In the beginning of our book we learned about what philosophy means, the ultimate aim of philosophy, and we learned about critical thinking. Philosophy is “the love or pursuit of wisdom” (p5). After learning a good way to describe philosophy, we met a female philosopher named Perictione. She believed humanity exists in order to contemplate the principle of the nature of the whole (p5). Moving on to the ultimate aim of philosophy, we learn some of the goals of philosophy. A couple of these goals proposed by philosophers are the complete liberty of the mind and to care for the well-being of the soul (p8). The section on critical thinking explains how everyone has a philosophy of life and how doing philosophy is different from this. Doing philosophy
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Socrates is often called “the father of western philosophy” (p43). Socrates did not have writings of his own but he developed what is known as the Socratic Method. This Socratic Method is an investigation of complete issues through a question-and-answer format (p50). Socrates main concern was the soul (p60). He believed that every soul seeks happiness but many don’t choose the clear path to happiness. Also we meet Homer who is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet, and he wrote the Iliad and the Odyssey …show more content…
He was convinced that we all have an immortal soul that survives beyond the death of the body (p92). I am definitely with him on this view of the soul: I believe my body will rot but my soul will live on. We also learn about Saint Augustine, a Christian philosopher and bishop of Hippo in Northern Africa. His synthesis of Platonic and Christian concepts was a major influence in the development of medieval Christian doctrine and Western philosophy (p98). We continue on to meet John Locke an English philosopher and physician. He laid the groundwork for an empiricist approach to philosophical questions, and believed that the mind is a blank slate on which experience writes (p109). An empiricist view of knowledge is that sense experience is the primary source of all knowledge
Socrates is often called “the father of western philosophy” (p43). Socrates did not have writings of his own but he developed what is known as the Socratic Method. This Socratic Method is an investigation of complete issues through a question-and-answer format (p50). Socrates main concern was the soul (p60). He believed that every soul seeks happiness but many don’t choose the clear path to happiness. Also we meet Homer who is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet, and he wrote the Iliad and the Odyssey …show more content…
He was convinced that we all have an immortal soul that survives beyond the death of the body (p92). I am definitely with him on this view of the soul: I believe my body will rot but my soul will live on. We also learn about Saint Augustine, a Christian philosopher and bishop of Hippo in Northern Africa. His synthesis of Platonic and Christian concepts was a major influence in the development of medieval Christian doctrine and Western philosophy (p98). We continue on to meet John Locke an English philosopher and physician. He laid the groundwork for an empiricist approach to philosophical questions, and believed that the mind is a blank slate on which experience writes (p109). An empiricist view of knowledge is that sense experience is the primary source of all knowledge