Peter Bartnik
Philosophy in the ancient world was an attempt to transition away from using mythology to answer the questions that man had
about the universe and existence. Mythology was used primarily to answer the question of “Why are things the way the are?”.
Unfortunately these answers generally had the same basis, “because the gods did this”. Socrates main contribution to philosophy was
probably the way he tried to arrive at his answers. His “Socratic Method” was to break a big question down to smaller and smaller
questions. A process that is used today in science and deployed by many people just trying to reach the truth of a statement. By asking
questions like “why” and “how” from a vague statement, a person can determine if there is any validity to that statement.
The medieval period looked at philosophy through a theological perspective. These philosophers used the methods developed
by the ancient philosophers to address the issues that they were dealing with. These philosophers struggled in keeping a balance
between faith and reason, but still strived to answer the philosophical questions of the era. Augustine for example tried to answer the
problem of the existence of evil in a universe controlled by a good god. I like how he came to the conclusion that evil in itself is not a
force or a thing. Evil instead is the absence of goodness. The same way that cold is the absence of heat, or dark the absence of light.
Evil was not something that could be fought, but was something that could be filled with goodness.
Modern philosophy dealt more with rationalism. These philosophers strived to find a reason for the answers to their questions.
It was not enough to say that something was moral, but you should be able to address why something was moral. Kant for example
had a process for an individual to decide if the action they are committing is moral or not. He would have you ask if everyone did what
you are doing, would society be worse off. If the answer was yes, then the action is immoral and you should not do it, no matter how
you may justify why it is ok for you alone to do it.
Contemporary philosophers continue to examine these questions but with a different perspective.They look at how society
should function. Rawls came up with his social contract theory to answer these questions. He believed that justice depends on the
agreement of the citizens to be valid. Justice cannot be forced onto people, the people have to acknowledge what is just.
Throughout the history of philosophy, we have strived for a common goal, how to better the existence of humanity.
Philosophers have worked to develop process’s to help to discover what the truth is. People general want to believe in the truth.
Philosophy works to determine these beliefs are true. Philosophy can help someone recognize that a statement they made is illogical. It
can help answer the questions of existence and purpose. Philosophy can aid in determining if an opinion is justified. It can help in
determining the morality of an action. All these can better the human existence.
People commonly make statements that they believe to be true, but aren’t. Logic helps to ascertain whether or not someone is
making a true statement by looking at how they are arriving at their conclusion. Are you comparing two things equivocally? Are you
finding causation where there is only correlation? Take for example the issue in North Carolina. They are making the claim that men
can pretend to be transgendered to gain access to bathrooms, so transgendered people should be limited to which bathrooms they can
use. That is an illogical statement because they punishing the ones who aren’t committing the crimes.
Metaphysics studies the existence of reality. It tries to answer the questions of what it means to “be”. Complicated, historical
questions. Do people have free will or is every choice you make actually predetermined? As a person, are you just the result of
biological functions and chemical reactions? Through metaphysics, people can find meaning and purpose.
Epistemology is the study of knowledge. It helps you determine if you have a justified belief or just an opinion. There are three
conditions to propositional knowledge. You have to believe in the proposition, it has to be true, and you have to have a good reason for
believing that it is true. If you do not meet these three criteria then you do not have knowledge of the proposition.
Ethics and justice theories determine what is right and wrong. If something is illegal it can be safely assumed that the action
should not be committed. However, just because something is legal, it does not mean that the action is ethical or moral. You see this a
lot with new technology. Laws haven’t been invented to criminalize actions that can be committed with the new technology, but that
does not automatically mean that the action should be committed. Also, just because an action is illegal, it does not mean that the
action is immoral. However, committing the action should still not be done until the action has properly become legal.
In Anselm’s Proslogium, he is attempting to prove that God exist. Aristotle clearly had an influence on Anselm as Anselm is
trying to use logic to prove the existence of God. Anselm is not just saying God exist just because. He does not say God must exist
because he must exist. He attempts to rationalize the existence of God through several steps. He defines what God is, supposes what
conditions would have to exist for God not to exist, and proposes that those conditions cannot be met.