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    Principia Philosoph 'I': A Short History of Philosophy & Introduction to Rational Holism
    Principia Philosoph 'I': A Short History of Philosophy & Introduction to Rational Holism
    Principia Philosoph 'I': A Short History of Philosophy & Introduction to Rational Holism
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    Principia Philosoph 'I': A Short History of Philosophy & Introduction to Rational Holism

    By Anthony North

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    About this ebook

    De-cyphering philosophy, Anthony North provides a reader-friendly history showing its importance to us today, before going on to add his own blend of Rational Holism, or P-ology.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAnthony North
    Release dateNov 3, 2020
    ISBN9781005447533
    Principia Philosoph 'I': A Short History of Philosophy & Introduction to Rational Holism
    Author

    Anthony North

    Thinker & Storyteller****7,453 Words to Save the UK and I,Writer are now FREE. Scroll down to find them.*****1955 (Yorkshire, England) – I am born (Damn! Already been done). ‘Twas the best of times ... (Oh well).I was actually born in the year of Einstein's death, close to Scrooge's Counting House. It doesn't mean anything but it sounds good. As for my education, I left school at 15 and have had no formal education since. Hence, I'm self-taught.****From a family of newsagents, at 18 I did a Dick Whittington and went off to London, only to return to pretend to be Charlie and work in a chocolate factory.When I was ten I was asked what I wanted to be. I said soldier, writer and Dad. I never thought of it for years – having too much fun, such as a time as lead guitarist in a local rock band – but I served nine years in the RAF, got married and had seven kids. I realized my words had been precognitive when, at age 27, I came down with M.E. – a condition I’ve suffered ever since – and turned my attention to writing.Indeed, as I realized that no expert could tell me what was wrong with me, I began my quest to find out why. Little did I realize it would last decades and take me through the entire history of knowledge, leaving me with the certainty that our knowledge systems are inadequate.****My non-fiction is based on P-ology, a thought process I devised to work with patterns of knowledge, and designed to be a bedfellow to specialization. A form of Rational Holism, it seeks out areas the specialist may have missed. I work from encyclopaedias and introductory volumes in order to gain a grasp of many subjects and am not an expert in anything, but those patterns keep forming. Hence, I do not deal in truth, but ideas, and cover everything from politics to the paranormal.When reading my work I ask only: do I make sense? Of course, an expert would say: a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. I agree. And an expert has so little knowledge of everything.I also write novels and Flash Fiction in all genres.

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      Book preview

      Principia Philosoph 'I' - Anthony North

      Principia Philosoph'I':

      A Short History of Philosophy & Introduction to Rational Holism

      By Anthony North

      Copyright: Anthony North 2020

      Cover image copyright: Yvonne North 2020

      Smashwords Edition

      No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission

      Other books by Anthony North

      In 2019 I began a 3 year publishing program that will result in 14 volumes of my fiction, inc 7 novels in most genres, & 21 works of non-fiction covering cults, politics, conspiracies, religion, disasters, science, philosophy, warfare, crime, psychology, new age, green issues & all areas of the unexplained, inc ufology, lost worlds and the paranormal. Hopefully appearing at the rate of one a month, check out the latest launch at my bookstore at http://anthonynorth.com or buy direct from Smashwords for all devices at: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/anthonynorth

      In addition to the above, you may like my ‘I’ Series – 8 volumes of flash fiction (horror, sci fi, romance, adventure, crime), 4 volumes of poetry & 5 volumes of short essays from politics to the unexplained. Available from same links as above. Also check out my bookstore for news of my books out in paperback.

      CONTENTS

      Introduction

      Part One - THE THINKERS

      Pythagoras & Co

      The Atomists

      The Sophists

      Socrates

      Plato

      Aristotle

      The Cynics

      The Epicureans

      The Stoics

      Christian Influence

      The Scholastics

      Birth of Political Thinking

      Modern Knowledge

      Rene Descartes

      Rationalizing the World

      John Locke

      19th Century Britain

      Continental Europe

      Immanuel Kant

      George Hegel

      Shopenhauer & Nietzsche

      Karl Marx

      Pragmatism

      Logically Speaking

      Existentialism

      Part Two - FOUR ESSAYS

      New Epistemology

      New Politics

      New Ethics

      New Metaphysics

      Bibliography

      About the Author

      Connect With Anthony

      Introduction

      Philosophy is the greatest achievement of man. Throughout history it has created the society in which we live, confirming our ability to think - to rise above the animal kingdom. Except – today the practice seems to be in terminal decline. Does the lack of philosophizing today herald the death of thinking? And if so does this mean we are returning to the instinctuality and amorality found in the animal kingdom?

      Even this possibility should be seen as a warning that it is time for philosophy - for thinking about our situation - to come back.

      The first person thought to have used the word 'philosophy' was Pythagoras, the discoverer of mathematics at the dawn of Greek history. The word comes from 'philo', meaning 'love', and 'sophia', meaning 'wisdom'. Thus, a philosopher is a lover of wisdom. Traditionally, philosophy was the first practice to break up the world into specializations with specific branches of philosophy. There are four main branches.

      The first is epistemology, an understanding of what knowledge is. Then we have metaphysics, concerned with the nature of 'being' and reality. Third, we have ethics, or how man should behave in the world. And finally, we have politics, or how man should organize his world. But in the history of philosophy that follows, we will see how the specializations were nothing more than an easy way to explain specific areas of a wider, holistic knowledge. This fundamental fact of knowledge - that things are really holistic, or as one - has been forgotten today.

      This is why a book such as this is needed. First of all it is needed to kick start us into thinking once more; and second, it is needed to reappraise what our knowledge really is and what it tells us about ourselves and our world.

      But of course, before we can understand what philosophy should be, we need to understand its past. Hence, in part one, I will offer a brief history of philosophy before returning to basics in part two, and redefining what we really mean by epistemology, metaphysics, ethics and politics.

      Part One - THE THINKERS

      Philosophy has existed throughout the world, but what we term ‘western’ philosophy arose at the dawn of Greek history into a western world that was just beginning to throw off the yoke of superstition and myth. Learning to think for himself, the future western man found himself in a confusing physical world, no longer the plaything of gods. And this was a lonely, frightening position to be in. Hence, in learning to think - in deciding what the world was all about - man was finding comfort in himself. In effect, thinking became a defence mechanism in a world without spiritual certainty. Thinking, in a real sense, was a product of our insecurity.

      Pythagoras and Co

      The first known philosopher was Thales from 6th century BC Miletus in Greece. Successfully predicting a solar eclipse, he was the first to ask questions about the world which did not require a god. This may seem basic today, but by asking what was here in the beginning, and concluding the world was first made of water, Thales began the intellectual quest that led to today.

      Several other great philosophers lived in Greece at this time, usually known as the Seven Wise Men, centred upon Miletus. Anaximander is credited with making the first map. He speculated that the Earth was not suspended in space but remained where it was as it had no reason to move and was at rest; and also that there was a single prime substance to the world which maintained a balance between different and contrasting qualities, such as hot and cold, wet or dry.

      Again, although seemingly ridiculous today, such ideas were vital to what we have become; for they were ideas from people, rather than the dictats of the gods. And no thinker of the time was greater than Pythagoras, another Pre-Socratic philosopher not of Miletus, but Samos.

      Pythagoras, who we met in the introduction, is a man shrouded in myths of his own - indeed, it is possible that his ideas were those of a number of thinkers known as the Pythagoreans. But in his name, mathematics was devised as a way of explaining natural harmony. He believed in an immortal soul, but was rational about it. The soul transformed itself into other living things, everything being born again in a never ending cycle.

      At first, we can see, in Pythagoras, elements of eastern philosophy, as represented by Hinduism; indeed the Pythagoreans were semi-mystical. But this was more than simple reincarnation. In this, as in everything, the mode of thought was important. Such rules of thought were eventually defined by the philosopher, Aristotle, who we will meet later.

      When thinking, we should begin with an axiom, or self-evident truth, such as you cannot be and not be at the same time. Using logic from this point, the thinker can take logical steps forward to produce a reasoned idea that is not self-evident, but nevertheless logical.

      The above is philosophy at its grandest, using the mind to rationalize rather than relying on belief. It does not mean the argument is right, but it does free the mind from myth in order to think for itself.

      All this reasoning went to the head of some thinkers.

      The 5th century BC philosopher Empedocles thought the world was made of four elements – fire, air, earth and water; that change took place through love and strife; and the Earth was a globe. We can see reasoned ingenuity in all these ideas (though most were borrowed from other thinkers, as we shall see), but he also considered himself so great he must be a god. Asked to prove it, he threw himself into the crater of Mt Etna. Sadly, he was just a man, and was never seen again.

      The Atomists

      This explosion of philosophy led to certain 'schools'. One was the Atomist. In the 5th century BC Parmenides had reached an error, arguing that things either are, or are not. Only 'being' was real. 'Not being' was an illusion. However, seeing that change could only occur through 'being' going through a period of 'not being' before 'being' again, change must be impossible. Hence, in seeing change, the senses lie.

      Heraclitus rejected Parmenides and argued everything was in a constant state of change, or flux. This was balanced by a cosmic justice that maintained equilibrium. The Atomists - in particular Democritus - looked at both these arguments and decided they could both be right. At a fundamental level change did not occur, but at a level identified by the senses, it did. But how?

      The Atomists conceived of unchanging fundamental elements in the world too small to be seen called 'atoms.' These solid, unchanging elements changed in terms of relationships with each other, floating about randomly and forming groupings that provided change in the world.

      Although not devising atoms as we understand them today, the Atomists can be seen as extremely modern.

      The Sophists

      A further school was the Sophists. They argued there was no such thing as objective reality. Everything is subjective; that is, an idea in our heads - as Protagoras said: 'Man is the measure of all things.' Hence, seeing real knowledge wasn't possible, only useful opinions were important.

      A basis for individualism, Sophists thought man should do things for himself, encouraging writing and speaking skills. At its ultimate, Thrasymachus argued that the strongest will inevitably be right, forcing people to live as the mighty wish.

      Socrates

      Once man began to think for himself, we can see how knowledge was beginning to define the world. Hundreds of years before Christ, early sciences, politics and forms of debate were presenting themselves. But the early Greek philosophers often had a problem with morality.

      This was addressed by the Greek, Socrates, who died in 399BC after being ordered to drink hemlock for teaching dissent. He never wrote anything, and most of what we know of him comes

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