Aristotle Biography The Early Years Aristotle, the greatest and most influential of all the Greek philosophers, was born in 384 BC in the town of Stageria (near Macedonia, on the northern peninsula of Greece). His father, Nicomachus, was a friend and physician to King Amyntas of Macedonia. Nicomachus belonged to a large family of physicians and healers who are believed to hold this position under various kings of Macedonia. As a boy, Aristotle most likely watched his father treating patients and making medicines from parts of plants and animals. Aristotle's parents died when he was just a boy, ending his plans to take up medicine. The Academy In 367 BC, when Aristotle was seventeen, he left Stageria to study at Plato's Academy in Athens, the heart of the intellectual world at the time. The Academy encouraged their students to let their minds and thoughts roam free. As Aristotle's own knowledge increased, he began to question Plato's views and methods of the Academy. The First Naturalist Tutor to the Great
Baruch Spinoza 1. Biography Bento (in Hebrew, Baruch; in Latin, Benedictus: all three names mean "blessed") Spinoza was born in 1632 in Amsterdam. He was the middle son in a prominent family of moderate means in Amsterdam's Portuguese-Jewish community. As a boy he had undoubtedly been one of the star pupils in the congregation's Talmud Torah school. He was intellectually gifted, and this could not have gone unremarked by the congregation's rabbis. And then, on July 27, 1656, Spinoza was issued the harshest writ of herem, or excommunication, ever pronounced by the Sephardic community of Amsterdam; it was never rescinded. To all appearances, Spinoza was content finally to have an excuse for departing from the community and leaving Judaism behind; his faith and religious commitment were, by this point, gone. 2. The Ethics is an ambitious and multifaceted work. 2.1 God or Nature “On God” begins with some deceptively simple definitions of terms that would be familiar to any seventeenth century philosopher.
Emergent materialism Philosophical concept In the philosophy of mind, emergent (or emergentist) materialism is a theory which asserts that the mind is irreducibly existent in some sense. However, the mind does not exist in the sense of being an ontological simple. Further, the study of mental phenomena is independent of other sciences. The theory primarily maintains that the human mind's evolution is a product of material nature and that it cannot exist without material basis.[1] Overview[edit] The view holds that mental properties emerge as novel properties of complex material systems.[2] These are conceptually irreducible as physical properties of the complexes that have them.[3] The theory, however, states that the mind is independent due to the causal influences between body and mind.[1] This is described as a "primitive relation" that is grounded in or dependent on the physical, but with metaphysical necessity.[4] See also[edit] References[edit] External links[edit] M.D.
HYLE 20-1 (2014): Whole-Parts Strategies in Quantum Chemistry: Some Philosophical and Mereological Lessons Jean-Pierre Llored* Abstract: Philosophers mainly refer to quantum chemistry in order to address questions about the reducibility or autonomy of chemistry relative to quantum physics, and to argue for or against ontological emergence. To make their point, they scrutinize quantum approximations and formalisms as if they were independent of the questions at stake. This paper proposes a return to history and to the laboratory so as to emphasize how quantum chemists never cease to negotiate the relationships between a molecule, its parts, and its environment. This investigation will enable us to draw methodological conclusions about the role of history within philosophical studies, and to examine how quantum chemistry can clarify important philosophical and mereological issues related to the emergence/reduction debate, or to the way instruments and contexts are involved in the material making and the formal description of wholes and parts. 1. We divide our work into four parts. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Uses and Misuses of Logic. Introduction This document contains observations on the uses and misuses of logic, particularly in the sciences. Along the way we'll wander into the murky realms of absolute and proximate truths, deduction and induction and address the question of how we can have confidence in knowledge that is less than perfect. We will use certain terms as scientists use them. For those not familiar with the language of science, we include here some fundamentals, so we'll all be starting with the same language. Fact. Induction and deduction Science proceeds from facts to laws to theories by a difficult-to-define process called induction. Theories and laws are required to be of such form that one can deductively proceed from theories to laws to data. Mathematics is a process of deductive logic. This diagram shows the relations between facts, laws, and theories, and the role of induction and deduction. Quotes about logic Logic is the art of going wrong with confidence. Joseph Wood Krutch Elbert Hubbard H.
Great Philosophers: Hypatia Aristotle: Laws of Thought Philosophy as laws of thought Aristotle was the first person to investigate the patterns and processing of reason. He discovered (some would say invented) logic. For that alone, he counts high in the pantheon of the most influential people in history. Logic provides the basis for proof and demonstration using natural language. Aristotle wrote several extensive works on logic, which taken together are known as The Organon or the instrument, by which which he meant that logic is an instrument for advancing knowledge. Aristotle was not merely pointing out ways that people should think; he was describing the fundamental principles by which thought can occur at all. 1. Everything is the same as itself; or a statement cannot not remain the same and change its truth value. 2. Nothing can both exist and not exist at the same time and in the same respect; or no statement is both true and false. 3. Next - Learn about Aristotle's Syllogisms
How are assumptions important in the critical thinking process? Critical thinking requires using logic, but logic is dependent upon accepting premises. These premises are often called assumptions. Some premises are ironclad, such as assuming that an object dropped on Earth will fall and land safe. However, correct assumptions are not always necessary to the critical thinking process. While debating and discussing ideas, people sometimes operate from differing assumptions, and these can cause debates to stagnate. Learn more about Psychology Distinguishing Between Inferences and Assumptions To be skilled in critical thinking is to be able to take one’s thinking apart systematically, to analyze each part, assess it for quality and then improve it. The first step in this process is understanding the parts of thinking, or elements of reasoning. These elements are: purpose, question, information, inference, assumption, point of view, concepts, and implications. In this article we focus on two of the elements of reasoning: inferences and assumptions. Inference: An inference is a step of the mind, an intellectual act by which one concludes that something is true in light of something else’s being true, or seeming to be true. We humans naturally and regularly use our beliefs as assumptions and make inferences based on those assumptions. If you put humans in any situation, they start to give it some meaning or other. As we write, we make inferences as to what readers will make of what we are writing. This is to say that we must choose among a variety of possible meanings.
Logical Arguments Arguments and Inference The Discipline of Logic Human life is full of decisions, including significant choices about what to believe. Although everyone prefers to believe what is true, we often disagree with each other about what that is in particular instances. It may be that some of our most fundamental convictions in life are acquired by haphazard means rather than by the use of reason, but we all recognize that our beliefs about ourselves and the world often hang together in important ways. If I believe that whales are mammals and that all mammals are fish, then it would also make sense for me to believe that whales are fish. In general, we can respect the directness of a path even when we don't accept the points at which it begins and ends. In this review of elementary logic, we'll undertake a broad survey of the major varieties of reasoning that have been examined by logicians of the Western philosophical tradition. The Structure of Argument Recognizing Arguments Deductive Inferences
Logical Fallacies Introduction to Argument Structure of a Logical Argument Whether we are consciously aware of it or not, our arguments all follow a certain basic structure. They begin with one or more premises, which are facts that the argument takes for granted as the starting point. Then a principle of logic is applied in order to come to a conclusion. Premise1: If A = B, Premise2: and B = C Logical connection: Then (apply principle of equivalence) Conclusion: A = C In order for an argument to be considered valid the logical form of the argument must work – must be valid. Also it is important to note that an argument may use wrong information, or faulty logic to reach a conclusion that happens to be true. Breaking down an argument into its components is a very useful exercise, for it enables us to examine both our own arguments and those of others and critically analyze them for validity. Examine your Premises As stated above, in order for an argument to be sound all of its premises must be true.