Thomas Aquinas: Scholastic Philosophy and its Influence
ITEM 6. The Christian Scholastic: Thomas Aquinas
- Historical Context: The Middle Ages and the Feudal Order (5th-15th Centuries)
Estate society had a strong and rigid social hierarchy: clergy, nobility, and peasants. Social life was based on Christian morals, and the Pope (Benedict XVI) was the highest authority in Christendom.
- Class system based on the dual ownership of land: right to use (servants) and usage rights (feudal lords).
- Culture was preserved in the monasteries, communities of monks subject
Durkheim’s Sociological Insights on Social Facts
Rules Relating to the Observation of Social Facts
When a new order of phenomena becomes the object of science, such phenomena are already represented in the spirit not only by sensitive images, but also by certain concepts crudely formed. Therefore, reflection is prior to science, and science is responsible for using only the reflection of a more methodical manner. Man cannot live with things without formulating ideas about them, and regulating their conduct according to these ideas.
Social phenomena
Read MoreRene Descartes and David Hume: Methods and Metaphysics
Rene Descartes
The Cartesian Method
Descartes states that the method is “a certain set of rules, and easy, such that anyone observing them will never take something false as true, and without the cost of mental effort, but by increasing their knowledge step by step, reaches a true understanding of all the things that do not exceed their capacity.”
The method is to be applied logically to the operating mode of reason and is thus proposed here as we see Descartes‘ intuition and deduction as the only
Read MoreJosé Ortega y Gasset: Philosophy of Vital Reason and Perspectivism
The Meaning of Philosophy
For Ortega, philosophy is vital. Human beings have a vital need to understand the universe and “all there is.” However, philosophy currently finds itself at a dead end due to the opposition between realism and idealism, which it must now overcome.
Critique of Realism and Idealism
Ortega criticizes idealism for considering the subject as the axis around which reality revolves. He also criticizes realism for considering the subject merely a part of reality. Ortega understands
Read MoreNietzsche’s Critique of Western Philosophy and Culture
Nietzsche’s Critique of Plato
Central to Nietzsche’s critique are the concepts of Socrates and Plato. In short, both Plato and Socrates steered our culture in the wrong direction, the result of a fear of life. The Apollonian element was imposed by these two authors, rejecting the Dionysian, the truly vital. This denial was made, in Plato, through the following aspects.
Nietzsche criticizes the Platonic ontology, which proposes two worlds: the sensible and the ideal. It is in this ideal world where,
Read MoreLudwig Wittgenstein’s Philosophy of Language: From Logic to Pragmatics
The philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein’s thought must be framed within Bertrand Russell’s analytical tradition, inspired by positivist empiricism. Russell, Wittgenstein’s mentor, developed an interest in mathematics that led to the concept of figurative language. Wittgenstein, influenced by G.E. Moore, also became interested in issues of moral character. Wittgenstein believed that philosophy should be based on the analysis of language. For him, logical language immediately reveals the logical structure
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