The Foundation of Humanistic Philosophy - Essay Example

HUMANISTIC PHILOSOPHY SOCRATES AND PLATO IN HUMANISTIC TRADITION Compared with the Pre-Socratic Philosophers, Socrates and Plato’s contribution to the humanistic Tradition may be seen as a form of paradigm shift. This I maintain on the premise that although both genre work on the foundational belief that human beings are rational beings, who in their rationality possess abilities that enables them to address their own questions, thus, carrying in their persons dignity and worth in lieu of their understanding and apprehension of truth. Socrates and Plato are the first two philosophers who directed their queries on understanding the human person and the human person’s life itself. They have moved away from the ‘scientific questions’ pertinent to the understanding of the origin of the universe or the basic stuff. They have provided us with the philosophical shift that looks into human person, what makes them a human person, the good life and how the good life can be achieved. In Plato’s Apology, when Socrates said that the “life which is unexamined is not worth living” (10) he showed to us the significance of understanding who we are, what we are and where are we going. This ethos has directed humanity’s quest for knowledge and understanding of ourselves and the world around us. Although it can be maintained that Pre-Socratic Philosophers’ query regarding the basic stuff that holds the universe and Socrates’ and Plato’s quest for understanding of humanity itself are two different paths, what we can see is the fact that these two concerns are technically the two important realities that hounds human existence then until the contemporary period, our period. And that the difference between Socrates and Plato and the Pre-Socratic Philosophers is simply a difference in focus but, in essence, it is the same in significance – to understand wo/man, to know her /his situation in the here and now, and to comprehend where is s/he may possibly go. ARISTOTLE’S ETHICS The uniqueness of Aristotle’s ethics lies on the fact that he is the first philosopher to affirm the claim that central in ethical discourse is the notion that the human person is both soul and body. And that in order to understand ‘arête’ or virtue, one has to understand that the human person is not just a metaphysical soul who accidentally fell from the heavens. It is of great importance for Aristotle that the human person be fully appreciated as a rational human being who is capable of making rational judgements as he pursuits the good life with other human beings in the polis. As such, it can be maintained that Aristotle’s perception of virtue, though teleological in essence since it upholds the idea that the choices that we make is geared towards achieving the ends of a good life which is happiness ‘eudaimonia’, still what it is of predominant importance in his ethics is the fact that the acts that we undertake is a result of two factors which are basically derived from our being rational beings. He maintained that human beings have to possess intellectual virtue which is learned and the moral virtues which are developed by habit. The relation of the two virtues is such that the person knows why he acts in such a way or why he should act rightfully in response to a particular context and at a particular time. Being such, ethical action is not just a result of some impulse or a natural disposition of certain kind on the part of the individual. More over, Aristotle’s ethics combines virtues and the laws thus making phrônesis a “central virtue.” (MacIntyre, 154) Phrônesis is an intellectual virtue which is characterize by a person who knows what is due to him and takes pride in claiming his due. Aristotle’s ethics is unique not only because he has tied metaphysics with biology – the recognition that a person is both soul and body- but that human acts are teleological and aiming for the golden mean because human beings are rational beings and at the same time political animals whose actualization of potentials is realizable only in the presence of others in the polis. Who are the major Pre-Socratic philosophers and what was their outlook on reality (generally speaking)? The major Pre-Socratic philosophers are: Thales who thought that “water is the original substance, out of which all others are formed and he maintained that the earth rests on water.” (Russell, 44) Then there is Anaximander who strongly believed that all things come “from a single primal substance but that is not water…or any other substances…It is infinite, eternal, and ageless and it encompasses all the worlds. (Russell, 44-45) Anaximenes held that the fundamental substance is air as “fire is rarefied air; when condensed air becomes water, then if further condensed, earth and finally stone” (Russell, 44) While Pythagoras, on the other hand, assumed that all things are numbers. Also there is Heraclitus who claimed that the primal substance that everybody is seeking is fire. Parmenides maintained that there is “The One”, the only One True Being but he is not God for it is “material and extended” (Russell, 48) Empedocles was the one who argued that the primal substance are the four elements in all. Leucippus and Democritus claimed that the primal substance were innumerable tiny solid particles – atoms- which could not be cut. And in some sense, the Sophist, Protagoras as he was the one who claimed that “Man is the measure of all things.” How does the Allegory of the Cave illustrate Plato’s Theory of Forms? The Allegory of the Cave illustrates Plato’s Theory of Forms by highlighting the gradation of reality which is inherent in Plato’s theory of Forms. In the Allegory of the Cave the chained man who was inside the cave was so used in looking at the shadows so much so that he came to the point that he thought that the shadows were real. Then he broke his chain and he was able to go out of the cave. Outside he was blinded by the light but he soon realized that what he saw inside the cave were mere shadows of the things outside the cave. In the Platonic theory of forms, the physical, material world is nothing but a mere shadow, a copy, a seeming reality. In other words, the physical world is but an illusion. For what is real and authentic is that which is outside the cave. Not in our material realm but in the ephemeral world and it is there were Truth, knowledge exists and persists. That is why, the allegory of the cave also speaks of the philosophers mission which is to go back and inform the people who are still chained in the shadows that what they are seeing is but a mere figment or illusion and that that which is real is outside, in the immaterial realm. What was Plato’s concept of education according to the reading in Republic? Plato’s concept of education as found in the Republic is that education is technically not putting knowledge into the minds of the students rather Plato believes that education should act as the tool with which we can bring out the best things that are already latent or hidden within the soul or mind of the student. Thus, the thrust of education is not to teach but to provide the proper venue and training with which that which is natural or inherent to the individual can be made manifest and further harness. What was the political point made by Plato in the Republic? Analyze in at least one paragraph how that might speak to our contemporary politics. Plato’s political point in the Republic is that the polis is built on inequality. Indeed at the initial stage of its inception, it may appear that the state was established in order to satisfy needs. But it should be noted that the people would come together because they recognized their insufficiency and out of that recognition they would form a bond that necessitated their specialization according to their nature. Plato’s political point is a contra position to contemporary perception of democracy. That is why Plato has been called by Karl Popper as the enemy of the state. But if we turned events around, and let Plato look into our current political life, he would surely claim that the very reason that we are in such a quagmire is because we have let people to become our leaders even if they are not naturally or inherently cut out to be rulers and leaders. The very mess we find ourselves in is the failure on our part to recognize that we human beings are never equal. BIBLIOGRAPHY: MacIntyre, Alisdair. After Virtue. 2nd. Indiana: University of Notre Dame Press, 1984. Plato. “Apology trans by Benjamin Jowett”. 11 May 2008. http://classics.mit.edu/Plato/apology.html. Russell, Bertrand. A History of Western Philosophy and its Connection with Political and Social Circumstances from the Earliest Times to the Present Day. New York: Simon and Schuster, Inc., 1945. Read More