PHIL 26 HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY
Catalog Description:
Introduction to the history of philosophy, emphasizing such themes as the foundations of knowledge, the nature of reality, the basis of a good life and a just society, the existence of God, and the nature of self, and tracing the development of these themes from antiquity to the modern period
In this class we will cover:
The Pre-Socratics, the Sophists, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Epictetus, Saint Augustine, Anselm, Aquinas, Descartes, Conway, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, Voltaire, Wollstonecraft, and Kant. There will also be several secondary source readings.
Traditionally, the history of philosophy is argued to have begun with Thales, over 2,500 years ago. Of course, the start date of philosophy may differ depending on how one defines “philosophy,” a “philosopher,” and “doing philosophy,” but the majority consensus is that it began with him, a key reason being for having predicted a solar eclipse around 585 BCE based on his own reasoning and not what was traditionally used at the time of mythological explanation.
This first philosopher continued a tradition in philosophy that is still important today: sometimes the value in philosophical discourse is found in the questions raised rather than the answers proposed.
Thus, in what follows after Thales is a long conversation that we continue to have in the discipline of philosophy. Continued questioning lead to continued discussion, sometimes in the form of a direct critique, sometimes in the form of an attempted improvement - all part of a long conversation.
Here is a link to a work-in-progress list of videos on YouTube on the history of philosophy.
Rembrandt's Aristotle with a Bust of Homer, 1653
