Intro to Philosophy

Essay 1

Philosophy deals with the way which human beings analyze the world. In the beginning of the Greek Enlightenment, ancient philosophers contributed many works that set the foundations that enabled the development of modern philosophy.

It all began when philosophers started to survey the natural world, and hence the physical universe, what caused it to looked the way it did. For example Thales in 6th B.C. argued that everything was made up of water. In addition Pythagoras argued that everything in the universe had a numerical facet that uniquely described them. He also believed that by using math you could find the root to everything that existed in the cosmos (Enlightenment ppt. Slide 3).

Another acclaimed philosopher that had a compelling or significant role in the rise of modern philosophy was Socrates. Socrates further expanded philosophy by examining the ideals of human virtues and happiness. He's probably best known for his dialect that emphasized that the truth needs to be pursued by cross examining one's position through questioning and conflict. Everything we know about Socrates came from his student, Plato. After Socrates execution Plato continued much of Socrates' work where he defined the ideal components that would allow the Greek City-State to properly flourish. (Enlightenment ppt. Slide 3).

Later philosophers, such as Aristotle, began to debate the universe in ways of life. In the debate they tried to decide what makes a life a good life and what makes a life a bad life. After much debate, they decided to add religion to the picture and how it plays a part of judging life as we know it. At the same time they added religion they were trying to determine what is religion? They knew that someone created the universe but really didn't know who or how to explain it. That debate is still going on even today, it's a debate that gets in the heart of us humans playing tricks on us by getting between what is real and what is not real, in a sense, its like its playing with our mind and our senses. And then that's where we began answering questions with questions. Aristotle said that a person's moral obligation in life was attributed to their particular purpose. Also, Aristotle expounded on the goodness of someone by measuring it in terms of its particular potential, or in other words, virtue (Notes: January 2007).

William of Ockham brought a new approach for us to debate. The new approach was called nominalism. What the new approach meant was that we believe in the particulars, and not in all the universals. One thing that Ockham believed quite heavily was that everything must be argued and he makes his points through arguments like the one when he argues that God's revelation is real