Pursuing Wisdom
PursuingWisdomAn introductory course in philosophyProfessor
StandenSaint Michaels CollegePhilosophy: The Love of Wisdom
A good starting point to thinking about what philosophy is, is
to look at and try to understand that the word philosophy means in
its original language. Its from the ancient Greek words, , for love
of and, , meaning wisdom, thus, philosophy becomes the love of
wisdom and since ancient Greece, searchers for wisdom were called
philosophersThe First Philosopher?
It is commonly believed that the person to coin the word
philosopher was the great mathematician, mystic, musician and
founder of a religion, Pythagoras () of Samos (570-495 BCE). The
term encompassed all that he did as geometer, astronomer, musician,
theologian, medicine and science. Think how even today, when you
get a terminal degree in any one of those fields, you get a Ph.D. a
doctorate in PHILOSOPHY.Hinduism
In the Vedicthe earliest Hindu traditionsages (seers), sought to
grasp truth in all its manifold possibility. In the Katha
Upanishad, a young student, Natchiketa, is taught by the god of
death, Yama. Natchiketa asks death if one survives past bodily
death.Yamas Response
Once one is no longer distracted and tempted by desires,
pleasures, power and wealth, Yama reveals to Natchiketa the
difficult nature of truth that few understand and that is that the
interior self, ATMAN, is NOT distinct from the absolute self,
Brahma. Once one knows this one understands TRUTH. Butas narrow as
a razors edge"Rise, awaken, seek the wise and realize. The path is
difficult to cross like the sharpened edge of the razor (knife), so
say the wise.~Christopher Isherwood18. The self is not born, it
dies not; it sprang from nothing, nothing sprang from it. The
ancient is unborn, eternal, everlasting; he is not killed, though
the body is killed.Wisdom
The Sacred symbol, OM! , is the key to wisdom , and synonymous
w/BRAHMAN;Wisdom is to understand that the interior, private self,
ATMAN, is indistinguishable from the absolute self, BRAHMAN;Failure
to grasp this claim and live by it, means you are doomed to repeat
the cycle of birth and re-birth, Samara;Knowing this frees one,
like Nachiketa, from reincarnation.Some key concepts:Brahman:
Absolute ground of beingShakti: Divine motherShiva: God of
destruction and salvationVishnu: Supreme godKrishna: 8th avatar of
VishnuMoksha: ReleaseSamsara: Cycle of rebirthJiva: Interior
selfAtman: IndividualKarma: ActionDharma: PurposeYoga: Knowledge or
practice
Ralph Waldo Emerson on the Katha Upanishad:Yama, the lord of
Death, promised Nachiketas, the son of Gautama, to grant him three
boons at his own choice. Nachiketas, knowing that his father
Gautama was offended with him, said, O Death! let Gautama be
appeased in mind, and forget his anger against me: this I choose
for the first boom. Yama said, Through my favor, Gautama will
remember thee with love as before. For the second boon, Nachiketas
asks that the fire by which heaven is gained be made known to him;
which also Yama allows, and says, Choose the third boon, O
Nachiketas! Nachiketas said, there is this inquiry. Some say the
soul exists after the death of man; others say it does not exist.
This I should like to know, instructed by thee. Such is the third
of the boons. Yama said, For this question, it was inquired of old,
even by the gods; for it is not easy to understand it. Subtle is
its nature. Choose another boon, O Nachiketas! Do not compel me to
this. Nachiketas said, Even by the gods was it inquired. And as to
what thou sayest, O Death, that it is not easy to understand it,
there is no other speaker to be found like thee. There is no other
boon like this. Yama said, Choose sons and grandsons who may live a
hundred years; choose herds of cattle; choose elephants and gold
and horses; choose the wide expanded earth, and live thyself as
many years as thou listeth. Or, if thou knowest a boon like this,
choose it, together with wealth and far-extending life. Be a king,
O Nachiketas! On the wide earth I will make thee the enjoyer of all
desires. All those desires that are difficult to gain in the world
of mortals, all those ask thou at thy pleasure;those fair nymphs of
heaven with their chariots, with their musical instruments; for the
like of them are not to be gained by men. I will give them to thee,
but do not ask the question of the state of the soul after death.
Nachiketas said, All those enjoyments are of yesterday. With thee
remain thy horses and elephants, with thee the dance and song. If
we should obtain wealth, we live only as long as thou pleasest. The
boon which I choose I have said. Yama said, One thing is good,
another is pleasant. Blessed is he who takes the good, but he who
chooses the pleasant loses the object of man. But thou, considering
the objects of desire, hast abandoned them. These two, ignorance
(whose object is what is pleasant) and knowledge (whose object is
what is good), are known to be far asunder, and to lead to
different goals. Believing this world exists, and not the other,
the careless youth is subject to my sway. That knowledge for which
thou hast asked is not to be obtained by argument. I know worldly
happiness is transient, for that firm one is not to be obtained by
what is not firm. The wise, by means of the union of the intellect
with the soul, thinking him whom it is hard to behold, leaves both
grief and joy. Thee, O Nachiketas! I believe a house whose door is
open to Brahma. Brahma the supreme, whoever knows him obtains
whatever he wishes. The soul is not born; it does not die; it was
not produced from any one. Nor was any produced from it. Unborn,
eternal, it is not slain, though the body is slain; subtler than
what is subtle, greater than what is great, sitting it goes far,
sleeping it goes everywhere. Thinking the soul as unbodily among
bodies, firm among fleeting things, the wise man casts off all
grief. The soul cannot be gained by knowledge, not by
understanding, not by manifold science. It can be obtained by the
soul by which it is desired. It reveals its own
truths.Confucianism
Confucius One of the oldest philosophical traditions it
originated in the so-called spring and autumn period of classical
Chinese civilization. Kung-fu-tzu (Confucius) (551-479) and his
golden rule offered a version of a deontological (i.e. rule-based)
ethic found in every major world religion today Confucians often
use the Golden Rule to define Jen: "do to others as you would wish
done to yourself."[
11Key concepts:. Jen or Ren : Virtuous behaviour. When his
student Yan Hui asked him to define Jen, Confucius said: "One
should see nothing improper, hear nothing improper, say nothing
improper, do nothing improper."Li : Propriety; Etiquette, Proper
roles.Filial Piety : Respect.
JenJen (wren): human heartedness; goodness; benevolence,
person-to-person-ness; what makes man distinctively human (that
which gives human beings their humanity). Jen is a moral quality
that sets us apart from other species. LIThere are several ways to
grasp the concept LI, but essentially it is the proper way to treat
oneself and others in:Using the right words ( truth: fitting the
right word)Doctrine of the mean: avoiding extremesRespect in the 5
cardinal relationships
*:Father-childHusband-wifeSibling-siblingFriend-friendRuler-ruled
* ReciprocityTaoism
The Old Man
Lao-Tzu (6 th C BCE). Lived during the decline of the Zhou
dynasty and criticized the confucian philosophy. Worked as a
librarian.Key concepts:Following the Tao is to emphasize Wu-Eei
(action through non-action), naturalness, simplicity, spontaneity,
and practice the Three Treasures: compassion, moderation, and
humility.Tao : Path, way, channel, ontological ground of being.Te :
Power, virtue, comes from mastery of the Tao.Wu-Wei : Non-action,
spontaneity, effortlessness.Tzu-Jan : Naturalness, primordial state
of all things and beings.Pu : Uncut wood
Tao Te Ching
Reportedly written by Lao Tzu, scholars believe it is a later
compliation of 81 chapters. The famously difficult first lines: (do
k do fi chng do)"The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao" (
mng k mng fi chng mng)"The name that can be named is not the
eternal name."
Buddhism
Key concepts:Dharma : The Buddhas teachingsSangha: The community
of buddhists ( Bhikkus)Atmana: Self ( Thus, anatman: no
self)Buddha: The awakened Nirvana (Moksha): Extinguishment;
EnlighenmentSamsara: ReincarnationSiddhartha
Siddharthra Guatama was born in present day Nepal in 563 BCE to
the Shakya Tribe547 marries cousin and has boy, RapulaVentures
outside Palace and sees Indra masquerading as the Four
Sights:DiseaseOld AgeDeathMonkJoins ascetics
In 534, abandons family to seek enlightenment and spends years
as ascetic.Renounces ascetisim and seeks middle way.
Buddhahood
Meditates under the Bodhi tree (ficus religiosa) for 49 days and
achieves boddhimandala or enlightenment and thus avoiding the cycle
of suffering.Four Noble Truths:
1. All existence (dukkha) is suffering2. Suffering coems from
desire3. Desire may be stopped4. To stop desire become mindful and
practice the 8-fold pathEightfold Path
Santidevas
PerfectionsGenerosityProprietyPatienceEffortMeditationWisdomThese
are the qualities that you would perfect as you fulfill the 8fold
path. The come from Santidevas (8th c Indian philosopher)
Bodhisattvacharyvatra
Ancient Greek Wisdom: Philosophy vs. Mythopoetics
The Birth of philosophyPhilosophy, Bertrand Russell once said,
"is the no-mans land between science and theology, exposed to
attacks from both sides". In his magisterial, A History of Western
Philosophy, he writes, All definite knowledge so I should contend
belongs to science; all dogma as to what surpasses definite
knowledge belongs to theology. But between theology and science
there is a No Mans Land, exposed to attack by both sides; this No
Mans Land is philosophy.
Thales of Miletus: The Grandfather of Philosophy ( circa 624-546
BCE)
Thales is considered to be the founder of philosophy for his
attempts to use unaided human reason to explain the nature of
natural phenomena. AS such, we can say that philosophy began on May
28, 585 when he successfully predicted an eclipse. He also believed
that water was the fundamental constituent of all
thingsPythagoras
Pythagoras, it was believed, coined the word philosophy...
Russell, writes, Pythagoras was intellectually one of the most
important men that ever lived... Mathematics, in the sense of
demonstrative deductive argument, begins with him, and in him is
intimately connected with a peculiar form of mysticism. The
influence of mathematics on philosophy, partly owing to him, has,
ever since his time, been both profound and unfortunate.It all adds
up
Have you ever been intrigued by math, numbers? How can
mathematical models predict nature? Why are there such things as
Fibonacci Numbers? Pythagoras reasoned that the whole world was
number. Why lucky 7? Or why do buildings not have a 13th
floor?Heraclitus of Ephesus (535-475 BCE): Things Fall Apart: The
Centre Cannot Hold
Heraclitus argued that his predecessors failed to account for
the unity in the universe. Rather he posits an underlying principle
(Logos) according to which all things are unified as one. Opposites
exist and are necessary for life, but they are unified in a system
of balances. Logos is a kind of continual flux or change symbolized
best by fire. Thus the world is not to be identified with any
particular substance, but rather with an ongoing process governed
by a law of ever-present change, chaos. The underlying law of
nature also manifests itself as a moral law for human beings.
Heraclitus is the first philosopher to go beyond physical theory in
search for metaphysical foundations.You cannot step twice in the
same river.Parmenides (circa 515 BCE): The Same old, same old.
In contradistinction to Heraclitus, Parmenides argued that
change is illusory; rather, everything stays the same. In his only
surviving work, On Nature, Parmenides describes two views of
reality. In "the way of truth" (Alethea-) he explains how
realitythe what-is-- is one, timeless, uniform, necessary, and
unchanging. In "the way of opinion (Doxa)," he explains the world
of appearances, in which one's senses lead one to conceptions which
are false and deceitful. These ideas strongly influenced the whole
of Western philosophy, and most notably Plato.Zeno of Elea (ca.
490430 BC)
In a foot race between feet-footed Achilles and a hapless
tortoise, youd place your bet on Achilles, right?
Zeno developed a powerful form of argumentthe argumentum ad
absurdum-to defend Parmenides claim against the atomistsThe
Atomists
In the 5th Century, a number of like-minded philosophers
developed a position known as Atomism. Therse thinkers such as
Democritus, Leucippus, Empedocles, and Anaxagoras all believed that
the Universe could be subdivided into smaller, constituent
particles that they called ATOMS (from Gk., , meaning un-cuttable).
Thats 2,200 years before Boyle and Newton!The Sophists
Sophists (from Greek , meaning wise) were iteneratnt eachers who
traveld from polis to plis teaching the skills needed to be
successful in court liferhetoric, and argumentation. They became
unfairly identified with ethical relativism and specious reasoning.
Among the Sophists, Protagoras, Gorgias, Prodicus, Hippias,
Thrasymachus, Callicles, Lycophron, Antiphon, and Cratylus are the
most well-known.Plato (427- 347 BC)
All of philosophy is Plato, Plato all of philosophy. R.W.
EmersonThe safest Generalizationof Western philosophy is that it is
a series of footnotes to Plato. A.N. WhiteheadAristotle (
384-322)
Aristotle was born in Stagira, Macedonia and would spent 17
years as first a student and thena teacher at Platos Academy. After
he elft Athens, he became the tutor to Alexander (the Great) and
returned to Athens to start the Lyceum.Hellenistic Philosophy
(323-31 BCE)After the death of Alexander and until he rise of Roman
culture, the ancient world was in the throes of violent change and
philosophers responded by developing varied responses to how to
achieve the good
life.EpicureanismCyrenaicismCynicismSkepticismStoicismNeo-PlatonismEclecticism
Wisdom (praj)1. Right view
2. Right intention
Ethical conduct ( la)3. Right speech
4. Right action
5. Right livelihood
Concentration (samdhi)6. Right effort
7. Right mindfulness
8. Right concentration
