philosophy lecture series from u-tube by Dr Richard Brown. http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=ySS b!e"#$%&feature=autoplay&list='()*)+,-D+ ./ )01D&playne2t=/ Lecture 1 - What is philosophy?

3he epic of 4il%amesh - it tells the story of a %reat 5in% called 4il%amesh who was a %reat 5in%. and 4il%amesh wants to 5now why people die6 what the meanin% of life is and 4il%amesh decides that they way to answer this is to %o on a 7ourney to where the %ods live and demand of the %ods that they tell him the answer to these 8uestions. so he does and he has a lot of adventures and he eventually %ets to where the %ods live and the %ods set him a bunch of tas5s and say 4il%amesh if you complete these tas5s we will answer your 8uestions and tell you what you want to 5now. the tas5s are li5e the sort of thin%s you find in 4ree5 mytholo%y6 he has to 5ill a certain beast6 cross a certain river and climb a certain mountain etc. so he does all that stuff and comes to the last tas5 and the %ods tell 4il%amesh he must stay awa5e for . days and . ni%hts and if he does this6 they will tell him the answer. 4il%amesh stays awa5e for . days and / ni%hts and on the .rd ni%ht he falls asleep and wa5es up the ne2t mornin% and the %ods say6 oh well you were so close but now you9ll never 5now. 4il%amesh %ets very an%ry but comes to the realisation that the way for humans to become immortal is to do deeds that ma5e them remembered. this story illustrates / points. the first point is it9s 5ind of wron% to thin5 of philosophy as a %roup of 8uestions. !otice the 5ind of 8uestions 4il%amesh is as5in% here are 5ind of deep 8uestions6 why do we die6 what9s the meanin% of life6 do we become immortal6 what9s the ri%ht way to live etc. it9s not only philosophers who as5 those 8uestions. human bein%s as5 those 8uestions. its 5ind of somethin% that afflicts us in a way6 we want to 5now the answer to those 8uestions. but of course there are different ways of answerin% those 8uestions. and 4il%amesh shows a particular way of answerin% those 8uestions. notice that he never once entertains the idea that he himself can fi%ure out the answer to these 8uestions on his own. from the be%innin% the proposed solution to the problem is to find out those who 5now6 the %ods and to as5 them. and this is the %eneral theme of the prephilosophical way of thin5in%. that human bein%s are not capable of 5nowin% the way the world is6 they are li5e children who cant understand the simplest thin%s. the world is filled with these supernatural personalities who really 5now. the %ods are who controls reality and if you want to 5now then you9ve %ot to as5. humans have to be told by divine revelation the way that reality really is. there is another story that illustrates this point as well and this is somethin% we can see from the code of :ammurabi. 3he code of :ammurabi is famous because it is one of the earliest written laws. if you read it6 you will notice that they are dealin% with the same 5ind of problems that we deal with6 so their lives are very similar to our lives. you live in a city6 and it deals with what obli%ations you owe to other people6 what obli%ations they owe to you and ways of coordinatin% behaviour such that you can discoura%e certain 5inds of behaviour and encoura%e other 5inds. the laws were placed at the %ate to the city so everyone 5new them and had no e2cuse. so why should you obey these laws and not some other laws. who was :ammurabi to tell you that you had to obey this set of laws? 3he answer is in the preamble of the code of :ammurabi and it is rou%hly that :ammurabi is the son of %od. so a%ain we see this appeal to divine intervention or divine revelation as the only real way of 5nowin%

what these laws are. so there is nothin% about us discoverin% the truth but a lot about the truth bein% revealed by a %reater source. and that idea is what is really contrasted with the ori%in of western philosophy. he is tal5in% about western philosophy and we could tell a different story to tell about the ori%ins of eastern philosophy. we date the ori%ins of western philosophy to about ) B;-. at around .* B;- writin% is developed so from then until ) B;- the pre-philosophical way of thin5in% dominates. around 0 B;- is when we thin5 <oses lived and <oses %ave us the 0 commandments and this is typical of the pre-philosophical way of thin5in%. what9s the ri%ht way to live your life6 well you cant answer that 8uestion6 %od reveals to <oses directly the correct rules for livin% a %ood life and if you don9t do it then %od punishes you for not doin% it. these are the pre-philosophical ways of thin5in%6 when there is an earth8ua5e %od is punishin% you for brea5in% some rule6 when there is a bountiful harvest %od is rewardin% you. so tis important for us to 5now what the rules are and how the world wor5s6 but we cant 5now for ourselves so were dependent on someone else6 the %ods handin% that down to us. so when philosophy starts around ) B;- its not that this old way of thin5in% %oes out of date6 people still subscribe to that way of thin5in% at that time as well. its 7ust that this is the earliest date that we 5now of where people start advocatin% some other way of thin5in% about human bein%s and our relation to reality. we don9t 5now for sure6 but we have some ideas. and most of them come from historical writers li5e +ristotle and pieced to%ether. we don9t 5now for sure that no one ever thou%ht li5e that but we don9t have anythin% that was written down that has survived so what we don have6 the best evidence su%%ests6 that what we are %oin% to call philosophy ori%inated in <iletus in ) B;- and in particular with an individual names 3hales and 3hales was rou%hly born rou%hly in the )/ 9s B; and died in *,)B;. 3hales was an interestin% person and the people around him who collectively are 5nown as the pre-socratic philosophers. 3hales was interested in 8uestions about the ma5e-up of the physical world. :e wanted to 5now if there was some fundamental stuff from which all the other stuff was made. :e also re7ected any 5ind of supernatural e2planations and %ives naturalistic answers usin% reason and ar%ument. 3hales ar%ues that supernatural e2planations are not appropriate e2planations. he ar%ues that the world around us in an orderly system which is constructed accordin% to some 5ind of rational principles and that we as rational human bein%s can try to fi%ure out what those rational principles are. to summarise what we have been tal5in% about - philosophy is not distin%uished by the 8uestions that it as5s6 but by the method that it employs in answerin% those 8uestions. - pre-philosophical way of thin5in% is characteri=ed by appeal to revelation as the only source of 5nowled%e and the wor5in%s of supernatural personalities as the e2planation of physical phenomena. - the philosophical method denies both of these claims. so rather than divine revelation6 reason6 ar%ument and observation are sources of 5nowled%e about the world. this is a denial that revelation is necessary for 5nowled%e6 but you need to be careful to understand that it is not a denial that revelation can be a source of

5nowled%e. there is no conflict between reli%ion and philosophy. you can be a reli%ious philosopher. - the history of this is the %radual separation of thin%s we call science and thin%s we call philosophy. but in those days it was all lumped in to%ether and they don9t reco%nise a distinction between philosophy and science e2cept that there are different 5inds of philosophy. so the philosophical study of the natural world was called natural philosophy and there were lots of different philosophies. e% !ewton when he publishes his wor5 on %ravity titles it the mathematical principles of natural philosophy. - for thales etc there is an emphasis on mathematics6 %eometry in particular. - the philosophers have a commitment to the idea that the world is natural6 and what they mean by natural is that it is e2plainable by law li5e relationships. so the appeal to the supernatural wor5 of %ods is no lon%er an e2planation. so philosophy is the commitment to the claim that we are %oin% to find out the way thin%s are. the word philosophy comes from the 4ree5 - phila sophia. phila meanin% love and sophia meanin% wisdom. love of wisdom. this world was first coined by 'ytha%oras >*? B;@ there was a %roup of people who identified as 9sophists9 - wise people6 they would only teach for money6 they were often s5eptics6 that is they denied real 5nowled%e is possible. so philosophy was 5ind of opposed to that sort of view6 because they are loo5in% for the truth. so the philosophers are contrasted to the sophists who don9t really care about the truth6 and are only interested in money6 but philosophers are see5in% the truth. the different branches of philosophy - perhaps the most fundamental is metaphysics - the study of the ultimate nature of reality. it as5s 8uestions li5e - whether there are fundamental parts out of which everythin% else is made. - is reality completely physical or is there a non-physical aspects. - what is the nature of causation? - are my actions free or determined? - what e2ists? what does it mean to e2ist? >ontolo%y which comes from the %ree5 word ontos which means bein% and tolo%y the study of so ontolo%y means the study of bein%@ so they are 8uestions about reality6 but then we have 8uestions about how we come into connection with that reality6 how we 5now epistemology - the study of 5nowled%e. the 8uestions it deals with are - what is truth6 what does it mean for a sentence to be true? - what e2actly is 5nowled%e? - how is 5nowled%e different from belief? - how is it related to truth?

- where do we %et 5nowled%e? reason only? the senses only? - how do we 5now when we have 5nowled%e? - is it even possible to really 5now anythin%? meta physics and epistemolo%y are clearly related to each other li5e two sides of the same coin. because as soon as you say what9s real you are sayin% that you A5now9 what9s real. and as soon as you tal5 about what 5nowled%e is6 you are tal5in% about which thin%s can be 5nown. so the two are intimately related. but no matter how intimately related6 its important to 5eep them clear and understand that they are different types of 8uestions. another branch of philosophy is ethics - the study of ri%ht/wron% and %ood/bad. it as5s 8uestions li5e - what is the nature of value? - this will include aesthetics >the study of the beautiful@ and political philosophy. these are all value 7ud%ements - which actions are moral? - are there thin%s which are really %ood/bad or is this a human invention? - what 5ind of life should B lead? last branch is the study of logic - the study of %ood/bad reasonin%/ar%uments. this is important because philosophy is the use of reason and ar%ument to discover what is true or what can be 5nown. if that is the case then lo%ic is e2tremely important because its the way we can determine which ar%uments are %ood and which are bad.