PHI 2010 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Sophist, Philosophical Logic, Critical Thinking
Document Summary
Made fun of the supposed wise men in athens. Pointed out that athens government was corrupted: philosophical arguments had become about cleverness and demagoguery, political ambition replaced justice. Would trick people into exploding the pretensions of their times. Keeping his fellow citizens from ever becoming as smug and self- righteous as they would like to have been. He taught many individuals about his tricks (equivalence of law. Accordingly, he preferred to die for his idea than live as a hypocrite. An idea worth living for may be an idea worth dying for as well: take responsibility for your actions. Many cried, during the death of socrates. Allows us to break out of prejudices and harmful habits that we have had since we were young. Looks at and thinks about ideas carefully, instead of unthinkingly accepting them. Epistemology: theory of knowledge (2nd unit: strategies of what is good vs. bad knowledge. Logic: critical thinking, philosophical logic and thinking.