Western philosophy: the story on HearLore

Western philosophy

In the year 624 BCE, a man named Thales of Miletus stood on the shores of Ionia and declared that water was the fundamental substance of the universe. This was not a mythological answer involving gods or monsters, but a claim based on observation and reason, marking the birth of Western philosophy. Before Thales, explanations for the world were dominated by unargued fables and dogma. Thales, his student Anaximander, and Anaximander's student Anaximenes formed the first school of thought to reject these stories in favor of natural causes. Anaximander proposed the apeiron, or the infinite, as the source of all things, while Anaximenes argued for air. This shift from myth to logos laid the groundwork for all future inquiry. The word philosophy itself, meaning the love of wisdom, was coined by Pythagoras, who believed that all was number. His school in Croton, southern Italy, discovered that musical consonance could be expressed mathematically, suggesting that opposites could create harmony. They also believed in metempsychosis, the transmigration of souls, linking their philosophical views to religious reincarnation. The pre-Socratics were not just philosophers; they were cosmologists, mathematicians, and natural scientists, blending disciplines that would later separate into distinct fields. Their work established the core problem of philosophy: what is the arche, or first principle, of the world? Parmenides argued that change was an illusion and that reality was singular and eternal, while Heraclitus countered that everything was in flux, famously stating that one could not step into the same river twice. Zeno of Elea formulated paradoxes to defend Parmenides, showing that motion was logically impossible. These early debates set the stage for the great questions of existence, knowledge, and reality that would define Western thought for millennia.

The Socratic Turn

The life of Socrates ended in 399 BCE with the drinking of poison hemlock, yet his death became the catalyst for the most influential period in Western philosophy. Before his trial, Socrates had spent his life questioning anyone in Athens who would engage him, driven by a report from the Oracle of Delphi that no one was wiser than he. This divine pronouncement led him to investigate the claim by exposing the ignorance of those who claimed wisdom. He developed the Socratic method, a critical approach that examined concepts like justice, beauty, truth, and virtue through relentless questioning. Socrates wrote nothing himself, but his dialogues were recorded by his disciples Plato and Xenophon, with Plato using Socrates as a fictional character to explore philosophical problems. His execution was the result of accusations of impiety and corrupting the youth, charges that led to his conviction by the Athenian democracy. Despite offers of escape, Socrates chose to abide by his principles and accept his sentence, cementing his legacy as a martyr for philosophical integrity. After his death, Plato founded the Platonic Academy, where he argued that the senses were illusionary and that true knowledge came from eternal, unchanging forms. Plato's allegory of the cave illustrated how people are trapped in a world of shadows, mistaking appearances for reality. His theory of forms posited that knowledge must be sourced from perfect objects beyond the physical world. Alfred North Whitehead later claimed that all of Western philosophy was merely footnotes to Plato. Socrates also had other students who founded schools like Cynicism and Cyrenaicism. The Cynics, led by Antisthenes, rejected conventional desires for wealth and power, living in virtue and agreement with nature. The Cyrenaics, founded by Aristippus, promoted hedonism, believing that pleasure was the supreme good. These divergent paths showed the breadth of Socratic influence, from asceticism to the pursuit of immediate gratification. The final school of the Classical period was the Peripatetic school, founded by Aristotle, Plato's student. Aristotle wrote extensively on physics, biology, metaphysics, and politics, creating a system that would dominate Western thought for centuries. He criticized Plato's metaphysics as poetic metaphor and proposed the four causes to explain change. His ethical views identified eudaimonia, or happiness, as the ultimate good, achieved by living according to human nature and reason. Aristotle tutored Alexander the Great, whose conquests spread Hellenization and Aristotelian philosophy across the ancient world, influencing thinkers from the Middle East to Europe.

Common questions

When did Western philosophy begin and who started it?

Western philosophy began in the year 624 BCE when Thales of Miletus declared that water was the fundamental substance of the universe. This event marked the birth of Western philosophy by shifting explanations from mythological fables to observation and reason. Thales, his student Anaximander, and Anaximenes formed the first school of thought to reject stories in favor of natural causes.

How did Socrates die and what was his impact on Western philosophy?

The life of Socrates ended in 399 BCE with the drinking of poison hemlock after being convicted by the Athenian democracy. His death became the catalyst for the most influential period in Western philosophy and cemented his legacy as a martyr for philosophical integrity. Socrates developed the Socratic method to examine concepts like justice and truth through relentless questioning without writing anything himself.

What is the difference between Stoicism and Epicureanism in Western philosophy?

Stoicism, founded by Zeno of Citium, taught that the ideal of living in accordance with nature meant freedom from fears and desires. Epicureanism argued that the pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain were the ultimate goals but emphasized the absence of pain in the body and trouble in the mind over sensual excess. Both schools aimed for ataraxia, a state of calmness and tranquility, but used conflicting methods to attain happiness.

Who are the key figures in 20th century analytic philosophy and what did they argue?

Analytic philosophy became the dominant school for much of the 20th century with figures like Bertrand Russell, Ludwig Wittgenstein, and Karl Popper. Russell and Wittgenstein focused on the philosophy of language and logic, while Popper promoted falsificationism as the basis for science. The logical positivists of the Vienna Circle argued that metaphysics and ethics were meaningless if not logically or empirically verifiable.

What is the relationship between Continental philosophy and Eastern philosophy?

Continental philosophy includes traditions like German idealism, phenomenology, and existentialism that developed from the 19th and 20th centuries in mainland Europe. The influence of Eastern philosophy on Western thought is evident in Pyrrho of Elis who traveled to India with Alexander the Great and was influenced by Buddhist teachings. Pyrrhonism with its goal of ataraxia is similar to the Buddhist concept of nirvana and influenced later thinkers like Hegesias of Cyrene.

The Stoic and Skeptic

The Hellenistic and Roman Imperial periods saw the emergence of new philosophies that sought to provide eudaimonia, or happiness, through internal means. Stoicism, founded by Zeno of Citium, took up Cynic ideals of steadfastness and self-discipline but applied them to social duties rather than flouting conventions. Zeno taught that the ideal of living in accordance with nature meant freedom from fears and desires, requiring individuals to choose how to respond to external circumstances. Epicureanism, another popular school, argued that the pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain were the ultimate goals, but emphasized the absence of pain in the body and trouble in the mind over sensual excess. The goal of both schools was ataraxia, a state of calmness and tranquility. In contrast, Pyrrhonism, founded by Pyrrho of Elis, taught that it was one's opinions about non-evident matters that prevented attaining ataraxia. Pyrrho traveled to India with Alexander the Great's army and was influenced by Buddhist teachings, particularly the three marks of existence. Upon returning to Greece, he founded a school that used epoché, or suspension of judgment, regarding all non-evident propositions to bring the mind to ataraxia. This skepticism was distinct from Academic skepticism, which doubted the capacity of humans to obtain truth but did not doubt the existence of truth itself. The Academic skeptics based their position on Plato's Phaedo, where Socrates discussed how knowledge is not accessible to mortals. As the skeptical period of the Academy ended with Antiochus of Ascalon, Platonic thought entered the period of Middle Platonism, which absorbed ideas from the Peripatetic and Stoic schools. Neoplatonism, led by Plotinus, argued that mind exists before matter and that the universe has a singular cause, a single mind. This philosophy became essentially a religion and had a profound impact on later Christian thought. The various schools of philosophy proposed conflicting methods for attaining happiness, from the internal calm of the Stoics to the external pleasures of the Epicureans. The question of skepticism remained a central strand of thought, with Pyrrhonism and Academic skepticism offering different paths to understanding the limits of human knowledge. The influence of Greek philosophy on Roman thought was heavy, with Epicureanism and Stoicism being particularly popular in Imperial times. The traditions of Greek philosophy continued to shape the intellectual landscape of the ancient world, providing a foundation for the philosophical developments that would follow in the medieval and modern eras.

The Medieval Synthesis

Medieval philosophy extended from the Christianization of the Roman Empire until the Renaissance, defined by the rediscovery of classical Greek and Hellenistic philosophy and the need to integrate sacred doctrines with secular learning. Augustine of Hippo, one of the most important Church Fathers, adopted Plato's thought and Christianized it, dominating medieval philosophy until the 13th century. He argued that evil was a necessary product of human free will and solved the incompatibility of free will and divine foreknowledge by claiming that God stood outside of time entirely. Augustine's influence persisted until the rediscovery of Aristotle's texts, which would shift the focus of medieval thought. Scholasticism emerged as a methodology emphasizing dialectical reasoning to extend knowledge by inference and resolve contradictions. Anselm of Canterbury, called the father of scholasticism, argued that the existence of God could be irrefutably proved with the ontological argument, which defined God as the greatest thing in conceivable existence. Gaunilo of Marmoutiers refuted this by applying the same logic to an imagined perfect island, leading to an absurd outcome. Boethius worked on the problem of universals, arguing that they did not exist independently but existed in the substance of particular things. Peter Abelard extended this to nominalism, stating that universals were just names given to characteristics shared by particulars. Thomas Aquinas, the father of Thomism, was immensely influential in medieval Christendom, aiming to reconcile Aristotle's philosophy with Christian theology. He defined a material substance as the combination of an essence and accidental features, with the soul being the essence for humans. Aquinas saw the soul as unchangeable and independent of the body, influenced by both Plato and Aristotle. The medieval tradition of scholasticism continued to flourish into the 17th century, with figures like Francisco Suárez and John of St. Thomas. Western philosophy during the Middle Ages was also influenced by Jewish philosophers like Maimonides and Gersonides, and Muslim philosophers such as Alkindus, Alfarabi, and Avicenna. These thinkers contributed to the development of scholasticism, which placed a strong emphasis on rigorous conceptual analysis and the careful drawing of distinctions. The scholastic method often took the form of explicit disputation, where a topic was broached as a question, oppositional responses were given, and counterarguments were rebutted. This rigorous dialectical method was eventually applied to many other fields of study, shaping the intellectual landscape of the medieval world.

The Modern Turn

The Renaissance marked a transition between the Middle Ages and modern thought, shifting philosophical interests from technical studies in logic and metaphysics to eclectic inquiries into morality, philology, and mysticism. Humanism, a tendency to study the classics and humane arts, brought to the fore a conception of autonomous man and the development of human personality. The dialogue was used as a primary style of writing by Renaissance philosophers like Giordano Bruno, who was later executed for his heretical views. The dividing line between Renaissance and modern philosophy is disputed, but the early modern period is often identified with the work of Francis Bacon and René Descartes. Descartes grounded his philosophy in problems of knowledge, using a method called Cartesian doubt to find the most certain belief as a foundation for further inquiry. This led to his famous maxim, cogito ergo sum, or I think, therefore I exist, which became foundational for much of Western philosophy. The mind-body problem remained a major issue, with Baruch Spinoza arguing that the mind and body were one substance, and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz arguing that the world was composed of numerous individual substances called monads. These three, Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibniz, are considered influential early rationalists. In contrast, Thomas Hobbes was a materialist who believed that everything was physical, and an empiricist who thought that all knowledge comes from sensation. John Locke and David Hume formed the core of British empiricism, arguing that knowledge comes from sensory experience. George Berkeley argued for immaterialism, claiming that the world existed as a result of being perceived. The political philosophy of the era began with the state of nature, a thought experiment about what the world would look like without society. Hobbes believed this state would be violent and anarchic, calling life solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short, and argued for a sovereign with unlimited power. Locke believed that individuals enjoyed freedom in the state of nature but had to give up some of it to form a society, while Rousseau argued that people were living in a peaceful state in nature and that society led to inequality. The early modern period ended with Immanuel Kant's systematic attempt to limit metaphysics and justify scientific knowledge, reconciling rationalism and empiricism. Kant argued that the mind uses a priori understanding to interpret a posteriori experiences, establishing a new groundwork for studying metaphysics. The 17th and 18th centuries saw the emergence of modern physics out of natural philosophy, with figures like Galileo Galilei, Isaac Newton, and Blaise Pascal contributing to the scientific revolution. The period was characterized by a new focus on the foundations of knowledge and metaphysical system-building, with philosophers striving to define the conditions and limits of human knowledge.

The Idealist Revolution

German idealism emerged in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, developing out of the work of Immanuel Kant in the 1780s and 1790s. Transcendental idealism, advocated by Kant, held that there are limits on what can be understood since much cannot be brought under the conditions of objective judgment. Kant wrote his Critique of Pure Reason in 1781 to reconcile the conflicting approaches of rationalism and empiricism, establishing a new groundwork for studying metaphysics. He maintained that objective knowledge of the world required the mind to impose a conceptual framework on the stream of pure sensory data, including space and time themselves. Johann Gottlieb Fichte and Friedrich Schelling dispensed with belief in the independent existence of the world, creating a thoroughgoing idealist philosophy. The most notable work of absolute idealism was G. W. F. Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit, published in 1807. Hegel admitted his ideas were not new but that all previous philosophies had been incomplete, aiming to correctly finish their job. He asserted that the twin aims of philosophy were to account for the contradictions apparent in human experience and to resolve and preserve these contradictions by showing their compatibility at a higher level of examination. This program of acceptance and reconciliation of contradictions is known as the Hegelian dialectic. Hegel argued that history was the dialectical journey of the Geist, or universal mind, towards self-fulfillment and self-realization. His philosophy was based on absolute idealism, with reality itself being mental. His legacy was divided between the conservative Right Hegelians and radical Young Hegelians, including David Strauss and Ludwig Feuerbach. Feuerbach argued for a materialist conception of Hegel's thought, inspiring Karl Marx. Friedrich Nietzsche, inspired by Kant and Indian philosophy, disagreed on the accessibility of the noumenal, arguing that the experience of will was how this reality was accessible. Nietzsche thought that the will to power was empowering, leading to growth and expansion, and forming the basis of ethics. Jeremy Bentham established utilitarianism, a consequentialist ethic based on the greatest happiness for the greatest number, which was taken from Cesare Beccaria. His associate James Mill's son John Stuart Mill subsequently took up his thought, dividing pleasures into higher and lower kinds. Logic began a period of its most significant advances, with George Boole and Gottlob Frege opening entire fields of inference to formalization. Søren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche laid the groundwork for existentialism and post-structuralism, while Charles Sanders Peirce and William James founded pragmatism. The 19th century saw the beginnings of the divide between Continental and analytic traditions, with the former more interested in general frameworks of metaphysics and the latter focusing on issues of epistemology, ethics, law, and politics.

The Analytic Split

The 20th century dealt with the upheavals produced by a series of conflicts within philosophical discourse, with classical certainties overthrown and new social, economic, scientific, and logical problems emerging. The publication of Edmund Husserl's Logical Investigations in 1900 and Bertrand Russell's The Principles of Mathematics in 1903 marked the beginning of 20th-century philosophy. Since the Second World War, contemporary philosophy has been divided mostly into analytic and continental traditions, with the former carried in the English-speaking world and the latter on the continent of Europe. Analytic philosophy became the dominant school for much of the 20th century, stressing detailed argumentation, attention to semantics, and the use of classical logic. The logical positivists of the Vienna Circle argued that the arguments of metaphysics, ethics, and theology were meaningless, as they were not logically or empirically verifiable. Moritz Schlick and Rudolf Carnap argued that science rested at its roots on direct observation, but Otto Neurath noted that observation already requires theory to have meaning. Karl Popper argued that verificationism was logically incoherent, promoting instead falsificationism as the basis for science. Thomas Kuhn argued that science was composed of paradigms, which would eventually shift when evidence accumulated against them. Ludwig Wittgenstein, Russell's disciple, argued that the problems of philosophy were simply products of language which were actually meaningless, based on the picture theory of meaning. He later changed his conception of how language works, arguing that it has many different uses, which he called different language games. The philosophy of language emerged as its own programme, with Donald Davidson arguing that meaning could be understood through a theory of truth. The theory of reference was another major strand of thought, with Frege arguing that proper names were linked to their referent through a description of what the name refers to. Saul Kripke and Hilary Putnam argued that the referents of proper names are not based on description but on a history of usage passing through users. The philosophy of mind saw early identity theories based on the work of Ullin Place, Herbert Feigl, and J. J. C. Smart, while John Searle developed the Chinese room thought experiment to argue against functionalism. Thomas Nagel raised the issue of subjective experience in What Is It Like to Be a Bat?, and Frank Cameron Jackson's knowledge argument challenged physicalist theories. David Chalmers argued against physicalism in the philosophical zombie argument, noting that subjective experience posed the hard problem of consciousness. The inability of physicalist theories to explain conscious feeling has been termed the explanatory gap. Daniel Dennett claimed that no such gap exists as subjective experiences are a philosophical fiction. Ethics in 20th-century analytic philosophy began with Moore's Principia Ethica, arguing that what is good cannot be defined. W. D. Ross argued that duty formed the basis for ethics, while G. E. M. Anscombe argued in 1958 that both consequentialism and deontology were based on obligation, which could not function without divine authority, promoting virtue ethics instead.

The Continental Divide

Continental philosophy is a set of 19th- and 20th-century philosophical traditions from mainland Europe, including German idealism, phenomenology, existentialism, modern hermeneutics, critical theory, structuralism, and post-structuralism. Edmund Husserl, the founder of phenomenology, sought to study consciousness as experienced from a first-person perspective, while Martin Heidegger drew on the ideas of Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, and Husserl to propose an unconventional existential approach to ontology. Phenomenologically oriented metaphysics undergirded existentialism, with figures like Jean-Paul Sartre, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and Albert Camus. Post-structuralism, including thinkers like Gilles Deleuze, Jean-François Lyotard, Michel Foucault, and Jacques Derrida, critiqued structuralism's limitations. Structuralism, inaugurated by Ferdinand de Saussure, sought to clarify systems of signs through analyzing the discourses they both limit and make possible. Saussure conceived of the sign as being delimited by all the other signs in the system, and ideas as being incapable of existence prior to linguistic structure. Post-structuralists argued that meaning is always in a state of being deferred, making an ultimate interpretation impossible. The psychoanalytic work of Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, and Jacques Lacan has also been influential in contemporary continental thought. Hans-Georg Gadamer and Alasdair MacIntyre have revived the tradition of Aristotelianism in different ways. Existentialism is a term applied to the work of late 19th- and 20th-century philosophers who believed that philosophical thinking begins with the human subject, the acting, feeling, living human individual. Søren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche are widely regarded as the fathers of existentialism, despite profound doctrinal differences. Marxism, originating from Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, analyzes class relations and societal conflict using a materialist interpretation of historical development and a dialectical view of social transformation. Critical theory, developed in Germany in the 1930s by the Frankfurt School, maintains that ideology is the principal obstacle to human emancipation. Process philosophy, beginning with Alfred North Whitehead, identifies metaphysical reality with change, sometimes classified as closer to continental philosophy than analytic philosophy. The influence of Eastern philosophy on Western thought is evident in the work of Pyrrho of Elis, who traveled to India with Alexander the Great and was influenced by Buddhist teachings. Pyrrhonism, with its goal of ataraxia, is similar to the Buddhist concept of nirvana. The Cyrenaic philosopher Hegesias of Cyrene is thought to have been influenced by the teachings of Ashoka's Buddhist missionaries. Empiricist philosophers like Hume and Berkeley favored the bundle theory of personal identity, which has much in common with Buddhist thought. The 20th century saw the increasing professionalization of philosophy, with the discipline divided into analytic and continental traditions, each with its own methods and concerns, yet both contributing to the ongoing exploration of human existence, knowledge, and reality.