Soft materialists agree to a point but their key belief is that everything emerges from the physical, but this doesn’t necessarily mean that everything can be reduced to the physical. They would argue that material is the base of everything and the mind emerges from the material - this is backed up by the example that while there would be no thoughts without brains, thoughts can’t be simply reduced to the brain as a material object. Gilbert Ryle is an advocate of Materialism and argues that talking of the soul is a ‘category mistake’. He argues that the soul is not a quantifiable phenomena that can be
this. Special beliefs that they held about the creation of people were: “the only thing that the world lacked was a symbol of God”, “Seeing this, Prometheus sculpted a figure, man, out of earth.”, and “This figure was to symbolize the gods, thus human life is formed” (“Roman Creation Myth”). As evident from the quotes, one can see that the Romans’ beliefs were quite odd from what a human living in the present day would believe in. These beliefs are ‘special’ to a present-day human as the Romans created these myths based strictly off of their imagination. In the current age, one would not need to create their own stories because we now have correct information because of the scientific knowledge that is currently present.
Epictetus’ philosophical theories were that we only had control over your thoughts, opinions, desires, aversions, and movement towards things. He believed that those were the only things in the world that you had total control over, everything that is inside of us is free, and everything outside of the human body is weak, slavish, hindered and belongs to others. He believes that when you do not have your priorities straight you will end up “miserable and distressed, and you will find fault with both gods and men.”(From Plato to Derrida p.239 chapter 1) The way he believed that your priorities should be is like this; “you suppose to be yours only what is yours, and what belongs to another to belong another, no one will ever compel you, no one will ever hinder you; you will find fault with no one, reproach no one, nor act against your own will; you will have no enemies and no one will harm you, for no harm can touch you.”(From Plato to Derrida p.239 chapter 1) Epictetus’s master was torturing him by turning his leg and Epictetus told him to stop because he was going to break it. The master did not stop and broke his leg shortly after that.
Explain Aristotle’s concept of the Prime Mover Aristotle argued that behind every movement there must be a chain of events that brought about the movement that we see taking place. Aristotle argued that this chain of events must lead back to something which moves but is itself unmoved. This is referred to as the Prime Mover. The Prime Mover is something that causes the motion and change of the universe without being moved and it is eternal. The Prime Mover is the Final Cause of everything in the world; he was the creator of the first cause that has caused everything until today.
“Don’t force whatever is not beautiful to be ugly, or whatever is not good to be bad. It’s the same with Love: when you agree he neither good nor beautiful, you need not think he is ugly or and bad; he could be something in between.”(46, Symposium) Socrates said this because he knew that Love cannot possibly be a god since he lacks beauty but he must be something between mortal and immortal. Socrates believes that Love is rather a great spirit who is in search of more than just beauty on the outside. The beauty that Socrates speaks of is an internal beauty that he believes is one of the main goals of love. Socrates said,” After this he think that beauty of people’s souls is more valuable than the of their bodies.”(58, Symposium) For Socrates the highest point of madness is that people constantly want what they don’t have.
The Prime/ Unmoved Mover causes all movement and change as things move towards it. It is the only thing that is both perfect and unchanging, and consequently is pure actuality. Aristotle’s concept of the Prime Mover has helped to shape some of the views of many influential philosophers to follow him. One such Philosopher is Thomas Aquinas who uses the prime Mover in his cosmological proof for the existence of God and forms the roots of the first two of Aquinas’ “Five Ways”. In this essay I will explore why Aristotle believed the Prime Mover existed and how he used it to mould his theories.
The rational theory is that myths were created so mankind can have understanding of normal events, which happen in everyday life for society. Plato indicated that myths concerning gods, heroes, and centaurs were false and irrational. He believed thinking about the origins of nature of myths were the real, rational truths (Leonard, & McClure, 2004). Creation myth gives details what the Gods and Goddesses used to create man, and mankind. They also explain how man could survive by the substances he were using.
Aquinas states that common sense tells us that the universe works in such a way, that one can conclude that is was designed by an intelligent designer, God. In other words, all physical laws and the order of nature and life were designed and ordered by an intelligent designer. The argument links in with Aristotle's cosmological argument. Thomas Aquinas is saying that while human beings do exist and think for themselves, the reason why humans exist is due to an uncaused cause which made the natural laws needed for our existence. To sum it up into easier terms, Aquinas basically said that when you
His own doubts lead him to believe that he is imperfect, yet his ability to conceive of perfection indicates that something perfect must exist outside of him namely, God”. (Sayre, 2011) I believe that the surprise ending was when Descartes realized that God is perfect and he was made to see this by God. Descartes state that “God is perfect and his ideas were placed in him by God and he depended on this being because he is so perfect for his existence”. (Sayre, 2011, p. 709) “This was realized after he reasoned that he was thinking therefore he must exist. I
Additionally, Diotima said that Socrates had mistaken the idea of love with the beloved. “…I conclude that you thought Love was being loved, rather than being a lover. I think that’s why Love struck you as beautiful in every way: because it is what is really beautiful and graceful that deserves to be loved…”(Plato, 204C). Therefore, Diotima argued that Love is outside of us and always of ‘something’. Furthermore, Diotima stated that the soul was mortal because people strive to be immortal by having their qualities survive in their offspring.