Great Minds - Introduction to the Problems and Scope of Philosophy
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Dr. Michael Sugrue earned his BA at the University of Chicago and PhD at Columbia University.
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Western philosophy rests on two foundational traditions—Athens (secular rationality, human agency, and the drive to transcend natural limits) and Jerusalem (faith, humility before the divine, and acceptance of cosmic order)—and understanding which tradition a philosopher adopts determines their entire system of thought on ethics, politics, epistemology, and metaphysics.
- All major Western philosophers commit to one of two ontological positions: one-world (nature only) or two-world (nature plus transcendent realm), which cascades into their views on ethics, politics, and knowledge
- Athens represents hubris and Promethean striving (exemplified by Prometheus stealing fire), while Jerusalem represents faith and obedience (exemplified by Job's unwavering trust despite suffering)
- The intellectual health of Western thought requires engaging both traditions rather than exclusively adopting one, as the human psyche contains heterogeneous elements requiring different kinds of thinking for complete development
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There are only two basic ontological answers to the fundamental question 'What is?' in the Western intellectual tradition: first, that what is, is nature—tables, chairs, objects of sense perception with no gods, spirits, demons, or non-physical entities; and second, that nature exists plus something else—a transcendent realm like heaven, hell, or the world of forms.
“there are basically only two answers to the questions of to the question what is it's such a simple question that you can see how it wouldn't provide a great many alternatives at the most fundamental level there are two basic answers to the question of what is in the western tradition the first answer to the question is that what is is nature that is simply tables and chairs and objects of sense perception that there are no gods or spirits or demons or anything mystical anything non-physical anything non-sensible”
Hubris—the overweening pride and desire to be something more than one should be, to break out of the bonds of nature and become divine—is the core of Greek tragedy and the essence of the Greek heroic temptation.
“this is the heroic temptation in greek tragedy this is called hubris this is that pride this is that overweening desire to be something more than you ought to be to break out of the bonds of nature and to become something more”
Prometheus, in contrast to Job, is the man who shakes his fist at the gods, disobeys them knowing he will be punished, and refuses to accept human subordination to the divine, representing the Greek drive toward mastery, will, and human transcendence.
“let's take an alternative to that the man who shakes his fist at god the man who wants to be like god the man full of greek hubris let's take the perfect greek man... but my choice for the perfect greek man is prometheus the man who's not quite at the level of the gods but would like to be and although he knows that he's somehow subordinate to the gods he's still the man who wants to move himself up instead of having the humility and the faith that was characteristic of job prometheus is the man who shakes his fist at the gods the man who disobeys the gods knowing he's going to be punished and doesn't care”
The concerns of Western philosophy are remarkably small in number given the vast variety of thinkers and traditions, because all philosophers must address a core set of recurring problems spanning 10 to 30 centuries, requiring an imaginative leap to understand how thinkers in earlier periods approached these problems without modern technological advantages or presuppositions.
“the concerns of the history of philosophy are remarkably small given the vast variety of thinkers in the history of philosophy the enormous diversity and richness of the traditions they represent and the vast amounts of time that we're talking about when we consider the history of philosophy we must always consider the fact that we are dropping back 10 or 15 or 20 or 30 centuries so on our part it will require an imaginative leap”
In the Christian New Testament tradition, logos means 'word' (as in 'In the beginning was the Word'), not free rationality—the primary reality is the authoritative, fundamental, divine word of God; this difference in meaning has been the source of endless confusion in Western philosophy between devotees of Athens and Jerusalem.
“in the tradition of biblical faith logos does not mean free untrammeled reason it has that connotation because it's taken from the greek but in fact logos means word the gospel of john the first passage the first verse in the first chapter says in the beginning was the word and the word was made flesh the word for word here is logos and what we mean by in the beginning was the word is that the beginning the primary or stuff of the world the fundamental reality is the word of god nothing comes prior to that nothing is more fundamental nothing is more basic the authoritative fundamental divine word of god is the logos”
Every epistemology (theory of knowledge) necessarily entails a theory of the knower—a philosophical psychology—because knowledge always involves some person doing the knowing, and different philosophers' conceptions of mind and consciousness are characteristic of and directly tied to their entire philosophical projects.
“every philosophy every philosophy that talks about knowledge also has to talk about a theory of the knower because whenever there's knowledge there's also some person doing the knowing and a theory of knowledge and a theory of the knower always lead to a sort of philosophical psychology either explicitly or implicitly all of the philosophers in the western tradition have a particular conception of the human mind and the human consciousness which is characteristic of and cognate to their entire philosophical project”
Political theory investigates how societies ought to be organized, how governments ought to function, and how justice ought to be dispensed—and it is fundamentally connected to ethics because the city or human collectivity is conceptualized as being like an individual human soul only increased in size and proportion.
“the reason why politics is connected to ethics is because at least in the ancient tradition of politics and ethics one is directly connected to the other because the city or the human collectivity is seen as being like an individual human soul only raised in size increased in proportions so if it is true that the human individual is like human society in some respects or for some purposes then at its basis political theory the theory of political science the theory of how we ought to organize societies of how governments ought to be organized of how justice ought to be dispensed will all be connected with our theories of ethics and will our conceptions of proper human behavior”
Mythos means story, but more fundamentally an archetypical story—a narrative about fictional people and events that, despite its fictional particularity, has universal applicability and speaks fundamental truths about the human condition indirectly and ambiguously, not through mathematical equations.
“mythos just means story or at least if i want to be a little over simple about it it just means story it's the word from which we derive our term myth and it's a story but it's more than a story it's somehow an archetypical story it's a story about we assume fictional people doing fictional things yet it's a lie that tells the truth because this story has a universal applicability independent of the person that is alleged to have done these things”
Wittgenstein argued that philosophical illnesses usually stem from dietary deficiency—from a lack of diverse examples—suggesting that if one exclusively focuses on religious texts and issues, one may lack examples from science and mathematics, and vice versa.
“the great philosopher wittgenstein once said that philosophical illnesses usually stem from a dietary deficiency when a they stem from a situation in which in which our intellectual diet is deficient in examples if we constantly think about religious and religion and religious texts and religious issues we may well have a dietary deficiency that is lacking in scientific or mathematical examples similarly if we were to be extremely positivistic organize our thinking only around physics and mathematics and formal logic it may well be the questions of good and evil questions of human history human destiny what's good for both individuals and societies it may well be that questions like that will escape us if we were exclusively scientific in our orientation”
The Greek project of creating secular knowledge, mastering nature, discovering fundamental mathematical axioms, and enlarging the realm of free untrammeled rationality is all derived from and caught up in the Promethean image—the image of beings who want to be something more than human.
“the whole greek project of creating secular knowledge of mastering nature of reaching the fun the fundamental axioms of mathematics of enlarging the realm of free untrammeled rationality all of these ideas are caught up in the image of prometheus so when we braid together the tradition of athens in jerusalem we are really asking ourselves do we want the virtues of athens or do we want the virtues of jerusalem do we want to be like job or do we want to be like prometheus”
There may be a divine element or universal element to free unfettered human discourse, and there may be something of the mythical, divine, or more-than-human in either God's revelation or in the thought that God might reveal his will to us; this possibility suggests that devotees of Athens and Jerusalem may not be entirely separate in their concerns.
“perhaps they're not entirely separate perhaps there is a divine element a universal element to free unfettered human discourse and perhaps there is some element of the mythical or of the divine or of the more than human in either god's revelation or even in the thought that god might reveal his will to us”
To understand any philosopher, one must first identify whether he is a one-world or two-world philosopher, because once you know their ontological commitment, much of what follows in their philosophy will make a great deal more sense because all philosophy forms one coherent whole among the best thinkers.
“you have to be careful throughout the history of philosophy to get a sense early on of what sort of philosophy you're dealing with once you know whether he's a one-world philosopher or a two-world philosopher much of what he follows in his philosophy will make a great deal more sense because all of philosophy forms one coherent whole at least among the best thinkers”
Different kinds of philosophical thinking offer different kinds of pleasure and improvement to the human soul and mind; no edifying philosophy starts from the same assumptions or reaches the same conclusions—different philosophical traditions improve different elements of the soul.
“different sorts of philosopher different sorts of philosophical discourse different sorts of thinking offer us different sorts of pleasure and different sorts of improvement in other words do not make the mistake of thinking that all edifying philosophies start from the same assumptions and come to the same conclusions i think that is a fundamental error in fact there are alternative sets of assumptions and alternative sets of conclusions which may well be in contradictory between themselves and yet listening to them thinking about them and letting them do something to you by actually engaging with them you may be edified in different kinds of ways it may improve different elements in your soul in other words different kinds of thinking are good for you”
To maximize learning from a course in the history of Western philosophy, students must have the courage not just to hold their existing convictions but to attack them, call them into question, and imaginatively explore what they would believe if their current assumptions were completely wrong.
“what i'm asking you is to have the courage not just to hold the convictions that you do but the courage to attack your convictions to call your convictions into question to ask yourself suppose i'm completely wrong suppose the other set of assumptions or the other set of conclusions is the real one how would i know am i really certain about what i think i know if you do that seriously if you sincerely apply yourself to the tradition of athens and to the tradition of jerusalem i think you will maximize what a course of lectures in the history of western philosophy can potentially offer you”
The intellectual history of the West can be understood as a braid formed by two traditions: Athens (representing liberated rationality and human freedom) and Jerusalem (representing reverence, piety, and faith in God), which are foundational to the mythology, orientation toward right and wrong, and metaphysical conceptions characteristic of Western culture.
“the tradition that comes out of athens and the tradition that comes out of jerusalem the tradition that comes from liberated rationality and human freedom and the tradition that comes from reverence and piety and faith in god these are the sort of the two parts of a braid that intellectual that the intellectual life of the west forms when you step back and look at it over the centuries”
The human psyche and soul are made up of heterogeneous components—rational, emotional, desiring—and focusing exclusively on either Athens or Jerusalem, on either Prometheus or Job, locks one into an either/or alternative that may not be entirely satisfactory for human flourishing.
“the human psyche or the human soul is made up of a heterogeneous set of components we have a rational element to us that allows us to do our taxes and allows us to do geometry we have an emotional element in us which allows us to appreciate poetry and allows us to fall in love we have the desire for religious illumination testimony to that is the fact that we have constructed the religious systems the religious art and architecture that we have we have many heterogeneous desires and many heterogeneous elements built into our psyche or our soul or our mind and insofar as we exclusively focus on just job or just prometheus insofar as we wish to be just athenian or just derived from jerusalem we have locked ourselves into an either or alternative that i suspect is not entirely satisfactory”
Intellectual honesty requires constantly asking oneself: 'Do I believe proposition X?' and 'What would count as evidence either for or against this proposition?'—and then actively looking for evidence both in favor of what one believes and in favor of what one rejects.
“if you want a kind of formula for intellectual honesty when you confront these and other questions that we'll have to deal with in the next 63 lectures you might want to constantly ask yourself the following question do i believe this issue that's called the issue xyz and then secondarily what would count as evidence either for this proposition or against it if you are willing to look for evidence in favor of what you believe and also evidence in favor of what you do not believe or in favor what you reject the intellectual honesty that you will bring to these issues will benefit you both in your understanding and in your capacity to absorb these works”
Understanding and absorbing the message of both Athens and Jerusalem requires not just intellectual comprehension but genuine engagement with opposing worldviews, which then leads to action outside the realm of philosophy.
“understanding is just the first stage after you understand you have to absorb and after absorbing the message of both athens and jerusalem then the question is action and that's outside the realm of these lectures”
Understanding philosophical material is only the first stage; after understanding comes absorption, and after absorption comes action—the action stage is outside the scope of these lectures but represents the ultimate purpose of philosophical education.
“understanding is just the first stage after you understand you have to absorb and after absorbing the message of both athens and jerusalem then the question is action and that's outside the realm of these lectures”
What is unique and remarkable about Greek culture, compared to contemporaneous cultures, is the drive toward secular knowledge—a thorough turnaround from the earlier tradition organized entirely around myths, exemplified by the Greek pre-Socratic physicists and sophists.
“what is remarkable and unique about greek about greek culture as opposed to the other cultures that were contemporaneous with it is that in greek culture there is a drive towards secular knowledge and this is a thorough turnaround from the earlier tradition of thought which has been entirely organized around myths secular knowledge is a new and important idea that comes to us from the secular greek thinkers particularly in this case the greek pre-socratic physicists and the greek sophists”
The pre-Socratic physicists, in treating the world as made up only of atoms and the void, were the first philosophers to assert that nature alone (without gods, spirits, or a transcendent realm) is ontologically fundamental, establishing the origin of philosophical materialism in the Western tradition.
“there's a whole school of philosophy dates all the way back to the ancient greek pre-socratic physicists which treats the world as simply made up of atoms and the void or matter and space there is no room for a second world there's no room for god or angels or spirits or anything that's independent of human sense perceptions so for those philosophers who believe that the world is basically natural who approach nature from as being ontologically fundamental these people will be the origins of materialistic interpretations of the world”
Plato's metaphysical tradition posits a world of forms (a realm of pure ideas and pure thought that is more real, permanent, and everlasting than the world of becoming, change, and flux that humans inhabit) functioning analogously to the Christian/Jewish heaven—a transcendent realm where something divine rains down its significance and will on the natural world.
“in the case of plato the metaphysic the and the greek metaphysical tradition this second world is called the realm of the forms and the realm of the forms is a place of pure ideas of pure thought that's somehow more real more permanent more everlasting than this world of becoming this world of change this world of flux that we inhabit”
Socrates is the patron saint of free and rational inquiry, and Athens is the cultural home of the idea that nothing human is foreign to us, that what is potentially true for one human being is accessible to all through one common logos (rationality) that unites all humans and allows them to dispel the darkness of myth and irrationality.
“athens is the home of socrates and socrates can be thought of as the sort of patron saint of free and rational inquiry athens is the contributor in the western culture of the idea that nothing human is foreign to us that what is potentially true for one human being is accessible to all that there is one common logos one common rationality which unites all of human beings and which will allow them to dispel the darkness of myth and irrationality which the greeks think hangs over us like a fog”
Prometheus stole fire from the gods for humanity because he pitied them for lacking natural advantages of other animals (claws, teeth, swiftness, protective coloration) and wanted to give them a divine spark; his act was motivated by compassion for human limitation but expressed as satanic will and defiance of Zeus.
“prometheus is a titan who felt sorry for the human beings when they were being created because they weren't given the advantages of the animals they didn't have claws and teeth they didn't have this swiftness of deer they didn't have the coloration of chameleons they didn't have anything going for them prometheus liked human beings and despite the fact that zeus says that you can't bring the fire of the gods you can't bring this divine spark down to human beings prometheus deceives zeus prometheus goes against what the greatest of the greek gods tells him to do prometheus says i'm going to do what i will it's pure satanic will”
In Greek philosophy, rational discourse (logos) has a preeminent place, exemplified by Socratic dialogues which are works of art raising philosophical rational discourse to the level of archetypes of thinking and approaching knowledge in a particularly rational, humane, man-centered way.
“in greek philosophy rational discourse has a preeminent place the socratic dialogues are works of art which raise philosophical rational discourse to the realm of archetypes of thinking archetypes of approaching knowledge in a particularly rational humane man-centered way the greek view of logos is free unfettered rationality”
Job is God's faithful servant who, despite receiving terrible catastrophes—the loss of family, possessions, and health—maintains unwavering faith in God and refuses to blaspheme or judge God, instead recognizing that humans are as earthworms to God and that it is impertinent to tell God how to run the universe.
“god gratuitously sends down to job a terrible series of catastrophes his family gets stricken with diseases and with invasion and they're killed and his possessions are scattered and his house is burnt down and he loses all the lovely things he has and he's afflicted with boils and pains and diseases and all the evils of the human flesh and all through this job is completely faithful and constantly praises god saying i know my status god whatever you send is right god is god man is man i will never transgress the boundary and blame god because that's the ultimate blasphemy that man should judge god”
Ethics is the philosophical inquiry into right and wrong, moral obligations, and what we ought and ought not to do—it investigates the non-animal, free-choosing aspects of human beings and asks what kind of people we are or could become.
“ethics is the theory or the philosophic branch of inquiry which talks about right and wrong which talks about our moral obligations which inquires into our certainty of what we ought and ought not to do ethics asks what is it to be a human being and to engage in actions that are appropriate to a human being how can we improve the way we behave and how can we make adequate or satisfactory judgments of the behavior of other people ethics investigates the part of human beings that are not animals that are not specifically completely part of nature it indic it investigates the element in human beings which make choices which are free which in the ancient intellectual tradition have souls”
Aesthetics is the theory of the beautiful and involves reasoned inquiry into what human beings find beautiful, whether beauty exists in the object or in the psyche/mind, and what role beauty plays in other judgments including judgments of right and wrong, political order, and how we ought to live.
“aesthetics is a theory of the beautiful a series of reasoning a reasoned conclusions or reasoned thoughts about what it is that human beings find beautiful whether this beauty that they apprehend is in the object that they're looking at or observing or whether it's in the psyche whether it's in the mind itself and what the role of beauty is in the rest of our judgments for example in our judgments of right and wrong our judgments of political order and change and our judgments of the way that we ought to live our own particular lives”
Plato organized his philosophy of mind and theory of the soul with particular reference to problems of justifying mathematical knowledge, while 17th and 18th century philosophers developed different conceptions of philosophical psychology based on concerns with justifying the rise of modern natural science.
“plato had one particular philosophy of mind and he organized his philosophy of mind or of the soul with particular reference to the problems of justifying mathematical knowledge the philosophers of the 17th and 18th century who were at the heyday of the rise of modern science put together different and alternative conceptions of philosophical psychology based upon different concerns with regard to epistemology their concerns in the 17th and 18th century were primarily with justifying the rise of modern natural science and their philosophy of mind correspondingly differs in the sort of emphasis that they place upon different topics”
Metaphysics refers to ideas or entities that exist independently of the world of space and time and are not sensible objects like tables, chairs, or rocks—examples include pure ideas, spiritual entities like God or angels, and things that exist outside of immediate everyday experience.
“metaphysics comes from greek words meaning above or beyond physics or nature what we mean by metaphysics is a set of ideas or entities that exist independently of the world of space and time that aren't the kind of things that tables and chairs and rocks and stars are examples of metaphysics are pure ideas or spiritual entities like god or the angels things like that for religious believers in every case though metaphysics suggests that there's something to the world that there's something real and existing that exists independent of and somehow outside of our immediate everyday experience”
Philosophy comes from two Greek words meaning 'love' and 'wisdom' or 'knowledge,' and represents a passion for knowledge that goes beyond practical concerns and the intellectual tradition of the West.
“the word philosophy comes from two greek words the words for love and wisdom or knowledge and philosophy is more or less a a love of wisdom a sort of passion for knowledge which goes beyond what we can get from it which goes beyond practical concerns and the intellectual tradition of the west”
Physics, in the philosophical sense, is our general theory of nature and the world of sense perception—tables, chairs, component parts of material objects, and larger entities like suns, galaxies, and worlds—explaining the world of space and time around us.
“physics might be thought of as our theory of nature and roughly speaking what it means is it's our way of explaining the world around us the world of sense perception the world of tables and chairs and of the component parts of tables and chairs and of the larger things that we encounter suns galaxies worlds things like that our general theory of the the world of space and time around us might be described from a philosophical standpoint as being physics”
Ontology is the philosophical discipline that allows analysis and thinking about the kind of existence that things have—it distinguishes between kinds of beings, attributing different status in a hierarchy and different modes of reasoning applicable to each kind of being.
“ontology is a kind of philosophical discipline which allows us to analyze and think about the kind of existence that things have for example we might say that god exists in a different way and on a different plane from everyday human beings we might be inclined to say that human beings have a sort of stat a status and a set of rights and a kind of dignity that everyday objects don't have in other words when we distinguish between human beings and physical objects or between god and human beings we're making what might be called ontological distinctions we're distinguishing between the kinds of beings that they are we're attributing to them different status in a sort of hierarchy perhaps and we're distinguishing the kind of speech that we can make about them the kind of reasoning that we can do about them”
Logic is a system of rules for deriving true inferences—if you start with true premises and follow the rules of logic, you will always arrive at true conclusions; it is fundamentally a set of rules for organizing thinking to ensure correct answers from true assumptions.
“logic is a system of rules for deriving true inferences in other words logic is a series of rules which says that if you start out with true premises if you follow the rules of logic you will always draw true inferences so it's nothing very complicated nothing is intimidating as you might have suspected logic is just a set of rules for organize our think organizing our thinking so that we always get the right answer if we start out with true assumptions”
Epistemology is the inquiry into knowledge itself—it investigates what kinds of things we can know and what kinds of knowledge we can have of different kinds of things, recognizing that different domains of knowledge (arithmetic, empirical facts, morality, politics) may involve fundamentally different types of knowing.
“epistemology comes from two greek words episteme and logos meaning speech or reasoning about knowledge itself when we inquire into epistemology what we're doing is thinking about thinking thinking about knowledge trying to account first of all for what sort of things we can know about and second of all we're trying to account for what kind of knowledge we can have of different kinds of things so for example our knowledge of arithmetic may be different from our knowledge of the boiling point of water our knowledge of the boiling point of water may be different from our knowledge of right and wrong our knowledge of right and wrong may be different from our knowledge of political theory or the way that governments ought to be organized in every case different kinds of knowledge and different kinds of thinking involve epistemological distinctions and epistemological thinking”