An Introduction to Western Philosophy
By Matthew McGinniss
Published by Matthew McGinniss at Smashwords
Copyright 2011 Matthew McGinniss
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CONTENTS
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“Man is free at the moment he wishes to be.” Voltaire
For some people, philosophy is everything, while for others it is nothing. It is a subject that brings insight, arguments and even war. But what is philosophy, and who are the famous men and women who have changed our world with their ideas?
In this collection, you will find simple overviews of the lives and ideas of twenty of the most important philosophers in the western philosophical tradition. Because it is impossible to summarise complex ideas in just a few words, readers should remember that each chapter just touches on a few of the central themes of each philosopher.
This book can be read in chronological order, or as a quick reference for each major thinker.
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“The only thing I know is that I know nothing.”
Lived: 470 – 399 BC * From: Ancient Greece
Key Ideas: How people should act * Finding truth through questioning
Socrates is one of the most important philosophers in history because he helped change the direction of philosophy. Before Socrates, people discussed how they should fit into the natural world of plants, animals and the universe. After Socrates, people were interested in ethics, which involved the concept of fairness and the way people should behave. They also became interested in the search for truth, so that correct judgements could be made on important issues.
Socrates was born in Athens, where he lived for most of his life. In Athens he spoke to people from all parts of society, including the rich and powerful, the workers and the poor. Socrates didn’t worry about worldly possessions and spent most of his time speaking with people in public meeting places. Over time he became well-known in Athens as an unconventional man of great wisdom and understanding.
When Socrates spoke to people he started by asking questions and quietly listening to the answers. He would then follow up with more questions to discover the accuracy of the person’s belief. In this way, Socrates developed his own method for testing to see if a statement was true or not. His method of asking questions became known as ‘Socratic questioning’. It worked as follows:
Step 1. Ask a simple question
to find a statement that was described as common sense. eg. Poor
people do not benefit society.
Step 2. Find a situation
where the statement is not correct. eg. Poor people may benefit
society by helping other people.
Step 3. If there is a
possible exception to the statement, then the statement must be
wrong, or not exactly correct. eg. Poor people can benefit society by
sharing wisdom.
Step 4. The first statement is then
changed so that it is not wrong. eg. Poor people may benefit society
by sharing their wisdom with others.
Step 5. If there is
an exception to the new statement, then the steps are repeated.
Using this method, Socrates spoke to many people in Athens. Over the years some powerful people in Athens became angry because they thought Socrates was challenging many of the accepted gods and truths of the time, which could lead to the downfall of Athens. However, even though some powerful people became angry with his method of questioning, Socrates continued to ask difficult questions and challenge the accepted truths of the day. This refusal to change his ways led him to face court in Athens, charged with disrupting society.
During his trial, under the threat of execution, Socrates could have saved his life if he chose to stop his method of questioning and leave Athens. Instead Socrates decided to defend his position and explain why he should continue to ask the difficult questions. He told the jury of five hundred people that by trying to find the truth in this way, he was helping the people of Athens by giving them greater knowledge. For this reason he refused to stop using his method. At the end of the trial, the jury found Socrates guilty and sentenced him to death by drinking the poison hemlock. Surrounded by his friends, Socrates drank the hemlock and died in 399 BC.
The dramatic death of Socrates was a turning point in the history of Athens and confirmed his status as a man of principle. Soon after his death a statue was erected to celebrate his great wisdom and influence over Athens. The men who accused Socrates of causing trouble were outcast as the people came to realise how important Socrates had been to Athens and the development of a new movement of philosophy.
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“Philosophy begins in wonder.”
Lived: 428 – 327 BC * From: Ancient Greece
Key Ideas: Material world and ideal world * Rational thinking
Plato is known as the father of western philosophy. He is the second of the three great Greek philosophers and the man who wrote most of what we know about Socrates. By founding a philosophical school called the Academy, Plato created a centre of learning that promoted philosophical debate for a thousand years and kept his dialogues and letters intact.
Plato came from a wealthy family and was a student of Socrates. Like Socrates, Plato was concerned with ethical questions and the knowledge of what is ‘good’. When Plato was twenty-nine, Socrates drank the poison hemlock and died. This event changed Plato’s life. For Plato, the people of Athens had made a huge mistake by condemning Socrates to death, and he wanted to know how this could happen from a philosophical point of view. For Plato, this event became an example of the difference between society as it really is in the material world, and the society that exists in the world of unchanging, ideal forms.
Plato applied his concept of the material world and the ideal world to everything, including people, animals, objects and concepts. For example, one day you may see a horse that has an injured leg. This is an example of Plato’s horse in the material world because it is made of matter that will decay over time. However, when people think ‘what is a horse?’, they have in mind an ideal horse, that has no imperfections and doesn’t change over time. Another example is the concept of trust. If you ask your friend to trust you, she might believe what you say when you tell her something from your personal life. However, this concept of trust will be different from the ideal and unchanging concept of trust that other people have.
Plato said that ideal forms don’t exist in time and space, instead they only exist in our minds. Because these forms are eternal and unchanging, they have more importance than the temporary forms that each of us see in the material world. Therefore, Plato says we shouldn’t rely too heavily on our senses of sight, touch, hearing, smell and taste, because they can’t give us knowledge of the ideal forms.
According to Plato, the task of the philosopher is to show people how to use their rationality, so they can gain knowledge of the ideal forms. Plato’s emphasis on rational thinking, as opposed to the senses, is a concept that went on to play an enormous role in shaping future philosophical movements, as well as religions, particularly Christianity.
Plato developed a philosophical writing style called the dialogue, where two or more people discuss philosophical issues. In many of Plato’s dialogues, Socrates and other real figures from ancient times come to life and debate issues including the role of the philosopher, the role of the political leader and questions such as ‘What is justice?’ Once the question has been asked, the characters continue to ask and answer questions to find the best opinion.
Plato’s most famous work The Republic is a masterful example of the philosophical dialogue, in which the best form of Government is debated. In the end, Plato shows that the ultimate society should be ruled by a type of philosopher king, who helps citizens use their reason so they can think for themselves and live happy lives with true knowledge.
At the time of his death, Plato considered his greatest legacy to be the Academy that he established in Athens as a place of future learning. However, it is his original philosophical concepts and the genius displayed in his writing that have gone on to have a profound effect on western thought.
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“Educated men are as much superior to uneducated men as the living are to the dead.”
Lived: 384 – 322 BC * From: Ancient Greece
Key Ideas: Putting ideas into categories * The middle way
Aristotle is the third of the great Greek philosophers. He entered Plato’s Academy when Plato was sixty-one and remained there for nearly twenty years. When Plato died, it was expected that Aristotle would take over the Academy. Instead the position was filled by Plato’s nephew, and Aristotle went on to develop his own philosophical school, called the Lyceum, where he taught and worked on own philosophical theories.
Aristotle is known as the great organiser because of his work in categorising disciplines of study for future scholars. Many of the categories that he wrote about are still used today. For example, Aristotle was the first one to separate natural philosophy, which we now call science, from metaphysics, which we now call philosophy. He also set the structures for biology, physics, psychology, geology, maths, politics, economics, ethics, logic, astronomy and other fields of study.
Aristotle spent many years doing biological research, in which he studied over five hundred species of animal. The reason he spent so much time doing this was because of he believed Plato’s concept of the material world and the world of ideal forms was wrong. According to Aristotle, people naturally categorise objects when they see them. For example, when you see a cow, you simply call it a cow, even though it may be different size or colour to the cow you saw previously. Therefore an ideal form of a cow doesn’t exist, as Plato had said, but instead simply exists in our rational way of categorisation.
By studying living objects, Aristotle came to the conclusion that it was possible to explain the existence of things by seeing the functions they perform. For example, a bird has wings so that it can fly. In the same way, people have rational thinking so they can make correct decisions. This idea was extended to Aristotle’s concept of ethics.
According to Aristotle, the goal of life is for people to achieve happiness. This concept led Aristotle to his doctrine of the mean. When faced with a decision, it is important for a person to choose between two extremes, so the best choice is made. For example, if a person has to introduce himself to a stranger, he should not be too shy or too proud. Instead he should present himself in a calm way, to show the stranger who he is, without appearing conceited. By choosing to act this way, Aristotle believes a person will live a well-balanced and natural life.
Aristotle was a strong believer in education as a way to improve the human condition. He distinguished between two different parts of the rational mind. The first part is for making decisions based on good judgement, using the powers of rational thinking. The second is for contemplating the known truths, through education and theoretical analysis. Aristotle said that when both forms of thinking occur together, a person is able to live a happy life.
Like Plato, Aristotle’s concepts had a profound influence on major religions, including Christianity and Islam. Six hundred years after Aristotle’s death, the philosopher Augustine from Algeria re-interpreted Aristotle’s work, so that it connected Aristotle’s philosophy with the basic Christian beliefs about God. Augustine’s interpretation was influential for over a thousand years, and it wasn’t until the work of philosophers such as Descartes and Locke in the seventeenth century that Aristotle’s grip over philosophy was loosened.
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“Only the people who can be satisfied with a little will be able to experience real happiness.”
Lived: 341 – 270 BC * From: Ancient Greece
Key Ideas: Importance of pleasure * Friendships, freedom and thought
Epicurus grew up in Athens and was a philosopher from an early age. During his twenties he was influenced by Plato’s philosophy, as well as the idea that everything in the world was made of atoms. When he was thirty he started writing his own philosophy, which differed from Plato’s concept of the dual world. When Epicurus was thirty-five he established a place to live with a group of writers, philosophers and friends to a large place outside Athens which became known as the Garden.
Over time the Garden became a meeting area for philosophers, as well as wealthy and influential people from Athens, who wanted to find ways to enhance their happiness. Here Epicurus focussed on the question: ‘What does a person need for a happy life?’ According to Epicurus, happiness could be found in three ways:
1. Friendships: Good friends don’t judge each other based on wealth and power. Instead they are interested in the core of the person. Therefore people shouldn’t feel the pressure to impress other people with money and material possessions, but instead appreciate each other for who they really are. When eating a meal, Epicurus wrote that people should cultivate their friendships by always eating together. He said that eating alone is like eating like a wolf.
2. Freedom: By being detached from the commercial world, Epicurus believed people could find the time and space to develop themselves. By developing their spiritual life and living simply without material possessions, people could have the freedom they needed to find true happiness.
3. Thought: People who are anxious and stressed should be able to discuss their ideas with friends and therefore ease their problems. By openly talking about health, money, spirituality and death, people can learn from each other and feel more comfortable in relationships and friendships.
Epicurus wrote that the world consists of atoms which created everything we see around us. Beyond that there is the void. He said that gods were not active, and not able to influence life on Earth. These concepts were opposed to the Christian concept that God, who was all-knowing and everywhere. Although Epicurus’ philosophy was popular in ancient Greece, it was criticised during the Roman Empire and the Christian era. During the 1600’s, Epicurus’ ideas became popular again amongst philosophers who wrote when the concepts of modern science were developing and Christianity was being challenged.
Epicurus believed that only the people who can be satisfied with a little will be able to experience real happiness. Even though Epicurus was known as the philosopher of pleasure, he actually lived a simple life, often drinking water and eating bread and vegetables. Epicurus said people have psychological needs that they try to meet in the material world. For example, a person who is upset in a relationship might go out and buy a pair of shoes. Instead the person would be happier by speaking with a group of friends. When another person buys a new car, they may have been happier by having focussing on the Epicurean concept of freedom.
These days, the word ‘Epicurean’ is used in English to describe a person who is a pleasure seeker and has sophisticated tastes, especially related to food. This is ironic, given that Epicurus actually lived a very simple life, free of the type of luxuries that people now associate with his name. Today, Epicurus’ ideas challenge the concept of capitalism that currently has a powerful hold over the world. If Epicurus was still alive, he would encourage people to consider their choices when spending money, and not be so easily swayed by the influences of advertising and fashion.
Although Epicurus was a prolific writer, most of his work was destroyed during the time of the Roman Empire. Today we know about Epicurus through the writing of others. While some philosophers say that writing about happiness should not be the domain of philosophy, Epicurus has endured throughout history, to help people understand that life is temporary and that friendship, freedom and thought form the basis of a good life.
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“Life is the gift of the immortal Gods, but living well is the gift of philosophy.”
Lived: 2 – 65 * From: Rome
Key Ideas: Being strong in difficult times * Accepting bad luck
In many ways Seneca’s life reflected his philosophy. He lived during the Roman Empire in a time of great uncertainty and destruction. During his lifetime the Emperor Julius Caesar, also known as Caligula, committed terrible crimes against the Roman citizens and his political opponents. The city of Pompeii was destroyed by earthquakes and Rome was burnt to the ground by the Emperor Nero, who in the end was responsible for Seneca’s death.
Seneca’s philosophy was concerned with remaining strong and brave in a world that couldn’t be controlled. Seneca created a link between philosophy and the way to stay calm in the face of disaster. Seneca wrote that many people become frustrated because they can’t deal with natural events that occur in life. However, as children soon understand when they grow up, the world doesn’t change to fit their every desire. In the same way, people need to adapt and learn to accept the common frustrations that life presents. In this sense, the way a person reacts to an event depends on what they believe is ‘normal’.
Seneca said people are best able to tolerate the frustrations that they are prepared for. If a person accepts that life will be difficult at times, and even tragic at other times, the occurrence of tragedy won’t have the same impact as it would if a person lived a life that didn’t consider disaster. When people become angry, it is because they have made a mistake with their rational thinking. For example, they should not become furious if they smash a glass in the kitchen or lose a precious item. Instead they should be reflective, and learn to control their reactions by using their reason.
Seneca was a philosopher who went on to hold high positions within the Roman Empire. However, his political career was cut short in 41 AD when he was falsely named as having an affair with Caligula’s sister. At once Seneca was forced to give up his possessions, his career and his family and leave Rome to live.
Seneca lived in a tower on the remote island of Corsica, where he stayed for eight years. During this time he wrote about the concept of fortune. Originally, the Goddess of Fortune was known as being a symbol of fertility. However, Seneca changed the concept of fortune by associating it with the idea of luck and random chance. He wrote that with fortune there is no moral judge, it is simply the result of uncontrollable forces at work. If disaster strikes, people who accept randomness will be able to deal with the disaster easier than those who curse their friends and family and blame factors that have no connection to the event. In this sense, Seneca wrote that bad luck is inevitable and that people should not become angry for no reason.
When he returned, Seneca was able to take up a political position in Rome under Emperor Nero. Seneca had tutored Nero in the past, however, this association was to prove deadly. In 65 AD a Roman centurion visited Seneca and ordered him to commit suicide. The reason given was that Seneca was involved in a plan to overthrow Nero. Even though there was no evidence for this claim, Seneca had no choice, and he died by inhaling deadly poisons in a bath.
The way Seneca bravely accepted his fate impressed many of his followers who were distressed at the prospect of his death. In his final hours Seneca reminded his friends that they shouldn’t be angered by his death, and that they should learn from his philosophy to remain strong in the face of random chance.
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“Our life consists partly in madness, partly in wisdom.”
Lived: 1533 – 1592 * From: South-West France
Key Ideas: People are not always rational * Accept the flaws of the human body
Michel de Montaigne lived a quiet life in the French countryside with his wife and children in a castle that he inherited from his grandfather. It was in the library of his castle that Montaigne spent most of his time, surrounded by hundreds books on philosophy, religion and history. At the time Europe was going through a period of renewed interest in the works of the ancient Greek and Roman philosophers, following the barren philosophical years of the Middle Ages. It was in this environment that Montaigne developed his own philosophy.
Montaigne believed that the ancient philosophers had placed too much importance on reason, and that people were not actually the rational and calm beings that the Greeks said they were. Montaigne argued that in many cases scholars were not happy, and they were just as confused as everyone else about how to live a happy life. In fact the rational mind and the pursuit of knowledge had often become more a source of pain than a source of happiness.
Montaigne described people who were driven by their irrational desires and flaws. He wrote about sexual frustration and impotence. He wrote about the imperfections of the body, about aging, sickness and the smells and noises that the body can’t control. How terrible it was, he wrote, that the rational mind should be connected to something as disgusting as the human body. In this sense, Montaigne wrote about the side of lives that all people secretly lived, but never dared mention in public.
According to Montaigne, animals were often more intuitive than people. While people panicked and plotted, become jealous and greedy, animals lived a life in harmony with nature and had an understanding of the natural order. When animals became sick they often used their instincts to recover. In comparison, people relied on superstition and remedies that had more to do with traditions and financial profit than real medical outcomes. People who used their intellect to ridicule others also frustrated Montaigne. He wrote that people should learn about the practical things in life, such as relationships, sex, family, health and career. Instead intellectuals were too concerned with algebra and writing books in complex language that others could not understand.
In 1580 Montaigne left France and travelled to Germany, Switzerland and Italy. His goal was to observe how people lived in other parts of Europe. What struck him the most was how different the customs and lifestyles were of people who lived in nearby towns and regions. He was surprised at how self-righteous people were, in claiming that their own way of life was naturally the best. In particular, Montaigne was disturbed by the arrogance that came with man’s claim of having superior reason over others
During Montaigne’s life, the Spanish and Portuguese sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to colonise America. Within fifty years the Aztec and Inca Empires had been destroyed and over fifty million people in Central and South America were killed or died from disease. What upset Montaigne was the fact that the Europeans had justified the killing because they believed they were superior. According to Montaigne, their rational minds had allowed them to carry out the slaughter because they didn’t believe American Indians, with their different cultures and habits, were beyond savages. However, as Montaigne asked, who were the real savages: the innocent native Americans or the destructive Europeans?
Montaigne wondered if the human ability to think and argue was purely to torment us. It had so often led to mistrust, suspicion, fighting and war. Montaigne believed that people had a better chance of living in harmony with each other and the natural world by understanding and accepting our limitations and prejudices, and accepting the primal urges of our bodies.
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“I think, therefore I am.”
Lived: 1596 – 1650 * From: North-West France
Key Ideas: All we know is we exist * Dualism between mind and body
René Descartes was the most important philosopher to emerge after the Medieval and Renaissance period. He represented an end to the period of philosophy dominated by Aristotle, and brought in a new period of philosophy. His work opened the door for modern science to flourish in a period that had for so long been dominated by religious beliefs and superstitions.
Descartes was born in North-West France in a period of great change and uncertainty. This was the time when the Italian astronomer Galileo reported that the Earth was round and revolved around the sun, which were radical and dangerous theories. During this time, Descartes was raised in a strict Jesuit environment, which was one of the reasons he questioned what he was taught from an early age. Descartes was attracted to mathematics and science as they represented aspects of certainty that couldn’t be questioned. In fact Descartes called himself a scientist, even though it was his philosophy for which he is remembered.
It struck Descartes that although philosophy had been discussed and taught for centuries, there were no areas where philosophers were in complete agreement. He therefore made it his goal to find a common area of agreement that philosophers could use as their starting point. Descartes systematically looked at many concepts and found that it was the human senses that couldn’t be trusted. For example, he observed that when an oar from a boat is in the water, its shape looks different to what it is in reality. Similarly, he noted that when people saw an oasis in the desert, their senses were again deceiving them because no water actually existed. Descartes also famously discussed dreams, and how people actually believed that what they were experiencing in dreams was real. If this was the case, how could people ever know if they were dreaming or not, or if they were permanently being deceived?
Descartes applied his method for discovering absolute truth. This involved dismissing any concept that could be doubted on any level. With this method he dismissed accepted beliefs that relied on sight, smell, taste, touch and sound, because all these senses could deceive people in some way. What he was left with was a simple idea that the fact that he was thinking couldn’t be doubted. This led to his famous line: “I think, therefore I am.” Therefore, the only thing we can be certain of, according to Descartes, is that we exist.
Since Descartes made his famous statement, it has become one of the most often quoted lines in philosophy, and the starting point for subsequent philosophical discussions. Once this truth was established, Descartes went on to build new theories of philosophy. This included the concept of dualism between the mind and body. He also wrote that God must exist, because we can imagine the concept of perfection.
In 1648 Descartes was invited to Sweden to teach philosophy to the Swedish royal family. However, this trip was to prove disastrous, when Descartes caught pneumonia and died in 1650. Although some of Descartes’ later theories have been discredited over time, his initial concept of “I think, therefore I am” has not been overturned. His method of doubting accepted truths has also survived until today, and brought to philosophy a lengthy period of uncertainty.
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“The more we understand individual things, the more we understand God.”
Lived: 1632 – 1677 * From: Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Key Ideas: God exists in everything * Religious tolerance
Baruch Spinoza grew up within the Jewish community in Amsterdam, where his family established their home to avoid persecution for their religious beliefs. Spinoza worked with his brother in the family business and held his place within the Jewish religious community. After some time he was overheard expressing radical views about the Jewish faith, and he was soon asked to withdraw his comments. When he refused to do this, he was outcast by his family and forced to leave Amsterdam.
The views that made Spinoza so unpopular related to his view of God. According to Spinoza, God does not exist as separate to life on Earth, or as an observer outsider the realm of mankind. Instead Spinoza said that God is everywhere and in everything. This meant God did not create the universe, but was the same as the universe. People can therefore achieve happiness by looking at reality from God’s perspective, that is from the view of eternity in time in space. When a person compares his difficulties to the history and future of time and space, his difficulties appear insignificant.
Spinoza’s theory of God has implications for how people behave and how they are judged. If God is in everything, God must exist in virtuous and hard-working people, as well as murderers and criminals. This leads to the concept of determinism, where people are not in control of their actions, rather their behaviour is due to their personal circumstances. For example, it is a person’s upbringing that leads to their success or failure. In this sense Spinoza didn’t believe that people had their own ‘free will’. Instead all actions simply occurred as a result of previous actions.
Spinoza wrote that the Jewish and Christian religions were only kept alive by rituals and dogma. He said the bible was not related to God and was simply a product of the time in which it was written. This view was seen as heresy in the seventeenth century, but became influential for later writers and philosophers including Goethe, Nietzsche, Einstein and Freud. For his part, Spinoza was largely influenced by Descartes, although he differed with the concept of dualism between thought and body that Descartes had developed. In this regard Spinoza was a monist, insisting that God was everywhere, including in thought, body and all matter throughout the universe.
Spinoza spent his whole life fighting religious intolerance. After he left his family he dedicated his life to philosophy and earned a modest living by cleaning optical lenses. He only published two books during his lifetime. The first was taken from a series of notes he made for a student he was tutoring. His second caused outrage, with it’s recommendation that people have full freedom of religious practice and thought. Spinoza wrote that the bible holds a valuable moral message, but its authorship is questionable and the stories were only a way for teaching ethics to the masses.
Spinoza’s most famous work Ethica was published by his supporters after his death. This holds his famous theory that there is only one substance, which includes God and all parts of the natural world. Spinoza’s work went on to have a great influence, particularly for the European rationalist thinkers of the enlightenment period.
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“How does the mind come to be furnished? Through experience.”
Lived: 1632 – 1704 * From: Somerset, England
Key Ideas: Empiricism * People are born with a blank mind
John Locke’s philosophy has had a lasting influence on science, politics and religion. He lived during a time when scientists, including Isaac Newton and Robert Boyle, were making major discoveries in physics, chemistry and mathematics. Partly influenced by these scientists, Locke wrote about the ability of the human mind to gain ideas through new experiences, rather than rely on ‘innate’ ideas, as Plato had suggested. The movement that Locke started became known as ‘empiricism’, which can be described as ‘gaining knowledge through the senses’.
Locke was educated at Oxford University where he studied and taught classes in logic, moral philosophy, rhetoric and Greek. While he was studying, Locke felt as though he was saved by Descartes, whose new ideas were challenging Aristotle’s concepts that had dominated philosophy for so long. Locke also took a strong interest in medicine, and for some time he wanted to be a medical doctor.
In 1666 Locke became involved in English politics when he met the Earl of Shaftsbury. Locke’s interest and experience in politics influenced his philosophy, as it made him distrust the extreme conclusions that people had made based on superstition, tradition and the opinions of people in authority. However, his ideas were not popular during the reign of James II and Locke was forced to live in exile in Holland from 1683 to 1689. When William of Orange became the new King of England, Locke returned to England and was able to write freely.
Locke’s major work Essay Concerning Human Understanding was published in 1690 and became the cornerstone for empiricism. At the heart of Locke’s essay was the idea that people are born with a blank mind, and they can only add to their knowledge through experience. People can then use this knowledge to combine ideas and make more complex ideas. The empiricist idea fitted neatly with the scientific commitment to experimentation, observation and measurement, which was gaining popularity during the seventeenth century.
According to empirical philosophers such as Locke and the Irish philosopher George Berkeley, we can only perceive things with our senses, but there are limits to what our senses can tell us. For example, when we look at a small object through a magnifying glass, we are able to see the object in great detail, but when we look at the same object with the naked eye, we can’t see it properly. This shows that there are many things in daily life that we miss, because of the limits of our natural senses.
Some of the early reactions to Locke’s work were negative, with many critics believing that Locke was putting limits on what people could know and understand. Locke wrote that just because something is universally agreed, it doesn’t mean it is correct, and just because something is universally known, it doesn’t mean it is innate. These criticisms were aimed at the rationalist arguments of Descartes, who had insisted that God must exist, because people are able to think about what the perfect God must be like.
Locke’s political writings influenced the democratic political structures of Europe and America. Although some of his concepts have been proved incorrect by modern psychology, his arguments were tremendously important for setting the framework for philosophical debate. As such, Locke is considered one of the central figures to challenge the superstitions of his times and allow the European enlightenment to flourish during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
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“If we believe that fire warms or water refreshes, it is only because it costs us too much pain to think otherwise.”
Lived: 1711 – 1776 * From: Edinburgh, Scotland
Key Ideas: People make decisions based on habit * No link between cause and effect
David Hume is known in philosophy as the greatest sceptic. He rejected many concepts that were commonly held during his era, and many of these theories have remained impossible to disprove ever since. In this sense, he is considered a great philosopher, because of his ability to show the limitations of human reason and the assumptions we make in daily life.
Hume was born and grew up in Edinburgh, Scotland. His father was a lawyer and his mother was a strict Calvinist. He studied law at Edinburgh University but after some time he became drawn to philosophy. As a young man he travelled to France where he wrote A Treatise on Human Nature which was published in London in 1737. Hume was disappointed when this major work appeared without making an impression. He returned to Edinburgh but failed in his efforts to become a professor of philosophy at Edinburgh University. Sometime later he became a librarian at the university and over the next twelve years he devoted himself to writing.
Hume was an empiricist, who was heavily influenced by Locke. His philosophy didn’t provide beliefs, but instead criticized what others had written. He took what Locke had written and went further by scientifically analysing the mind and questioning our ability to reason and use rational arguments to solve problems. According to Hume, rationality can’t be trusted because people make their decisions based on habit or custom, rather than understanding what is really happening. Hume famously wrote that just because an event has happened in the past, there is nothing to say that it will necessarily happen again in the future. For example, when a glass falls off a table it smashes on the floor. Even though this event happened today, there is nothing to say it will happen again tomorrow.
By stating that there is no certain link between cause and effect, Hume destroyed many of the beliefs that people had assumed were true for thousands of years. This meant that scientific knowledge based on evidence could not be trusted. Hume’s theories also had devastating consequences for religion. By refuting the cause and effect argument, Hume’s philosophy disproved the common Christian concept that God must exist, simply because people exist. Hume asked how people know anything about God, when God must be so different from us. By describing many of the Christian assumptions as folly, Hume became notorious and was accused of being an atheist. Hume stated, however, that his aim was to promote the science of man and further the understanding of people in the natural world, rather than destroy Christianity or any other religious beliefs.
Hume lived in Paris from 1763 to 1766. At this time his philosophy started influencing other philosophers and thinkers including Kant, Rousseau and Adam Smith. After many years of struggle and isolation he was celebrated in Paris as one of the great living philosophers. In the last years of his life he returned to Scotland to continue working on his Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion. These were published in a new edition after his death and went on to become hugely influential for future philosophers.
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“Man is free at the moment he wishes to be.”
Lived: 1694 – 1778 * From: Paris, France
Key Ideas: The right to free speech * Religious dogma is dangerous
Voltaire was the champion of the enlightenment. He devoted his life to promoting the voice of reason, as opposed to the brutality of religious superstition and intolerance. He was a prolific writer of plays, novels, essays and letters that promoted the freedom of expression, especially against authoritarian rule of the monarchy and Christianity.
Voltaire, born Francois Marie Arouet, was born in Paris, France. He was raised in a wealthy family and educated by the Jesuits. At school he learnt Latin and Greek, and later in life he became fluent in English, Spanish and Italian. At the insistence of his father he studied law, however, he spent most of his time writing satirical poetry instead. In 1717, one of Voltaire’s satirical writings about the Duke of Orleans resulted in him being imprisoned in the Bastille for eleven months. While in prison Arouet changed his name to Voltaire and wrote a play that went on to have theatrical success in Paris.
In 1726, Voltaire insulted another important person and this time he was given the choice of being imprisoned again or exiled. Voltaire fled to England where he lived for three years. During this time he became familiar with John Locke’s philosophy, William Shakespeare’s plays and Isaac Newton’s science. Upon his return to France he wrote a fictional book entitled Philosophical Letters on the English, which paid tribute to the English concepts of freedom of thought and political reform. The French monarchy, seeing these ideas as a threat, burned copies of the book which prompted Voltaire to flee Paris once again.
In 1759, Voltaire published Candide, which became one of the most popular works of literature in history. In the story Voltaire uses metaphors to ridicule religions, governments, armies and philosophers. In the story, Voltaire refers to the tragic events of the 1755 Lisbon earthquake, which killed thirty thousand people. By writing about this event he wanted to show how the popular belief in optimism is flawed.
Although Voltaire believed in God, he was highly critical of the dogma and cruelty that was often associated with Christianity. Instead, Voltaire’s opinion was that people needed to have a figure such as God to make sense of the world and survive the daily pressures of life. In fact he is famous for the saying: ‘If God did not exist, it would be necessary to create him’.
During the eighteenth century, Voltaire and other French enlightenment thinkers such as Rousseau and Montesquieu promoted the voice of reason throughout France. The force of their writing was overwhelming, and in 1789 the French monarchy was overthrown to create a new political system based on the enlightenment principles of democracy, citizenship and universal rights.
Although Voltaire was not an original thinker, his work was influential in terms of popularising the philosophical concepts of his age. The concept of fighting censorship can be traced back to Voltaire’s bold writing, in which the right to express one’s thoughts was thought to be right of all citizens. The statement that Voltaire made that in a letter he wrote to Abbe DeRiche in 1770 neatly expresses this concept: ‘I detest what you write, but I would give my life to make it possible for you to continue to write’.
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“It is a good thing that we do not know, but believe, that there is a God.”
Lived: 1724 – 1804 * From: Konigsberg, Prussia
Key Ideas: Between empiricism and rationalism * We only know what exists for ‘us’
Immanuel Kant is one of the major philosophers of the enlightenment period. He was raised in a Christian family in East Prussia (present day Russia). He studied at Konigsberg University from 1740 to 1746 where he worked as a private tutor. In 1755, he began lecturing at the university on a range of subjects including: philosophy, anthropology, mathematics, physics and physical geography. Kant was a disciplined man who was a great lecturer and very popular with his students and colleagues. In 1770 he became a paid professor at the university, a position he held for the next thirty-four years.
During the 1780’s Kant wrote prolifically. His major work was Critique of Pure Reason. In this work, Kant asked the questions about human knowledge that were common during the enlightenment. These questions included:
Metaphysics - What can people know
about the world?
Religion - What can people hope for?
Ethics -
How should people behave?
Anthropology - What is humankind?
Kant wrote during the period when there was opposition between the European and British approaches to knowledge. The rational European philosophers such as Descartes and Spinoza had focussed on what rational thought could provide. Meanwhile the British empiricist philosophers such as Locke and Hume had focussed on what the senses could tell us through experience. Kant took the middle path between the two methods, because he believed that both approaches had good and bad points. The new model he proposed was a combination of rationalism and empiricism which he called ‘transcendental idealism’.
The question that Kant wanted to answer was this: Can we know things objectively? Or do we have to use our subjective knowledge to help us? Kant said that people needed to understand their thoughts according to their own time and space. In other words, individual time and space were the most important factors that affect a person’s judgement. Kant showed the major difference between what we perceive, and what is actually true. While we can know things as they exist ‘for us’, we can never really know how things exist as they really are.
Kant said there are limits to the things that people can know. He said, we can’t prove the existence of God, because God exists in a separate space and time paradigm to people on Earth. Therefore people can only believe there is a God, even if they can never know for sure that God exists. In this example, neither rational analysis of God, nor our sensory experience of God can help us know for certain that God exists.
Kant had an academic approach to philosophy, which differed from the ancient philosophers who were interested in philosophy for the purpose of providing wisdom for the average person. In this sense Kant took philosophy from the general population and put it into the universities.
Kant’s writing is dense and the theories he used were extremely complex. Much of the technical and specialist language that is used by Kant can only be understood by people who have studied his concepts in great detail. Kant, however, was successful in moving philosophy beyond the conflict between rationalism and empiricism. Around the time of his death in 1804 the new cultural period of romanticism was taking hold throughout Europe on firmer philosophical ground, thanks to the work of Kant in finding the middle path.
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“History is the progress of the consciousness of freedom.”
Lived: 1770 – 1831 * From: Stuttgart, Germany
Key Ideas: Thesis, antithesis, synthesis * World spirit grows over time
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel was the major philosopher of the romantic period in European history. This was a time when writers, composers and philosophers were expressing the idea that God was a world spirit that connected everything in nature. Hegel added to this idea by stating that the sum total of human actions contribute to the world spirit. Hegel built a complete system of philosophy, that took a historical perspective and went on to influence future philosophers and political systems.
Hegel was born in Stuttgart, Germany. He attended university in Tubingen, where he became friends with the German poet Holderlin and the romantic philosopher Schelling. Together they discussed Kant’s philosophy, as well as major events of the day, such as the French Revolution and the military rise of Napoleon, whom Hegel believed was the perfect example of the world spirit. While lecturing in Tubingen, Hegel published his great work Phenomenology of Spirit (1807). In 1818 Hegel was invited to lecture at the University of Berlin, where he became well-known and celebrated. In 1831 Hegel died during the cholera pandemic that swept through Berlin.
Hegel’s philosophy of the dialectic shows how the world spirit grows and changes throughout history. During this process, there is a thesis, which is then opposed by an antithesis, then from this opposition comes a new outcome, the synthesis. Hegel claimed that history was full of examples of this process. For example, the rational philosophy of Descartes (thesis) produced an opposition in the empiricist philosophy of Locke (antithesis). These positions were resolved by Kant (synthesis) who included aspects of both movements in his philosophy. This process then repeats itself, so the synthesis becomes the new starting point (thesis).
Hegel compared history to a river. When you stand beside a river, you can observe the water constantly flowing downstream. The point at which you observe the water depends on where you are standing. In a similar way, the way you view history depends on the time and space you are observing it from. An opinion in history therefore can’t be correct forever, because that opinion will be viewed differently at different times. For example, two hundred years ago sailing around the world in a boat was considered a difficult and dangerous voyage. Today it is often considered a luxurious way to travel. For Hegel, the end of the river is like the catchment for the sum of human experience, which continues to grow until the point where world spirit reaches the point of self-realisation.
Hegel’s philosophy is very dense and notoriously difficult to read. This was partly because he invented a new form of thinking and logic. Even so, Hegel had many devoted followers who kept his work hugely influential throughout the nineteenth century. His work had a major impact on Karl Marx, who used a modified version of the dialectical approach in his communist manifesto, which led to social revolution in Russian and China. In the twentieth century, Hegel’s ideas influenced Heidegger, Sartre and Foucault among others.
Hegel was also harshly criticised, especially by existentialists including Kierkegaard and Nietzsche. These thinkers rejected the way that Hegel wrote about metaphysics and abstract theories that could never be proved. Instead the existentialists wrote that the individual was the most crucial part of the decision making process, and was therefore in control of his or her own life. Hegel’s complete system of philosophy couldn’t answer these challenges, and these days it is hard to find philosophers fully devoted to his ideas. Hegel is now known as the last of the great system builders of philosophy. Philosophers since Hegel have worked on parts of philosophy, rather than attempt to answer all philosophical questions.
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“Love is all, it gives all, and it takes all.”
Lived: 1813 – 1855 * From: Copenhagen, Denmark
Key Ideas: Power of the individual * Passion, humanity and faith
Soren Kierkegaard lived at a time when philosophy was regarded as being too abstract and disconnected from everyday human life. The dominant ideas of Kant and Hegel were being discussed in universities around Europe, but were so complex that only specialists could interpret their meanings. Although these works were impressive for their logic and detail, many thought they went too far in describing what logic could say about the human condition and the existence of God.
Kierkegaard grew up in Copenhagen, Denmark. He was the youngest of seven children, most of whom died at an early age. Kierkegaard’s father was man, who’s strict Christian practices had a deep influence on his son. At the age of seventeen, Kierkegaard entered university to study theology and ten years later he completed his Masters degree with the essay On the Concept of Irony. Throughout his early life, Kierkegaard was struck by the fact that people were content to follow the crowd, without contemplating their own lives or their commitment to God. Instead, Kierkegaard argued that people should be overwhelmed by their own existence and live with passion and commitment to Christian beliefs.
The emphasis Kierkegaard placed on the power of the individual went on to become the cornerstone of existentialism. According to existentialism, people simply ‘exist’, and are forced to understand and confront reality by themselves. Existentialists say that reality is subjective, and that objective truths always need to be questioned to see how they relate to the individual. Whereas Hegel had attempted to prove that God must exist by using logical analysis, Kierkegaard argued that people can only rely on their personal faith in God when answering religious questions.
After his father died in 1838, Kierkegaard dedicated himself to an intense period of writing, and over time he became known as an ‘enemy of the people’ for his strong opinions against mainstream beliefs. Kierkegaard saw his mission as converting philosophy from the logical and reasoned process that all philosophers since Descartes had discussed, to the real world of passion, humanity and faith. Kierkegaard wrote books, essays and letters to newspapers in an emotional and engaging literary style which sharply criticised the practices of the Danish State Church and the ‘part-time Christians’ who he accused of living without passion or faith.
Using his own life experience, Kierkegaard suggested there were three main stages of life:
1. Aesthetic Stage: When
people only try to find pleasure through the senses. They live their
lives according to what makes them happy and excited, and ignore the
difficult and boring aspects of life.
2. Ethical Stage: When
people live according to their moral duty and knowledge. They try to
make consistent choices that reflect their view of the world.
3.
Religious Stage:
People can only experience true freedom when they enter this difficult stage. However, most people never reach this stage because they only have a partial commitment to religious values.
After an intense period of writing Kierkegaard collapsed suddenly in 1855 and died a few weeks later. At the time of his death he wasn’t well-known outside Denmark. However, during the 1930’s and 1940’s his work was re-discovered and translated into German and English. This was a time when existential ideas were gaining prominence. Although Kierkegaard’s emphasis on Christianity was dismissed by later existentialists, his arguments for the significance of the individual became important contributions to existentialist thought throughout the twentieth century.
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“God is Dead.”
Lived: 1844 – 1900 * From: Saxony, Prussia
Key Ideas: Warning for a possible future of nihilism * Power of the superman to change the world
Frederich Nietzche is an enormously influential and controversial philosopher. He saw himself as a kind of prophet, whose job it was to realign the world from the wrong path it had found itself on. His writing style was direct, forceful and highly critical of mainstream society. Since his death his work has been interpreted and used by artists, writers, academics and people from all sides of politics, including Adolph Hitler who adopted Nietzche’s theory of the Superman to justify his actions in the Second World War.
Nietzche grew up in Saxony, Prussia (present day Germany). He attended university in Bonn and the University of Basal in Switzerland, where he became a professor of classics at the age of 24. At Basal, Nietzche gained a thorough knowledge of Greek philosophy and earned a reputation as being a brilliant thinker. He held this position for eleven years, until bad health forced him to retire. Throughout his life Nietzche suffered from bad physical and mental health. While some people believe it was hereditary, others believed he contracted syphilis at an early age, which led to his unstable mental condition.
Nietzche wrote on many subjects, including religion, morality, philosophy, contemporary culture and science. He attacked traditional philosophy and Christianity for falsely pointing to the world of heaven, which was similar to Plato’s world of ideas. According to Nietzche, Christianity had enslaved the masses by promoting the values of weakness and suffering. Instead Nietzche believed people should take responsibility for themselves and act with strength and originality.
Nietzche became famous for his saying ‘God is dead’. This comment was based on his observation that Christian practices and beliefs were in a steady decline throughout his time. This claim was also a warning, to show mankind that it needed to replace Christianity’s moral structure with a new moral structure that could withstand the rigours of an existential philosophy. According to Nietzche, without this new structure, the world was facing a period of nihilism, free of moral of religious principles. However, far from being entirely pessimistic, Nietzche also viewed this period as a great opportunity for mankind to re-invent itself and build a society based on superior moral principles and practices.
Nietzche admired people who possessed ‘life’, such as the writer Goethe, the composer Wagner and the philosopher Montaigne. These were individuals who displayed ambition, courage, strong character and independence. They achieved great things artistically, philosophically and in the everyday world of politics and society. They embodied Nietzche’s theory of the superman, the ones who are not bound to conform to everyday concerns and superstitions and can go on to achieve great things in life.
For many years Nietzche lived in the Swiss Alps. It was in this rugged mountainous environment that he wrote his most influential books, including: Human All too Human (1878), Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1885) and Beyond Good and Evil (1886). His book Thus Spoke Zarathustra went on to become to his most famous work. It takes a literary form, with the central character Zarathustra coming down from the top of a mountain to ask people in a village to show him their God. The book includes numerous dialogues, metaphors and aphorisms and it is comparable to the style that Plato used in his most famous work, The Republic.
Towards the end of his life Nietzche discovered the works of the Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky by accident in a bookstore and realized that his style of existential writing was part of a broader movement that was starting to take hold in other parts of the world. In 1889 his mental health rapidly declined, and soon he was reliant on his sister and mother for full time care. The last ten years of his life were unproductive and he died in Weimar, Germany at the age of fifty-five.
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“The ego is not master in its own house.”
Lived: 1856 – 1939 * From: Moravia, Austrian Empire
Key Ideas: Psychoanalysis * People have complex thought patterns
Sigmund Freud helped change the way philosophers worked in the twentieth century by analysing the human mind. In particular, his work on the unconscious helped overcome the simplistic approach that rationalist philosophers in the eighteenth century used to discuss decision making. Even though much of Freud’s work has been disputed his basic method of questioning and analysing patients still form the basis of contemporary psychology practice.
Freud grew up in Moravia, which was part of the Austrian Empire, and spent the majority of his life in Vienna. He studied medicine at the University of Vienna, specialising in neurology. He completed his studies in 1881 but instead of working as a doctor he decided to continue his research. In 1885 Freud went to Paris to observe people suffering from hysteria, and it was here that he had a major realisation that would influence his life’s work. He observed that when patients were hypnotised, they no longer showed signs of hysteria. This led to his conclusion that the cause of their problems was not physical, but mental.
To find out more about the mind Feud encouraged his patients to talk. With this method, Freud developed his theory of ‘word association’, where the psychologist could uncover insights into the person’s problems by analysing the words they chose when given particular stimuli. Freud also paid close attention to dreams, as he believed these gave an insight into the workings of the unconscious mind. Over time Freud realised that psychological problems were often the result of childhood traumas caused by suppressed desires. His method of treating patients became known as psychoanalysis.
Going further, he said the personality was made of three parts:
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