Great Minds - Introduction to the Problems and Scope of Philosophy

Summary

The lecture series covers three thousand years of Western intellectual history, exploring key philosophical concepts like physics, metaphysics, ontology, logic, and epistemology. It delves into the fundamental questions and traditions of Western thought, contrasting the secular knowledge from Athens with the religious faith from Jerusalem. By examining key figures and ideas, it aims to foster an understanding of the diverse intellectual heritage of the West, encouraging critical thinking and an open-minded approach to different philosophical traditions.

Takeaways

• 📚 The lectures cover 3000 years of Western intellectual history, focusing on philosophy and its major problems.
• 🧠 Philosophy is defined as the love of wisdom and involves thinking beyond practical concerns.
• 🌌 Physics is explained as the theory of nature, dealing with the world of space and time.
• 🌟 Metaphysics explores ideas and entities that exist beyond the physical world, like pure ideas and spiritual entities.
• 🔍 Ontology is the study of the nature of being and existence, analyzing different kinds of beings.
• 📏 Logic is a system of rules for deriving true inferences from true premises.
• 🧩 Epistemology examines the nature and scope of knowledge, distinguishing between different types of knowledge.
• 🎨 Aesthetics is the philosophical study of beauty and its role in human judgments.
• ⚖️ Ethics investigates right and wrong, moral obligations, and the nature of human actions.
• 🏛️ Political theory examines how societies and governments should be organized and justified.
• 🌍 The Western intellectual tradition includes two main ontological views: the naturalistic view and the view of a second, metaphysical world.
• 🏛️ Athens and Jerusalem represent two central traditions in Western thought: rationality and humanism from Athens, and reverence and faith from Jerusalem.
• 🧩 The tradition of Athens emphasizes free rational discourse and secular knowledge.
• 📜 The tradition of Jerusalem focuses on faith and religious narratives, like the story of Job.
• 🔥 Prometheus represents the Greek ideal of defiance against the gods and the pursuit of human excellence.

Q & A

What is the primary subject of the lectures covered in the video script?

The primary subject of the lectures is the last three thousand years of Western intellectual history, focusing on significant problems in Western thought and high culture, particularly in philosophy.

What is the origin and meaning of the word 'philosophy' as described in the script?

The word 'philosophy' comes from two Greek words meaning 'love' and 'wisdom' or 'knowledge'. Philosophy is essentially a love of wisdom and a passion for knowledge that goes beyond practical concerns.

How does the script define 'physics' from a philosophical standpoint?

From a philosophical standpoint, physics is described as our theory of nature, a way of explaining the world around us, including the world of sense perception, tables, chairs, and larger entities like galaxies and stars.

What is 'metaphysics' according to the script, and how does it differ from physics?

Metaphysics, derived from Greek words meaning 'above or beyond physics,' involves the consideration of ideas or entities that exist independently of the world of space and time. Unlike physics, which deals with the physical world, metaphysics deals with pure ideas and spiritual entities like God and angels.

What is 'ontology' and how is it significant in philosophy?

Ontology is a philosophical discipline that analyzes and thinks about the existence of things. It involves distinguishing different kinds of beings and attributing different statuses to them, such as distinguishing between human beings, physical objects, and divine entities.

How is 'logic' described in the script, and what is its purpose?

Logic is described as a system of rules for deriving true inferences. It is a series of rules that ensure that if you start with true premises, you will always draw true conclusions. Logic organizes our thinking to consistently reach the right answers from true assumptions.

What does 'epistemology' mean and what does it investigate?

Epistemology, derived from Greek words meaning 'speech or reasoning about knowledge,' investigates thinking about thinking and knowledge itself. It explores what we can know, the different kinds of knowledge we can have, and clarifies thoughts to eliminate confusion.

What is 'aesthetics' and what does it study in philosophy?

Aesthetics is the theory of the beautiful, involving reasoned thoughts about what human beings find beautiful. It investigates whether beauty is in the object being observed or in the mind, and the role of beauty in judgments of right and wrong, political order, and personal life.

How does the script define 'ethics' and its relation to human behavior?

Ethics is defined as the branch of philosophy that talks about right and wrong, moral obligations, and the certainty of what we ought to do. It investigates the part of human beings that involves making choices and actions appropriate to humans, and how to judge the behavior of others.

What is the connection between 'ethics' and 'political theory' as discussed in the script?

Ethics and political theory are connected because the city or human collectivity is seen as analogous to an individual human soul, only larger in scale. Political theory investigates the organization of societies, justice, and political order, which are directly connected to ethical theories of proper human behavior.

Outlines

00:00

🧠 Introduction to Western Intellectual History

This lecture covers the last three thousand years of Western intellectual history, focusing on key problems and high culture through the lens of philosophy. The word 'philosophy' stems from Greek words meaning 'love of wisdom.' The lecture introduces terms like physics, metaphysics, ontology, and logic, explaining their relevance in philosophical inquiry. Physics deals with the natural world, while metaphysics concerns entities beyond physical existence. Ontology analyzes the nature of being, and logic provides rules for deriving true inferences.

05:01

🧩 Epistemology: The Study of Knowledge

Epistemology, derived from Greek words meaning 'reasoning about knowledge,' involves thinking about thinking and clarifying thoughts. Different types of knowledge, such as arithmetic and moral knowledge, require different epistemological approaches. This field examines what can be known and how knowledge varies across domains. The lecture also touches on philosophical psychology, linking theories of knowledge with conceptions of the human mind and consciousness, influencing epistemological concerns and philosophical projects.

10:03

🔎 Ontology and Logic: Foundations of Philosophy

The lecture delves deeper into ontology, the study of being, which categorizes different types of existence, such as the difference between God and humans. Logic, although initially intimidating, is presented as a set of rules for deriving true conclusions from true premises. Both ontology and logic are crucial in philosophical discourse, helping to organize and understand complex ideas systematically. Ontology addresses different kinds of beings and their hierarchies, while logic ensures clarity and correctness in reasoning.

15:03

🌌 The Two Worlds of Western Philosophy

Western philosophy grapples with two main ontological views: the naturalistic view, which sees only the material world, and the dualistic view, which posits an additional metaphysical realm. The naturalistic approach, rooted in ancient Greek pre-Socratic thought and modern science, focuses solely on the physical world. The dualistic approach, supported by religious traditions and Plato's realm of forms, suggests a higher, more real world beyond physical perception. These views influence various philosophical disciplines, including ethics and politics.

20:04

🌍 Ethics and Political Theory

The lecture explores ethics, the study of right and wrong, and political theory, which examines how societies should be organized. Ethics addresses individual moral behavior, while political theory focuses on societal justice. Both fields are intertwined, as ethical principles inform political structures and vice versa. The lecture highlights the historical development of these ideas, noting the influence of Greek rationalism and Judeo-Christian morality on Western intellectual traditions.

25:05

🏛️ Athens and Jerusalem: Pillars of Western Thought

The intellectual traditions of Athens and Jerusalem are presented as the twin pillars of Western thought. Athens represents rational inquiry and humanism, exemplified by Socrates and Greek philosophy. Jerusalem represents faith and divine authority, rooted in biblical traditions. The lecture discusses the interplay between these traditions, emphasizing the contributions of each to Western culture. The dual influence of rationality and faith creates a rich tapestry of philosophical inquiry, shaping the Western intellectual landscape.

30:06

📜 Mythos and Logos: Story and Reason

Mythos and logos are two fundamental concepts in Western thought. Mythos, meaning 'story,' conveys universal truths through archetypal narratives, while logos, meaning 'reason,' represents rational discourse. The lecture examines how Greek myths and biblical stories embody these concepts, each offering different insights into the human condition. Mythos provides moral lessons and existential reflections, while logos promotes logical reasoning and empirical investigation. The interplay between these modes of understanding enriches philosophical discourse.

35:08

👨‍🚀 Prometheus and Job: Archetypes of Rebellion and Faith

Prometheus and Job serve as contrasting archetypes in Western thought. Prometheus, a figure from Greek mythology, embodies human defiance and the quest for knowledge, challenging the gods to uplift humanity. Job, from the Bible, represents unwavering faith and submission to divine will, enduring suffering without losing faith in God. The lecture explores these narratives, highlighting their significance in shaping conceptions of human potential and virtue. Prometheus symbolizes ambition and progress, while Job exemplifies patience and piety.

40:10

🔬 Secular Knowledge and the Pre-Socratic Philosophers

The lecture concludes with an introduction to the pre-Socratic philosophers, who laid the groundwork for secular knowledge and scientific inquiry. These early Greek thinkers sought natural explanations for phenomena, moving away from mythological interpretations. Their emphasis on rationality and skepticism paved the way for the scientific revolution and continues to influence modern thought. The pre-Socratics' legacy is a testament to the enduring importance of critical thinking and empirical investigation in the Western intellectual tradition.

Keywords

💡Philosophy

Philosophy comes from the Greek words for love and wisdom, signifying a passion for knowledge that goes beyond practical concerns. It involves a kind of thinking that tackles important problems in western thought and high culture. The video's theme centers on the intellectual tradition of the West, which forms a coherent philosophical tradition with a common set of problems and vocabulary.

💡Metaphysics

Metaphysics is derived from Greek words meaning above or beyond nature. It involves the study of ideas or entities that exist independently of the world of space and time, such as pure ideas or spiritual entities like God or angels. The video explains metaphysics as the inquiry into things that exist outside of everyday experience.

💡Ontology

Ontology is the study of being and existence, analyzing the nature of existence and the kinds of beings that exist. The video explains that ontology involves distinguishing between different classes of beings, such as the existence of God versus human beings, and is fundamental to philosophical inquiry.

💡Epistemology

Epistemology comes from Greek words meaning reasoning about knowledge. It involves thinking about thinking, accounting for what can be known and the nature of different types of knowledge. The video emphasizes the importance of epistemology in understanding how we acquire knowledge and clarifying our thoughts.

💡Logic

Logic is a system of rules for deriving true inferences, ensuring that true premises lead to true conclusions. The video describes logic as organizing our thinking to always get the right answer if we start with true assumptions, and it's a fundamental aspect of philosophical reasoning.

💡Aesthetics

Aesthetics is the theory of the beautiful, involving reasoned thoughts about what human beings find beautiful and the role of beauty in other judgments. The video relates aesthetics to everyday thoughts about beauty and its connection to other philosophical questions like ethics and ontology.

💡Ethics

Ethics is the branch of philosophy that deals with questions of right and wrong, moral obligations, and human behavior. The video explains that ethics investigates what it means to be a human being and to engage in actions appropriate to human beings, connecting to individual conduct and societal organization.

💡Political Theory

Political Theory, or the philosophy of politics, investigates the organization of society, justice, and political order. The video links political theory to ethics, explaining that it explores what is good or righteous at the level of society, as opposed to the individual focus of ethics.

💡Logos

Logos, in Greek, means speech, word, reason, or rational discourse. The video explains two interpretations: the Greek tradition of free rationality and the biblical tradition where logos means the divine word of God. These dual meanings reflect the blend of Athens (rationality) and Jerusalem (faith) in Western thought.

💡Mythos

Mythos refers to story or myth, often with archetypical significance. The video discusses how both Greek and biblical traditions use mythos to convey moral truths and exemplify virtues. Greek myths like Prometheus and biblical stories like Job represent different cultural values and approaches to human existence.

Highlights

The lectures cover the last three thousand years of western intellectual history, focusing on significant problems in western thought and high culture.

Philosophy is defined as the love of wisdom or knowledge, going beyond practical concerns.

Western intellectual tradition forms a coherent philosophical tradition with common problems, issues, and vocabulary.

Physics is described as the theory of nature, explaining the world of sense perception, space, and time.

Metaphysics deals with ideas or entities that exist independently of space and time, such as pure ideas or spiritual entities.

Ontology is the philosophical discipline analyzing the existence of different kinds of beings and their status.

Logic is a system of rules for deriving true inferences from true premises, organizing thinking to get the right answer.

Epistemology is the study of knowledge, accounting for what we can know and how different kinds of knowledge are distinguished.

Philosophical psychology involves the conception of the human mind and consciousness related to knowledge and reasoning.

Aesthetics is the theory of beauty, examining what humans find beautiful and its role in other judgments.

Ethics explores right and wrong, moral obligations, and what it means to engage in actions appropriate for humans.

Political theory examines how societies and governments should be organized and the concept of justice.

The tradition of Athens focuses on rationality, free discourse, and secular knowledge, contrasting with the tradition of Jerusalem centered on faith and divine authority.

Prometheus and Job represent contrasting archetypes of Greek and biblical traditions, illustrating human virtues and hubris versus faith and humility.

Understanding and absorbing different philosophical traditions require an open mind and intellectual honesty, considering evidence for and against various beliefs.

Transcripts

[Music]

the lectures you're about to see

cover the last three thousand years of

western intellectual history

they cover most of the important

problems in western thought

and high culture and they will involve

a kind of thinking that most people

don't spend most of their time doing

it's called philosophy the word

philosophy comes from two greek words

the words for love and wisdom or

knowledge

and philosophy is more or less a a love

of wisdom a sort of passion for

knowledge

which goes beyond what we can get from

it

which goes beyond practical concerns and

the intellectual tradition of the west

forms

a more or less coherent philosophic

tradition

with a common set of problems a roughly

similar set of

issues under consideration and a similar

set of vocabulary words that we use to

inquire into philosophical topics and we

might as well consider these

vocabulary this this term these set of

terms that we use now

in order to prevent misapprehensions

later on

in the first case we're going to talk

about physics and metaphysics

physics might be thought of as our

theory of nature and

roughly speaking what it means is it's

our way of explaining the world around

us the world of sense perception

the world of tables and chairs and of

the component parts of tables and chairs

and of the larger things that we

encounter suns galaxies worlds things

like that

our general theory of the the world of

space and time around us might be

described from a philosophical

standpoint

as being physics another

set of philosophical issues another

philosophic problem

or topic that comes along with our

consideration of physics

is metaphysics metaphysics comes from

greek words meaning

above or beyond physics or nature

what we mean by metaphysics is a set of

ideas or entities that exist

independently of the world of space and

time that aren't the kind of things that

tables and chairs and rocks and stars

are

examples of metaphysics are pure ideas

or spiritual entities like god or the

angels things like that for religious

believers

in every case though metaphysics

suggests that there's something to the

world that there's something real and

existing

that exists independent of and somehow

outside of our immediate everyday

experience

so metaphysics is the inquiry and the

consideration

of things that exist outside of nature

itself pure ideas and religious

objects of religious thought in addition

to physics and metaphysics we'll also be

considering

two related questions ontology and logic

now ontology is not the kind of word

you're going to see on an everyday basis

it's not the kind of thing you're most

likely going to find in the newspaper

but ontology is not a terribly hard

thing to comprehend

it's speech about beings in other words

ontology is a kind of philosophical

discipline which allows us to analyze

and think about

the kind of existence that things have

for example we might say that god exists

in a different way

and on a different plane from everyday

human beings

we might be inclined to say that human

beings have a sort of stat

a status and a set of rights and a kind

of dignity that everyday objects don't

have

in other words when we distinguish

between human beings and physical

objects

or between god and human beings we're

making what might be called

ontological distinctions we're

distinguishing between the kinds of

beings that they are

we're attributing to them different

status in a sort of hierarchy perhaps

and we're distinguishing the kind of

speech that we can make about them the

kind of reasoning that we can do about

them

and the kind of thing that they are

there are differences in the way we

apprehend

different ontological classes of beings

so ontology is just going to be speech

about beings

it sounds simple early on it won't be

too bad i'll come back to this topic of

ontology later because it's pregnant

with many important philosophic

questions

in addition to ontology we're going to

talk about logic a little bit logic is a

kind of

formidable term it's a little bit

intimidating when you first encounter it

it's nothing as quite as complicated as

you might think logic

is a system of rules for deriving true

inferences

in other words logic is a series of

rules which says that if you start out

with true premises

if you follow the rules of logic you

will always draw true inferences

so it's nothing very complicated nothing

is intimidating as you might have

suspected

logic is just a set of rules for

organize our think organizing our

thinking

so that we always get the right answer

if we start out with true assumptions

it's not as bad as you might have

thought well in addition

to questions of logic and ontology we

also have questions of epistemology

now epistemology another large kind of

intimidating word

but it isn't it's simpler than you might

suspect comes from two greek words

episteme and logos meaning speech

or reasoning about knowledge itself when

we inquire into epistemology

what we're doing is thinking about

thinking thinking about knowledge

trying to account first of all for what

sort of things we can know about

and second of all we're trying to

account for what kind of knowledge we

can have

of different kinds of things so for

example

our knowledge of arithmetic may be

different from our knowledge of the

boiling point of water

our knowledge of the boiling point of

water may be different from our

knowledge of right and wrong

our knowledge of right and wrong may be

different from our knowledge of

political theory or the way that

governments ought to be organized

in every case different kinds of

knowledge and different kinds of

thinking

involve epistemological distinctions and

epistemological thinking

it involves thinking about thinking when

philosophers do this they are trying to

clarify their own thoughts

and clarify the thoughts of other people

to eliminate confusions that have crept

into people's thinking

by providing a specific and detailed

analysis of how thinking works

what thinking can do and then giving

examples of the appropriate sort of

thinking

so all through this long series of

lectures that we're going to be doing on

the history of western philosophy

questions of epistemology will be

central to our concerns

and when you hear the word epistemology

it's nothing to get excited about

the philosophy in question is just doing

a little thinking about thinking

he's just doing a little talk about what

it means to be reasonable

about what it means to think clearly in

addition to talking about epistemology

every philosophy every philosophy that

talks about knowledge

also has to talk about a theory of the

knower because whenever there's

knowledge there's also some person

doing the knowing and a theory of

knowledge and a theory of the knower

always lead to a sort of philosophical

psychology

either explicitly or implicitly all of

the philosophers in the western

tradition

have a particular conception of the

human mind and the human consciousness

which is characteristic of and cognate

to their entire philosophical

project different sorts of philosophical

psychologies

different conceptions of the mind will

be characteristic of different

philosophers

and will come to light when we have

different kinds of questions to consider

plato had one particular philosophy of

mind and he organized his philosophy of

mind or of the soul

with particular reference to the

problems of justifying mathematical

knowledge

the philosophers of the 17th and 18th

century who were at the heyday of the

rise of modern science

put together different and alternative

conceptions of philosophical psychology

based upon different concerns with

regard to epistemology

their concerns in the 17th and 18th

century were primarily with justifying

the rise of modern natural science

and their philosophy of mind

correspondingly differs in the sort of

emphasis that they place upon different

topics

beyond the philosophy of mind we're also

going to have three

related disciplines and the first will

be aesthetics

what we mean by aesthetics is a theory

of the beautiful

a series of reasoning a reasoned

conclusions or reasoned thoughts

about what it is that human beings find

beautiful whether this beauty that they

apprehend is in the object that they're

looking at or

observing or whether it's in the psyche

whether it's in the mind itself

and what the role of beauty is in the

rest of our judgments for example in our

judgments of right and wrong

our judgments of political order and

change and our judgments of the way that

we ought to live our own particular

lives

aesthetics will be a way of formalizing

and making rigorous

our everyday perhaps odds and ends not

terribly well organized things

feelings about beauty aesthetic brings

aesthetics brings together

our series of common everyday thoughts

about what's beautiful and attractive

and formulates them into a philosophical

whole that connects them to other

philosophical questions like ethics

ontology epistemology two other

topics or philosophic questions will be

discussed repeatedly in the course of

this lectures of these lectures on the

history of philosophy

the first is ethics and the second is

politics or more precisely political

theory

ethics is the theory or the philosophic

branch of inquiry which talks about

right and wrong

which talks about our moral obligations

which inquires into our certainty

of what we ought and ought not to do

ethics

asks what is it to be a human being and

to engage in actions that are

appropriate to a human being

how can we improve the way we behave and

how can we make

adequate or satisfactory judgments of

the behavior of other people

ethics investigates the part of human

beings that are not animals that are not

specifically

completely part of nature it indic it

investigates the element in human beings

which make choices

which are free which in the ancient

intellectual tradition have souls ethics

inquires into

the sort of activities we undertake the

sort of judgments of value that we make

and the sort of people we are or could

become

now connected with these concerns is the

philosophy of politics or political

theory

the reason why politics is connected to

ethics is because at least in the

ancient

tradition of politics and ethics one is

directly connected to the other

because the city or the human

collectivity is seen as being

like an individual human soul only

raised in size

increased in proportions so if it is

true that the human individual

is like human society in some respects

or for some purposes

then at its basis political theory the

theory of political science the theory

of how we ought to organize societies

of how governments ought to be organized

of how justice ought to be dispensed

will all be connected with our theories

of ethics and will our conceptions of

proper human behavior

in other words both ethics and politics

investigate the theory of what is good

or what is righteous

ethics investigates what is good or

righteous at the level of the individual

politics investigates what is good or

righteous or praiseworthy or justifiable

at the level of society so at the level

of the individual

ethics tells us what we ought to do at

the level of society

political theory or political science or

political philosophy

will investigate the way society is

organized the way they ought to behave

the kind of laws they ought to create

and the kind of political order the kind

of connections between

human beings that ought to establish and

justify

so the concerns of the history of

philosophy are remarkably small

given the vast variety of thinkers in

the history of philosophy

the enormous diversity and richness of

the traditions they represent

and the vast amounts of time that we're

talking about

when we consider the history of

philosophy we must always consider the

fact

that we are dropping back 10 or 15 or

20 or 30 centuries so on our part it

will require

an imaginative leap we are going to have

to think our way back

to the position of early philosophers of

early thinkers of

early cultures that don't have the

advantage of the historical experience

that we do

that don't have the advantage of the

sophisticated technological advances

that we do

that don't have any of the

presuppositions that we bring to

questions of right and wrong

the questions of justice and injustice

to questions of truth and falsehood

the ancient world that philosophy

originated from

was a world full of myths a world full

of

imaginative stories which took the place

of

rational explanations of things so when

we

treat the history of philosophy we have

to come to it with an open mind

and a willingness to think ourself back

out of the level of sophistication that

we happen to be in today

back to the level of the problems and

the level of the perplexity

of the ancients if you're willing to

make that sort of intellectual leap

and perform that kind of intellectual

kind of

sympathy or empathy with earlier

thinkers your chances of absorbing

and appreciating these philosophical

debates increases dramatically

now i spoke earlier about ontology about

the question of what

is and that topic is going to be very

important in our analysis

and are breaking down our consideration

of the entire history of western

philosophy there are basically only two

answers to the questions of

to the question what is it's such a

simple question that you can see

how it wouldn't provide a great many

alternatives at the most fundamental

level

there are two basic answers to the

question of what is in the western

tradition

the first answer to the question is that

what is is nature

that is simply tables and chairs and

objects of sense perception

that there are no gods or spirits or

demons

or anything mystical anything

non-physical

anything non-sensible in other words

there's a whole school of philosophy

dates all the way back to the ancient

greek pre-socratic physicists

which treats the world as simply made up

of atoms and the void or matter and

space

there is no room for a second world

there's no room for god

or angels or spirits or anything that's

independent of human

sense perceptions so for those

philosophers who believe that the world

is basically

natural who approach nature from

as being ontologically fundamental these

people will be the origins of

materialistic interpretations of the

world

those people who take nature to be

fundamental and exclusively

the only thing that exists are going to

end up being the kind of ancestors of

the philosophical materialists

now there's a second group of

philosophers and a second answer

to the question of what is in the

western intellectual tradition

an alternative to insisting that only

nature exists

is the possibility of saying that nature

plus something else exists

some second world some world outside of

our immediate sense perceptions

some world that's external to space and

time

and in the western intellectual

tradition this world is usually called

heaven

or hell or some transcendent realm where

divine things are kept outside this

profane world of space and time

that we encounter on an everyday level

for all

believing christians and jews the answer

to what exists

has to be the world around us which is

nature

but also god and the saints or the the

souls of those who have gone on before

us and also things like angels

in other words for those who are

religious believers for example

there is a second world independent of

the world of space and time

that has an ontologically distinct set

of things within it

things like god the angels moral virtue

perhaps for some philosophers

there will be abstractions there will be

things independent of our senses

it's like that line in hamlet where

hamlet says there are more things on

heaven and earth than

are dreamt of in your philosophy horatio

well it may well be that those

naturalistic philosophers are mistaken

and perhaps there is a second world

where things that are not objects of

sense perception

which do not exist within the realm of

space and time are kept and connect

somehow to our world

in addition to the tradition of

religious belief in

western thought there's also a greek

tradition of metaphysics

a greek otherworldly tradition which

says that the world is

broken into two pieces there's a world

of nature a world of immediate sense

perception the world of space and time

and a second world the world of the

forms in many respects this

respect the second world is like the

christian or

or jewish heaven it's an extra world

where something divine something of

superlative importance

rains down its significance and its will

on this

world of space and time that human

beings happen to live in in the case of

plato

the metaphysic the and the greek

metaphysical tradition this second world

is called the realm of the forms

and the realm of the forms is a place of

pure ideas

of pure thought that's somehow more real

more permanent more everlasting than

this world of becoming this world of

change

this world of flux that we inhabit so

there are basically two answers in the

western intellectual tradition

to the question of what exists answer

number one to the question is

nature nature exists the world of space

and time

the pre-socratic physicists were the

first and most important examples of the

of people who held the view that the

only real thing

is the world of space and time the world

of nature

in addition modern science particularly

the modern science that develops in the

renaissance and then in the

enlightenment

is very much beholden to this tradition

of secular knowledge

that comes to the west from the

pre-socratic physicists

so this naturalistic approach to

knowledge and this naturalistic approach

to what is

leads to some of the most fruitful and

important elements in the western

intellectual tradition

and it's about half of the significant

thinkers i would say in the entire

tradition

have made that ontological assumption

the other half of the centrally

important thinkers in the western

tradition

adopted the two worlds position adopted

what we would call a metaphysical set of

assumptions about ontology

for people that hold this view there is

a world of space and time

there's a world of sense perceptions but

there's also some other world

it's this and this view is something

that both platonists and christians can

agree upon

there's some world external to our sense

perceptions

external to the world of change and flux

around us

which is permanent which is of supreme

importance

and which it is the obligation of every

human being to somehow connect

themselves to insofar as they're capable

this second world for those philosophers

who believe in such a thing

this second world is of enormous

significance it contains all our

potential for virtue

it contains some eternal moral standards

by which to judge the good and evil

of human actions and it's somehow

justifies

and punishes good and evil actions down

here

this will be true for plato this would

be true for the god of christianity and

judaism

this will be true for all constructs

which allow for the

existence of that second world of that

metaphysical realm

these two ontological positions the one

world view and the two world view

the view that everything is physics and

everything is space and time and the

view that things are

space and time plus something else that

the world is nature plus something else

this is the ontological bedrock of the

western intellectual tradition

all of the remaining intellectuals that

you're going to hear about

throughout this this entire series of

lectures will have something to say

about this ontological

question and once they commit themselves

one way to one way or another to this

ontological position

of one world or the alternative

ontological position of two worlds

all sorts of implications are carried on

and entailed in that

a certain view of ethics will come from

each position a certain view

of politics will come out of each

position a certain view of

aesthetics of the philosophy of mind of

epistemology

all sorts of profound intellectual

decisions will be made on the basis of

what school

of philosophy we find ourselves

connected to

so you have to be careful throughout the

history of philosophy to get a sense

early on of what sort of philosophy

you're dealing with

once you know whether he's a one-world

philosopher or a two-world philosopher

much of what he follows in his

philosophy will make a great deal more

sense

because all of philosophy forms one

coherent whole

at least among the best thinkers now in

addition

to the questions of ontology there's the

question of historical development in

the western tradition

and if we look at the western tradition

as a kind of vast panorama

of ideas and thinkers and formulations

of

old and sometimes new contributions to

thought

two places and two traditions stand out

as being central and fundamental to the

western intellectual

endeavor and i'd say this is the

tradition that comes out of athens

and the tradition that comes out of

jerusalem the tradition that comes from

liberated rationality and human freedom

and the tradition that comes from

reverence and piety and faith in god

these are the sort of the two parts of a

braid that intellectual

that the intellectual life of the west

forms when you step back and look at it

over the centuries

you if any of you know what the caduceus

is the caduceus is the

the symbol of pharmacy of the apoca

theory of the doctor's art

and what it is is a stake with two

snakes twined around it

forming a sort of a braid well the

traditions of athens and jerusalem

form that kind of a braid in western

culture

the mythos of western culture the

fundamental myths the fundamental

orientation towards right and wrong

the fundamental conception of

metaphysics that is characteristic of

the western tradition

comes out of jerusalem it comes out of

the stories of the old and the new

testament

the rational element in the western

tradition the tradition of humanism

of free unfettered rationality the

human-centered element in western

intellectual culture

comes out of greece and to be specific

it comes out of one city it comes out of

athens

athens is the home of socrates and

socrates can be thought of as the sort

of

patron saint of free and rational

inquiry

athens is the contributor in the western

culture

of the idea that nothing human is

foreign to

us that what is potentially true for one

human being

is accessible to all that there is one

common logos one common rationality

which unites all of human beings and

which will allow them to dispel the

darkness of myth

and irrationality which the greeks think

hangs over us like a fog the greek

tradition is the tradition of free

discourse

the greek tradition is the tradition of

rationality

without any reference to mythology

without any necessary reference to

mythological thinking

and the greek tradition is organized

around the idea of

human beings as opposed to gods there is

of course a greek pantheon and there is

no shortage of greek myths no one that's

aware of greek tragedy would ever hold

that sort of a view

but what is remarkable and unique about

greek about greek culture

as opposed to the other cultures that

were contemporaneous with it

is that in greek culture there is a

drive towards secular

knowledge and this is a thorough

turnaround from the earlier tradition of

thought which has been entirely

organized around myths

secular knowledge is a new and important

idea

that comes to us from the secular greek

thinkers

particularly in this case the greek

pre-socratic physicists

and the greek sophists now

two terms are very important when we

look at the history of western

philosophy

both as it comes out of athens and as it

comes out of jerusalem

the first word is logos and the second

word is mythos

logos in greek means speech word

reason talk it means

rational discourse essentially now

in greek philosophy rational discourse

has a preeminent place

the socratic dialogues are works of art

which

raise philosophical rational discourse

to the realm of archetypes of thinking

archetypes of approaching knowledge in

a particularly rational humane

man-centered way

the greek view of logos is free

unfettered rationality

now there's an alternative conception of

logos which is no less valid

and this is the conception of logos that

we find in

particularly the new testament

the new testament is written in greek

and that is a fact of enormous

consequences for the history of western

thought the old testament is written in

hebrew

the quran is written in arabic alone of

the sacred books

in the tradition that comes out of

jerusalem the new testament

written in greek has the most definite

affinities

to greek culture and the constant

attempt to unify athens in jerusalem

to create a rapprochement between greek

culture and the culture of

biblical faith in large part stems from

the fact

that christian intellectuals by virtue

of being able to read

scripture in the original also have

access to the greek intellectual

tradition

which is something that comes packaged

with the greek language

that we don't see in the tradition of

rabbinic judaism

and we don't see in the tradition of

exegesis that comes out of the quran

it has to do with the language that

these scriptures are written in

now in the tradition of biblical faith

logos does not mean free untrammeled

reason it has that connotation because

it's taken from the greek

but in fact logos means word the gospel

of john the first

passage the first verse in the first

chapter says in the beginning was the

word and the word was made flesh

the word for word here is logos

and what we mean by in the beginning was

the word is that

the beginning the primary or stuff of

the world the fundamental reality

is the word of god nothing comes prior

to that

nothing is more fundamental nothing is

more basic

the authoritative fundamental divine

word of god is the logos in the sense in

which logos is used in the greek

tradition

the fact that both those who are

devotees of athens

and those who are devotees of jerusalem

have both been using the same word for

one of their favorite things

has been the source of an endless amount

of confusion and difficulties in the

history of western philosophy

so just to take some of these confusions

out early on

there are two ways of thinking about the

logos and perhaps they're not entirely

separate

perhaps there is a divine element a

universal element

to free unfettered human discourse and

perhaps there

is some element of the mythical or of

the divine

or of the more than human in either

god's revelation

or even in the thought that god might

reveal his will to us

in either case devotees of athens and

jerusalem

have been gerrymandering and playing

with the greek language with a

poor dead language for many generations

now and it's just as well as you get

used to it early on

if you do it will perhaps remove some of

the perplexities that

may emerge in the course of our

discussions we have quite a ways to go

in our history of western philosophy

now there's a second a second important

word

in our consideration of athens and

jerusalem and that word is mythos

and mythos just means story or at least

if i want to be

a little over simple about it it just

means story it's the word from which we

derive our term myth

and it's a story but it's more than a

story it's somehow an archetypical story

it's a story about we assume fictional

people doing fictional things

yet it's a lie that tells the truth

because this

story has a universal applicability

independent

of the person that is alleged to have

done these things

we will find examples of such

universally applicable myths

if we look at something like oh the myth

of oedipus

right in greek tragedy or the oristia in

greek tragedy

or for that matter the iliad the odyssey

and homer

these myths are not just rousing

adventure stories they mean to tell us

some moral truth about the human

condition or some truth about the

human condition regarding the fact that

there is no morality

but either way you are being told

something fundamental about the human

condition

in these myths which is not to be

despised and not to be disdained

simply because it doesn't appear in the

form of mathematical equations

it still has something to say but it

says it in an indirect

and perhaps ambiguous way

now both the athenian tradition and the

tradition that comes out of jerusalem

have their characteristic myths they

have an archetypical myth

which describes what it means to be the

perfect athenian

what it means to be the perfect man of

jerusalem

another way of stating it is that it has

a set of myths

which describe heroes heroes with

perhaps different conceptions of heroism

but heroes who exemplify some virtue

which is taken to be

fundamental and enormously significant

in each of these two intellectual

traditions

let's think about these or

these two exemplary myths and see if we

can't

fish out some qualities of the tradition

of athens in the tradition of jerusalem

while we think about these let's start

with the tradition of jerusalem

now there are lots of of possible

choices because

the books of the bible are so rich and

profound that you would be hard-pressed

to cover any of the important books of

the bible and not

find some figure there whose moral

status is such

that this myth has something to say to

us today

but in going through the bible i'm going

to go straight to one of the my real

favorites and he has a book all to

himself

this is the story of job and job is

god's faithful servant job in some

respects

represents the high point of religious

faith

job is the perfect example of the true

religious believer

the man who understands his relationship

to god who understands his relationship

to things of this world

and who shows only the deepest and most

profound virtue

in the biblical sense in his

relationship to god

for those who haven't read the bible

either lately or ever

let me briefly tell you what the story

of job is

job is god's faithful servant he's a

real good guy he constantly does all the

things that god requires of him

god has given him a good bit of favor

given him a wife

children giving him wealth giving him

land

giving him flocks made him a happy man a

man of this world a man of

many pleasures and many diversions

constantly job performs the appropriate

sacrifices

job praises god job shows the

appropriate

humility and obedience in the face of

god's awesome majesty

job is thankful and job praises god and

god

is well pleased with job now at some

point

it's not exactly said when and that's in

some place it's not exactly said where

the devil starts talking to god and the

devil says to god the only reason job

really likes you and the only reason he

sacrifices to you and praises you is

because you've done all these good

things

for him if you hadn't sent him a lovely

wife and a lovely family

and flocks and wealth and land and all

the things that a man can have in this

world

he would never be faithful to you this

faith is really

a sham it's really a way of his get him

getting more favors from you

now it becomes kind of strange here

apparently god and satan make a bet

now it never gets explained why anyone

would want to make a bet with god since

he knows everything already

nor does it is it clear why anyone would

make a bet with satan or how satan got

into it but

bracket that for a while i think they're

trying to tell you a different story

here

the key issue in job is this that god

gratuitously

sends down to job a terrible series of

catastrophes

his family gets stricken with diseases

and with

invasion and they're killed and his

possessions are scattered and his

house is burnt down and he loses all the

lovely things he has

and he's afflicted with boils and pains

and diseases and all the

evils of the human flesh and all through

this

job is completely faithful and

constantly praises god

saying i know my status god whatever you

send is right god is god

man is man i will never transgress the

boundary and blame god

because that's the ultimate blasphemy

that man should judge god

the point here being that whatever god

sends a human being

doubtless if there is a god a providence

running the world there's a reason for

it

and we ought not to dispute with the

deity telling him how to run the

universe

because we are as earthworms to god we

do not have the same

level of consciousness and for us to

inform god that we don't think he's

running the world properly is the height

of impertinence

and would be the last and most vicious

of actions

within the framework of religious faith

job is the man who holds back who

constantly has

faith in god and constantly praises god

despite the ills that beset him

which he knows somehow come from god but

which he does not blame god for

job's friends tell him you ought to

blaspheme job we don't have the same

faith that you do

job's wife tells him look job curse god

and die that's all that's left for you

job says to his wife he says to his

friends you don't understand the nature

of real religious faith

i'm job that's god i'm going to

be god's faithful servant so what he

ultimately decides to do

is to just sit there and take it and

constantly praise god

well at the end of the story oddly

enough this has a happy ending

god is very well pleased with job why

because job as a human being

has shown the greatest of human virtues

which is religious faith

under the burden of all disenchantment

under the burden of all anxiety under

the burden of all misery

the point of job's patience the point of

job's faith

is to teach us that the perfect virtue

of the person

who adheres to biblical religion is

faith in god under all circumstances

job is god's faithful servant and that's

the mythos that's the central

virtue and the central good person in

biblical religion or one of the central

good

people now let's take an alternative to

that the man who shakes his fist at god

the man who wants to be like god the man

full of greek hubris

let's take the perfect greek man and

there are again a lot of choices here we

could choose achilles

from homer great heroic figure

we could choose odysseus because he was

smart as well as being tough that's

another alternative

but my choice for the perfect greek man

is prometheus

the man who's not quite at the level of

the gods but would like to be

and although he knows that he's somehow

subordinate to the gods

he's still the man who wants to move

himself up instead of having the

humility

and the faith that was characteristic of

job prometheus is the man who shakes his

fist at the gods

the man who disobeys the gods knowing

he's going to be punished and doesn't

care

he's the man who wants to be something

more than human

prometheus is a titan who felt sorry for

the human beings when they were being

created because they weren't given the

advantages of the animals they didn't

have

claws and teeth they didn't have this

swiftness of deer

they didn't have the coloration of

chameleons they didn't have anything

going for them

prometheus liked human beings and

despite the fact that zeus says that you

can't bring the fire of the gods

you can't bring this divine spark down

to human beings

prometheus deceives zeus prometheus

goes against what the greatest of the

greek gods tells him to do

prometheus says i'm going to do what i

will

it's pure satanic will those of you who

have read paradise lost

and who know understand what what it

means to say that i would rather

serve i would rather rule in hell than

serve in heaven

understand what the promethean element

is prometheus is an important greek myth

because it says what the greeks really

are if you think of the greek pantheon

as not being an enormous and omnipotent

creator god but in fact being

personifications of the forces of nature

when prometheus shakes his fist at the

gods

and says to the greatest of the gods i

will master you

i will defy you i will see the day that

you die

what the greeks are saying is that the

day will come when the drive

to make human beings divine when the day

that the day will come when the drive to

make human beings more than they are

will succeed we will conquer not just

the pantheon of the mythological gods

we will conquer the forces of nature we

will conquer blind chants

and we will somehow be more than men

this is the heroic temptation

in greek tragedy this is called hubris

this is that

pride this is that overweening desire to

be something more than you ought to be

to break out of the bonds of nature and

to become something more

this megalomaniacal pride this desire to

be something more than merely human

is the essence is the core of the greek

approach to the world

it defies god it defies nature

all in the name of increasing and

enlarging

and improving the world of human will

and the world of human action

the world of job is an entirely

god-centered world

men are but insects within such a world

they don't count for very much

within the greek approach to things the

gods are fictions or if they're not

fictions they're at least the kind of

nature forces that we can somehow

get around that we can somehow supplant

and make ourselves superior to them

if we but have sufficient daring and

sufficient will

all of greek heroism all of greek epic

all of greek tragedy is derived from

this essentially

satanic pride and here i don't mean

satanic in the sense of being evil or

devilish i mean satanic like milton

satan a man who

or a creature who would be more than

human but somehow

can't quite be at the level of real

godhood

these are titans these are men who want

to be something more than human

the whole greek project of creating

secular knowledge

of mastering nature of reaching the fun

the fundamental axioms of mathematics

of enlarging the realm of free

untrammeled rationality

all of these ideas are caught up in the

image of prometheus

so when we braid together the tradition

of athens in jerusalem

we are really asking ourselves do we

want the virtues of athens

or do we want the virtues of jerusalem

do we want to be like job or do we want

to be like prometheus

and there's a problem here this is

something worth your consideration

as you let the remainder of the lectures

wash over you as you think through what

you're being told

that the human psyche or the human soul

is made up of a heterogeneous set of

components we have a rational element to

us that allows us to do our taxes and

allows us to do geometry we have an

emotional element in us which allows us

to appreciate

poetry and allows us to fall in love

we have the desire for religious

illumination

testimony to that is the fact that we

have constructed the

religious systems the religious art and

architecture that we have

we have many heterogeneous desires and

many heterogeneous elements built into

our psyche

or our soul or our mind and

insofar as we exclusively focus on just

job

or just prometheus insofar as we wish to

be just athenian or just

derived from jerusalem we have locked

ourselves

into an either or alternative that i

suspect is not entirely satisfactory

different sorts of philosopher different

sorts of philosophical discourse

different sorts of thinking offer us

different sorts of pleasure

and different sorts of improvement in

other words do not

make the mistake of thinking that all

edifying philosophies

start from the same assumptions and come

to the same conclusions

i think that is a fundamental error in

fact

there are alternative sets of

assumptions and alternative sets of

conclusions

which may well be in contradictory

between themselves

and yet listening to them thinking about

them and letting them

do something to you by actually engaging

with them

you may be edified in different kinds of

ways

it may improve different elements in

your soul in other words

different kinds of thinking are good for

you

the great philosopher wittgenstein once

said that

philosophical illnesses usually stem

from

a dietary deficiency when a they stem

from

a situation in which in which our

intellectual diet is deficient in

examples

if we constantly think about religious

and religion and religious texts and

religious issues

we may well have a dietary deficiency

that is lacking in scientific or

mathematical examples

similarly if we were to be extremely

positivistic organize our thinking only

around physics

and mathematics and formal logic it may

well be the questions of good and evil

questions of human history human destiny

what's good

for both individuals and societies it

may well be that questions like that

will escape us

if we were exclusively scientific in our

orientation

so what i would plead for here is first

of all an open mind

a willingness not just to be edified

when you hear a philosopher telling you

what you already

believe what i'm asking you is to have

the courage

not just to hold the convictions that

you do but the courage to attack your

convictions

to call your convictions into question

to ask yourself

suppose i'm completely wrong suppose the

other set of assumptions

or the other set of conclusions is the

real one how would i know

am i really certain about what i think i

know

if you do that seriously if you

sincerely apply yourself

to the tradition of athens and to the

tradition of jerusalem

i think you will maximize what a course

of lectures in the history of western

philosophy

can potentially offer you if you don't

at least make the attempt to extend

the set of your assumptions and to

extend the reach of your conclusions

to include not just what you believe now

but the alternative set of beliefs

or the set of beliefs that you've had

some doubts about in the past

at least think through the possibility

of what it would be like to believe that

ask yourself what the pluses and minuses

are and if you want a kind of formula

for intellectual honesty when you

confront

these and other questions that we'll

have to deal with in the next 63

lectures

you might want to constantly ask

yourself the following question

do i believe this issue that's called

the issue xyz

and then secondarily what would count as

evidence either for this proposition or

against it

if you are willing to look for evidence

in favor of what you believe and also

evidence in favor of what you

do not believe or in favor what you

reject the

intellectual honesty that you will bring

to these issues will benefit you both in

your understanding

and in your capacity to absorb these

works because understanding is just the

first stage

after you understand you have to absorb

and after absorbing

the message of both athens and jerusalem

then the question is action and that's

outside the realm of these lectures

what we're going to move to next in the

next set of lectures we do

will be the pre-socratic philosophers

what is important

about the pre-socratic philosophers is

that they are the earliest example

of the greek drive to create secular

knowledge

we are indebted to these greek

physicists

for the foundations of the sort of

science that was developed in the

renaissance and later

and for the secular skeptical

rational element in greek culture which

continues on in the western tradition

right through to today thank you