Major Areas of Philosophy - Essay Example

Philosophy Philosophy engages five areas of inquiry: logic, ethics, politics, metaphysics and esthetics (Durant, 1961). Socrates, an Ancient Greek philosopher is largely regarded as the father or Western philosophical thinking. His student Plato is credited with providing the most insightful representations of Socrates’ philosophies in his works and dialogues (p. 1). Plato’s representation of Socrates’ philosophy is credited with having perpetually influenced logic and epistemology and not only Plato’s own philosophy but the development of Western philosophy (Anagnostopoulos, 2011). Karl Marx’s philosophy as expressed in The Communist Manifesto of 1848 illustrates the development of Western philosophical thinking (Russell, 2004). An analysis of the philosophical works of Plato and his representations of Socrates together with Marx’s Communist Manifesto informs of the ideological underpinnings of philosophy and its contribution to Western philosophy. Socrates’ died in much the same way as he lived: exuding in his philosophical logic that the body and the soul are separate entities. In Jacques-Louis David’s (1787) Death of Socrates the ancient Greek philosopher is sitting on his death bed and is about to take hemlock from his executioner, but he remains animated and talkative. The impression left by the painting is that while his disciples and the executioner are profoundly saddened by his death, Socrates continues to believe in his philosophy that the soul is timeless although the body is not. David’s (1787) painting therefore represents the perpetuation of Socrates’ philosophy. Within ten years of Socrates’ death, his philosophical ideologies were carried over by Plato, one of his most ardent students/disciples (Graham, 1992). Much of Plato’s philosophical writings appear to be a mere “reproduction of speeches delivered by other persons” particularly Socrates (Merlan, 1947, p. 406). In Theaetetus Plato presents a dialogue between Socrates and Euclides and in doing so defines the difference between knowledge and belief. Through Socrates, Plato argues that a jury’s verdict can only represent an opinion of the evidence presented before them. As such, a jury’s verdict is not based on true knowledge since the jurors do not personally witness the events described at the trial (Burnyeat & Barnes, 1980). Thus Plato invites profound logic and thinking about the distinction between what an individual knows and what an individual believes in determining by logical deduction that which is representative of the truth. In Western justice systems, jurors are instructed to assess the evidence and to determine for themselves what they believe to be a true and just verdict. Jurors are not instructed to arrive at the actual truth. Thus Plato’s Theaetetus can be said to inform the mechanisms of the Western justice system’s fact finding purpose. Plato once again revisits the issue of knowledge through a dialogue with Socrates in The Republic. Plato questions whether or not the man who professes ignorance is more knowledgeable than the politician who purports to know all things when he does not (Plato, 2000). Through Socrates and his dialogue with a number of Greeks, Plato focuses on a debate that underpins theories of justice, politics, morality and knowledge. Thus The Republic is often described as one of the greatest influences on Western philosophy (Blackburn, 2008). Plato’s Republic examines the meaning of justice and explores whether or not it is achieved via the fear or threat of punishment. The dialogue in The Republic asks a series of questions relative to justice and social order and ultimately concludes that justice is necessary. Essentially, Plato constructs the ideal politically just society which consists of different classes of individual within an hierarchal construct (Plato, 2000). Plato’s Apology is yet another immortalization of Socrates and expresses Socrates defense at this trial. Socrates was put on trial for failure to follow the Gods recognized by the state and was thus accused of inventing his own Gods and corruption of the masses. In his defense, Socrates’ speech again expresses the philosophical thinking that knowledge itself it tied to accepting that the individual cannot know all things. Those who profess to know all, are indeed more ignorant and less knowledgeable than he who freely admits his own ignorance (Plato, 1997). In the speech ascribed to Socrates by Plato, Socrates explains his meeting with a politician whom he characterized as thinking that he knew everything. Socrates explained: So I left him, saying to myself, as I went away: Will, although I do not suppose that either of us knows anything really beautiful and good, I am better off than he is, - for he knows nothing, and thinks that he knows; I neither know nor think that I know. In this latter particular, then, I seem to have slightly the advantage of him (Plato, 1997, p. 54). Socrates gladly accepts his punishment for embarrassing the state by exposing their lack of wisdom. Socrates even in the sentence of death accepts that no man knows what happens in death and it would be foolish to fear that which is not known (Plato, 1997). Thus the philosophy exposed in Plato’s Apology engages thinking and evaluation of knowledge and truth and the vulnerability of man to place blind faith in the state. By challenging the state’s wisdom, it can be argued that classical ancient Greek philosophy paved the way for the political theory that gave birth to Western democracy. Western democracy places the power in the masses and the state merely acts as proxy for the masses. Thus, western democracy can be said to exude Plato and Socrates’ ideology that politicians are not wiser than the ordinary man and it is through the ordinary man that politicians derive their power. Plato’s Crito examines another significant aspect of Western philosophy and Western ideology in general: justice. In Crito, an old friend of Socrates visits Socrates in his cell and speaks to Socrates about the injustice of his conviction and pending execution. The old friend hopes to convince Socrates to allow him to aid in his escape. However, Socrates speaks to the law and justice and tells his old friend that one must look at law as a whole rather than dissect each law. The reality is all of Athens are bound by all of the laws and thus it would be unjust for him to escape having been convicted by the law (Plato, 1988). Essentially, Plato’s Crito gives expression to the Western concept of jurisprudence which adheres to the theory that although some laws may be unjust, it is not for man to determine that he should disobey them. If all mankind acted on his or her own belief about unjust laws, there would be mass chaos and disorder. Thus it was not for the individual to decide to disobey laws. All mankind must be equally bound by the law regardless of his or her own opinion about the fairness or unfairness of the law. Plato’s The Symposium even goes so far as to ponder the philosophy of love. At a dinner with Socrates friends exchange ideas of love and relate it to the metaphysical. Socrates however, takes a different position and relates love to what it is most commonly associated with in Western thinking. Love, according to Socrates is not an expression of a god. It is instead an expression of the spirit which connects people with each other and with their desires. Thus there is physical love and emotional love (Plato, 1986). The parallels between Plato’s The Symposium and Western thinking are obvious. Love is the attachment to physical and emotional desires. For Socrates emotional love is an expression of the desire for wisdom. In Western thinking emotional love may be an expression of the desire for acceptance. Therefore in an abstract way, the desire for acceptance can be related to a desire for wisdom as wisdom could lead to acceptance. In Plato’s Phaedo, friends are once again assembled in Socrates’ cell and ponder the philosophical underpinnings of the soul. Socrates expresses the belief that the soul does not need the body to exist and therefore the soul is immortal. Life and death are perpetual and thus when an individual dies, he or she will return to life at some point in the future (Plato, 1977). Thus Plato’s Phaedo introduces the Western and non-Western concept of reincarnation. Plato’s Phaedo also explores the philosophy of knowledge and aligns it with recalling. An individual is born with a blank mind which occurs as a result of forgetting all that was learned in a previous life. Knowledge forgotten at birth however can be recalled but through probing and questioning (Plato, 1977). Plato (1977) also argues through Socrates that the body and the soul are two separate parts, the body is visible and the soul invisible. Again, there is the idea that the soul has perpetual life (Plato, 1977). Marx and Engels’(2005) Communist Manifesto can be seen as a culmination of classical ancient Greek philosophies as expressed by Socrates and Plato and those that followed. Marx and Engels’ (2005) Communist Manifesto puts these philosophies into the realities of more modern times and more modern state structures. Marx offers a critique of capitalism and explains the hierarchal order of society and how history reflects this hierarchal structure. Essentially, society is reflected in the relationships between classes. Modern capitalism exemplifies tensions between societal classes in which the ordinary man is exploited for the financial gain of the powerful. Thus through the Communist Manifesto, the evolution of classic ancient philosophies have evolved to give expression to ideas of the state, its relationship with man and man’s relationship with man, the world, and the environment. Bibliography Anagnostopoulos, G. Socratic Platonic and Aristotelian Studies: Essays in Honor of Gerasiomos Santas. New York, NY: Springer, 2011. Blackburn, S. Plato’s Republic: A Biography. London, UK: Atlantic Books, 2008. Burnyeat, M.F. and Barnes, J. “Socrates and the Jury: Paradoxes in Plato’s Distinction Between Knowledge and True Belief.” Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, (1980) Vol. 54: 173-206. David, Jacques-Louis. Death of Socrates, 1787. Painting at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Durant, W. The Story of Philosophy: The Lives and Opinion of the World’s Greatest Philosophers from Plato to John Dewey. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster, 1961. Graham, D. W. “Socrates and Plato.” Phronesis, (1992) Vol. 37(2): 141-165. Marx, K. and Engels, F. “The Communist Manifesto”. Cited in Three Classic Essays on How to Change the World. Victoria, Australia: Ocean Press, 2005. Merlan, P. “Form and Content in Plato’s Philosophy.” Journal of the History of Ideas, (October 1947) Vol. 8(4): 406-430. Plato (Author); Ferrari, G.R.F. and Griffith, T. (Editors). The Republic. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Plato. “The Apology.” Cited in Sowards, J. K. Makers of the Western Tradition. New York, NY: Bedford Books, 1997. Plato. “Crito”. Cited in West, T.G. and West, G.S. (Translators). Plato’s Euthyphro, Apology and Crito and Aristophanes’ Clouds. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1988. Plato (Author) and Bernardete, S. (Translator). The Symposium. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1986. Plato (Author) and Grube, G. M.A. (Translator). Phaedo. Indianapolis, IA: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc. 1977. Russell, B. History of Western Philosophy. London, UK: Routledge, 2004. Read More