Nesmar G.

Reyes

BSLM 3A

ACTIVITY I

1. Discuss the following (differences)

a. Ancient Philosophy

- Ancient Philosophy is the philosophy of the distant past. It was produced during the archaic period,
which includes the great ancient Greek and Roman empires. It also incorporates various literary and
intellectual traditions like; Chinese Philosophy, Indian and Iranian Philosophies. Ancient philosophy is
the foundation for most modern philosophies. The main factor why Ancient philosophy is different from
the 2-period philosophies is that ancient Philosophy tends to have a thorough and extensive perspective
which includes myths, religious beliefs, ethics, literature, cosmology, and theories of nature. Modern
and Medieval philosophies tend to focus on specific areas, and their approaches have a more explicit
methodological awareness.

b. Medieval Philosophy

- Medieval Philosophy is the Philosophy of western Europe from about 400-1400 AD, the period
between the downfall of the Roman empire to the renaissance period. Medieval philosophy focuses on
Christian thought, particularly "theology". Medieval Philosophy has been known as the religious
orientation of the Philosophical period due to its religious orientation, which was developed within
"faith" as a means to uncover the mysteries of the truth. The main difference between the Medieval
philosophy and the other two philosophies is that it is concentrated on theology. Medieval philosophies
tend to revolve around faith and how it was used to explain the ideas of truth.

c. modern Philosophy

- Modern philosophy is developed in the modern era, which is greatly associated with modernity.
Modern philosophy is notably different from earlier periods of Philosophy due to its upfront and
unconstrained thought, unlike the medieval period, where the school of thought is limited by faith and
fear of God. This branch of Philosophy is distinguished by how people can convene themselves and
confirm knowledge through logical means and direct experiences instead of automatically accepting the
teachings of a book or a doctrine.

2. Explain the Theory of form (Plato)

- According to Plato, there is an existence of a perfect, eternal, immutable, and unchanging realm. This
realm is known as the realm of the “forms”. What is form? Forms are like ideas; they are non-physical,
eternal, and unchanging. The key concept is that they are non-extended, meaning they don’t occupy
space; otherwise, they would be able to “Change”. Plato argued that the things in our physical world are
“Imperfect copies”, reflections or “shadows of the forms” called PARTICULARS. Particulars are different
from forms because it is finite; they are mutable, so they change. Extended; therefore, they take up
space. They are physical hence “imperfect”. Plato asserts that forms act as a blueprint for the particulars
that resemble or correspond to it in the world around us. Plato claimed that the form is present in the
particulars that resemble it. With this concept, plato thinks that this is the reason why we are able to
recognize things that are different as somehow being the same; for example, there are several different
horses that are different from each other; some are black, some are brown, and some are white. They
are different from each other yet we still recognize them as a horse because they share the form of a
“horse”. One particular can represent a lot of forms; a horse can instantiate a form of beauty, a form of
endurance and many more. Plato argued that forms must exist because particulars are dependent on
them, meaning "us" in the physical word needed forms for our existence. There are different types of
forms, forms of phenomena (objects like trees, house, and people), forms of concept (abstract like
beauty, justice, and goodness) and the form of the good.

3. Explain the Theory of form (Aristotle)

- According to Aristotle, forms do not exist independently of things; therefore, every form is the form of
something (matter). Unlike Plato, Aristotle believed that forms without matter could not be something
definite, in which they could not actually and physically exist. The matter is the stuff from which things
are made, while forms, on the other hand, are what give it their definite shape and structure, which
ultimately determines its various functions. The bird (has the form) of an animal with wings and have
bone structure (matter) that is compatible with it and supports its function. Therefore, the theory of
form by Aristotle will ultimately lead to the argument that “matter without form cannot exist”.

4. In Ancient Philosophy, the 8 Philosophers presented their own stuff just to answer the question
(Thales), “What is the basic stuff of erything?” In your own stand, if ever you were one of them, what
will be your own stuff? Why? Explain

-TIME is the basic stuff of everything

*This principle speculated that everything came from Time

Can things begin without time? Can things change without time? All will begin in time and all will end in
time.

Everything around us revolves around Time. Starting from the Time of creation, Time of birth, Time of
death, and even the Time of our dinner. All things are dependent on Time, even how mountains form
thru the passage of Time, how the dinosaurs went extinct thru the passage of Time, how great heroes
are born and die thru the passage of Time. Time itself is the underlying factor of all things. I believe that
Time is the very foundation of everything and anything that is created, destroyed, and things that are in
the process of creation. Time is the witness of everything that has passed, everything that is in the
present, and everything that is in the future. Therefore, Time for me is the basic stuff of everything, the
one thing that will decide what will happen, what will change, and what will stay.

5. In Ancient and Medieval, did they discussed about the existence of God? If yes or no. why? Support
your answer.

- Yes, the philosophical period of ancient and medieval discussed the existence of God. Both of them
talked about the existence of a supreme being in one way or another. Thales argued that God (s) were
present in everything. He believed that by understanding the basic principle of nature, people would
understand the existence of gods. Another great philosopher known as Anaximander believed that there
is a great being called God within the air. His idea of natural theology leads to the notion that there is an
existence worthy of the word Aperion (unlimited, boundless, infinite, or indefinite). On the other hand,
Medieval philosophy revolves around theology. Therefore, we can already conclude the fact that this
philosophical period talks about the one above all who is responsible for creating (genesis) the universe
and the world. Medieval philosophers discussed the relation of faith to reason, the existence and
simplicity of God, and the very purpose of theology and metaphysics. Plato believes that there is a
perfect realm, an ideal being in which we can see in his theory of forms. He believed that there must be
a measure of goodness in order to identify God. According to him, God is a being of benevolence and is a
standard of goodness. This thought has been the basis for Plato’s most famous idea, which is the theory
of forms (The form of good). There is also Aristotle who talks about the “Unmoved unmover” his own
moniker to God. According to him, he (God) is the source of motion and change in the universe, a being
who stands at the pinnacle, a being who has pure form and exists without any relation to "matter".

6. With this presentation, how can we possibly really unite the idea of Philosophy to Ethics? Explain

- Philosophy and ethics are already interconnected with each other. Philosophy is the rigorous study of
knowledge, truth, and meaning, while Ethics is the study of moral principles that influences how a
human think and behave. These two important disciplines need each other because philosophy often
assesses ethical questions and ethics often uses philosophical ideas to understand the inner workings of
a man and to better explain such phenomena. I think there are two possible ways for this two to
possibly unite. First, we need to remove the limitation of ethics which is morality. However, ethics
revolves on morality itself; for that reason alone, we can't discard morality as we know it. Philosophy is
the pursuit of wisdom, truth, and knowledge; this is a study with broad topics which need "thinking"
outside the box. Some discoveries need to sacrifice morality in order to be proven, and some ideas are
against the moral way of people. The second way that I can think of is that we make another branch of
study in which Philosophy and Ethics are being studied and understood collectively instead of being
studied separately. The idea of Philosophy and Ethics are like the sides of a coin. Nevertheless, I believe
that we can accommodate the basic requirements of reason and morality by examining and studying
what is morally evil and morally good from the perspective of not as a person but as nature itself. There
are things in life that we can't explain alone by thinking only like a human; we should understand that
knowledge is something that can only flourish if we widen our standpoint. To conclude what has been
stated so far, Philosophy and ethics can be united when we stop seeing things from a small-scale
viewpoint. We need to expand our perspective in order to accommodate the different ideas we have in
life.