Protagoras Background[edit] In Plato's Protagoras, before the company of Socrates, Prodicus, and Hippias, he states that he is old enough to be the father of any of them. This suggests a date of not later than 490 BC. Plutarch relates a story in which the two spend a whole day discussing an interesting point of legal responsibility, that probably involved a more philosophical question of causation:[5] "In an athletic contest a man had been accidentally hit and killed with a javelin. Philosophy[edit] Protagoras was also known as a teacher who addressed subjects connected to virtue and political life. He also seems to have had an interest in “orthoepeia” - the correct use of words, although this topic is more strongly associated with his fellow sophist Prodicus. The titles of his books such as The Technique of Eristics (Technē Eristikōn, literally "On wrestling", with wrestling here used as a metaphor for intellectual debate) prove that Protagoras was also a teacher of rhetoric and argumentation.
Socrates Socrates (/ˈsɒkrətiːz/;[2] Greek: Σωκράτης [sɔːkrátɛːs], Sōkrátēs; 470/469 – 399 BC)[1] was a classical Greek (Athenian) philosopher credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy. He is an enigmatic figure known chiefly through the accounts of classical writers, especially the writings of his students Plato and Xenophon and the plays of his contemporary Aristophanes. Plato's dialogues are among the most comprehensive accounts of Socrates to survive from antiquity, though it is unclear the degree to which Socrates himself is "hidden behind his 'best disciple', Plato".[3] Through his portrayal in Plato's dialogues, Socrates has become renowned for his contribution to the field of ethics, and it is this Platonic Socrates who lends his name to the concepts of Socratic irony and the Socratic method, or elenchus. Socratic problem Nothing written by Socrates remains extant. Socrates as a figure Socrates as a philosopher Biography Early life Military service Arrest of Leon Trial and death Notes
The Problems of Philosophers Kant: The categorical imperative says that actions must be logically consistent if they were to be universalized, in order for them to be moral. Zeno: Zeno's Paradox says that motion is impossible, because in order to get to something, we would have to traverse an infinite amount of space, since we can keep dividing that space into infinite halves. Hume: Hume's is/ought gap says that we cannot derive an 'ought' from an 'is'. That is, a moral command from a fact in the world. Russell: Bertrand Russell's main project was the derive mathematics, and perhaps even language and meaning, entirely from logic. Descarte: In Meditations Descarte claimed we couldn't believe any of our observations, because it was possible an evil daemon was decieving us with false perceptions. Singer: Peter Singer is a utilitarian who emphasizes that we should act rationally when making moral choices by increasing global happiness without prioritizing ourselves, people near us, or even humans over animals.
Paul Feyerabend Paul Karl Feyerabend (German: [ˈfaɪɐˌaːbɛnt]; January 13, 1924 – February 11, 1994) was an Austrian-born philosopher of science best known for his work as a professor of philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley, where he worked for three decades (1958–1989). He lived at various times in England, the United States, New Zealand, Italy, Germany, and finally Switzerland. His major works include Against Method (published in 1975), Science in a Free Society (published in 1978) and Farewell to Reason (a collection of papers published in 1987). Feyerabend became famous for his purportedly anarchistic view of science and his rejection of the existence of universal methodological rules.[1] He is an influential figure in the philosophy of science, and also in the sociology of scientific knowledge. Biography[edit] Early life[edit] Post–WWII and university[edit] When the war was over, Feyerabend first got a temporary job in Apolda where he wrote pieces for the theatre. Academia[edit]
Socratic questioning Socratic questioning (or Socratic maieutics)[1] is disciplined questioning that can be used to pursue thought in many directions and for many purposes, including: to explore complex ideas, to get to the truth of things, to open up issues and problems, to uncover assumptions, to analyze concepts, to distinguish what we know from what we don't know, to follow out logical implications of thought or to control the discussion. The key to distinguishing Socratic questioning from questioning per se is that Socratic questioning is systematic, disciplined, deep and usually focuses on fundamental concepts, principles, theories, issues or problems. Socratic questioning is referred to in teaching, and has gained currency as a concept in education particularly in the past two decades. Pedagogy[edit] In teaching, teachers can use Socratic questioning for at least two purposes: Socratic questioning illuminates the importance of questioning in learning. Psychology[edit] See also[edit] References[edit]
Daniel Tutt: Atheism Warkton, Northamptonshire: Monument by Vangelder, 1775, John Piper, 1964 by Daniel Tutt Difficult Atheism: Tracing the Death of God in Contemporary Continental Thought, by Christopher Watkin, Edinburgh University Press, 224 pp. Declaring oneself an “atheist” just isn’t what it used to be. The truth is, declaring oneself an atheist is a difficult process, but we’ve lost touch with this difficulty. Most atheists today that are firm in their convictions tend to be held in trance by the so-called “Four Horsemen of the New Atheism”. For the “nones” and the atheists, as well as for the religious, I might add, a healthy debate about God is vital to sustaining a larger dialogue about religion, morality and ethics in the public sphere, but we’ve been deprived of such a discourse. At one point in the twentieth century, French philosophy, and by extension most philosophy, didn’t have much to say about atheism. Badiou: Hidden Theologian or Atheist of Pure Multiplicity? What does this even mean? 1.
Gorgias Gorgias (/ˈɡɔrdʒiəs/; Greek: Γοργίας, Ancient Greek: [ɡorɡías]; c. 485 – c. 380 BC),[1] called "the Nihilist," was a Greek sophist, Italiote, pre-Socratic philosopher and rhetorician who was a native of Leontini in Sicily. Along with Protagoras, he forms the first generation of Sophists. Several doxographers report that he was a pupil of Empedocles, although he would only have been a few years younger. "Like other Sophists he was an itinerant, practicing in various cities and giving public exhibitions of his skill at the great pan-Hellenic centers of Olympia and Delphi, and charged fees for his instruction and performances. A special feature of his displays was to invite miscellaneous questions from the audience and give impromptu replies His chief claim to recognition resides in the fact that he transplanted rhetoric from his native Sicily to Attica, and contributed to the diffusion of the Attic dialect as the language of literary prose. Life[edit] Gorgias: the Nihilist[edit]
Socratic method Type of cooperative argumentative dialogue The Socratic method (also known as method of Elenchus or Socratic debate) is a form of argumentative dialogue between individuals, based on asking and answering questions. In modified forms, it is employed today in a variety of pedagogical contexts. Development[edit] In the second half of the 5th century BCE, sophists were teachers who specialized in using the tools of philosophy and rhetoric to entertain, impress, or persuade an audience to accept the speaker's point of view. Socrates promoted an alternative method of teaching, which came to be called the Socratic method.[1] Socrates began to engage in such discussions with his fellow Athenians after his friend from youth, Chaerephon, visited the Oracle of Delphi, which asserted that no man in Greece was wiser than Socrates. Method[edit] Elenchus (Ancient Greek: ἔλεγχος, romanized: elenkhos, lit. Socrates used this claim of wisdom as the basis of moral exhortation. Scholarly debate[edit] W.
Philosophy Pages Aristotle Aristotle's views on physical science profoundly shaped medieval scholarship. Their influence extended into the Renaissance and were not replaced systematically until the Enlightenment and theories such as classical mechanics. Some of Aristotle's zoological observations, such as on the hectocotyl (reproductive) arm of the octopus, were not confirmed or refuted until the 19th century. His works contain the earliest known formal study of logic, which was incorporated in the late 19th century into modern formal logic. His ethics, though always influential, gained renewed interest with the modern advent of virtue ethics. All aspects of Aristotle's philosophy continue to be the object of active academic study today. The sum of his work's influence often ranks him among the world's top personalities of all time with the greatest influence, along with his teacher Plato, and his pupil Alexander the Great.[9][10] Life Aristotle was appointed as the head of the royal academy of Macedon. Thought