1. Philosophy in Western Culture
Donald T. Williams, PhD
Toccoa Falls College

2. I. What is Philosophy? Filew (phileo) = Love + Sofia (sophia) = Wisdom
A. Etymologically
Filew (phileo) = Love +
Sofia (sophia) = Wisdom
“The Love/Pursuit of Wisdom”

3. I. What is Philosophy?
A. Etymologically
B. By Example: Answer the “Great Questions” by Rational Thought:
What is Real? (Metaphysics)
Who is Man? (Anthropology)
Why are we Here? (Axiology)
How do we Know? (Epistemology)

4. I. What is Philosophy?
B. By Example: Answer the Great Questions by Rational Thought
But Existentialists & Logical Positivists Deny the Meaning of the Questions.
Therefore some say 20th C. has only “Anti-Philosophy.”
But: Answers implied by the very Denial.

5. I. What is Philosophy? C. By Usage: “Philosophy of X ”
View of what nature/purpose of X ought to be.
Kinds of Questions asked:
What constitutes Data?
What are the valid Rules of Interpretation?
How does it relate to First Principles?
What is its Meaning for Life as a Whole?

6. I. What is Philosophy? A. Etymologically, fileo + sofia
B. By Example: Ask “Great Questions”
C. By Usage: “Philosophy of X”
D. Summary
Understand X in terms of First Principles
Primarily through Reason
Ultimately concerned with Great Questions
Metaphysics
Anthropology
Axiology
Epistemology

7. II. Relation to Theology & Christianity
A. Relation to Theology
1. Both Deal with the “Great Questions.”
2. Use different Methodology
Theology is Expository
Philosophy is Analytic
3. Can be Complementary.

8. II. Relation to Theology & Christianity
B. Can Philosophy Be Christian?
1. Problems
Inherently Humanistic?
Biblical References
Acts 17:18
Col. 2:8

9. Acts 17:18, 32
“And some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers were conversing with him. And some were saying, ‘What would this idle babbler wish to say?’ Now when they heard of the resurrection from the dead, some began to sneer ”

10. Colossians 2:8
“See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of this world, rather than according to Christ.”

11. B. Can Philosophy Be Christian?
2. Answers
Biblical Command
Biblical Precedent
Philosophy can choose Obedience
“The Handmaid of Theology”

12. B. Can Philosophy Be Christian?
3. What can Philosophy offer as Handmaid?
Sharpen Tools of Thought (Logic)
Identify Questions, Implications
Perceive Architectural Unity/Structure
Keep us in Touch with the World

13. B. Can Philosophy Be Christian?
3. What can Philosophy offer as Handmaid?
Summary: “Fides quaerens intellectum,” “Faith seeking understanding.”
--Anselm of Canterbury

14. III. Some Key Moments in the History of Western Philosophy
The Greeks: Pre-Socratics, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle
Augustine: A Christian Role-Model
Rationalism: DesCartes, Kant, Hegel
Empiricism: Lock, Hume
20th Century: Positivism, Existentialism, Etc.

15. The Pre-Socratics Heraclitus Parmenides Ca. 500 BC Flux
“You can’t step in the same river twice.”
Parmenides
Born ca. 515 BC
Change is an Illusion
Mnemonic Device: “Par”menance

16. The Pre-Socratics Men once thought that it would be nice
To step in the same river twice.
But then Heraclitus,
As if just to spite us,
Said, “No! Once will have to suffice.”

17. The Pre-Socratics “The water is flowing away;
The new that arrives does not stay.
Therefore my conclusion:
All else is illusion.
There is change; that is all we can say.”

18. The Pre-Socratics Parmenides answered, “Not so!
The stream doth eternally flow.
What is permanent’s real.
So, whatever you feel,
There’s no motion and no place to go.”

19. The Pre-Socratics He went on, “Heraclitus, you dunce!
Why attempt such ridiculous stunts?
With no motion nor change,
You can’t even arrange
To step in the first river once.”

20. The Pre-Socratics Is the world all in flux or immutable?
The answers both seemed irrefutable.
But while they were debating,
Some children went wading
Once—twice—and it seemed somewhat suitable.

21. The Greeks: Socrates “The Unexamined Life is not worth living.”
Circa 400 BC
No Writings; No System
Oral Teachings preserved by Plato
Oracle: The Wisest Man
Socratic Method
“The Unexamined Life is not worth living.”

22. The Greeks: Plato “Myth of the Cave” 427-347 BC Disciple of Socrates
Emphasized Ideas, Forms, Universals
Particulars/Things = Reflections of Ideas
Father of Rationalism
“Myth of the Cave”

23. Platonism Ideas ESSENCE Form Things EXISTENCE Matter (reality)
(less real)
Things EXISTENCE Matter

24. Plato’s Myth of the Cave

25. Plato’s Myth of the Cave
The fleeting shadows flow across the wall;
That’s all we know. We think they may arise
Outside our minds and bring before our eyes
Some glimpse of truth—but by the time they fall
To us, a faint and hieroglyphic scrawl
Is all that’s left. We try to analyze,
Deduce from patterns what the shapes disguise—
They’re hard to catch and harder to recall.

26. Plato’s Myth of the Cave
We think reflections of reality
Are cast by sunlight shining—how we crave
To turn and look—but still we strive in vain.
No merely mortal man will ever see
Whether the Door behind us in the Cave
Is there, so firmly Fate has bound our chain.

27. The Greeks: Aristotle 384-322 BC
Disciple of Plato,Tutor of Alexander the Great
Emphasized Particulars, Things, Observation
Father of Empiricism
“In philosophy there is Plato and Aristotle; all else is footnotes.”

28. Augustine of Hippo logos (logos); Illumination (John 1:9) 354-430 AD
Confessions, City of God
“Tolle, lege.” “Take up and read.”
Biblical Approach to Platonism
logos (logos); Illumination (John 1:9)

29. Augustine, continued
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God In him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness could not overcome it There was the true light, which, coming into the world, enlightens every man” (John. 1:1, 4-5, 9).

30. Augustine, continued Biblical Approach to Platonism
logos (logos); Illumination (John 1:9)
Rationes Aeternae (Eternal Reasons)
“Credo ut intelligam,” “ I believe in order that I may understand.”
Scientia (Knowledge) vs. Sapientia (Wisdom)

31. The Conversion of Augustine
The Voice cried out in answer to his need
To take the plunge, to be converted now,
Singing, “Tolle, lege, take and read.”
For years he’d stumbled over the hard creed
Of Jesus in the flesh—who could see how?
But nothing less would answer to his need.

32. The Conversion of Augustine
His mother’s prayers were destined to succeed
Through Ambrose’ preaching, his own quest, & Thou
Singing, “Tolle, lege, take and read.”
“But can you live without us?” they would plead—
His mistresses—as if to disallow
The Voice that cried in answer to his need.

33. The Conversion of Augustine
“Yes! Rather put on Christ, who came to bleed,
And make no plans the field of flesh to plow.”
Such was the answer he took up to read.
At last the Hound of Heaven had him treed,
Weeping, broken, and prepared to bow.
The Voice cried out in answer to his need,
Singing, “Tolle, lege, take and read.”

34. Thomas Aquinas 1225-1274 AD Summa Theologiae Scholastic Method
“Baptized” Aristotle
Two Important Ideas:
Two Kinds of Knowledge
The “Five Ways”

35. Aquinas on Knowledge A. Philosophy B. Theology Two Ways of Knowing
1. Reason Alone
2. Includes Knowledge that God exists.
B. Theology
1. Adds Faith and Revelation
2. Includes Belief in God

36. Aquinas on Knowledge Critique Definition of Faith vs. Reason
Augustine: Faith required for all knowing
Schaeffer: Aquinas made Reason “Autonomous”
Law of Unintended Consequences

37. Aquinas: the “Five Ways”
1. Motion/Change requires a Prime Mover.
2. Effects require a First Cause.
3. Contingency requires a Necessary One.
4. Imperfection requires a Perfect One
5. Design requires a Designer
Therefore God exists.

38. Aquinas: the “Five Ways”
Critique
1. Infinite Regress?
2. Is it the God of the Bible?
3. Focuses General Revelation (Ps. 19:1)
4. Useful to Clarify Alternatives
5. Needs to be Supplemented

39. Rene DesCartes 1596-1650 Rationalism Principle of Doubt
“Cogito ergo sum.”
“I think; therefore, I am.”

40. DesCartes There once was a man named DesCartes
Who asked, “Where should philosophy start?”
He said, “If I can doubt it,
I’ll just do without it.
Now, that out to make me look smart.”

41. DesCartes So he doubted the clear and the plain
To see what would finally remain.
‘Twas thus he found out
There was no way to doubt
The doubt in the doubter’s own brain.

42. DesCartes “I exist!” then with joy he concluded.
“On this point I cannot be deluded.
Even though it sounds dumb,
If I think—ergo sum!”
To this day he has not been refuted.

43. DesCartes If you ask what this tale is about,
It’s that doubting must always run out.
For there’s no way to doubt
That you’re doubting the doubt
That you doubt when you’re doubting your doubt.

44. John Locke 1632-1704 Empiricism Foundations for Science Tabula Rasa
“Blank tablet”

45. David Hume Skeptical Empiricism
Skeptical Empiricism
Miracles contradict “universal experience.”
Theology = “nothing but sophistry and illusion.”

46. Hume David Hume Would never presume To believe in a miracle:
He was much too empirical.

47. Immanuel Kant Rationalist Subject-Object
Rationalist
Subject-Object
“Ding an Sich,” “Thing in itself”
“Bluspels” (C. S. Lewis)

48. Immanuel Kant
Subject - Object

49. Kant “Our knowledge,” one sage used to rant,
“Is inevitably always aslant.
The true Ding an sich
Is so sly and so slick,
That when you try to see it, you Kan’t.”

50. G. F. W. Hegel Rationalist Dialectic Thesis-Antithesis-Synthesis
Rationalist
Dialectic
Thesis-Antithesis-Synthesis
Influenced Marx
“Dialectical Materialism”

51. Hegel’s Dialectic Thesis Antithesis Synthesis Antithesis

52. IV. Some 20th Cent. Options A. Logical Positivism
Radical Empiricism
“Verifiability Criterion”
Antony Flew, A. J. Ayer, Rudolph Carnap
Wittgenstein: “Whereof we cannot speak, we must be silent.”
Evangelical Version: John W. Montgomery

53. IV. Some 20th Cent. Options B. Existentialism (Camus, Sartre)
“Existence Precedes Essence”
Affirmation of Absurdity
Create Personal Meaning
Pursuit of Freedom
Strong in Artistic Community

54. IV. Some 20th Cent. Options C. Process Philosophy (Whitehead)
D. Eastern Mysticism, New Age
E. Neo-Thomism (Maritain, Gilson) Evangelical Versions: Geisler, Kreeft
F. Calvinistic Presuppositionalism (Dooyeweerd, Van Til, Rushdoony, Schaeffer)

55. IV. Some 20th Cent. Options F. Calvinistic Presuppositionalism
Roots in Augustinianism
All Beliefs = Faith-Based
Role of Presuppositions
Common Ground?
Must Begin with God

56. IV. Some 20th Cent. Options Presuppositionalism: Critique Positive
Necessity of Faith
Role of Presuppositions
Analysis of Worldviews
Negative
Some = Extreme on Common Ground
Doctrinaire in Methodology

57. IV. Some 20th Cent. Options G. Reformed Epistemology
Alvin Plantinga, Nicholas Wolterstorf
“Warranted” Beliefs
Beliefs “Properly Basic”
H. A Helpful Non-Conformist:
Michael Polanyi
Personal Knowledge
I. Post-Modernism

58. CONCLUSION Credo ut Intelligam. Fides Quaerens Intellectum.
Handmaid of Theology
“We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor. 10:5).

59. CONCLUSION The fleeting shadows flow across the wall;
That’s all we know. We think they may arise
Outside our minds and bring before our eyes
Some glimpse of truth—but by the time they fall
To us, a faint and hieroglyphic scrawl
Is all that’s left. We try to analyze,
Deduce from patterns what the shapes disguise—
They’re hard to catch and harder to recall.

60. CONCLUSION We think reflections of reality
Are cast by sunlight shining—how we crave
To turn and look—but still we strive in vain.
No merely mortal man will ever see
Whether the Door behind us in the Cave
Is there, so firmly Fate has bound our chain.

61. CONCLUSION So many years we strove against the chain
That gradually some gave up, and hope was dead.
“There is no Door; there is no Cave,” they said,
“No explanation, nothing to explain.
It’s just a game you play inside your brain:
All the poetry you’ve ever read
Makes chemical reactions in your head;
That’s all that Pleasure is, and also Pain.”

62. CONCLUSION What of the Beautiful, the Good, the True?
“They’re all illusions; they are all the same,
Sounds upon the wind, an empty name,
And that is all that can be understood.”
But then, the rule that says that nothing’s true
Must be applied to their denial too!

63. CONCLUSION So hope could not completely be denied.
Yet still the shadows flicker on the wall,
And we’re not certain what they mean at all
In spite of every theory we have tried.
If only one of us could get outside
Into the Light that fills that vaster hall
And not go blind, but come back and recall
For us the land where the True Shapes abide!

64. CONCLUSION In thy Light we see light.
If only! But the ancient Grecian knew
No way that it could be. It seemed absurd
To hope or to despair. So still the True
Was but in shadows seen, in echoes heard—
Until the birth of a barbaric Jew
Who was in the Beginning; was the Word.
In thy Light we see light.

65. Philosophy in Western Culture
Donald T. Williams, PhD
Toccoa Falls College