I am to prepare the third part of the philosophy seminar, which will now include the Enlightenment as well, or at least some figures from that period. At any rate the first half of the program will be (along with the intro/bridge from ancient philosophy) focusing on Descartes, and concurrent people, including Fermat, Mersenne (patron of Descartes), Galileo (trialled at that period) and Newton.
As usual i hope that if i can somewhat present a synopsis of that in english, it would follow i am more than ready to do the analogous in greek, in the library circuit i exist for yet another year
So here we go, and it should go without saying that anyone can participate in the thread, as long as it is on topic. I am --as a precaution-- RDing it, but only so that i won't have to worry that a wall of OP text will be met by off-topic
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Descartes is a figure who lived in the Dutch revolutionary wars and later 30 year war era. His two philosophical works (excluding the mathematical and natural philosophy/mechanics ones) are The Discourse on (thinking) method, and The Principles of First Philosophy.
Both of those works are small, roughly each of them is 40 pages long, and you can of course find english translations online. They were (both iirc) originally printed in latin, which was still usual as the language of the intellectuals.
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Brief presentation of the Discource and The Principles
Those two works are very much tied to one another, and we already read in the preface of the Principles Descartes' own letter to the catholic church patron he sought to ensure printing of his books, in which letter he explains that the Principles are an extension of The Discourse, or an application of The Discourse on theological matters, such as 'the proof that there is a god'. Useful to note that the full title of the Principles includes the phrase "and in which the existence of god is demonstrated".
While the Discourse is also based on the famous "cogito ergo sum" line ("i think, therefore i exist"), and the "res cogitans" (thinking thing) which Descartes' calls himself and other people as, the problems with both works are many when one looks at them either as isolated philosophical texts, or a supposed foundation of western euro philosophy. There are even more problems if one aims to present at least the first work even as philosophy, given the rather simple ways in which Descartes argues and moreover his very claim in the Discourse that in his view Philosophy never has any result, and nothing can be proven through it
Other problems include the very circular argument supposedly proving god exists, and statements such as that 'the ability to think is a singular point (in the consciousness of the person)', or (even worse), that "since i am not perfect, but can imagine perfect things/states, it follows that something perfect is allowing me to know to a small degree that which it is (he means god)".
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The program will mostly be about western 'Idealism', and how it compares, is similar or different, to ancient greek analogous philosophical theories, including (everyone's favorite
) Eleatic, Platonic and Protagorean views on the existence of a 'reality' or not, and of ties between a reality (if it exists) and a human thinker.
From the math side of things, it has naturally references to the greek mathematicians Descartes, Fermat and Newton focus on, such as Apollonios of Perga, Archimedes, and Pappos of Alexandria (important commentator of Apollonios work as well).
Ok, i think this can be the OP... I hope there can be some discussion...
As usual i hope that if i can somewhat present a synopsis of that in english, it would follow i am more than ready to do the analogous in greek, in the library circuit i exist for yet another year
So here we go, and it should go without saying that anyone can participate in the thread, as long as it is on topic. I am --as a precaution-- RDing it, but only so that i won't have to worry that a wall of OP text will be met by off-topic
*
Descartes is a figure who lived in the Dutch revolutionary wars and later 30 year war era. His two philosophical works (excluding the mathematical and natural philosophy/mechanics ones) are The Discourse on (thinking) method, and The Principles of First Philosophy.
Both of those works are small, roughly each of them is 40 pages long, and you can of course find english translations online. They were (both iirc) originally printed in latin, which was still usual as the language of the intellectuals.
*
Brief presentation of the Discource and The Principles
Those two works are very much tied to one another, and we already read in the preface of the Principles Descartes' own letter to the catholic church patron he sought to ensure printing of his books, in which letter he explains that the Principles are an extension of The Discourse, or an application of The Discourse on theological matters, such as 'the proof that there is a god'. Useful to note that the full title of the Principles includes the phrase "and in which the existence of god is demonstrated".
While the Discourse is also based on the famous "cogito ergo sum" line ("i think, therefore i exist"), and the "res cogitans" (thinking thing) which Descartes' calls himself and other people as, the problems with both works are many when one looks at them either as isolated philosophical texts, or a supposed foundation of western euro philosophy. There are even more problems if one aims to present at least the first work even as philosophy, given the rather simple ways in which Descartes argues and moreover his very claim in the Discourse that in his view Philosophy never has any result, and nothing can be proven through it
Other problems include the very circular argument supposedly proving god exists, and statements such as that 'the ability to think is a singular point (in the consciousness of the person)', or (even worse), that "since i am not perfect, but can imagine perfect things/states, it follows that something perfect is allowing me to know to a small degree that which it is (he means god)".*
The program will mostly be about western 'Idealism', and how it compares, is similar or different, to ancient greek analogous philosophical theories, including (everyone's favorite
) Eleatic, Platonic and Protagorean views on the existence of a 'reality' or not, and of ties between a reality (if it exists) and a human thinker.From the math side of things, it has naturally references to the greek mathematicians Descartes, Fermat and Newton focus on, such as Apollonios of Perga, Archimedes, and Pappos of Alexandria (important commentator of Apollonios work as well).
Ok, i think this can be the OP... I hope there can be some discussion...
