A study on the philosophies of plato aristotle kierkegaard and nietzsche

Introduction Knowledge Traditionally, the term "philosophy" referred to any body of knowledge. Newton's " Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy " is classified in the s as a book of physics; he used the term " natural philosophy " because it used to encompass disciplines that later became associated with sciences such as astronomymedicine and physics.

How to study philosophy as an amateur Every once in a while, someone who has read the comic emails me, wondering how to get into philosophy outside of school. This should be a subject that I have some expertise in, since I never took a single philosophy class in college, and I am apparently knowledgeable enough to make a philosophy-themed webcomic, at the very least.

Major Requirements

So this blog post is my official explanation of how to learn philosophy outside of school, in your own free time. The Principle of Charity. It asks that you read a text in the strongest, most persuasive way possible, regardless of whether you agree with the content.

This is extremely important for reading philosophical texts, because many of them will challenge your ideals. Some might even say that is the entire point of reading philosophy, so if you fail in the Principle of Charity, you fail at reading philosophy entirely.

That being said, I hate the Principle of Charity. It is the worst. Not because it is bad, but because it seems to fail miserably as a rhetoric. Everyone thinks the principle is great in general. Liberals need to be more charitable with conservative arguments. I, however, am perfectly charitable with their arguments - their arguments are just bad".

So I am proposing a new principle: The Principle of Science.

Philosophy • Colorado College

Man is something that shall be overcome. What have you done to overcome him?

When first reading a philosophical text, you should read it not as the most compelling argument, but rather as though you were reading a scientific text. The reason for this is simple: Philosophy texts are always presumed to be questionable. The other major hurdle to overcome when trying to get into philosophy is that almost every text was written as a response to someone else.

It can be difficult to understand what someone means, or why they would think a certain thing, if you lack the context about who they are responding to and the general philosophical climate that they were working in. Furthermore, a lot of the major philosophical works are written for other philosophers, to convince those peers of radical new ideas.

Something like The Critique of Pure Reason is just not going to be easy to read, really for anyone. As a beginner, it is almost certainly not worth the effort, but since you have no way of knowing this, you might just dive in and get discouraged.

It is a far better use of time to just use a secondary source, which will often result in a better understanding of the work anyway. It is probably best to learn the definitions as they are used in philosophy of the following words: The list is, of course, very incomplete, and additional suggestions are welcome.

Works which require little to no context:Comparing and Contrasting the Philosophies of Nietzsche and Plato Essay Essay Even though they were separated by thousands of years, hundreds of miles, and Aristotle Plato and Aristotle, two philosophers in the 4th century, hold polar views on politics and philosophy in general.

Combining Nietzsche’s self-described “inversion of Platonism” with the emphasis Nietzsche had undoubtedly placed upon the value-positing act and its relatedness to subjective or inter-subjective human perspectives, Heidegger dubbed Nietzsche “the last metaphysician” and tied him to the logic of a historical narrative highlighted by the appearances of Plato, Aristotle, Roman Antiquity, Christendom, .

Influence of Aristotle vs. Plato. Plato influenced Aristotle, just as Socrates influenced Plato.

Why Study Philosophers? - OpenLearn - Open University

But each man's influence moved in different areas after their deaths. Plato became the primary Greek philosopher based on his ties to Socrates and Aristotle and the presence of his works, which were used until his academy closed in A.D.; his works were then copied throughout Europe.

An in-depth study of Plato's "Republic", focusing on the nature of the human soul, the good life for us, the education that best promotes the good life. The role of virtues, and the metaphysics & epistemology that underlies those answers. File:David - The Death of regardbouddhiste.com File:Sanzio 01 Plato regardbouddhiste.com Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language.

Philosophy - Wikipedia

It is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational argument. For Kierkegaard, who is the father of existentialism, the reality of man can be understood through a philosophical system, which is a convenient way to get by.

Indeed, a system contains all the answers in advance as possible to all possible questions.