Monday, October 23, 2006

New Format - This Week, Philosophers

Instead of a random fact, the new "Get Smarter Every Day" will include 7 daily packets of fact on a single broad topic, that will enhance your general knowledge in a single area in more depth.
This week's topic is Philosophers. I will present three philosophers and their basic ideas in each daily email. One from Antiquity, one from the Middle Ages through the Enlightenment, and one modern. Enjoy!

Ancient
Socrates - Socrates was a Greek, who was born and lived in Athens in the late 5th century. This period of time characterizes the Classical Greek Civilization. The philosophy of Socrates can be whittled down to a few key tenets. Knowledge was the love of a philosopher ("student of wisdom"), who, recognizing his earthly ignorance, sought to better himself and therefore mankind. Recognition of ignorance and the constant forming of questions that spurred the mind to think formed the basis of the Socratic Method. Socrates had a spiritual side as well, believing that the answers to these reflective questions could be answered by drawing on the spirit, which contained infinte access to knowledge. Politically, Socrates believed that a philosopher -- possessing the aforementioned attributes -- was the only type of leader that an ideal government could have.

Middle Ages
Thomas Hobbes - Hobbes was English philosopher of the early 17th century, called the Enlightenment. Hobbes' main thesis center around the idea that mankind is constrained by the recognition of their own mortality; therefore, the preservation of life through self-preservation drove men to behave they way they do. Authority of civilization was a social contract between the ruling ('the Leviathon") and the ruled, exchanging personal liberty for safety.

Modern
Friedrich Nietzsche - A Prussian (modern German) philosopher of the 19th century, Nietzsche is at once one of the most profound philosophers and yet the most misunderstood. His life's body of work contains some apparent contradictions that, more than representing logical errors, reflect the path of thought that he developed throughout his life. The work of Nietzsche has been variously hijacked by social and political movement, giving a somewhat negative perception of him and his work. His thoughts are extraordinarily complex when taken as a whole, and yet there are some key thoughts that espoused upon. Perhaps the most influential and relevant to modern thought is the idea of moral relativism. Rather than believing in the more traditional moral views of universal human "rights" and "wrongs" (as did Hobbes), Nietzsche postulated that power -- the assertion of one's will -- over oneself and others forms the basis of morality. Perhaps one of the strongest reasons that Nietzsche was so misunderstood was his mastery of literature and art as a vehicle for sharing his ideas. Nietzsche was frequently dismissed as a clever writer rather than a true student of wisdom.