Lecture 1. Philosophy as a worldview and a methodology

1. Historical types of worldview: the myth, religion, philosophy

2. The specific nature of philosophical cognition.

3. Philosophy as a worldview

4. Philosophy as a methodology

 

Philosophy's aim from the beginning has been to give a general understanding of the universe that could provide a basis for the understanding of life, something on which to build a rational art of the existence of man and society. Since it concerned not any separate part of existence, but existence in general, it could not form the subject-matter of any specific science. It was the subject matter of philosophy – the science of the initial principles of the existence of the world, humanity and cognition. The subject-matter of philosophical cognition is not only the universe and its most general laws as they exist in themselves, but also and more particularly the relationship between man and the universe.

Philosophical cognition of reality is as ancient as the socially developed and rationally thinking human being himself. This is understand able enough, for the very fact of man's existence in remotest times presupposes a fairly well developed curiosity, an ability to state and solve not just the purely practical questions of everyday life but also problems involving a view of the world.

The original form of worldview was mythology, the imaginable and basically fantastic, generalized reflection of phenomena in which a certain general idea is thought of in personified, symbolical, sensuously concrete, plastically vivid and hypertrophied form, as in the fairy-tale. But whereas the fairy-tale is accepted as pure invention, the myth is regarded as something real.

The whole essence of the mythological consciousness consists in generalized images being thought of substantially, that is, as something animatedly material, corporeal. The mythological consciousness, which was characteristic of all peoples of the world at the tribal stage, was syncretic; it synthesized all spiritual culture – the first gleams of science, the artistic understanding of existence, and religious and philosophical views.

The worldview does not exist by itself, apart from specific historical individuals, social groups, classes and parties. In one way or another, by reflecting certain phenomena of reality it expresses their value orientations, their relationship to events of social life.

The basic question of philosophy is that of the relationship of thinking to being. It presupposes acknowledgement of the existence of an objective, i.e., independent of human consciousness, reality and a subjective, spiritual reality – representations, thoughts, ideas – and a certain relationship between them. Which comes first – matter or consciousness? Which generates which? Does matter at a certain stage of development generate its finest flower – the reason? Or does the world spirit create the material world? Or perhaps they have coexisted eternally as equal substances in their own right and are in some way interacting? Such is the first aspect of the basic question of philosophy.

Its second aspect comes down to the following. Can man and mankind in general know the objective laws of the world by the power of their own consciousness? Or is the world unknowable? In examining the first aspect implied in the basic question of philosophy the thinker inevitably finds himself in one of two camps, materialism or idealism (or dualism), while in examining the second aspect of the question he takes a stand either in favour of the fundamental possibility of knowing the world or in favour of agnosticism, that is, denial of this possibility.

The main trends in philosophical thought were and have remained materialism and idealism. Explanation of the world from the world itself is the methodological principle of materialism. It maintains that the connections between ideas in people's heads reflect and transform the connections between phenomena in the world.

Idealism is in general related to the desire to elevate the spirit to the maximum degree. In speaking with such veneration of the spiritual, of the idea, Hegel assumed that even the criminal thought of the evil-doer was greater and more to be marvelled at than all the wonders of the world. In the ordinary sense idealism is associated with remoteness from earthly interests, constant immersion in pure thought, and dedication to unrealizable dreams.

Idealism is divided into two basic forms: objective and subjective. The objective idealists, beginning from the ancients and ending with those of the present day, recognize the existence of a real world outside man, but believe that the world is based on reason, that it is ruled by certain omnipotent ideas which guide everything. Reality is considered to be rational and the reason is interpreted as the substance, the basis of the universe. All things and processes are thus spiritualized.

According to of subjective idealism, the world does not exist apart from us, apart from our sense perceptions: to exist is to exist in perception! And what we consider to be different from our sensations and existing apart from them is composed of the diversity of our subjective sensuality: colour, sound, forms and other qualities are only sensations and sets of such sensations form things. This implies that the world is, so to speak, woven out of the same subjective material of which human dreams are composed.

A methodology is a system of principles and general ways of organizing and structuring theoretical and practical activity, and also the theory of this system. Genetically methods go back far into the past, when our distant ancestors were acquiring, generalizing and handing down to new generations their skills and means of influencing nature, the forms of organizing labour and communication. As philosophy emerged, methodology became a special target of cognition and could be defined as a system of socially approved rules and standards of intellectual and practical activity. These rules and standards had to be aligned with the objective logic of events, with the properties and laws of phenomena.

The methodological principle of the determinist explanation of the world is the organizing principle of the corresponding physical, biological and social theories. After being tested by social practice, these theories in their turn may perform a methodological function, that is, serve as a guiding principle in further research.

There are several classifications of methodological knowledge.

One of the most popular is the division of methodology into substantive and formal methodology. The formal aspects of methodology are related to analysis of the language of science, the formal structure of scientific explanation, description and analysis of formal and formalised methods of research, particularly the methods of constructing scientific theories and conditions of their logical truth, the typology of systems of knowledge, and so on. It was the elaboration of this set of problems that raised the question of the logical structure of scientific knowledge and the development of a methodology of science as an independent field of knowledge.

Method is concretised methodology. Through the method of the concrete science it reaches the research desk. The concrete sciences, which are specific in relation to philosophy, may in their turn be methodological in relation to the narrower fields of their specific sphere of knowledge. For example, general biology arms botany, zoology and other narrower disciplines with general methods of research. Relying on Philosophy, general biology works out the methodological problems related to all the departments of biological science. This principle is to be found in other sciences as well. The present-day system of methods in science is as diversified as science itself. We talk, for example, of experimental method, the method of processing empirical data, the method of building scientific theories and their verification, the method of expounding scientific results, i.e., the classification of methods based on the classification of stages of research activity.

According to another classification, methods are divided into philosophical, general scientific, and special scientific methods. Yet another classification relies on different methods of qualitative and quantitative study of reality. The distinction between methods depending on the forms of causality -determinist and probability methods-is of considerable importance in modern science. For example, in biology dialectics is seen through the prism of general scientific methods (systems analysis, the principles of self-regulation, etc.), in specific research projects through applying special scientific methods and systems of methods (electronic microscopy, the method of tagged atoms, etc.).

One or another method makes it possible to know only separate aspects of the object of research. In order to comprehend all the essential aspects of the object, there must be complementarity of methods. The whole system of methodological knowledge necessarily involves a worldview interpretation of the basis of the research and its results. It should be stressed that general methodology is always at work in the brain of every scientist but, as a rule, it is kept in obscurity, as the intellectual background of a searching mind. This obscurity is sometimes so complete that the scientist may even deny that he acts according to any philosophical methodology, and insist that he is in general free of any philosophy. But this is merely an illusion of the consciousness.

Required reading:

1. Aristotle, 1994. Metaphysics, Books Z and H, translation and commentary, D. Bostock, Clarendon Aristotle Series, Oxford: Clarendon Press.
2. Moser, Paul. Philosophy After Objectivity. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993).
3. Quine, W. V. Word and Object. (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1960).
4. Rorty, Richard. Objectivity, Relativism, and Truth: Philosophical Papers, Vol. 1. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991).

 

Optional reading:

1. Gill, M. L., 1989. Aristotle on Substance, Princeton: Princeton University Press.
2. Hawley, K., 2001. How Things Persist, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
3. Kim, J., 2005. Physicalism, or Something Near Enough, Princeton: Princeton University Press.
4. Koslicki, K., 2008. The Structure of Objects, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
5. Lagerlund, H., 2012. “Material substance”, in The Oxford Handbook of Medieval Philosophy, ed. J. Marenbon, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 468–85.
6. Laycock, H., 2006. Words Without Objects: semantics, ontology and logic for non-singularity, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
7. Lewis, D., 1986. On the Plurality of Worlds, Oxford: Blackwell.
8. Nagel, T., 2012. Mind and Cosmos, Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.
9. Rea, M. (ed.), 1997. Material Constitution, Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.
10. Wright, Crispin. Realism, Meaning, and Truth. (Oxford: Blackwell, 1987).

 

Lecture 2. Philosophy of the Ancient East (Philosophy of Ancient India and Ancient China)

1. The origins of philosophical thinking in Ancient India.

2. Heterodox and orthodox systems-darshanas.

 

Indian Philosophy (or, in Sankrit, Darshanas) refers to any of several traditions of philosophical thought that originated in the Indian subcontinent, including Hindu philosophy, Buddhist philosophy, and Jain philosophy. It is considered by Indian thinkers to be a practical discipline, and its goal should always be to improve human life. The main Hindu orthodox (astika) schools of Indian philosophy are those codified during the medieval period of Brahmanic-Sanskritic scholasticism, and they take the ancient Vedas (the oldest sacred texts of Hinduism) as their source and scriptural authority:

Samkhya is the oldest of the orthodox philosophical systems, and it postulates that everything in reality stems from purusha (self or soul or mind) and prakriti (matter, creative agency, energy). It is a dualist philosophy, although between the self and matter rather than between mind and body as in the Western dualist tradition, and liberation occurs with the realization that the soul and the dispositions of matter (steadiness, activity and dullness) are different.

The Yoga school, as expounded by Patanjali in his 2nd Century B.C. Yoga Sutras, accepts the Samkhya psychology and metaphysics, but is more theistic, with the addition of a divine entity to Samkhya's twenty-five elements of reality. The relatively brief Yoga Sutras are divided into eight ashtanga (limbs), reminiscent of Buddhism's Noble Eightfold Path, the goal being to quiet one's mind and achieve kaivalya (solitariness or detachment).

The Nyaya school is based on the Nyaya Sutras, written by Aksapada Gautama in the 2nd Century B.C. Its methodology is based on a system of logic that has subsequently been adopted by the majority of the Indian schools, in much the same way as Aristotelian logic has influenced Western philosophy. Its followers believe that obtaining valid knowledge (the four sources of which are perception, inference, comparison and testimony) is the only way to gain release from suffering. Nyaya developed several criteria by which the knowledge thus obtained was to be considered valid or invalid (equivalent in some ways to Western analytic philosophy).

The Vaisheshika school was founded by Kanada in the 6th Century B.C., and it is atomist and pluralist in nature. The basis of the school's philosophy is that all objects in the physical universe are reducible to a finite number of atoms, and Brahman is regarded as the fundamental force that causes consciousness in these atoms. The Vaisheshika and Nyaya schools eventually merged because of their closely related metaphysical theories (although Vaisheshika only accepted perception and inference as sources of valid knowledge).

The main objective of the Purva Mimamsa school is to interpret and establish the authority of the Vedas. It requires unquestionable faith in the Vedas and the regular performance of the Vedic fire-sacrifices to sustain all the activity of the universe. Although in general the Mimamsa accept the logical and philosophical teachings of the other schools, they insist that salvation can only be attained by acting in accordance with the prescriptions of the Vedas. The school later shifted its views and began to teach the doctrines of Brahman and freedom, allowing for the release or escape of the soul from its constraints through enlightened activity.

The Vedanta, or Uttara Mimamsa, school concentrates on the philosophical teachings of the Upanishads (mystic or spiritual contemplations within the Vedas), rather than the Brahmanas (instructions for ritual and sacrifice). The Vedanta focuses on meditation, self-discipline and spiritual connectivity, more than traditional ritualism.

The main heterodox (nastika) schools, which do not accept the authority of the Vedas, include:

Also known as Lokayata, Carvaka is a materialistic, sceptical and atheistic school of thought. Its founder was Carvaka, author of the Barhaspatya Sutras in the final centuries B.C., although the original texts have been lost and our understanding of them is based largely on criticism of the ideas by other schools. As early as the 5th Century, Saddaniti and Buddhaghosa connected the Lokayatas with the Vitandas (or Sophists), and the term Carvaka was first recorded in the 7th Century by the philosopher Purandara, and in the 8th Century by Kamalasila and Haribhadra. As a vital philosophical school, Carvaka appears to have died out sometime in the 15th Century.

Buddhism is a non-theistic system of beliefs based on the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama, an Indian prince later known as the Buddha, in the 5th Century B.C. Buddhism advocates a Noble Eightfold Path to end suffering, and its philosophical principles are known as the Four Noble Truths (the Nature of Suffering, the Origin of Suffering, the Cessation of Suffering, and the Path Leading to the Cessation of Suffering). Buddhist philosophy deals extensively with problems in metaphysics, phenomenology, ethics and epistemology.

The central tenets of Jain philosophy were established by Mahavira in the 6th Century B.C., although Jainism as a religion is much older. A basic principle is anekantavada, the idea that reality is perceived differently from different points of view, and that no single point of view is completely true (similar to the Western philosophical doctrine of Subjectivism). According to Jainism, only Kevalis, those who have infinite knowledge, can know the true answer, and that all others would only know a part of the answer.

It stresses spiritual independence and the equality of all life, with particular emphasis on non-violence, and posits self-control as vital for attaining the realization of the soul's true nature. Jain belief emphasizes the immediate consequences of one's behaviour.

Principles of Ancient Indian philosophy and modern Indian Political Philosophy:

The Arthashastra, attributed to the Mauryan minister Chanakya in the 4th Century B.C., is one of the earliest Indian texts devoted to political philosophy, and it discusses ideas of statecraft and economic policy. During the Indian struggle for independence in the early 20th Century, Mahatma Gandhi popularized the philosophies of ahimsa (non-violence) and satyagraha (non-violent resistance), which were influenced by the teachings of the Hindu Bhagavad Gita, as well as Jesus, Tolstoy, Thoreau and Ruskin.

Required reading:

1. Chatterjee, Satischandra; Datta, Dhirendramohan (1984). An Introduction to Indian Philosophy (Eighth Reprint Edition ed.). Calcutta: University of Calcutta.
2. Dasgupta, Surendranath (1975). A History of Indian Philosophy, Vol. I, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 81-208-0412-8, p.365
3. Radhakrishnan, S. Indian Philosophy, Vol. I-II, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2006, ISBN 0-19-563820-4.
4. Radhakrishnan, S., and Charles Alexander Moore, eds. A Source Book in Indian Philosophy. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1967.
5. Dhammapada. A Source Book in Indian Philosophy. Eds. S. Radhakrishnan and Charles Alexander Moore. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1967. 292-325.

Optional reading:

1. Flood, Gavin (1996). An Introduction to Hinduism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-43878-0.
2. Hiriyanna, M. (1993, reprint 2000). Outlines of Indian Philosophy, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 81-208-1099-6.
3. Sue Hamilton, Early Buddhism. Routledge, 2000.
4. Sharma, C. (1997). A Critical Survey of Indian Philosophy, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 81-208-0365-5.

 

1. Becoming and features of the philosophy of Ancient China.

2. The Hundred schools of thought – the heyday of Chinese philosophy.

Ancient Chinese Philosophy refers to any of several schools of philosophical thought in the Chinese tradition, including Confucianism, Taoism, Legalism, and Mohism. It has a long history of several thousand years.

It is known that early Shang Dynasty (c. 1600 BC-1046 B.C.) thought was based on cyclicity, from observation of the cycles of day and night, the seasons, the moon, etc., a concept which remained relevant throughout later Chinese philosophy, and immediately setting it apart from the more linear Western approach. During this time, both gods and ancestors were worshipped and there were human and animal sacrifices. During the succeeding Zhou Dynasty (1122 BC-256 B.C.), the concept of the Mandate of Heaven was introduced, which held that Heaven would bless the authority of a just ruler, but would be displeased with an unwise ruler, and retract the Mandate.

The "I Ching" (or "Book of Changes") was traditionally compiled by the mythical figure Fu Xi in the 28th Century B.C., although modern research suggests that it more likely dates to the late 9th Century B.C. The text describes an ancient system of cosmology and philosophy that is intrinsic to ancient Chinese cultural beliefs, centring on the ideas of the dynamic balance of opposites, the evolution of events as a process, and acceptance of the inevitability of change. It consists of a series of symbols, rules for manipulating these symbols, poems and commentary, and is sometimes regarded as a system of divination.

In about 500 B.C., (interestingly, around the same time as Greek philosophy was emerging), the classic period of Chinese philosophy (known as the Contention of a Hundred Schools of Thought) flourished, and the four most influential schools (Confucianism, Taoism, Mohism and Legalism) were established.

During the Qin Dynasty (also know as the Imperial Era), after the unification of China in 221 B.C., Legalism became ascendant at the expense of the Mohist and Confucianist schools, although the Han Dynasty (206 B.C.-A.D. 220) adopted Taoism and later Confucianism as official doctrine. Along with the gradual parallel introduction of Buddhism, these two schools have remained the determining forces of Chinese thought up until the 20th Century.

The main schools of Ancient Chinese philosophy are:

Confucianism. This school was developed from the teachings of the sage Confucius (551-479 B.C.), and collected in the Analects of Confucius. It is a system of moral, social, political, and quasi-religious thought, whose influence also spread to Korea and Japan. The major Confucian concepts include ren (humanity or humaneness), zhengming (similar to the concept of the Mandate of Heaven), zhong (loyalty), xiao (filial piety), and li (ritual).

It introduced the Golden Rule (essentially, treat others as you would like to be treated), the concept of Yin and Yang (two opposing forces that are permanently in conflict with each other, leading to perpetual contradiction and change), the idea of meritocracy, and of reconciling opposites in order to arrive at some middle ground combining the best of both.

Confucianism is not necessarily regarded as a religion, allowing one to be a Taoist, Christian, Muslim, Shintoist or Buddhist and still profess Confucianist beliefs. Arguably the most famous Confucian after Confucius himself was Meng Tzu (or Mencius) (372 – 289 B.C.)

Taoism. Sometimes also written Daoism, Taoism is a philosophy which later also developed into a religion. Tao literally means "path" or "way", athough it more often used as a metaphysical term that describes the flow of the universe, or the force behind the natural order. The Three Jewels of the Tao are compassion, moderation, and humility. Taoist thought focuses on wu wei ("non-action"), spontaneity, humanism, relativism, emptiness and the strength of softness (or flexibility). Nature and ancestor spirits are common in popular Taoism, although typically there is also a pantheon of gods, often headed by the Jade Emperor. The most influential Taoist text is the "Tao Te Ching" (or "Daodejing") written around the 6th Century B.C. by Lao Tzu (or Laozi), and a secondary text is the 4th Century B.C. "Zhuangzi", named after its author. The Yin and Yang symbol is important in Taoist symbology (as in Confucianism), as are the Eight Trigrams, and a zigzag with seven stars which represents the Big Dipper star constellation.

Legalism is a pragmatic political philosophy, whose main motto is "set clear strict laws, or deliver harsh punishment", and its essential principle is one of jurisprudence. According to Legalism, a ruler should govern his subjects accordoing to Fa (law or principle), Shu (method, tactic, art, or statecraft) and Shi (legitimacy, power, or charisma). Under Li Si in the 3rd century B.C., a form of Legalism essentially became a totalitarian ideology in China, which in part led to its subsequent decline.

The School of Naturalists or the "School of Yin-Yang" was a Warring States era philosophy that synthesized the concepts of yin-yang and the Five Elements; Zou Yan is considered the founder of this school. His theory attempted to explain the universe in terms of basic forces in nature: the complementary agents of yin (dark, cold, female, negative) and yang (light, hot, male, positive) and the Five Elements or Five Phases (water, fire, wood, metal, and earth). In its early days, this theory was most strongly associated with the states of Yan and Qi. In later periods, these epistemological theories came to hold significance in both philosophy and popular belief. This school was absorbed into Taoism's alchemic and magical dimensions as well as into the Chinese medical framework. The earliest surviving recordings of this are in the Ma Wang Dui texts and Huang Di Nei Jing.

Mohism was founded by Mozi (c. 470-390 B.C.) It promotes universal love with the aim of mutual benefit, such that everyone must love each other equally and impartially to avoid conflict and war. Mozi was strongly against Confucian ritual, instead emphasizing pragmatic survival through farming, fortification and statecraft. Although popular during the latter part of the Zhou Dynasty, many Mohist texts were destroyed during the succeeding Qin Dynasty, and it was finally supplanted completely by Confucianism during the Han Dynasty.

Required reading:

1. Slingerland, E., 2003, Confucius: Analects, Indianapolis: Hackett.

2. Ivanhoe, Philip J., and Bryan W. Van Norden, eds., 2000, Readings in Classical Chinese Philosophy, Seven Bridges Press. (Partial translation.)

3. Johnston, Ian, tr., 2010, The Mozi: A Complete Translation, New York: Columbia University Press. (Complete translation.)

4. Ames, Roger and Hall, David. (2003). Daodejing: "Making This Life Significant" A Philosophical Translation. New York: Ballantine Books.

5. Encyclopedia of Chinese Philosophy, Antonio S. Cua (Editor), Routledge, 2003.

6. Introduction to Chinese Philosophy, Karyn Lai, Cambridge University Press, 2008.

7. Introduction to Classical Chinese Philosophy, Bryan W. Van Norden (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 2011).

8. Ivanhoe, P. J., 2000, Confucian Moral Self-Cultivation, Indianapolis: Hackett.

9. Fraser, Chris, 2012, “Truth in Moist Dialectics,” Journal of Chinese Philosophy, 39(3): 351–68

10. Robins, Dan, 2010, “The Later Mohists and Logic,” History and Philosophy of Logic, 31(3): 247–285

Optional reading:

1. Mou, Bo (ed.) (2006), Davidson's Philosophy and Chinese Philosophy: Constructive Engagement, Boston: Brill.

2. Shun, Kwong-loi (2009), “Stuydying Confucian and Comparative Ethics: Methodological Reflections,” Journal of Chinese Philosophy, 36: 455–478.

3. Sim, May (2007), Remastering Morals with Aristotle and Confucius, New York: Cambridge University Press.

4. Slingerland, Edward (2003), Effortless Action: Wu-Wei as Conceptual Metaphor and Spiritual Ideal in Early China, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

5. Van Norden, Bryan (2007), Virtue Ethics and Consequentialism in Early Chinese Philosophy, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

6. Yu, Jiyuan (2007), The Ethics of Confucius and Aristotle, New York: Routledge.

7. Ivanhoe, Philip J. (2002). The Daodejing of Laozi. New York: Seven Bridges Press.

8. Kohn, Livia and Roth, Harold., eds. (2002). Daoist Identity: History, Lineage, and Ritual. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.