philosophy - wayne state - college of liberal arts & science哲学-韦恩国家文科和科学学院；

2/22/2019,© R. D. Whitman, May not be reproduced without permission,1,Philosophy: From Mythos to Logos,The Evolution of Philosophical Problematics,2/22/2019,© R. D. Whitman, May not be reproduced without permissionEarly Philosophy,2,2/22/2019,© R. D. Whitman, May not be reproduced without permissionEarly Philosophy,3,Thales of Melitus (ca. 580 B.C.),Primary first cause is water We are born of a watery world water = steam = ice (states!) Water wears stuff away Elementism (with a touch of determinism and changing states) “The magnetic stone has soul because it sets the stone in motion.” So “soul” = movement (and, perhaps, in later psychology “intent” and “purpose”,Water,futanthro,Logos,Mythos ?,2/22/2019,© R. D. Whitman, May not be reproduced without permissionEarly Philosophy,4,Anaximander (ca. 610 - ca. 546 B.C.),Why did everything not return to water? Existence must be boundless and there must be some balancing factor: uninterrupted tensions and opposites “boundlessly indeterminable” first matter “the everlasting generative matter split apart in the creation of our world and out of it a sphere of flame grew around the air surrounding the earth like the bark around a tree; then, when it tore apart and bunched up into definite circles, the sun, moon, and the stars took its place.” “Into that from which things take their rise they pass away once more, as is ordained, for they make reparation and satisfaction to one another for their injustice according to the ordering of time.” Organicism (and, perhaps a suggestion of some element unlike those we experience) Suggested that humans were borne of sea animals,Mythos?,2/22/2019,© R. D. Whitman, May not be reproduced without permissionEarly Philosophy,5,Anaximenes (ca. 545 B.C.),Every form of matter can serve as basic and they are all transformed into one another Continuation of “transformation of states” seen in Thales and of the organismic balance seen in Anaxamander BUT, a sign of transformation from “quality” to “quantity” in his analysis of the rarefaction and expansion of air - later to become a Pythagorean mythos,Air,Test it,2/22/2019,© R. D. Whitman, May not be reproduced without permissionEarly Philosophy,6,Pythagoras (c. 570 B.C.),Secret cult of numbers Do not eat beans.,The fundamental element is number,tongstat,2/22/2019,© R. D. Whitman, May not be reproduced without permissionEarly Philosophy,7,Heraclitus (535-475 BCE.),fire perpetual change, flux as described in Platos Theaetetus, “You cannot step twice into the same river; for fresh waters are ever flowing in upon you.” “the sun is new every day.” “This world order which is the same for all was created neither by one of the gods nor by one of the humans, but it was always, and is, and will be eternally living fire, glimmering and extinguishing according to measures.” Werner Heisenberg: “At this point we can interpose that in a certain way modern physics comes extraordinarily close to the teaching of Heraclitus. If one substitutes the word “fire”, one can view Heraclitus pronouncements almost word for word as an expression of our modern conception. Energy is indeed the material of which all the elementary particles, all atoms and therefore all things in general are made, and at the same time energy is also that which is moved . . . Energy can be transformed into movement, heat, light, and tension. Energy can be regarded as the cause of all changes in the world.” Organicism (opposites in flux, always becoming),Fire,2/22/2019,© R. D. Whitman, May not be reproduced without permissionEarly Philosophy,8,Heraclitus as the Greek Taoist?,Chuang-tzu “In the transformation and growth of all things, every bud and feature has its proper form. In this we have their gradual maturing and decay, the constant flow of transformation and change.”,2/22/2019,© R. D. Whitman, May not be reproduced without permissionEarly Philosophy,9,Parmenides (ca. 510 BCE.),You cannot think of nothing without it becoming. Only what can be thought can exist Motion is impossible because it would mean that something was, where it had not been (his student was Zeno of Elea (ca.495-430) , of course, Zenos paradoxes) Rationalism,In the end absolute equilibrium (entropy?),Top-Down Processing?,2/22/2019,© R. D. Whitman, May not be reproduced without permissionEarly Philosophy,10,Anaxagoras (ca.500 BCE.),From bread and water arise bone and flesh. 'How can hair be made of what is not hair, and flesh of what is not flesh?' Infinite seeds in proportion (explains why something comes from something it is not) Nous (from living matter) is a force that organizes inanimate matter elementism, reductionism (rationalism?),Hints of conservation of matter?,2/22/2019,© R. D. Whitman, May not be reproduced without permissionEarly Philosophy,11,Empedocles (ca. 450 BCE,Air could keep water out of a vessel - it is a “body” Pluralist: four roots: air, fire, water, earth Love and strife (later Freuds eros and thanatos),2/22/2019,© R. D. Whitman, Ma