th century
French mathematician,
physicist, and philosopher René Descartes attempted to resolve both
crises. He
followed Bacon and Galileo in criticizing existing methods and beliefs,
but
whereas Bacon had argued for an inductive method based on observed
facts,
Descartes made mathematics the model for all science. Descartes
championed the
truth contained in the “clear and distinct ideas” of reason itself. The
advance
toward knowledge was from one such truth to another, as in mathematical
reasoning. Descartes believed that by following his rationalist method,
one
could establish first principles (fundamental underlying truths)
for all
knowledge—about man, the world, and even God.
Descartes resolved to
reconstruct all human knowledge on
an absolutely certain foundation by refusing to accept any belief, even
the
belief in his own existence, until he could prove it to be necessarily
true. In
his so-called dream argument, he argued that our inability to prove with
certainty when we are awake and when we are dreaming makes most of our
knowledge uncertain. Ultimately he concluded that the first thing of
whose
existence one can be certain is oneself as a thinking being. This
conclusion
forms the basis of his well-known argument, “Cogito, ergo sum”
(“I
think, therefore I am”). He also argued that, in pure thought, one has a
clear
conception of God and can demonstrate that God exists. Descartes argued
that
secure knowledge of the reality of God allowed him to have his earlier
doubts
about knowledge and science.
Despite his mechanistic
outlook, Descartes accepted the
traditional religious doctrine of the immortality of the soul and
maintained
that mind and body are two distinct substances, thus exempting mind from
the
mechanistic laws of nature and providing for freedom of the will. His
fundamental separation of mind and body, known as dualism, raised the
problem
of explaining how two such different substances as mind and body can
affect
each other, a problem he was unable to solve that has remained a concern
of
philosophy ever since. Descartes’s thought launched an era of
speculation in
metaphysics as philosophers made a determined effort to overcome
dualism—the
belief in the irreconcilable difference between mind and matter—and
obtain
unity. The separation of mind and matter is also known as Cartesian
dualism
after Descartes.
|
A2
|
Hobbes
|
The 17th–century English
philosopher Thomas Hobbes, in
his effort to attain unity, asserted that matter is the only real
substance. He
constructed a comprehensive system of metaphysics that provided a
solution to
the mind-body problem by reducing mind to the internal motions of the
body. He
also argued that there is no contradiction between human freedom and
causal determinism—the
view that every act is determined by a prior cause. Both, according to
Hobbes,
work in accordance with the mechanical laws that govern the universe.
In his ethical theory
Hobbes derived the rules of
human behavior from the law of self-preservation and justified egoistic
action
as the natural human tendency. In his political theory he maintained
that
government and social justice are artificial creations based on social
contract
(voluntary agreement between people and their government) and maintained
by
force. In his most famous work, Leviathan (1651), Hobbes
justified
political authority on the basis that self-interested people who existed
in a
terrifying “state of nature”—that is, without a ruler—would seek to
protect
themselves by forming a political commonwealth that had rules and
regulations.
He concluded that absolute monarchy is the most effective means of
preserving
peace.
|
A3
|
Spinoza
|
Whereas Hobbes tried to
oppose Cartesian dualism by
reducing mind to matter, the 17th-century Dutch philosopher Baruch
Spinoza
attempted to reduce matter to divine spiritual substance. He constructed
a
remarkably precise and rigorous system of philosophy that offered new
solutions
to the mind-body problem and to the conflict between religion and
science. Like
Descartes, Spinoza maintained that the entire structure of nature can be
deduced from a few basic definitions and axioms, on the model of
Euclidean
geometry. However, Spinoza believed that Descartes’s theory of two
substances
created an insoluble problem of the way in which mind and body interact.
He
concluded that the ultimate substance is God and that God, substance,
and
nature are identical. Thus he supported the pantheistic view that all
things
are aspects or modes of God (see Pantheism).
Spinoza’s solution to
the mind-body problem explained
the apparent interaction of mind and body by regarding them as two forms
of the
same substance, which exactly parallel each other, thus seeming to
affect each
other but not really doing so. Spinoza’s ethics, like the ethics of
Hobbes, was
based on a materialistic psychology according to which individuals are
motivated only by self-interest. But in contrast to Hobbes, Spinoza
concluded
that rational self-interest coincides with the interest of others.
|
A4
|
Locke
|
English philosopher John
Locke responded to the
challenge of Cartesian dualism by supporting a commonsense view that the
corporeal
(bodily or material) and the spiritual are simply two parts of nature
that
remain always present in human experience. He made no attempt to
rigorously
define these parts of nature or to construct a detailed system of
metaphysics
that attempted to explain them; Locke believed that such philosophical
aims
were impossible to carry out and thus pointless. Against the rationalism
of
Descartes and Spinoza, who believed in the ability to achieve knowledge
through
reasoning and logical deduction, Locke continued the empiricist
tradition begun
by Bacon and embraced by Hobbes. The empiricists believed that knowledge
came
from observation and sense perceptions rather than from reason alone.
In 1690 Locke gave empiricism
a systematic
framework with the publication of his Essay Concerning Human
Understanding.
Of particular importance was Locke’s redirection of philosophy away from
the
study of the physical world and toward the study of the human mind. In
so doing
he made epistemology, the study of the nature of knowledge, the
principal
concern of philosophy in the 17th and 18th centuries. In his own theory
of the
mind Locke attempted to reduce all ideas to simple elements of
experience, but
he distinguished sensation and reflection as sources of experience,
sensation
providing the material for knowledge of the external world, and
reflection the
material for knowledge of the mind.
Locke greatly influenced
the skepticism of later British
thinkers, such as George Berkeley and David Hume, by recognizing the
vagueness
of the concepts of metaphysics and by pointing out that inferences about
the
world outside the mind cannot be proved with certainty. His ethical and
political writings had an equally great influence on subsequent thought.
During
the late 18th century the founders of the modern school of
utilitarianism,
which makes happiness for the largest possible number of people the
standard of
right and wrong, drew heavily on the writings of Locke. His defense of
constitutional government, religious tolerance, and natural human rights
influenced the development of liberal thought during the late 18th
century in
France and the United States as well as in Great Britain.
|
B
|
Idealism and
Skepticism
|
Efforts to resolve the
dualism of mind and matter,
a problem first raised by Descartes, continued to engage philosophers
during
the 17th and 18th centuries. The division between science and religious
belief
also occupied them. There, the aim was to preserve the essentials of
faith in
God while at the same time defending the right to think freely. One view
called
Deism saw God as the cause of the great mechanism of the world, a view
more in
harmony with science than with traditional religion. Natural science at
this
time was striding ahead, relying on sense perception as well as reason,
and
thereby discovering the universal laws of nature and physics. Such empirical
(observation-based) knowledge appeared to be more certain and valuable
than
philosophical knowledge based upon reason alone.
After Locke philosophers
became more skeptical about
achieving knowledge that they could be certain was true. Some thinkers
who
despaired of finding a resolution to dualism embraced skepticism,
the
doctrine that true knowledge, other than what we experience through the
senses,
is impossible. Others turned to increasingly radical theories of being
and
knowledge. Among them was German philosopher Immanuel Kant, probably the
most
influential of all because he set Western philosophy on a new path that
it
still follows today. Kant’s view that knowledge of the world is
dependent upon
certain innate categories or ideas in the human mind is known as
idealism.
|
B1
|
Leibniz
|
German philosopher Gottfried
Wilhelm Leibniz, like
Spinoza before him, worked in the rationalist (reason-based)
tradition
to produce a brilliant solution to the problems raised by dualism.
Leibniz, a
mathematician and statesman as well as a philosopher, developed a
remarkably
subtle and original system of philosophy that combined the mathematical
and physical
discoveries of his time with the organic and religious conceptions of
nature
found in ancient and medieval thought. Leibniz viewed the world as an
infinite
number of infinitely small units of force, called monads, each of
which
is a closed world but mirrors all the other monads through its activity,
which
is perception. All the monads are spiritual entities, but they can
combine to
form material bodies. Leibniz conceived of God as the Monad of Monads,
which
creates all other monads and predestines their development.
Leibniz’s theory of the
predestination of monads,
also called the theory of preestablished harmony, entailed a radical
rejection
of causality—the view that every effect must have a cause. According to
Leibniz, monads do not interact with each other at all, and the
appearance of
mechanical causality in the natural world is unreal, akin to an
illusion.
Likewise, there is no room in the universe for free will: Even though we
enjoy
the illusion of acting freely, all human actions are predetermined by
God.
Despite these gloomy conclusions, Leibniz’s philosophy was profoundly
optimistic because he argued that ours was the best of all possible
worlds. He
based this belief on considerations about the nature of truth and
necessity.
French writer Voltaire mocked this viewpoint in Candide (1759), a
satirical novel that examines the woes heaped on the world in the name
of God.
|
B2
|
Berkeley
|
In the 18th century Irish
philosopher and Anglican
churchman George Berkeley, like Spinoza before him, rejected both
Cartesian
dualism and the assertion by Hobbes that only matter is real. Berkeley
maintained that spirit is substance, and that only spiritual substance
is real.
Extending Locke’s doubts about knowledge of an external world, outside
the
mind, Berkeley argued that no evidence exists for the existence of such a
world, because the only things that we can observe are our own
sensations, and
these are in the mind. The very notion of matter, he maintained, is
incoherent
and impossible. To exist, he claimed, means to be perceived (“esse
est
percipi”), and in order for things to exist when we are not
observing them,
they must continue to be perceived by God. By claiming that sensory
phenomena are
the only objects of human knowledge, Berkeley established the view known
as phenomenalism,
a theory of perception that suggests that matter can be analyzed in
terms of
sensations.
|
B3
|
Hume
|
Whereas Berkeley argued
against materialism by denying
the existence of matter, 18th-century Scottish philosopher David Hume
questioned the existence of the mind itself. Hume’s skeptical philosophy
also
cast doubt on the idea of cause as understood in all previous
philosophies and
seriously disputed earlier arguments for the existence of God. His most
important philosophical work, A Treatise of Human Nature, was
published
in three volumes in 1739 and 1740.
All metaphysical assertions
about things that cannot be
directly perceived are equally meaningless, Hume claimed, and should be
“committed to the flames.” In his analyses of causality and induction,
Hume
revealed that there is no logical justification for believing that any
two
events which occur together are connected by cause and effect or for
making any
inference from past to future. Hume noted that we depend on our past
experience
whenever we form beliefs about anything that we do not directly perceive
and
whenever we make predictions about the future. According to the
empiricist doctrine
of Bacon, Locke, and Berkeley, we can do this because experience teaches
us
what particular things belong together as causes and effects. Hume,
however,
argued that this attempt to learn from experience is not at all
rational, thus
calling into question the reliability of our memories, our reasoning
processes,
and our ability to learn from past experiences or to make even the
smallest
predictions about the future—for example, that the sun will rise
tomorrow.
Though extreme, Hume’s skepticism about philosophical empiricism raised
problems about the possibility of knowledge that contemporary
philosophers
still struggle to resolve.
|
B4
|
Kant
|
German philosopher Immanuel
Kant was among the first to
appreciate Hume’s skepticism, and in response he published the Critique
of
Pure Reason (1781), widely considered the greatest single work in
modern
philosophy. In this work Kant made a thorough and systematic analysis of
the
conditions for knowledge. As an example of genuine knowledge, he had in
mind
the contributions to physics of English scientist Isaac Newton. In the
case of
Newtonian physics, reason seemed to have done an effective job of
understanding
the data supplied by the senses and to have succeeded in postulating
universal
and necessary laws of nature, such as the law of gravitation and the
laws of
motion. Kant proposed to explain how such knowledge is possible, thereby
providing a complete reply to Hume’s skepticism and answering many of
the
problems that had plagued Western philosophers since the time of
Descartes.
Kant started by making
a fresh analysis of the
elements of knowledge, asking for the first time an extremely basic
question,
“How is our experience possible in the first place?” Kant’s predecessors
had
taken experience for granted. Thus Descartes agreed that we seem to have
sensory knowledge of the world but asked whether this knowledge was true
or the
result of a dream. Similarly, Hume’s skepticism about causation arose
when he
concluded that we do not encounter causality in our ordinary experience
of the
world and that any inferences about it, beyond immediate experience,
were
questionable. Kant’s answer to the skepticism of Descartes and Hume
involved
certain categories, such as space, time, substance, and causality, which
he
maintained are essential to our thinking and to our experience of
phenomena in
the world. These categories he called transcendental. All objects of our
knowledge, he concluded, must conform to the human mind’s essential ways
of
perceiving and understanding—ways that involve the transcendental
categories—if
they are to be knowable at all. Kant maintained that he had developed a
revolutionary hypothesis about knowledge and reality that he believed to
be as
significant for the future of philosophy as the hypothesis of
Copernicus—that
the planets orbit the Sun—had been for science.
Kant’s claim that causality,
substance, space, and
time are forms imposed by the mind gave support to the idealism of
Leibniz and
Berkeley. Kant, however, made his view a more critical form of idealism
by
granting the empiricist claim that things-in-themselves—that is, things
as they
exist outside human experience—are unknowable. Kant therefore limited
knowledge
to the “phenomenal world” of experience, maintaining that metaphysical
beliefs
about the soul, the cosmos, and God (the “noumenal world” transcending
human
experience) are matters of faith rather than of scientific knowledge.
In his ethical writings
Kant held that moral
principles are categorical imperatives, absolute commands of
reason that
permit no exceptions and are not related to pleasure or practical
benefit. Kant
argued that human beings should act as members of an ideal “kingdom of
ends” in
which every person is treated as an end in himself or herself, and never
as a
means to someone else’s ends. In addition, everyone should govern their
conduct
as if their actions were to be made law—a law that applies equally to
all
without exception. Kant thereby postulated a freedom of action based on
moral
order and equality. His moral philosophy contributed to modern political
ideas
about freedom and democracy. Kant was a leading figure of the movement
for
reason and liberty against tradition and authority, and in his religious
teachings he emphasized individual conscience and represented God
primarily as
a moral ideal.
Kant’s writings constituted
a high point of the
Enlightenment, a fertile intellectual and cultural period that helped
stimulate
the social changes that produced the French Revolution (1789-1799).
Other
leading thinkers of this movement included Voltaire, Jean Jacques
Rousseau, and
Denis Diderot. Voltaire, developing the tradition of Deism begun by
Locke and
other liberal thinkers, reduced religious beliefs to those that can be
justified by rational inference from the study of nature. Rousseau
criticized
civilization as a corruption of humanity’s nature and developed Hobbes’s
doctrine that the state is based on a social contract with its citizens
and
represents the popular will. Diderot published a 35-volume work known as
the Encyclopédie
to which many scientists and philosophers contributed. Diderot and his
Encyclopedists, as they were known, associated the progress and the
happiness
of humankind with science and knowledge, whereas Rousseau criticized
such ideas
along with the very notion of civilization.
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C
|
19th-Century
Philosophy
|
Philosophers of the 19th
century generally
developed their views with reference to the work of Kant. In Germany,
Kant’s influence
led subsequent philosophers to explore idealism and ethical voluntarism,
a
philosophical tradition that places a strong emphasis on human will.
Whereas
philosophers before Kant had explored the objects of knowledge, German
philosophers who followed Kant on the path of idealism turned to the
subject of
knowledge—known variously as the ego, the I, the mind, and human
consciousness.
Johann Gottlieb Fichte
transformed Kant’s critical
idealism into absolute idealism by eliminating Kant’s
“things-in-themselves”
(external reality) and making the self, or the ego, the ultimate
reality.
Fichte maintained that the world is created by an absolute ego, which is
conscious first of itself and only later of non-self, or the otherness
of the
world. The human will, a partial manifestation of self, gives human
beings
freedom to act. Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling moved still
further
toward absolute idealism by construing objects or things as the works of
the
imagination and Nature as an all-embracing being, spiritual in
character.
Schelling became the leading philosopher of the movement known as
romanticism,
which in contrast to the Enlightenment placed its faith in feeling and
the
creative imagination rather than in reason. The romantic view of the
divinity of
nature influenced the American transcendentalist movement, led by poet
and
essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson.
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C1
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Hegel
|
The most powerful philosophical
mind of the 19th
century was the German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, whose
system
of absolute idealism, although influenced greatly by Kant and Schelling,
was
based on a new conception of logic and philosophical method. Hegel
believed
that absolute truth, or reality, exists and that the human mind can know
it.
This is so because “whatever is real is rational,” according to Hegel.
He
conceived the subject matter of philosophy to be reality as a whole, a
reality
that he referred to as Absolute Spirit, or cosmic reason. The world of
human
experience, whether subjective or objective, he viewed as the
manifestation of
Absolute Spirit.
Philosophy’s task, according
to Hegel, is to chart the
development of Absolute Spirit from abstract, undifferentiated being
into more
and more concrete reality. Hegel believed this development occurs by a
dialectical process—that is, a process through which conflicting ideas
become
resolved—which consists of a series of stages that occur in triads (sets
of
three). Each triad involves (1) an initial state (or thesis), which
might be
an idea or a movement; (2) its opposite state (or antithesis); and (3) a
higher
state, or synthesis, that combines elements from the two opposites into a
new
and superior arrangement. The synthesis then becomes the thesis of the
next
triad in an unending progress toward the ideal.
Hegel argued that this
dialectical logic applies to
all knowledge, including science and history. His discussion of history
was
particularly influential, especially because it supported the political
and
social philosophy later developed by Karl Marx. According to Hegel human
history demonstrates the dialectical development of Absolute Spirit,
which can
be observed by studying conflicts and wars and the rise and fall of
civilizations. He maintained that political states are real entities,
the
manifestation of Spirit in the world, and participants of history. In
every
epoch a particular state is the bearer or agent of spiritual advance,
and it
thereby gathers to itself power. Because the dialectic means opposition
and
conflict, war must be expected, and it has value as evidence of the
health of a
state.
Hegel’s philosophy stimulated
interest in history by
representing it as a deeper penetration into reality than the natural
sciences
provide. His conception of the national state as the highest social
embodiment
of the Absolute Spirit was for some time believed to be a main source of
20th-century totalitarianism, although Hegel himself advocated a large
measure
of individual freedom.
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C2
|
Schopenhauer
|
German philosophers of
the 19th century who came after
Hegel rejected Hegel’s faith in reason and progress. Arthur Schopenhauer
in The
World as Will and Idea (1819) argued that existence is fundamentally
irrational and an expression of a blind, meaningless force—the human
will,
which encompasses the will to live, the will to reproduce, and so forth.
Will,
however, entails continuous striving and results in disappointment and
suffering. Schopenhauer offered two avenues of escape from irrational
will:
through the contemplation of art, which enables one to endure the
tragedy of
life, and through the renunciation of will and of the striving for
happiness.
Schopenhauer was one of
the first Western
philosophers to be influenced by Indian philosophy, which was then
appearing in
Europe in translation. The influence of Buddhist thought, for example,
appears
in his sense that the world is full of evil and suffering which can be
overcome
only through resignation and renunciation. Schopenhauer’s own view that
an
irrational force lies at the center of life subsequently influenced
voluntaristic psychology, a school of psychology that emphasized the
causes for
our choices; sociological studies that examine nonrational factors
affecting
people; and cultural attitudes that play down the value of reason in
life.
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C3
|
Nietzsche
|
German philosopher Friedrich
Nietzsche continued the
revolt against reason initiated by the romantic movement, but he
scornfully
repudiated Schopenhauer’s negative, resigned attitude. Instead,
Nietzsche
affirmed the value of vitality, strength, and the supremacy of an
existence
that is purely egoistic. He also scorned the Christian and democratic
ideas of
the equal worth of human beings, maintaining that it is up to a few
aristocrats
to refuse to subordinate themselves to a state or cause, and thereby
achieve
self-realization and greatness. For Nietzsche the power to be strong was
the
greatest value in life. Although Nietzsche valued geniuses over
dictators, his
beliefs helped bolster the ideas of the National Socialists (Nazis) who
gained
control of Germany in the 1930s (see National Socialism).
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C4
|
Kierkegaard
|
Danish philosopher Søren
Kierkegaard developed another
distinctive philosophy of life. Kierkegaard’s ideas, which were not
appreciated
until a century after their appearance, were literary, religious, and
self-revealing rather than systematic in character. They stressed the
importance of experiences that the intellectual mind judges as absurd,
including the experiences of angst (“anxiety”) and “fear and
trembling.”
(The latter phrase is the title of one of his books.) Such experiences,
in his
view, lead first to despair and eventually to religious faith.
Kierkegaard
discussed this process in terms of the religious person who is commanded
by God
to sacrifice his own most cherished treasures, as in the example of
Abraham and
the sacrifice of Isaac in the Old Testament. Although Abraham cannot
understand
this absurd request from God, he decides to obey his commitment to God.
Through
such terrible experiences, Kierkegaard claimed, we learn that humanity’s
relationship to God is absolute and all else relative. What is most
significant
in a person’s life, Kierkegaard concluded, are the decisions made in
such
ethical crises.
Kierkegaard’s ideas came
to have importance in the 20th
century. The concepts of existence, dread, the absurd, and decision were
influential in Germany, France, and English-speaking countries. The
condition
of humankind during an epoch with two world wars gave these ideas a new
relevance; the philosophers who developed them founded the movement now
known
as existentialism.
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C5
|
Bentham and Mill
|
Jeremy Bentham and John
Stuart Mill, both economists
as well as philosophers, dominated philosophy in England during the 19th
century. Bentham originated the ethical principle of utilitarianism—that
what
is useful is good—and Mill developed and refined the doctrine. The
utilitarians
argued for an ethical principle that would be superior to the
self-interest of
the individual, just as Kant had established a rational principle of
moral law
superior to individual desire, by which people’s conduct ought to be
governed.
The utilitarians based their principle on the theory that everyone
desires his
or her own happiness, that people have to find that happiness in
society, and
that consequently we all have an interest in the general happiness. They
took
the position that whatever produces the greatest happiness for the
greatest
number of people is what is most useful for all. This is the meaning of
the
principle of utility, or benefit, from which utilitarianism takes its
name.
In evaluating happiness,
Bentham believed it possible to
measure quantitatively the pleasures resulting from each action—the
pleasures
of oneself and the pleasure of others—and thus to decide in any instance
what
promoted the greatest amount of happiness. Mill partly abandoned that
idea and
maintained that one should consider the quality, or type, of pleasure as
well
as the quantity. Mill applied utilitarian principles to social justice,
and the
principle of utility influenced legislation that brought about social
and
economic reforms in Great Britain.
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C6
|
Karl Marx and
Marxism
|
The most influential achievement
in political
philosophy during the 19th century was the development of Marxism (see
Political
Theory). German political philosopher Karl Marx, who created the system
known
as Marxism, and his collaborator Friedrich Engels accepted the basic
form of
Hegel’s dialectic of history, but they made crucial modifications. For
them
history was a matter of the development not of Absolute Spirit but of
the
material conditions governing humanity’s economic existence. In their
view, later
known as historical materialism, the history of society is a history of
class
struggle in which the ruling class uses religion and other traditions
and
institutions, as well as its economic power, to reinforce its domination
over
the working classes. Human culture, according to Marx, is dependent on
economic
(material) conditions and serves economic ends. Religion, he concluded,
is “the
opiate of the masses” that serves the political end of suppressing mass
revolution. Marxism is a theory of revolution, of history, of economics,
and of
politics, and it served as the ideology for Communism. Although he was a
philosopher Marx had disdain for merely theoretical intellectual work,
stating,
“The philosophers have only interpreted the world in different
ways; the
point is to change it.”
Marx’s view of human history
is both
profoundly pessimistic and profoundly optimistic. Its pessimism lies in
his
belief that history reflects the oppression of the many by a small
minority,
who thereby secure economic and political power. It is optimistic on two
counts. First, Marx believed that technical innovations bring about new
ways of
meeting human needs and make it increasingly possible for people to
satisfy
their deepest wants and to develop and perfect their individual
capacities.
Second, Marx claimed to have proved that the long history of oppression
would
soon end when the masses rise up and usher in a revolution that will
create a
classless utopian society. The first idea enabled Marx to bring
attention in
the modern era to Aristotle’s idealistic conception of human
flourishing, which
called upon people to develop and manifest many different abilities,
including
intellectual, artistic, and physical skills. The second idea motivated
much
radical activity during the 20th century, including the Russian
Revolutions of
1917, the Communist victory in China in 1949, and the Cuban Revolution
of 1959.
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C7
|
Pragmatism
|
Toward the end of the
19th century, pragmatism
became the most vital school of thought within American philosophy. It
continued the empiricist tradition of grounding knowledge on experience
and
stressing the inductive procedures of experimental science. The
pragmatists
believed in the progress of human knowledge and that ideas are tools
whose
validity and significance are established as people adapt and test them
in
physical and social settings. For pragmatists, ideas demonstrate their
value
insofar as they enrich human experience.
The three most important
American philosophers of
the pragmatic movement were Charles Sanders Peirce, who founded
pragmatism and
gave the movement its name; psychologist and religious thinker William
James;
and psychologist and educator John Dewey. Their work continued into the
20th
century. Peirce formulated a pragmatic theory of knowledge and advocated
“laboratory philosophy” whereby researchers investigate and clarify the
kinds
of knowledge that can be gained either through everyday experience or
through
scientific inquiry. By limiting the realm of meaningful questions to
those that
concern possible experience, Peirce hoped to introduce scientific logic
into
metaphysics. He advanced a theory of truth that defined truth as that
which an
ideal community of researchers could agree upon. Peirce concluded that
many
traditional philosophical concepts have no practical use and thus are
meaningless.
Whereas Peirce sought
to determine the meaning of terms
and ideas and thereby make metaphysics a precise and pragmatic
discipline,
James and Dewey applied the principles of pragmatism in developing a
comprehensive philosophy. Like Peirce, James maintained that the meaning
of
ideas lies in their practical consequences. If an idea has no practical
uses,
then it is meaningless. James focused on the power of true ideas to
offer
individuals, rather than scientific researchers, practical guidance in
handling
problems that arise in everyday experience. Truth, according to James,
resides
in those experiences that enable people to successfully navigate the
challenges
and demands of the world.
Dewey emphasized the cooperative
process in which
human beings, as intelligent and social beings, create and revise ideas
about
the world. One such process was scientific inquiry; another was
participation
in just and democratic social and political communities. Dewey concluded
that
science and democracy are the only sure guides for intelligent behavior.
His
progressive social philosophy communicates a vision of a world in which
science, education, and social reform demonstrate the benefits of
pragmatic
ideas for human life.
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D
|
20th-Century
Philosophy
|
A diversity of methods,
interests, and styles of
argumentation marked 20th-century philosophy and proved both fruitful
and
destructive. This diversity, and the divisions that arose, proved
fruitful as
new topics arose and new ways developed for discussing these topics
philosophically. It proved destructive, however, as philosophers wrote
increasingly for a narrow audience and often ignored or derided
philosophical
styles different from their own.
In the decades following
World War II (1939-1945),
significant divisions arose between so-called continental philosophers,
who
worked on the European continent, and philosophers in the United States,
the
United Kingdom, and Australia. Deconstruction and other postmodern
theories
followed existentialism and phenomenology on the continent, whereas the
Americans, Britons, and Australians worked in the analytic tradition. In
the
final decades of the century, the divisions between continental and
analytic
philosophy eased as interest moved away from the old disputes, and more
and
more philosophers became interested in exploring common roots of the two
traditions in the history of Western philosophy.
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D1
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Phenomenology
|
German philosopher Edmund
Husserl founded the
20th-century movement of phenomenology. Husserl said that philosophers
must
attempt to describe and analyze phenomena as they occur, setting aside
such
considerations as whether the phenomena are objective or subjective. He
emphasized careful observation and interpretation of our conscious
perceptions
of things. First, we must attend to what we are conscious of, observing
our
perceptions far more carefully and intensely than we do in everyday
life.
Second, we must reflect upon these observations and interpret them
without
preconceptions. Husserl maintained that we arrive at meaning and the key
to
solving philosophical problems through a logical analysis of the data
that
emerges from such a “phenomenological study” of the contents of the
mind.
French philosopher Maurice
Merleau-Ponty and German
philosopher Martin Heidegger further developed phenomenology and its
emphasis
on pure description. For Merleau-Ponty, however, all perceptual
experience
carries with it a reference to something beyond and independent of our
perception of it. Heidegger, too, sought to return to what he claimed
had
become unfamiliar—Sein (German for “being” or “existence”).
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D2
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Existentialism
|
Heidegger was also a key
figure in the
20th-century movement known as existentialism. Existentialists focused
on the
personal: on individual existence, subjectivity, and choice. Two central
existential doctrines claim that there is no fixed human essence
structuring
our lives and that our choices are never determined by anything except
our own
free will. In making choices in life, we determine our individual
selves. These
doctrines imply that human beings have enormous freedom. Existentialists
maintained that the human ability to make free choices is so great that
it
overwhelms many individuals, who experience a “flight from freedom” by
falsely
treating religion, science, or other external factors as constraints and
limits
on individual freedom. In addition to Heidegger the main existentialist
thinkers include French feminist philosopher Simone de Beauvoir and her
companion, the philosopher, novelist, and playwright Jean-Paul Sartre.
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D3
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Analytic
Philosophy
|
Analytic philosophy rose
to prominence in the United
Kingdom after the end of World War I (1914-1918). This movement heralded
a
linguistic shift according to which the philosophical study of language
became
the central task of philosophy. Many analytic philosophers concluded
that a
number of issues prominent in the history of philosophy are unimportant
or even
meaningless because they arose when philosophers misunderstood or
misused
language. Analytic philosophy is based upon the assumption that the
careful
analysis of language and concepts can clear up these problems and
confusions.
The key figures at the beginning of the movement were British
philosopher and
mathematician Bertrand Russell and Austrian-born British philosopher
Ludwig Wittgenstein.
Russell, strongly influenced
by the precision of
mathematics, wished to construct a logical language that would reflect
the
nature of the world. He argued that what he called the “surface grammar”
of
everyday language masks a true “logical grammar,” knowledge of which is
essential for understanding the true meaning of statements. Russell and
many
philosophers influenced by him asserted that complex statements can be
reduced
to simple components; if their logic does not permit such reduction,
then the
statements are meaningless.
Russell’s view was central
to the development of
the so-called Vienna Circle, a group of analytic philosophers active
from about
1920 to 1950, who were led by Rudolf Carnap and Moritz Schlick. The
members of
the Vienna Circle were scientists or mathematicians as well as
philosophers,
and they originated the movement known as logical positivism. They
believed
that the clarification of meaning is the task of philosophy, and that
all meaningful
statements are either scientifically verifiable statements about the
world or
else logical tautologies (self-evident propositions). According
to the
logical positivists the discovery of new facts belongs to science, and
metaphysics—the construction of comprehensive truths about reality—is a
pretentious pseudo-science.
Wittgenstein, who studied
with Russell at Cambridge
University, was perhaps the most important analytic philosopher. Like
Russell,
he distrusted ordinary language. In his Tractatus
Logico-Philosophicus
(1921) Wittgenstein stated that “philosophy aims at the logical
clarification
of thoughts.” Philosophy’s function, he believed, is to monitor the use
of
language by reducing complex statements to their elementary components
and by
rebuffing all attempts to misuse words in creating the illusion of
philosophical depth. “What can be said at all can be said clearly, and
what we
cannot talk about we must consign to silence.” The Tractatus made
important contributions to the philosophy of language, logic, and the
philosophy of mathematics. The account of language in Wittgenstein’s
later work
was much richer and more sophisticated than that in the Tractatus.
However, Wittgenstein never abandoned his radical early views on the
nature of
philosophy.
As the analytic movement
developed, different ideas
emerged about how philosophical analysis should proceed. A group called
constructivists was inspired by Russell, the early writings of
Wittgenstein,
and the logical positivists. The solutions to philosophical problems,
the
constructivists argued, lie in using tools of logic to create more
precise
technical vocabularies. Two leading representatives of this movement
were the
American philosophers Nelson Goodman and W. V. Quine. Quine saw language
and
logic as themselves embodying theories about reality, rather than
consisting of
theory-neutral tools of analysis. By contrast, the descriptivists
maintained
that philosophical analysis should focus on the careful study of the
everyday
usage of crucial terms. This group was inspired by the 20th-century
British
philosophers G. E. Moore, Gilbert Ryle, and John Austin.
Although the radical formulations
of analytic
philosophy from the first half of the 20th century no longer hold sway,
analytic philosophy continues to flourish. Many contemporary
philosophers have
adopted ideas, methods, or values from the movement, including the
Americans
Donald Davidson, Hilary Putnam, and Saul Kripke. Analytic philosophy
also has
widely influenced the training and practices of philosophers today. On
the one
hand, its influence has led to a renewed commitment to clarity,
concision,
incisiveness, and depth in philosophical thinking and writing. On the
other
hand, it has also caused many philosophers to embrace difficult and
obscure technical
language to such an extent that their ideas are accessible to only a
small
community of specialists.
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D4
|
Postmodern
Philosophy
|
Inaccessible ideas and
impenetrable prose also
characterize many postmodern philosophical texts, although the
difficulties in
this case are often intentional and reflect specific postmodern claims
about
the nature of language and meaning. The literal meaning of postmodernism
is “after modernism,” and in many ways postmodernism constitutes an
attack on
modernist claims about the existence of truth and value—claims that stem
from
the European Enlightenment of the 18th century. In disputing past
assumptions
postmodernists generally display a preoccupation with the inadequacy of
language as a mode of communication. Among the major postmodern
theorists are
French philosophers Jacques Derrida and Michel Foucault, and
psychoanalyst
Jacques Lacan.
Derrida originated the
philosophical method of
deconstruction, a system of analysis that assumes a text has no single,
fixed
meaning, both because of the inadequacy of language to express the
author’s
original intention and because a reader’s understanding of the text is
culturally conditioned—that is, influenced by the culture in which the
reader
lives. Thus texts have many possible legitimate interpretations brought
about
by the “play” of language. Derrida stresses the philosophical importance
of
pun, metaphor, ambiguity, and other playful aspects of language
traditionally
disregarded in philosophy. His method of deconstruction involves close
and
careful readings of central texts of Western philosophy that bring to
light
some of the conflicting forces within the text and that highlight the
devices
the text uses to claim legitimacy and truth for itself, many of which
may lie
beyond the intention of its author. Although some of Derrida’s ideas
about
language resemble views held by the analytic philosophers Wittgenstein,
Quine,
and Davidson, many philosophers schooled in the analytic tradition have
dismissed Derrida’s work as destructive of philosophy.
Foucault created a searing
critique of the ideals
of the Enlightenment, such as reason and truth. Like Derrida, Foucault
used
close readings of historical texts to challenge assumptions,
demonstrating how
ideas about human nature and society, which we assume to be permanent
truths,
have changed over time. From an array of historical texts Foucault
created
“philosophical anthropologies” that reveal the evolution of concepts
such as
reason, madness, responsibility, punishment, and power. By examining the
origins of these concepts, he maintained, we see that attitudes and
assumptions
that today seem natural or even inevitable are historical phenomena
dependent
upon time and place. He further claimed that the historical development
of
these ideas demonstrates that seemingly humane and liberal Enlightenment
ideals
are in reality coercive and destructive.
Lacan agreed with Derrida
and Foucault about the
need to overturn crucial cultural and philosophical assumptions, but he
arrived
at this conclusion by a different method altogether. Influenced by Swiss
linguist Ferdinand de Saussure and the psychoanalytic theories of
Sigmund
Freud, Lacan claimed that the unconscious portion of the mind operates
with
structures and rules analogous to those of a language. He used this
claim to
criticize both psychoanalytic theory and philosophy. On the one hand, he
believed that concepts from linguistics could clarify and correct
Freud’s
picture of the mind and provide the field of psychoanalysis with greater
philosophical
depth. On the other hand, he maintained that applying psychoanalytic
methods
and theories to linguistics would radically revise traditional
philosophical
views of language and reason.
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D5
|
Feminist
Philosophy
|
Feminist philosophers
also challenge basic principles of
traditional Western philosophy, investigating how philosophical inquiry
would
change if women conducted it and if it incorporated women’s experiences
as well
as their viewpoints. In interpreting the history of Western philosophy,
feminists study texts by male philosophers for their depiction of women,
masculine values, and biases toward men. Feminist philosophers also
write about
women’s experiences of subjectivity, their relationship to their bodies,
and
feminist concepts of language, knowledge, and nature. They explore
connections
between feminism in philosophy and other emerging feminist disciplines,
such as
feminist legal theory, feminist theology, and ecological feminism.
Central to
feminist philosophy is the concept of the oppression of women who live
in patriarchal
(male-controlled) societies; much of the work of feminist philosophers
has gone
into understanding patriarchy and developing alternatives to it.
Prominent
feminist philosophers include French postmodern philosophers Luce
Irigaray and
Hélène Cixous and American philosopher of law Catharine MacKinnon.
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D6
|
Environmental
Philosophy
|
Environmental philosophy
is concerned with issues that arise
when human beings interact with the environment. For instance, is a
transformation of society necessary for the survival of living organisms
and
the environment? How is the exploitation of nature related to the
subjugation
of women and other oppressed humans? How can the philosophical study of
the
environment guide and inspire effective environmental activism. Most
environmental philosophers seek to apply philosophical methods and ideas
in
collaboration with academics and activists working in the environmental
sciences, theology, and feminism.
Two figures who played
a prominent role in founding
environmental philosophy are Norwegian philosopher Arne Naess and
American
naturalist, conservationist, and philosopher Aldo Leopold. Naess founded
the
so-called deep-ecology movement in the 1970s. The movement distinguishes
between shallow ecology, which views nature in terms of its value to
human
beings, and deep ecology, which values nature independently of its
usefulness
to humanity. Leopold, in his influential book A Sand County Almanac
(1949), called for the extension of ethical concern to include all life
on
Earth, not just human life. Other contemporary environmental
philosophers
include American ecological theologian Thomas Berry and American
ecological
feminist Karen Warren.
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D7
|
Contemporary
Political
Philosophy
|
Political philosophy dates
back to Plato and Aristotle
who discussed the nature of the ideal government and the ideal society.
It
continued in theories on individual liberty and political institutions
put
forth by Hobbes, Mill, and Rousseau. Political philosophy today features
a
lively dialogue between defenders of the liberal position and defenders
of the
communitarian position. The former place the highest value on individual
liberties; whereas the latter argue that extreme individual freedom
undermines
shared community values.
According to liberalism
the chief goods
(benefits) of government and society are personal and political
freedoms, such
as freedom of speech, freedom of association, and freedom of conscience
(belief). Many liberal theorists view the freedom to make moral choices
as the
most important freedom; they argue that political and social systems
should be organized
to allow individuals the freedom to pursue their own ideas about “the
good
life.” Communitarians respond that granting individuals this extreme
freedom of
choice ultimately limits human experience by undermining shared communal
values. They claim that by ignoring the importance of community,
liberalism
disregards humanity’s social nature.
Prominent communitarians
include Scottish philosopher
Alasdair MacIntyre and American philosopher Michael Sandel. Important
liberal
theorists include British philosopher Isaiah Berlin and American
philosophers
Ronald Dworkin and John Rawls. Rawls is the author of A Theory of
Justice
(1971), considered to be the most significant work of political
philosophy in
the 20th century. In this book, he presents the idea of “justice as
fairness,”
a principle that promotes the equal distribution of the benefits and
burdens of
society among individuals. Any advantages that society confers should
benefit
those who are most disadvantaged, Rawls believes. From this and other
principles
he has developed theories about political and social relations within
liberal
democracies and between those democracies and certain illiberal states.
Rawls’s
ideas remain a major inspiration for much current work in political
philosophy.
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D8
|
Applied Ethics
|
Although most contemporary
philosophy is highly
technical and inaccessible to nonspecialists, some contemporary
philosophers
concern themselves with practical questions and strive to influence
today’s
culture. Practitioners of feminist philosophy, environmental philosophy,
and
some areas of contemporary political philosophy seek to use the tools of
philosophy to resolve current issues directly related to peoples’ lives.
Nowhere have philosophers more enthusiastically embraced practical
relevance
than in contemporary applied ethics, a field that has developed since
the
1960s. Most of the questions applied ethicists raise concern the general
theme
“How should we live and die?”—a question central to ancient Greek
philosophy.
Separate areas of specialization,
such as
biomedical ethics and business ethics, have emerged within applied
ethics.
Biomedical ethics deals with questions arising from the life sciences
and human
health care, and has two subspecialties: bioethics and medical ethics.
Bioethicists
study the ethical implications of advances in genetics and
biotechnology, such
as genetic testing, genetic privacy, cloning, and new reproductive
technologies. For example, they consider the consequences for
individuals who
learn they have inherited a fatal genetic disease, or the consequences
of
technology that enables parents to choose the sex of a baby.
Bioethicists then
offer advice to legislators, researchers, and physicians active in these
areas.
Specialists in medical ethics offer advice to physicians, other health
care
personnel, and patients on a wide variety of issues, including abortion,
euthanasia, fertility treatments, medical confidentiality, and the
allocation
of scarce medical resources. Much of the work in medical ethics directly
affects
the everyday practice of medicine, and most nursing students and medical
students now take courses in this field.
Business ethicists bring
ethical theories and techniques
to bear on moral issues that arise in business. For example, what are
the
responsibilities of corporations to their employees, their customers,
their
shareholders, and the environment? Most business students take courses
in
business ethics, and many large corporations regularly consult with
specialists
in the field. Business ethicists also address larger topics, such as the
ethics
of globalization and the moral justification of various economic
systems, such
as capitalism and socialism.
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