Philosophy

PHILOSOPHY

Philosophy is an important part of the heritage of Western democracies, political systems, and education. In his book, The Passion of the Western Mind, Richard Tarnas tells us that his purpose is “understanding the ideas that have shaped our world view.” He begins with the ancient Greek “World View,” a view which interpreted the world in terms of specific model principles, principles so imbedded in our own world view that we seldom think about them.

These principles fall into two groups. From Plato and his school come the following:

The world is an ordered whole (cosmos, not chaos), whose order is akin to an order within the human mind. A rational analysis of the empirical world is therefore possible.

The cosmos as a whole is expressive of a pervasive intelligence that gives nature purpose and design, and this intelligence is directly accessible to human awareness.

Intellectual analysis at its most penetrating level reveals a timeless order that transcends time and place, and contains a deeper meaning, both rational and mythic in character, which comes from an eternal dimension that is both the source and goal of all life.

Knowledge of the world’s underlying structure and meaning requires exercising our cognitive abilities—rational, empirical, intuitive, aesthetic, imaginative, moral, and use of memory.

The direct apprehension of the world’s deeper reality satisfies not only the mind but the soul: it is a redemptive vision, a sustaining insight into the true nature of things that is at once intellectually decisive and spiritually liberating.

THE IDEAS JUST MENTIONED CAME FROM THE PLATONIC SCHOOL WITH ITS MYSTICAL ORIENTATION AND EMPHASIS ON MIND AND REASON. IT HAS MADE POSSIBLE THE WHOESALE ACCEPTANCE OF RELIGION IN WESTERN SOCIETIES, ESPECIALLY JUDAISM, ISLAM, AND CHRISTIANITY.

BUT THERE WAS A CONFICTING OR DIFFERENT TREND IN OUR ANCIENT GREEK HERITAGE, A SECOND SET OF PRINCIPLES, THAT STEMMED FROM THE INFLUENCE OF ARISTOTLE. CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING:

Genuine human knowledge can be acquired only through the rigorous employment of human reason and empirical observation.

The ground of truth must be sought in the present world of human experience.

The causes of natural phenomena are impersonal and physical and should be sought within the realm of observable nature. This view rejects all mythological and supernatural elements.

Any claims to comprehensive theoretical understanding must be measured against the empirical reality of concrete particulars in all their diversity, mutability, and individuality.

There is no absolute or final truth and the search for truth must be both critical and self-critical. Human knowledge is therefore relative and fallible and must be constantly revised in the light of further evidence and analysis.

The Greek mind and, very generally, our Western scientific, religious, and moral heritage, is a legacy of the complex interaction of these two sets of assumptions and impulses. Their constant interplay has established a profound inner tension within our history and finds itself being played out in classrooms, Sunday Schools, and political platforms on the major political parties in our own country today. Secular skepticism and the evolution of science in one stream and the metaphysical/religious idealism of the other provide a crucial counterbalance to each other, each undermining the other’s tendency to crystallize into dogmatism.

Why do we ask students to study the extraordinary vitality and profundity of the Greek mind?

We ask them to study and reconsider these two sets of principles because they are unresolved tensions in our present-day society—a creative tension and complexity they needs our own transformation, criticism, amplification, and reconsideration.