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PHILOSOPHY
Pythagoras ( )
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Lover of Pleasure
Lover of Success
Lover of Wisdom
Philia- Love
SOCRATES
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SOCRATES LIFE
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Sophia- Wisdom
According to Pythagoras
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Philosophy
As Science it seeks to acquire the knowledge of the causes of things.
As Science of all things- deals with concrete, real and contingent things
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As Known in Light of Reason- seeks the first causes of things as far as they can be
rationally established by the human mind.
DIVISION OF PHILOSOPHY
METHOD OF PHILOSOPHY
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SOCRATIC PRINCIPLES
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The unexamined life was not worth living, Were would be the worth in your
existence?
The most important task in life was caring for the soul. A persons soul was the real
person, Socrates believed that the most important task people faced was realizing
their potential as persons.
A good person could not be harmed by other people, the most important part of a
person is the soul and the soul is not physical but inward then the soul cannot be
harmed.
Since virtue is inborn in the mind and self-knowledge is the source of all wisdom,
then the only way to acquire virtue is simply to know what is in the mind, in the
self.
Virtue then depended on knowledge and could be defined as true knowledge of
ones self.
Famous Socratic saying: KNOWLEDGE IS VIRTUE: IGNORANCE IS VICE
True knowledge is the application of this knowledge.
COMMENTARY
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In the definition of virtue: Socrates did not give credence to instinct and passion
which can fly in the face of the true good.
As the poet Ovid sings: We know the better course, but we often choose to do the
worse.
PLATO
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Flux- all things pass and nothing stays and comparing existing things to the flow of a river,
he says you could not step twice into the same river. (Plato Cratylus 402a= A6)
THE IDEAL MAN, THE PERFECT MAN
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PLATOS LIFE
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Man in his present earthly existence, is only an imperfect copy of his real original
self.
The perfect man is in the realm of ideas.
Man, now imperfect, can be perfect again by constant recollection and imitation of
his former perfect self. During his long earthly exile and his imprisonment in the
body as a punishment for sin.
Man should live a life of virtue in which true human perfection consists.
HAPPINESS is the fruit of virtue
Is attained by the constant imitation of the divine exemplar of virtue, embodied in
his former perfect self.
It is the communion of the mind with the universal and external ideas.
It will free himself (doing contemplation) from his space-time confinement to
ascend to the heaven of ideas and there commune with the immortal, the external,
the infinite and the divine verities.
Contemplation means recollection or remembering of past perfect knowledge of all
things which the soul had already acquired directly by intuition before it was joined
to the body.
Contemplation does not mean passive thinking and or inaction, much less mere
speculation.
It is not just knowing or appreciating the GOOD, but constant doing of the GOOD.
It means imitating the Good Exemplar and Living the Good by leading a good life.
Happiness consist not merely in constant feeling of goodness but in being and
doing good.