“We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.” ― Plato
Philosophy is in its simplest terms, ‘’love for knowledge’’. While that which is a part of your current worldview might seem to be absolute in nature, there are things in your surroundings that are always evolving. Knowledge is a part of that surrounding as well and we have seen quite clearly how philosophers use that knowledge throughout history has created a structure only to break it and create another system in its place.
One thing that has stayed constant is the spoken words of those great people who have had a great role in shaping Western philosophy and the way of the world. In this blog, we will closely dig up ten such ideas by different philosophers.
Socrates
“The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.” ― Socrates
Socrates is the father of Western philosophy and his ideas were never written down by him as he considered the written word to be gullible and defenseless (he had the craziest ideas). He was the founder of the Socratic Method which is a dialectic one whereby ‘absolutism’ is rejected and opinions are taken into consideration. His ideas were translated by his disciple and student Plato who himself is a great philosopher of Greece.
Socrates was a moral thinker. He was not interested in mathematics or science, but rather in the quality of his own and others’ souls. The philosophy of Socrates analyses how we should live. This led to arguments about other virtues, such as wisdom, justice, courage, and piety.
Socrates considered his mission as correcting incorrect beliefs. He preached that people should be concerned with their souls rather than their bodies and belongings, stating that “wealth does not bring goodness, but goodness brings wealth.”
Plato
“Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something.” ― Plato
A.N Whitehead commented that: “The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato.’’ Among Plato’s most influential and well-known theories are:
- The Forms: Also known as Platonic Forms, split reality into two parts: the everlasting, actual, and perfect ideal of what should be, and the phenomena of what occurs in the physical world as we perceive it. Plato thought that all things had a Form and that the phenomena we perceive via our senses reflect the greater ideal.
- Duality: Described as believing in two distinct realms (as in the Forms): ideal and phenomena, as well as dualism of body and mind (the soul behind it, is eternal). Plato felt that all truth, insight, and beauty came from the ideal; we cannot experience the truth of things within phenomena since our senses perceive only illusions in the world around us.
- The concept of the soul: The soul is thought to be imprisoned in the body, seeking to break out into the perfect Form.
Mary Wollstonecraft
"If we revert to history, we shall find that the women who have distinguished themselves have neither been the most beautiful nor the most gentle of their sex.’’ ― Mary Wollstonecraft
Western Philosophy has little to no mention of female philosophers. Times were such that women were not accorded the recognition that they deserved. When we talk about the state of Feminism as it is known today, Wollstonecraft has to be remembered and commemorated as the ‘’mother of feminism’’. Her groundbreaking work ‘’A vindication of the rights of a woman’’ is a standalone text with no comparison in its radical ideas.
Wollstonecraft’s essay, published in 1792, contended that the educational system of her period purposefully educated women to be frivolous and inept. She contended that an educational system that gave females the same opportunities as boys would produce women who would be not only excellent husbands and mothers but also capable professionals in a variety of professions.
John Locke
“No man's knowledge here can go beyond his experience” ― John Locke
The famous philosopher and writer from the neoclassical age of reason, Locke, propounds that a man is born as ‘Tabula Rasa’ (a blank slate) where everything is etched after he/she (without essentializing the pronouns) enters the world. The situation around you forges a major part of your personality and hence for Locke, your knowledge cannot exceed the limits of your experience in this world that you are physically a part of. Hereby it does not matter if you are young or old. All that matters is how much you have been exposed to the nature and state around you and your knowledge is thus calculated by Locke in this manner.
Friedrich Nietzsche
"God remains dead. And we have killed him. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers?’’ ― Friedrich Nietzsche
The modern philosopher Nietzsche was not understood and taken in a positive way because he contested the norms of the age and gave his views which were radically unbeknownst. Nietzsche is opposed to the concept of objective truth. The fact that we believe there is only one correct method to approach a problem shows how rigid our thinking has become. Such intellectual rigidity is a symptom of saying “no” to existence, which Nietzsche despises. A healthy mind is adaptable and knows that there are numerous ways to approach a problem. There is no single truth, but rather a collection of many.
Now that you know the top five philosophers since antiquity, a question might be hitting your mind: But, why should I deal with philosophy? The simplest way to understand the need for philosophy comes in because philosophy lets you find answers to some of the most fundamental questions of life: What is the meaning of life? What is ‘truth’? What is there that affirms our existence as individual beings?
The most significant reason to study philosophy is that it is extremely interesting. Philosophers’ questions must be answered for each of us individually. Students in this area can learn how to ask good questions and how to start developing responses. Philosophy is essential, but it is also a lot of fun, and our faculty is full of award-winning teachers who make learning about philosophy enjoyable.
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