The Philosophy Book
Page 5
Despite the fall of imperial China in 1911, Confucian ideas continued to form the basis of many Chinese moral and social conventions, even if they were officially frowned upon. In recent years the People’s Republic of China has shown a renewed interest in Confucius, integrating his ideas with both modern Chinese thought and Western philosophy, creating a hybrid philosophy known as “New Confucianism.”
Confucius’s devotion to the idea of establishing a humane society led him to travel the Chinese empire for 12 years, teaching the virtues of faithfulness and sincerity.
CONFUCIUS
According to tradition, Confucius was born in 551 BCE in Qufu, in the state of Lu, China. His name was originally Kong Qiu, and only later did he earn the title Kong Fuzi, or “Master Kong.” Little is known about his life, except that he was from a well-to-do family, and that as a young man he worked as a servant to support his family after his father died. He nevertheless managed to find time to study, and became an administrator in the Lu court, but when his suggestions to the rulers were ignored he left to concentrate on teaching.
As a teacher he traveled throughout the empire, and at the end of his life he returned to Qufu, where he died in 479 BCE. His teaching survives in fragments and sayings passed down orally to his disciples, and collected in the Analects and anthologies compiled by Confucian scholars.
Key works
5th century BCE
Analects
Doctrine of the Mean
Great Learning
See also: Thales of Miletus • Laozi • Pythagoras • Siddhartha Gautama • Heraclitus • Hajime Tanabe
IN CONTEXT
BRANCH
Metaphysics
APPROACH
Monism
BEFORE
6th century BCE The Milesian philosophers claim that the cosmos is made up of a single specific substance.
6th century BCE Pythagoras states that the universe has an underlying structure that can be defined mathematically.
AFTER
Early 5th century BCE Parmenides uses logical deduction to prove change is impossible.
Late 4th century BCE Plato describes the world as being in a state of flux, but dismisses Heraclitus as contradictory.
Early 19th century Georg Hegel bases his dialectic system of philosophy on the integration of opposites.
Where other early Greek philosophers seek to uncover scientific explanations for the physical nature of the cosmos, Heraclitus sees it as being governed by a divine logos. Sometimes interpreted to mean “reason” or “argument”, Heraclitus considers the logos to be a universal, cosmic law, according to which all things come into being, and by which all the material elements of the universe are held in balance.
It is the balancing of opposites, such as day and night and hot and cold, which Heraclitus believes leads to the unity of the universe, or the idea everything is part of a single fundamental process or substance—the central tenet of monism. But he also states that tension is constantly generated between these pairs of opposites, and he therefore concludes that everything must be in a permanent state of flux, or change. Day, for instance, changes into night, which in turn changes back again to day.
Heraclitus offers the example of a river to illustrate his theory: “You can never step into the same river twice.” By this, he means that at the very moment you step into a river, fresh waters will immediately replace those into which you initially placed your foot, and yet the river itself is always described as one fixed and unchanging thing.
Heraclitus’s belief that every object in the universe is in a state of constant flux runs counter to the thinking of the philosophers of the Milesian school, such as Thales and Anaximenes, who define all things by their quintessentially unchanging essence.
"The road up and the road down are one and the same."
Heraclitus
See also: Thales of Miletus • Anaximenes of Miletus • Pythagoras • Parmenides • Plato • Georg Hegel
IN CONTEXT
BRANCH
Metaphysics
APPROACH
Monism
BEFORE
6th century BCE Pythagoras sees mathematical structure, rather than a substance, as the foundation of the cosmos.
c.500 BCE Heraclitus says that everything is in a state of flux.
AFTER
Late 5th century BCE Zeno of Elea presents his paradoxes to demonstrate the illusory nature of our experience.
c.400 BCE Democritus and Leucippus say the cosmos is composed of atoms in a void.
Late 4th century BCE Plato presents his theory of Forms, claiming that abstract ideas are the highest form of reality.
1927 Martin Heidegger writes Being and Time, reviving the question of the sense of being.
The ideas put forward by Parmenides mark a key turning point in Greek philosophy. Influenced by the logical, scientific thinking of Pythagoras, Parmenides employs deductive reasoning in an attempt to uncover the true physical nature of the world. His investigations lead him to take the opposite view to that of Heraclitus.
From the premise that something exists (“It is”), Parmenides deduces that it cannot also not exist (“It is not”), as this would involve a logical contradiction. It follows therefore that a state of nothing existing is impossible—there can be no void. Something cannot then come from nothing, and so must always have existed in some form. This permanent form cannot change, because something that is permanent cannot change into something else without it ceasing to be permanent. Fundamental change is therefore impossible.
Parmenides concludes from this pattern of thought that everything that is real must be eternal and unchanging, and must have an indivisible unity—“all is one.” More importantly for subsequent philosophers, Parmenides shows by his process of reasoning that our perception of the world is faulty and full of contradictions. We seem to experience change, and yet our reason tells us that change is impossible. The only conclusion we can come to is that we can never rely on the experience that is delivered to us by our senses.
Understanding the cosmos is one of the oldest philosophical quests. In the 20th century, evidence from quantum physics emerged to support ideas that Parmenides reached by reason alone.
See also: Pythagoras • Heraclitus • Democritus and Leucippus • Zeno of Elea • Plato • Martin Heidegger
IN CONTEXT
BRANCH
Ethics
APPROACH
Relativism
BEFORE
Early 5th century BCE Parmenides argues that we can rely more on reason than the evidence of our senses.
AFTER
Early 4th century BCE Plato’s theory of Forms states that there are “absolutes” or ideal forms of everything.
1580 French writer Michel de Montaigne espouses a form of relativism to describe human behavior in his Essays.
1967–72 Jacques Derrida uses his technique of deconstruction to show that any text contains irreconcilable contradictions.
2005 Benedict XVI warns “we are moving towards a dictatorship of relativism” in his first public address as pope.
During the 5th century BCE, Athens evolved into an important and prosperous city-state, and under the leadership of Pericles (445–429 BCE) it entered a “Golden Age” of scholarship and culture. This attracted people from all parts of Greece, and for those who knew and could interpret the law, there were rich pickings to be had. The city was run on broadly democratic principles, with an established legal system. Anyone taken to court was required to plead his own case; there were no advocates, but a recognized class of advisors soon evolved. Among this group was Protagoras.
Everything is relative
Protagoras lectured in law and rhetoric to anybody who could afford him. His teachings were essentially about practical matters, arguing to win a civil case rather than to prove a point, but he could see the philosophical implications of what he taught. For Protagoras, every argument has two sides, and both may be equally valid. He claims that he can “make the worse case the better”, proving not the worth of the argument, but the persuasiveness of its proponent. In this way, he recognizes that belief is subjective, and it is the man holding the view or opinion that is the measure of its worth. This style of reasoning, common in law and politics at that time, was new to philosophy. By placing human beings at its center, it continued a tradition of taking religion out of philosophical argument, and it also shifted the focus of philosophy away from an understanding of the nature of the universe to an examination of human behavior. Protagoras is mainly interested in practical questions. Philosophical speculations on the substance of the cosmos or about the existence of the gods seem pointless to him, as he considers such things to be ultimately unknowable.
The main implication of “man is the measure of all things” is that belief is subjective and relative. This leads Protagoras to reject the existence of absolute definitions of truth, justice, or virtue. What is true for one person may be false for another, he claims. This relativism also applies to moral values, such as what is right and what is wrong. To Protagoras, nothing is inherently good in itself. Something is ethical, or right, only because a person or society judges it to be so.
Protagoras was the most influential of a group of itinerant teachers of law and rhetoric that became known as the Sophists (from the Greek sophia, meaning wisdom). Socrates and Plato derided the Sophists as mere rhetoricians, but with Protagoras there was a significant step in ethics toward the view that there are no absolutes and that all judgements, including moral judgements, are subjective.
"Many things prevent knowledge, including the obscurity of the subject and the brevity of human life."
Protagoras
According to Protagoras, any “truth” uncovered by these two philosophers, depicted on a 5th-century BCE Greek drinking vessel, will depend on their use of rhetoric and their debating skill.
PROTAGORAS
Protagoras was born in Abdera, in northeast Greece, but traveled widely as an itinerant teacher. At some stage, he moved to Athens, where he became advisor to the ruler of the city-state, Pericles, who commissioned him to write the constitution for the colony of Thurii in 444 BCE. Protagoras was a proponent of agnosticism, and legend has it that he was later tried for impiety, and that his books were publicly burned.
Only fragments of his writings survive, although Plato discusses the views of Protagoras at length in his dialogues.
Protagoras is believed to have lived to the age of 70, but his exact date and place of death are unknown.
Key works
5th century BCE
On the Gods
Truth
On Being
The Art of Controversy
On Mathematics
On the State
On Ambition
On Virtues
On the Original State of Things
See also: Parmenides • Socrates • Plato • Michel de Montaigne • Jacques Derrida
IN CONTEXT
TRADITION
Chinese philosophy
APPROACH
Mohism
BEFORE
6th century BCE Laozi states that to live according to the dao means acting intuitively and in accordance with nature.
Late 6th century BCE Confucius’s moral philosophy stresses the importance of family ties and traditions.
AFTER
Mid-4th century BCE The Confucian philosophy of Mencius stresses man’s innate goodness.
Mid-4th century BCE Daoist philosopher Zhuangzi criticizes Confucianism and Mohism.
3rd century BCE Legalism is adopted by the Qin dynasty. It opposes Mohism, advocating strong laws to keep man’s essentially evil nature in check.
Born in about 470 BCE, shortly after the death of Confucius, Mozi had a traditional Chinese education based on the classic texts. Later, however, he came to dislike the emphasis on clan relationships that runs through Confucianism, and this led him to set up his own school of thought, advocating universal love or jian ai. By jian ai, Mozi means that we should care for all people equally, regardless of their status or their relationship to us. He regards this philosophy, which became known as Mohism and which “nourishes and sustains all life”, as being fundamentally benevolent and in accordance with the way of heaven.
Mozi believes that there is always reciprocity in our actions. By treating others as we would wish to be treated ourselves, we will receive similar treatment in return. This is the meaning behind “when one throws to me a peach, I return to him a plum.” When this principle of caring for everyone impartially is applied by rulers, Mozi states that it avoids conflict and war; when the same principle is practiced by everyone, it leads to a more harmonious and therefore more productive society. This idea is similar in spirit to that of the Utilitarianism proposed by Western philosophers of the 19th century.
Mao Zedong regarded Mozi as the true philosopher of the people, because of his humble origins. Mozi’s view that everyone should be treated equally has been encouraged in modern China.
See also: Laozi • Siddhartha Gautama • Confucius • Wang Bi • Jeremy Bentham • Hajime Tanabe
IN CONTEXT
BRANCH
Metaphysics
APPROACH
Atomism
BEFORE
Early 6th century BCE Thales says that the cosmos is made of one fundamental substance.
c.500 BCE Heraclitus declares that everything is in a state of constant flux, or change.
AFTER
c.300 BCE The Epicurians conclude that there is no afterlife, as the body’s atoms disperse after death.
1805 British chemist John Dalton proposes that all pure substances contain atoms of a single type that combine to form compounds.
1897 The British physicist J.J. Thomson discovers that atoms can be divided into even smaller particles.
From the 6th century BCE onward, philosophers began to consider whether the universe was made from a single fundamental substance. During the 5th century BCE, two philosophers from Abderra in Greece, named Democritus and Leucippus, suggested that everything was made up of tiny, indivisible, and unchangeable particles, which they called atoms (atomos is Greek for uncuttable).
First atomic theory
Democritus and Leucippus also claim that a void or empty space separates atoms, allowing them to move around freely. As the atoms move, they may collide with each other to form new arrangements of atoms, so that objects in the world will appear to change. The two thinkers consider that there are an infinite number of these eternal atoms, but that the number of different combinations they can arrange themselves into is finite. This explains the apparent fixed number of different substances that exist. The atoms that make up our bodies, for example, do not decay and disappear when we die, but are dispersed and can be reconstituted.
Known as atomism, the theory that Democritus and Leucippus devised offered the first complete mechanistic view of the universe, without any recourse to the notion of a god or gods. It also identified fundamental properties of matter that have proved critical to the development of the physical sciences, particularly from the 17th century onward, right up to the atomic theories that revolutionized science in the 20th century.
"Man is a microcosm of the universe."
&
nbsp; Democritus
See also: Thales of Miletus • Heraclitus • Epicurus
IN CONTEXT
BRANCH
Epistemology
APPROACH
Dialectical method
BEFORE
c.600–450 BCE Pre-Socratic philosophers in Ionia and Italy attempt to explain the nature of the cosmos.
Early 5th century BCE Parmenides states that we can only understand the universe through reasoning.
c.450 BCE Protagoras and the Sophists apply rhetoric to philosophical questions.
AFTER
c.399–355 BCE Plato portrays the character of Socrates in the Apology and numerous other dialogues.
4th century BCE Aristotle acknowledges his debt to Socrates’ method.
Socrates is often referred to as one of the founders of Western philosophy, and yet he wrote nothing, established no school, and held no particular theories of his own. What he did do, however, was persistently ask the questions that interested him, and in doing so evolved a new way of thinking, or a new way of examining what we think. This has been called the Socratic, or dialectical, method (“dialectical” because it proceeds as a dialogue between opposing views), and it earned him many enemies in Athens, where he lived. He was vilified as a Sophist (someone who argues for the sake of deception), and was sentenced to death on charges of corrupting the young with ideas that undermined tradition. But he also had many followers, and among them was Plato, who recorded Socrates’ ideas in a series of written works, called dialogues, in which Socrates sets about examining various ideas. It is largely thanks to these dialogues—which include the Apology, Phaedo, and the Symposium—that Socrates’ thought survived at all, and that it went on to guide the course of Western philosophy.