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COURSE INTRODUCTION

Philosophy is the rational and critical inquiry into basic principles. Philosophy means the pursuit
of knowledge for its own sake. Philosophy comprises all areas of speculative thought and
included the arts, sciences, and religion. The term philosophy is often used popularly to mean a
set of basic values and attitudes toward life, nature, and society—thus the phrase "philosophy of
life." Philosophy is the mirrors the context, time and land. Each ideology is shaped by its
geographical, cultural and temporal aspects of certain region. Philosophy, qualified as Western
Philosophy is no exception to it.

The Greco-Roman philosophers are speculative about reality. The philosophers are Pre-Socratic
period are having a naturalist orientation. Heraclitus materialistic monism is a representative of
this age. Plato’s philosophy is in response to sophists and other democratic states of his times.
He represents the age and ideals of aristocracy by proposing the philosophers rule. He had an
attempt to rationally construct and codify the value system for an aristocratic change. The
medieval philosophers approach is theological. The modern philosophers are critical about
orthodox religions and treat the philosophical problems with a temperament of science.
Descartes method of doubt and his search for certainty represents the mood of modern western
philosophy. The modern philosophy has two dominant traditions, empiricism and rationalism.
Locke, Berkeley and Hume represent the former and Descartes, Leibniz and Spinoza represents
latter. Kant through his critical philosophy reconciled both of these traditions.

Hegel through his philosophical method, dialectical idealism, adds new dimension to philosophy.
Marx, through his dialectical materialism has not only changed the orientation of philosophy but
also outlined the purpose. The phenomenologist Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger tries to
capture the essence of the world through typical scientific way. In continuation of this the
existentialist thinkers declares that existence precedes essence. Jean Paul Sartre is the important
thinker of existentialism. The analytical philosophers gave new direction to philosophy by
saying philosophy as critique of language. The analytical philosophy has two dominant
approaches, logical atomism represented by Bertrand Russell and early Wittgenstein, and logical
positivism of A.J. Ayer, Carnap. Wittgenstein is a prominent analytical philosopher and set the
boundaries for this kind of philosophy. He moved from his early logical atomistic position to
ordinary language philosophy.

The continental philosophers such as Immanuel Levinas gave new direction by questioning the
pre occupied assumptions of modern western philosophy by focusing on ethics and other. The
postmodernist philosophy has not only critical about modern western philosophy and its
dominant discourses but also provides new way of inquiry in understanding the social reality.
Lytord, Derrida, Foucault, Barth, Frederic Jameson are some of the leading philosophers of
postmodernism. Derrida’s method of deconstruction is worth noting and Foucault’s emphasis of
relation between knowledge and power provides new direction in philosophy by bring into view
the marginalized discourses.
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Block 1 introduces Philosophy in Western tradition focusing on its characteristics, major

division, issues and prominent thinkers. Block 2 deals with Greek philosophy starting from
speculation about the underlying nature of the physical world to Socratic method of enquiry and
Platonic and Aristoletian systems of philosophy.

Block 3 goes back to the medieval period brought Christian scholastic philosophy along with
Jewish and Islamic philosophy. The philosophy of this period is characterized by analysis of the
nature and properties of God; the metaphysics involving substance, essences and accidents. The
philosophy of medieval age was an attempt to construct religious thought with reasoned account
of its various doctrines.

Block 4 mainly surveys rationalism of Descartes, empiricism of Hume, transcendentalism of

Immanuel Kant and of Hegel’s Dialectical Absolutism. This block will provide students broad
background in the history of modern western philosophy, preparing you for both advanced work
in the history of philosophy and contemporary study of a wide range of topics including
epistemology, philosophy of science, philosophy of mind , and metaphysics.

Block 5 & 6 broadly speaks of the western philosophers and traditions in the contemporary
period starting from 19th century to the present day. However, these blocks present major
thinkers and trends during this period they are not exclusive. These also present variety of trends
and philosophical thinking like Marxism, existentialism, linguistic philosophy, process
philosophy, pragmatism, phenomenology, hermeneutics, structuralism, postmodernism, etc.,
adding to the richness of philosophical quest.