Some Philosophy…
So I started reading the novel Sophie’s World as an introduction to some Philosophy. I wanted to write some notes as I read. So here it is, some excerpts from the novel and some deep-diving thoughts. The story revolves around a teenage girl named Sophie, who begins receiving mysterious letters and messages that introduce her to the world of philosophy. As she delves deeper into her studies, she learns about various philosophical ideas and concepts from ancient to modern times, including those of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Kant, and others.
Sophie thought of life and death which is inevitable. You can’t experience being alive without realizing that you have to die.
There is a peculiar thought that everything started from nothing. Even if god created the universe, who made him and this goes on to an infinite loop of whose and who. And therefore at some point, something must have come from nothing. But it could be a loop and the start and end are the same. At some point metaphysical things converted to matter.
It is often easier to ask philosophical questions than to answer them. The answer might vary from person to person. But we could learn from all those answers. There is no concrete answer so you will not find the answers in some encyclopedia. But why we are even thinking about these questions and answers? Is it to satisfy our overcomplicated brains?
When we are babies we question everything and we are curious about this world where we are just put into. As we grow older we accept the world as it is. The letter to Sophie told her not to be like that. We are living in a giant ball of soil and water, and people accept it but if we think deeply it seems so mysterious and fascinating — quite a thing to think about.
Before the start of philosophy around 600 BC. People have already made mythological explanations of some events. For example, Nordic people believed that rain was created by a god named Thor. The first signs of philosophy were seen in Greek, there also there was some mythological beings. Philosophers reject these because the Gods very much resembled humans and this must be a human notion. They sought a natural explanation for all the natural processes rather than a supernatural one.
The early Greek philosophers were called natural philosophers because they asked questions about natural transformation. How fish came from water. How trees grow from the soil. They were precursors of what was to become science.
The first Greek philosopher was Thales, who believed all things come from water. The next philosopher Anaximander thought that the source of everything could not be something that is created. Because all created things are limited. Another philosopher Anaximentes thought everything comes from air and vapor. They all believed there was some source of everything. But after them came Parmenides who believed that nothing can come from nothing. Everything that existed had already been there. And the transformation that our eye sees is just an illusion. But another philosopher Heraclitus thought that nature is in a constant state of change.
Empedocles believed that everything is made of four elements which are water, fire, air, and earth. When bonded together they can make anything and after disintegration, the four elements go back to their actual form. Anaxagoras believed that everything is made up of tiny invisible particles. He called it seeds. He was interested in astronomy also and had ideas about other planets and the moon that they are all made of the same material as Earth and for the sun he believed it was a hot stone. Democritus believed all things were made of fundamental particles called atoms. And nature consists of an unlimited variety of atoms that combine to make different things. But atoms were all eternal and immutable.
All these Greek philosophers put forward their theories with just reasoning without any technology, which is pretty fascinating. And Democritus came close to what is supported by science 2500 years later. Atoms are indestructible and eternal. And we are all stardust. And the particles inside you could have been shared by a star, a dinosaur, and multiple things before coming to you.
Does everything and everyone have a fate? Is everyone’s destiny predefined? These were some questions that were pondered at that time in Greece. People completely believed in fate. If a person is ill, it must be because the gods are angry with him, or he must have done some awful deed, etc. Hippocrates was the first medical practitioner in Greece. He believed health is a natural condition. He had some ethics while practicing medicine and taught his students the same. His Hippocratic Oath is an oath of ethics historically taken by physicians, which is still sacred among doctors.
After 450 BC there was a transition from natural philosophy to a more individualistic one focused on the individual’s place in society. Athens was the center of this. A group of philosophers and teachers flocked to Athens, they were called Sophists (wise and informed).
Socrates was the most enigmatic figure. There is no known text written by him, but his teachings were passed on to his successors, one of which is Plato. But often it took a lot of work to distinguish between the teachings of Plato and Socrates, as Socrates had written no text. It is Plato’s portrayal of Socrates that has inspired thinkers of the West.
The wisest person is the one who acknowledges their lack of knowledge. Socrates follows this principle by questioning everything and recognizing that he knew very little about the world and life. Plato his successor was concerned with both what is eternal and immutable in nature and what is eternal and immutable as regards morals and society. To Plato, these two problems were the same. Plato believed reality is divided into two regions, the world of senses and the other, world of ideas. For the first one he says, we perceive it with our five senses and we get only incomplete knowledge by using our senses. For the latter, we can have true knowledge by using our reason. For example, we know a perfect circle has a 360-degree total angle. But in real life, if we see a circular object we cannot determine if it’s completely round and has a 360-degree angle by using our senses.
After Plato, Aristotle succeeded him. He was a pupil at Plato’s Academy for almost 20 years. Plato was so engrossed in his eternal forms or ideas that he took very little notice of the changes in nature. Aristotle on the other hand was preoccupied with just these changes (natural processes). Aristotle said humans could not have innate ideas and ideas come only after sensing the natural world, this was contrary to Plato.
This was just a brief glimpse, there is much more in the book. Highly recommended for those who want some intro to philosophy and its history.