History of Philosophy: Philosophy for Beginners - Introduction & Basics of Philosophy

By Patricia Sommer

The aspects of philosophy are complex and particularly vast due to its 2,000 year history. In the different eras of time, philosophy has changed several times and countless currents and forms have been added, which could not be summarized in the largest book. In addition, the study of philosophy in the present day deals with subjective thoughts of former philosophers who shared and wrote down their own view of the world with the following generations. Rarely, therefore, does it come to objective observations that can help the budding philosopher with his own views on the future.

For this purpose, this book has been written, which deals objectively with the last 2,000 years, so that budding philosophers who have not studied or are still young can create their own views on the world.

The contents of the book are:
- Introduction to Philosophy
- The basic rules of philosophy
- A timeline of philosophy
- The philosophy of antiquity, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance & modern times
- The Practical Philosophy
- Conclusion

Described in this book of more than 100 pages is the philosophical time span, which brought many new developments and insights, up to the present day, in which general philosophy can once again be applied in people's everyday lives, just as it once was.

• Language: English
• Publisher: XinXii
• Release date: Apr 17, 2022
• ISBN: 9783986468958

Book preview

Introductory

I

he purpose of this book is to describe in detail the development of philosophy. Thereby the main chapter represents a timeline in which the last 2,000 years are explained in detail in several epochs. 

At the same time, this book also aims to explain what philosophy is in its basic features. Thus, philosophy is actually the reason knowledge of man, but this answer is too easy to describe philosophy in all aspects. Because of the philosophy as reason knowledge further questions come up to the human being, which must be clarified separately, even if they do not concern directly the everyday life. So it must be asked now, as what exactly reason and cognition can be described and which rules reason is subject to.

Epistemology is the foundation of any science, because sciences strive to achieve knowledge. Philosophy is also a science that strives for knowledge, but it does not use explicitly scientific methods. Thus, physics attempts to determine the rules of nature, chemistry advocates experiments on an atomic basis, and medicine appropriates knowledge about any disease. These sciences are fields that can be actively looked at and occasionally touched: Real facts can be referred to. Philosophy, on the other hand, is on a level of human existence. To a certain extent, it can be contemplated and put into words, but philosophers deal with aspects that do not occur in everyday life and seem almost dreamlike. Therefore, philosophy is not recognized as a science by many people, even though philosophical subjects are rarely taught in schools.

2,000 years ago, philosophy possessed great importance in people's lives. The philosophy of ancient Greece not only performed miracles, but it also represented an important basic principle of the then still very young and new democracy. Today, philosophy is only a by-product.

Few people are aware of the fact that philosophy represents the forefather of all sciences, as they are known to man today. The concepts of chemistry, physics and also medicine represented young thoughts, which were created only in the last centuries. The same is true for psychology, which found its importance in the lives of people not even 100 years ago, and today it is impossible to imagine life without it. Therefore, any science is based on immense importance, but the ancient Greeks lived without science. Philosophy was enough for them.

It is the reason why today's sciences could achieve a great success. The explanation processes, on which all sciences are based, sound quite simple, could be reached nevertheless only by the realizations of the philosophy. With the help of reason, which deals with the origin of any knowledge, it was possible to achieve success even without years of experience. Over the years this has changed. Within empirical sciences, like the mentioned examples in the upper lines, the experience is immeasurable. Philosophy therefore not only convinced with the fact that people did not have to be studied, but they could find their way in philosophy as newcomers. In addition, few philosophers looked critically at their choice of students. While almost every man was allowed to learn the ways of philosophy, women and slaves were also admitted 2,000 years ago. No distinction was made between rich or poor, nor between a person's social standing. At the same time, there was no need for experimental work and experimental arrangements, which could then lead to standardized conditions that limited a philosopher's power of thought.

Experience in a field could still give a great advantage, but it was not a must. It did not underlie epistemology. Philosophy instead described reason as the highest good from which the origin of knowledge and therefore of any knowledge could be taken. In the course of time this led to the fact that philosophy not only split up into many subfields, but also that it was recognized that reason could not help everywhere. Now and then scientific experiments and procedures were needed, which went beyond the reason of humans. It soon became clear that not every area of life was created for the common people or even for philosophers, but some areas were reserved for academics who could deal with said area on a scientific basis. This gave rise to today's sciences, but even this knowledge could only be found out through philosophy alone.

Even if the sciences predominate in today's everyday life, philosophy nevertheless plays a not exactly small role and this, although it has a not easy career in the last 2,000 years behind itself. In the meantime, it helps just as much in everyday life as it can help in academic areas in which science is at a loss. In contrast to antiquity, the areas of application are thus manifold.

Philosophy describes a complex field, which will be explained in more detail in this book. Before the development is described in the main chapter, it is first important to understand the basic principles of philosophy, as well as the division into the different disciplines.

The basic rules of philosophy

Philosophy in its main features - What is it?

Philosophy (ancient Greek philosophia. Latin philosophia), or directly translated the love of wisdom, always comes into play when it is a matter of interpreting the existence of people and the world in its basic principles, understanding them and fathoming them for the future.

As an empirical discipline, philosophy belongs to science, but it differs greatly from other scientific disciplines. Thus, philosophy does not specialize in a certain subject area within a methodology, but it can work diversely through approaches and questions that offer a wide-ranging view of the world. It comes to different and wide subject areas, to subjects of subjects and, moreover, to individual cognitions that do not have to hold back. Thus, philosophy is not only characteristically diverse, but also diverse in content. Nevertheless, it was not always as diverse and varied as it is today. This aspect had to develop first over many centuries. For example, the first, documented approaches to philosophical knowledge date back to antiquity and are thus over 2,000 years old. At that time, philosophy itself was still based on systematic thinking and explained scientifically, even though it must be said here that the term scientific did not have the same meaning as it does today. Moreover, philosophy was applied in all situations of life. It was impossible to imagine the lives of the ancient Greeks without it.

Philosophy itself represents an empirical science, but of course it was not. In fact, this is quite a new insight, which became self-evident in the course of history and only in the last century. The first people who actively applied philosophy - philosophical thoughts were already had by the first people, but what is meant here are the first documented thoughts - saw philosophy itself as a pursuit of knowledge. This differed in antiquity from the world view of that time, which was filled with myths, religion and faith. The focus was on the being of a human being, on his thoughts and his individual actions. Therefore, it no longer depended on the possibilities of myths, even though they continued to be used by philosophers, albeit exclusively in the poetic realm or in metaphysics, although this was rather rare.

In the 19th century, philosophy became a recognized subject science, which is used to characterize the philosophy of the present day. As a natural science, it is taught in universities and schools, although not always as an independent subject. More often, on the other hand, philosophy is treated in other subjects, although these focus on the humanities. In psychological or medical courses of study, therefore, explanations in the philosophical field often occur. In contrast to antiquity, philosophy is no longer frequently seen in everyday life today; to a large extent it has been forgotten. In ancient Greece it was the young people who actively followed philosophy and brought it into their lives. They became great philosophers who built today's traditions. Today, however, these traditions are rarely found in the everyday life of people, rather, philosophy, on the contrary, has received a bad reputation.

Thus, describing a person as a philosopher is not a compliment. Instead, this is exactly what is said when it is implied that said person is not always present with his thoughts, when a person daydreams or hangs out in the stars with his thoughts. This refers to people in contemporary life who have lost touch with reality; dreamers who do not think about the essentials.

At the same time, a true philosopher is someone who has very precise thoughts, who deals with knowledge, which