Archetypes of Wisdom

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Archetypes of Wisdom

• Douglas J. Soccio
• Chapter 1
• Philosophy and the Search for Wisdom

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Learning Objectives

• On completion of this chapter, you should be able
  to answer the following questions
• What is philosophy?
• What are the primary areas of philosophy?
• What is an archetype?
• How does an archetype differ from a stereotype?
• What is wisdom?
• What is knowledge?
• What is belief?

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Philosophy

• Etymology from a Greek word meaning, the love
  of wisdom.
• Philo (love).
• Sophia (wisdom)
• The earliest philosophers were considered sages
  because they devoted themselves to asking the
  big questions.
• These were questions about things like ultimate
  values, general principles, the nature of
  reality, the nature of justice, knowledge, truth,
  God and beauty.

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A Few Examples of Big
Questions

• Does God exist?
• What is the meaning of life?
• Why do innocent people suffer?
• How are minds connected to bodies?
• Is there one standard of right and wrong for
  everyone, or are moral standards relative?
• What is the best form of government?
• Is beauty in the eye of the beholder?
• Is objectivity possible? Desirable?

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What is Philosophy?

• Philosophy consists in carefully reasoning about
  these sorts of questions and their answers.
• The emphasis is on systematic and rigorous
  interpretation, analysis and logical argument
• On the other hand, the big questions well ponder
  in this book are not conducive to cut and dried
  answers.
• This makes philosophical questions different from
  straightforward factual questions
• The very openness of philosophical questions may
  awaken in you a a sense of wonder..

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The Primary Areas of Philosophy

• Metaphysics the study of ultimate reality or
  how things really are.
• Epistemology the study of knowledge or how to
  tell when we really know something.
• Ethics the study of moral problems, right and
  wrong, and practical reasoning.
• Social and political philosophy the study of
  the origins and nature of the state.
• Logic the study of the rules of correct
  reasoning.
• Aesthetics the study of feelings and judgments
  related to beauty and art.

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Archetypes

• According the psychologist Carl Jung (1875-1961),
  an archetype is an image that all humans use to
  represent the essential qualities of some type,
  the epitome of some kind.
• Archetypes have been around throughout history
  in myths, legends, and dreams.
• Examples of archetypes include mother, warrior,
  trickster, and saint.
• In this book well be looking at philosophical
  archetypes.

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Philosophical Archetypes, Ideals and Stereotypes

• Philosophical archetypes are powerful
  representations of a fundamental response to
  universal experiences.
• Archetypes exemplify essential ways of coping
  with universal aspects of life (love, loss,
  society, wealth, knowledge, purpose, suffering,
  death) in uncommonly pure ways.
• We should not confuse philosophical archetypes
  with ideals or stereotypes
• Archetypes are not ideals because they need not
  be good or perfect.
• Stereotypes are simplistic distortions of a type
  of person that lack depth.

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Philosophical Archetypes

• The philosophical archetypes well be studying
  express an original or influential point of view
  that significantly affected subsequent thinkers.
• Philosophical archetypes are strict advocates of
  a particular philosophical worldview or
  philosophical method.
• They also frequently challenge the beliefs of
  other philosophers.
• Examples of philosophical archetypes well be
  studying are the skeptic and the utilitarian

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Are Philosophers Always Men?

• The history of Western philosophy contains mostly
  men, leading to the charge that it is a study of
  dead white males.
• While there were many women in the history of
  philosophy whose work went unacknowledged, today
  many more women are joining the ranks of
  professional philosophy.
• Simone de Beauvoir, Simone Weil, Christina Hoff
  Sommers, Alison Jaggar, Susan Moller Okin, and
  Martha Nussbaum, among many others, have achieved
  renown as philosophers

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The Search for Truth

• Philosophy is perhaps the most open of all
  subjects, since no question or point of view is
  off limits.
• The history of philosophy has been described as
  the history of heresy, since it challenges us
  to question even our most cherished beliefs.
• There has always been a powerful philosophical
  tradition that challenges the status quo and
  confronts social institutions. In recent times,
  philosophers have challenged racism, sexism and
  our practices concerning animals and the
  environment .

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But Isnt All This Just A Matter of Opinion?

• Sometimes it appears that there is no clear cut
  right or wrong answer to philosophical questions
  and issues.
• Its tempting to think that Whats right for
  someone else might not be right for me. Its best
  to just let others believe whatever they want,
  and Ill believe whatever I want.
• If we view philosophical problems as just a
  matter of opinion, we may be (wrongly) led to
  adopt relativism.

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What is Relativism?

• Relativism is the belief that knowledge is
  determined by specific qualities of the observer.
  
• These qualities include things like gender, age
  and ethnicity.
• Whether adopted informally or embraced formally,
  relativists usually argue that objective
  knowledge of the truth is impossible one
  opinion is as good as another.
• We will actually discuss formal versions of
  relativism in Chapters 3-5, and 14-17.
• Even if we consider ourselves to be relativists,
  lets do our best to give philosophers a chance
  to make their cases before we accept or reject
  them.

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The Goal of Wisdom

• Remember philosophy is the love of wisdom!
• The chief goal of wisdom is a fundamental
  understanding of reality in relation to living a
  good life.
• At its core, wisdom is reasonable and practical,
  focusing on the true circumstances and character
  of each individual. We might say then, that
  wisdom is good judgment about complex situations.
  
• Consequently, the attainment of wisdom involves
  reflection, insight, learning from experience,
  and a plausible conception of the human condition.

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The Need for Knowledge

• One of the most important elements in the
  attainment of wisdom is knowledge.
• Philosophers generally think of knowledge as some
  form of true belief.
• They usually make a distinction between
  theoretical and practical knowledge.
• Theoretical knowledge involves accurate
  assessment of factual and systematic information
  and relationships.
• Practical knowledge consists of skills needed to
  do things like play the piano, build things,
  perform surgery, ride a bicycle, or bake a cake.

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Belief and Ignorance

• In contrast to knowledge, belief refers to the
  subjective mental acceptance that a claim is
  true, though it need not actually be true.
• There is a difference between an informed belief
  and mere belief.
• Mere belief refers to a conviction that something
  is true for which the only evidence is the
  conviction itself which tries to validate itself.
  

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Willed Ignorance

• If we hold onto a false belief regardless of the
  facts, we become victim to willed ignorance.
• Willed ignorance is indifference to the
  possibility of ones error or enlightenment.
• This is the opposite of the love of wisdom.
• In this course, ignorance is not an option.

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Post-Reading Reflections

• How would you explain philosophy to someone who
  knew nothing about it?
• To what extent do you think an individuals
  gender and ethnic background should be considered
  in evaluating his or her philosophical beliefs?
• Do gender, ethnic background, and other factors
  (age, income, etc.) control what we think? Is
  your response to this question dependent on such
  factors?

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Chapter Review Key Concepts

• Philosophy
• Metaphysics
• Epistemology
• Ethics
• Social and Political Philosophy
• Ontology
• Archetype
• Philosophical Archetype

• Relativism
• Wisdom
• Knowledge
• Theoretical/Practical Knowledge
• Belief
• Mere Belief
• Willed Ignorance

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Greek Mythology and
Philosophy

• Before the first Western philosophers, the most
  important view of life was the mythical one
  expressed in the Iliad and the Odyssey, two epic
  poems attributed to the Greek poet Homer (c.
  Eighth century B.C.E.).
• Mythology is not sheer fantasy, but the product
  of a desire to understand. Mythology offers
  primitive explanations of natural phenomena,
  human history, and the gods.
• Science and philosophy grew out of the failure of
  mythology to provide rational justification for
  the workings of natural phenomena and human
  history.
• One function of mythology shared by philosophy
  is to help in the Search for Happiness, to
  convey ideas about living well and being a good
  person.

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Two Classical Principles

• Although the ancient Greeks mythological
  accounting of events ultimately failed, it
  implied two principles produced by the desire to
  find explanations.
• These principles marked a major advance beyond
  the mythological characterization of nature and
  society
  
• There is a difference between the way things
  appear and the way they really are.
• There are unseen causes of events.

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Nature and Convention

• Around the fifth century, an element of
  specialization emerged throughout the ancient
  world as philosophers began to distinguish
  between nature (physis) and convention (nomos).
• In the West, humanistic philosophers known as
  Sophists (Chapter 3) turned away from the study
  of nature and toward the study of man.
• In China and Southeast Asia, humanistic sages
  (Chapter 2) turned away from the study of gods to
  the study of man and nature.

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Two Fallacies to Avoid

• As we engage sages and thinkers from the past,
  we should strive to avoid two fallacies.
• The Fallacy of anachronism
• We commit this fallacy whenever we uncritically
  and rigidly apply contemporary values to past
  ideas and practices
• The ad hominem Fallacy
• We commit this fallacy when we reject a
  philosophers arguments because we object to that
  philosophers personal habits or beliefs.

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PHILOSOPHICAL QUERY

• So what do you think? If you had the choice
• of being happy and blissfully ignorant or
• philosophically concerned but not always
• happy, which would you choose? Why? (page 4)