What do you know about philosophy? (page 2)

talesin

umm .. actually. Socrates killed himself (does "hemlock ring a bell?) ... hemlock and all that ... basically, he was a nutter ...

Bas

classicist: of course the greeks had morals before their Philosophers started using logic to derive them.

Talesin , I wasn't planning on taking this topic into a particular direction, I merely wondered what interesting philosophical wisdoms you could enlighten me with ( you know I started this thread out of selfinterest : ) Please do share what you know, I'll be glad to read what you come up with

SixofNine I heard read and was tought the Atomic theory was first proposed by greek philosophers living BC. I can't remember wich specific philosopher it was though. Was it Aristotle? Maybe someone else can help me out here, I'll try and look it up myself in the meanwhile.

thanks for the poem Trevor. Philosophy books are often quite dry reading, if only they wrote those wisdoms in the form of poems. Your poem reminds me of the fact that I regularly find philophical wisdoms in the lyrics of modern music.

I don't really have time now, so here's an interesting site to research:

peacefulpete

Talespin..yes he drank the hemlock, you were right I remebered wrong. he was earlier threatened with death but escaped due to politacl change. Whatever you feel about his logic there his ethics were impeccable perhaps fanatical.

See below:

Socrates did not seek to involve himself in the political life of Athens as he felt that there would inevitably be compromises of principle that he was not prepared to make. As a prominent citizen he was called upon to fulfil minor political roles where his sense of principle had caused him to place himself in some personal danger by holding out alone against the unconstitutional condemnation of certain generals. He later refused to participate in the arrest of an innocent man that had been ordered by a corrupt body of "Thirty Tyrants" who ruled Athens in the wake of her defeat by Sparta. This refusal might have cost Socrates his life but for the overthrow of the Thirty Tyrants and a restoration of democracy.

This restored democracy was however markedly traditionalist and reactionary in its religious views - this led it to see Socrates, as a teacher of novel ideas of morality and justice, with some disfavour. Socrates had also alienated many powerful men by acting as a relentlessly questioning Gadfly causing them to face their personal ignorance or own to shortfalls in office.

In 399 B.C. Socrates was accused of "impiety" and of "neglect of the Gods whom the city worships and the practise of religious novelties" and of the "corruption of the young".

Bas

Here's a fragment regarding atomic theory from the site that I put in the thread earlier:

Epicurus and the Epicureans

The ancient atomists (Leucippus and Democritus) had already worked out a systematic description of the natural world comprising many particular material particles, whose mechanical interactions account for everything that happens. In the Hellenistic period, attention turned to the consequences of such a view for the conduct of human life.

Epicurus and his followers pointed out (in the Principle Doctrines, for example) that since the indestructible atoms that constitute the material world move, swerve, and collide entirely by chance, everything that happens in the universe lies outside the reach of direct human control. (Notice how this position projects Hellenistic political impotence onto the natural world.) Human life is, therefore, essentially passive: all we can do is to experience what goes on, without supposing ourselves capable of changing it. Even so, Epicurus held that this sort of life may be a good one, if the experiences are mostly pleasant ones.

I think Democritus should be credited with formulating the first atomic theory:

Democritus (460-370 BCE)

Presocratic Greek philosopher. As the originator of classical atomism, Democritus maintained in opposition to the Eleatics that the universe comprises a plurality of distinct entities that really do move. The haphazard collisions of these individually indestructible atoms, he believed, account for the formation and dissolution of all observable things. Long before its appropriation by Epicurus, this doctrine produced an attitude toward human life that earned Democritus a reputation as "the laughing philosopher."

hmm...this didn't cut and paste right...here's the page then (scroll down to the second paragraph called Epicurus and Epicureans)

upside/down

Plato, for example, tells us that women are like beasts

You mean they're not?

u/d (of the never rattle a hornets nest class)

Robert K Stock

Bas:

Ayn Rand developed the philosophy known as Objectivism.

Rand thought that Aristotle was the only philosopher in history comparable to herself.

Ayn Rand was not included in the list of philosophers you posted.

Objectivism is the philosophy I practise.

stevenyc

I find the Australian's have a real understanding on philosiphers. check out 'Bruce's Philosophers Song' for the true enlightenment

steve

Bas

Hey Robert , would you care to explain the key points of objectivism? sounds like this guy was pretty full of himself btw. But please I'm curious now, Share!

For me, I'm a selfdescribed "practical determinist"..meaning that i think everything is connected through causality through wich past, present and future are fixed. The practical part means that I just take life as it comes.

b

ps, here's a link on determinism:

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/determinism-causal/

BluesBrother

Talesin says of Socrates that he "Killed himself by drinking hemlock" , and was "a nutter"

Wikipedia says

the Athenian public court was induced by three leading public figures to try Socrates for impiety and for corrupting the youth of Athens. He was found guilty as charged, and sentenced to drink hemlock. the Athenian public court was induced by three leading public figures to try Socrates for impiety and for corrupting the youth of Athens. He was found guilty as charged, and sentenced to drink hemlock. the Athenian public court was induced by three leading public figures to try Socrates for impiety and for corrupting the youth of Athens. He was found guilty as charged, and sentenced to drink hemlock.

So he was executed. i believe for encouraging the youth of society to question the beliefs of their fathers. Not such a bad thing to do. I do not know enough of his teachings to judge his philosopy, but he is certainly looked up to as a founder of philosophical thought who had a big influence on Plato

poppers

No matter what a philosopher comes up with it is nothing but a set of ideas describing what is and how one should act. Far better is to drop all philosophies and discover directly what is without reliance on the inevitable distortions of any philosophical framework.

Philosophical viewpoints feed the mind and cater to the ego - what is lies beyond both.

What do you know about philosophy?

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