We all use the word ‘philosophy’. It is a word every adult knows. ‘Oh yes, philosophy’, we say knowingly, but how many of us when asked ‘So what is philosophy?’ would be able to answer? Before learning about philosophy my answer would probably have been ‘eerm thinking about things and talking about them?’ which is sort of true but if that was all that philosophy was, we probably wouldn’t even bother with having a word for it would we? According to the Oxford English Dictionary ‘philosophy’ is ‘the study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality, and existence, especially when considered as an academic discipline.’ So…. Thinking about stuff and talking about them then. In a more structured and challenging way than just a chat about what to have for tea though. Philosophy is generally thought to have started in the 6th Century BC in Ancient Greece with the philosopher Thales of Miletus. Like many early philosophers his ponderings were of things that we now understand in a non-philosophical way – science. Other philosophers in this period were Anaximenes, Heraclitus and Anaximander. The majority of their philosophical wonderings and theories were about our very state of being and what the world and the things of the world were made of, changes of state, motion and other (now scientific) realities in the world they saw around them. They did not tend to look too deeply into spirituality or morality, focussing instead on searching for answers with more of a pre-scientific quest for knowledge. Some philosophers paved the way for future scientific enquiries with their ponderings, for example Democritus who taught that the hidden substance in all physical objects consists of different arrangements of atoms and void. These were not scientific findings but philosophical ponderings. These, and other philosophers from this time such as Parmenides, Pythagorus (who believed that the whole world was controlled and could be explained by numbers) and Zeno of Elea, are known as ‘Pre-Socratic’, referring, of course, to one of the most prolific and well- known philosophers, Socrates. So here, already, we see people who do not yet entirely understand mathematics or science yet have an in-built need for questioning the world and finding their own answers. Does that sound familiar? Doesn’t that sound just like a child before the pesky world of adults get a hold of their brain? In the 4th-5th Century along came Socrates and Plato. Socrates took philosophy to a whole new level, pondering not scientific matters of the earth but instead ethical matters of the mind. He cared, not what humans were made of, but how their brains worked and the decisions they made. He used critical reasoning to explore what decisions and morals were right and wrong. His Socratic Method consisted of asking questions, then more questions, then more questions until he found answers which brought him and others closer to an answer than they had been. He saw himself as a ‘midwife’, helping others to grow and give birth to their own ideas and a ‘gadfly’ nipping at and irritating the people he spoke to (and society at large) in order to take them to a higher level of thinking. Socrates was full of questions, feigned ignorance to make others talk, refused to take “just because” as an answer and was more than a bit irritating in his persistence? Well he was just an overgrown 3 year old really wasn’t he? Interestingly Socrates never wrote a word. It is entirely thanks to Plato that we know of his methods and reports of his arguments and questions, though how much is fact and how much is Plato’s dramatization is unclear. Socrates finally annoyed far too many people and was sentenced to death. Plato was Socrates’ student and it was through his writing, and those of another philosopher called Xenophon, that the methods and teachings of Socrates were passed down. Plato also expanded on the study of philosophy to cover issues of metaphysics, logic, ethics, politics, science and aesthetics. Plato also had quite an influential student himself – Aristotle. Philosophy then continued to develop with many, many philosophers introducing their own approaches and beliefs but all with a shared aim – a quest for a knowledge or truth.
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AuthorMiss Magical Mess is a pre-school teacher and P4C Level 2B facilitator. After a shaky start as a P4C facilitator (P4C with 3 year olds... are you kidding?) Miss Magical Mess created her own approach to P4C and enquiry model and is now a big fan. Archives |