Philosophy in layman’s terms can be put as nothing but science. Philosophers like Aristotle used rationality to come to scientific knowledge of the world around us......See Full Story>>.....See Full Story>>
Throughout centuries the world has witnessed several renowned and significant philosophers who continue to influence and appeal to the intellectuality of thinkers.
Philosophy is complicated stuff. It’s the search for meaning, for greater understanding, for answers to the questions surrounding our existence, our purpose, and the universe itself.
In this article we will check out some of such greatest and most famous philosophers that the world has witnessed so far:
1. Socrates (470/469 BC-399 BC)
One of the prominent founders of Western philosophy, Socrates remains one of the greatest and famous philosophers of all time.
His major contribution to philosophy is perhaps the dialectic method of inquiry, i.e., to solve a problem it shall be broken down into a series of questions, the answers to which gradually distill the answer that one seeks.
The method is also known as the Socratic method or method of “elenchus” which is greatly significant in the present day as well, especially in the scientific methods in which hypothesis is the first stage.
Socrates has become renowned for his contribution to the field of ethics and epistemology.”Famous philosophers”
Socrates Big Ideas
1. Argued that Athenians were wrong-headed in their emphasis on families, careers, and politics at the expense of the welfare of their souls;
2. Is sometimes attributed the statement “I know that I know nothing,” to denote an awareness of his ignorance, and in general, the limitations of human knowledge;
3. Believed misdeeds were a consequence of ignorance, that those who engaged in nonvirtuous behavior did so because they didn’t know any better.
2. Aristotle (384–322 BCE)
Aristotle is among the most important and influential thinkers and teachers in human history, often considered — alongside his mentor, Plato — to be a father of Western Philosophy.”
Born in the northern part of ancient Greece, his writings and ideas on metaphysics, ethics, knowledge, and methodological inquiry are at the very root of human thought.
Most philosophers who followed both those who echoed and those who opposed his ideas — owed a direct debt to his wide-ranging influence.
Aristotle’s enormous impact was a consequence both of the breadth of his writing and his personal reach during his lifetime.
Aristotle’s Big Ideas
1. Asserted the use of logic as a method of argument and offered the basic methodological template for analytical discourse;
2. Espoused the understanding that knowledge is built from the study of things that happen in the world, and that some knowledge is universal — a prevailing set of ideas throughout Western Civilization thereafter;
3. Defined metaphysics as “the knowledge of immaterial being,” and used this framework to examine the relationship between substance (a combination of matter and form) and essence, from which he devises that man is comprised of a unity of the two.
3. Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900)
Best known for challenging the foundations of Christianity and Traditional Morality. Friedrich Nietzsche remains one of the most influential philosophers of all time.
Nietzsche started his career as a classical philologist and went on to become the youngest occupant of the Chair of Classical Philology at the University of Basel, in 1869, when he was only 24 years old.
Nietzsche is often referred to as one of the first existentialists, along with Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855).
Nietzsche’s Big Ideas
1. Favored perspectivism, which held that truth is not objective but is the consequence of various factors affecting individual perspective;
2. Articulated ethical dilemma as a tension between the master vs. slave morality; the former in which we make decisions based on the assessment of consequences, and the latter in which we make decisions based on our conception of good vs. evil;
3. Believed in the individual’s creative capacity to resist social norms and cultural conventions in order to live according to a greater set of virtues.
4. Immanuel Kant (1724 – 1804)
The major proponent of the “what can we know” philosophy. Immanuel Kant, a German philosopher is known to be one of the most influential philosophers in the history of Western philosophy.
He is also being considered as a central figure of modern philosophy. “Famous philosophers”
He is widely known for his argument that the human mind structures human experiences, and that reason is the source of morality.
Kant’s Big Ideas
1. Defined the “Categorical imperative,” the idea that there are intrinsically good and moral ideas to which we all have a duty and that rational individuals will inherently find reason in adhering to moral obligation;
2. Argued that humanity can achieve perpetual peace through universal democracy and international cooperation;
3. Asserted that the concepts of time and space, as well as cause and effect, are essential to the human experience and that our understanding of the world is conveyed only by our senses and not necessarily by the underlying (and likely unseen) causes of the phenomena we observe.
5. Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778)
Rousseau is known for his contributions to moral and political philosophy.
He believed that finding a way of preserving human freedom in a world where humans are increasingly dependent on one another for the satisfaction of their needs is what dominates as an idea in his philosophical theory.
His belief in achieving the co-existence of human beings in relation of equality and freedom is what gets majorly reflected in all of his works.
Rousseau was also known to be an active composer, a music theorist, a novelist and a botanist. His love for and appreciation of nature wanders made him an important influence on and anticipator of the Romantic Movement.
Rousseau’s Big Ideas
1. Suggested that Man was at his best in a primitive state — suspended between brute animalistic urges on one end of the spectrum and the decadence of civilization on the other — and therefore uncorrupted in his morals;
2. Suggested that the further we deviate from our “state of nature,” the closer we move to the “decay of the species,” an idea that comports with modern environmental and conservationist philosophies;
3. Wrote extensively on education and, in advocating for an education that emphasizes the development of individual moral character, is sometimes credited as an early proponent of child-centred education.
6. David Hume (1711–77)
A Scottishborn historian, economist, and philosopher, Hume is often grouped with thinkers such as John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, and Sir Francis Bacon as part of a movement called British Empiricism.
He was focused on creating a “naturalistic science of man” that delves into the psychological conditions defining human nature. In contrast to rationalists such as Descartes, Hume was preoccupied with the way that passions (as opposed to reason) govern human behavior.
This, Hume argued, predisposed human beings to knowledge founded not on the existence of certain absolutes but on personal experience
As a consequence of these ideas, Hume would be among the first major thinkers to refute dogmatic religious and moral ideals in favor of a more sentimentalist approach to human nature.
His belief system would help to inform the future movements of utilitarianism and logical positivism and would have a profound impact on scientific and theological discourse thereafter.
Hume’s Big Ideas
1. Articulated the “problem of induction,” suggesting we cannot rationally justify our belief in causality, that our perception only allows us to experience events that are typically conjoined, and that causality cannot be empirically asserted as the connecting force in that relationship;
2. Assessed that human beings lack the capacity to achieve a true conception of the self, that our conception is merely a “bundle of sensations” that we connect to formulate the idea of the self;
3. Hume argued against moral absolutes, instead positing that our ethical behavior and treatment of others are compelled by emotion, sentiment, and internal passions, and that we are inclined to positive behaviors by their likely desirable outcomes.
7. Niccolo Machiavelli (1469–1527)
Niccolo di Bernardo dei Machiavelli is at once among the most influential and widely debated of history’s thinkers.
A writer, public office-holder, and philosopher of Renaissance Italy, Machiavelli both participated in and wrote prominently on political matters, to the extent that he has even been identified by some as the father of modern political science.
He is also seen as a proponent of deeply questionable — some would argue downright evil — values and ideas.
Machiavelli was an empiricist who used experience and historical facts to inform his beliefs, a disposition that allowed him to divorce politics not just from theology but from morality as well.
His most prominent works described the parameters of effective rulership, in which he seems to advocate for leadership by any means that retain power, including deceit, murder, and oppression.
While it is sometimes noted in his defense that Machiavelli himself did not live according to these principles, this “Machiavellian” philosophy is often seen as a template for tyranny and dictatorship, even in the present day.
Machiavelli’s Big Ideas
1. Famously asserted that while it would be best to be both loved and feared, the two rarely coincide, and thus, greater security is found in the latter;
2. Identified as a “humanist,” and believed it necessary to establish a new kind of state in defiance of law, tradition, and particularly, the political preeminence of the Church;
3. Viewed ambition, competition, and war as inevitable parts of human nature, even seeming to embrace all of these tendencies.
8. John Stuart Mill (1806–73)
British economist, public servant, and philosopher John Stuart Mill is considered a linchpin of modern social and political theory.
He contributed a critical body of work to the school of thought called liberalism, an ideology founded on the extension of individual liberties and economic freedoms.
As such, Mill himself advocated strongly for the preservation of individual rights and called for limitations to the power and authority of the state over the individual.
Mill was also a proponent of utilitarianism, which holds that the best action is one that maximizes utility or stated more simply, one that provides the greatest benefit to all.
This and other ideas found in Mill’s works have been essential to providing a rhetorical basis for social justice, anti-poverty, and human rights movements
For his own part, as a member of Parliament, Mill became the first office-holding Briton to advocate for the right of women to vote.
Mill’s Big Ideas
1. Advocated strongly for the human right of free speech, and asserted that free discourse is necessary for social and intellectual progress;
2. Determined that most of history can be understood as a struggle between liberty and authority, and that limits must be placed on rulership such that it reflects society’s wishes;
3. Stated the need for a system of “constitutional checks” on state authority as a way of protecting political liberties.
9. Plato (428/427?–348/347? BCE)
Greek philosopher and teacher Plato did nothing less than found the first institution of higher learning in the Western World, establishing the Academy of Athens and cementing his own status as the most important figure in the development of Western philosophical tradition.
As the pupil of Socrates and the mentor to Aristotle, Plato is the connecting figure in what might be termed the great triumvirate of Greek thought in both philosophy and science.
A quote by British philosopher Alfred North Whitehead sums up the enormity of his influence, noting “The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato.”
Indeed, it could be argued that Plato founded political philosophy, introducing both the dialectic and dialogic forms of writing as ways to explore various areas of thought.
(Often, in his dialogues, he employed his mentor Socrates as the vessel for his own thoughts and ideas.)
Plato’s Big Ideas
1. Expressed the view, often referred to as Platonism, that those whose beliefs are limited only to perception are failing to achieve a higher level of perception, one available only to those who can see beyond the material world;
2. Articulated the theory of forms, the belief that the material world is an apparent and constantly changing world but that another, the invisible world provides unchanging causality for all that we do see;
3. Held the foundational epistemological view of “justified true belief,” that for one to know that a proposition is true, one must have justification for the relevant true proposition.
10. Thomas Hobbes (1588 – 1679)
An English philosopher of the 17th century, Best known for his work Leviathan (1651). Thomas Hobbes had very strong political views on society and on how humans could thrive in harmony despite living amidst the perils and fear of societal conflicts.
In most of his writings he never definitively points out what exact form of government he prefers, yet he makes it quite clear in Leviathan that monarchy is the only right form of government.
In his views governments were created to protect people from their own selfish reasons and evils. Therefore, the best government was the one with a great deal of power in its hand, like a king.
Hobbes believed in the authority and rule of a king as he felt a country needs an authoritative figure, a leader to provide and guide the direction of its people.
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