1) Search for self-understanding
2) Love and pursuit of wisdom
3) Asking of questions about the meaning of our basic concepts
4) Search for fundamental beliefs that are rationally justified
5) Philosophy explores the meaning of reality and illusion, and faith and reason
Main branches of philosophy
Metaphysics- questions reality and what is there. The branch of philosophy that deals with the first principles of things, including abstract concepts such as being, knowing, substance, cause, identity, time, and space.
Epistemology- the study or a theory of the nature and grounds of knowledge especially with reference to its limits and validity
Ethics- A theory or a system of moral values. Moral and immoral actions and what determines which is which
Pre-Socratics
Three philosophers from Miletus
Thales- everything comes from water
Anaximander- divine matter, boundless
Anaximenes- every comes from air
Other Pre-Socratics
Parmenides- nothing can come from nothing. All is permanent
Zeno- paradoxes
Democritus- the atom theory
Terms:
Natural Philosophy- The study of nature and the physical universe before the advent of modern science
Rationalism- In epistemology, rationalism is the view that "regards reason as the chief source and test of knowledge" or "any view appealing to reason as a source of knowledge or justification.
Empiricism- Knowledge comes from only a sensory experience
Materialism- the theory that physical matter is the only reality and that things like the mid, thought, and feeling can be explained in terms of matter and physical phenomena
Reason-the capacity of consciously making sense of things, applying logic, for establishing and verifying facts.
Socrates
The sophists
Specialized in philosophy and rhetoric
Ancient Greece
Taught people how to be wise for money
Believed in knowledge, but liked money
Philosophy in the marketplace-