The Origins of Philosophy (Presocratics)
This course offers an introduction to the nature, purpose, and development of philosophy. It explores what philosophy is, why it has remained a central intellectual discipline, and how it relates to other fields of inquiry, particularly theology. Through an overview of its major areas and a study of its historical origins in ancient Greece, students are introduced to the fundamental questions that have shaped philosophical reflection. The course also examines the figure of Socrates, whose life and thought continue to define the philosophical vocation as a pursuit of truth, wisdom, and critical inquiry.
Course code: PHEN01
Professor: Dr. Kevin O'ReillyCourse description
This course is divided into six sections. The first section – What is Philosophy? – deals with the problems surrounding any definition of the discipline and looks at various ways of thinking about it. The second section – Why Study Philosophy? – distinguishes some general types of reasons, and then examines reasons for studying philosophy. Section three looks at the relationship of philosophy to theology. It distinguishes different ways in which they might relate, and gives a historical survey of that relationship. Section four – Main Areas of Philosophy – introduces the main branches of the subject and gives a preliminary account of them. Section five, Presocratic Philosophy, looks at the earliest Greek philosophers and at how philosophy developed from myth. It examines two key issues: the problem of ‘appearance and reality’ and the problem of ‘the one and the many’. The final section introduces the student to Socrates. It presents the life and death of this iconic figure and examines the political intrigue surrounding his death and his own account of his philosophical vocation.
Table of content
Unit 1: what is philosophy?
- Introduction.
- The meaning of philosophy
- A form of life.
Unit 2: Why study philosophy?
- Reasons.
- An innate tendency
Unit 3: The place of philosophy in theology
- Terminology.
- Philosophy and theology:the patristic period.
- Philosophy & theology: the middle ages.
- From the enlightenment to idealism....
- Twentieth-century philosophy
- What this means
Unit 4: the main areas of philosophy
- Metaphysics
- Epistemology
- Philosophy of mind
- Philosophy of language
- Logic
- Ethics
- Political philosophy
- Philosophy of religion
Unit 5: presocratic philosophy
- Myth and philosophy
- Fragments
- The physicists
- Appearance and reality
- The one and the many
Unit 6: Socrates
- Athenian society
- Socratic method
- Socrates’ death