Kitobdan iqtiboslar An Introduction to Philosophymuallif George Stuart Fullerton
But for centuries the philosopher has not been simply the investigator, nor has he been simply the lover of wisdom.
As for the word "philosopher" (etymologically, a lover of wisdom)
taught men to think and to raise questions where, before, the traditions of the fathers had seemed a sufficient guide to men's actions.
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Title: An Introduction to Philosophy
Author: George Stuart Fullerton
Release Date: August 1, 2005 [eBook #16406]
Language: English
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AN INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY
by
GEORGE STUART FULLERTON
They were like brilliant children, who know little of the dangers of the great world, but are ready to undertake anything
Can man attain to truth at all—to a truth that is more than a mere truth to him, a seeming truth? Whence do the laws derive their authority? Is there such a thing as justice, as right?
That there may be a difference between the world as it really is and the world as it appears to man, and that it may be impossible for man to attain to a knowledge of the absolute truth of things, does not seem to have occurred to them.
It is a delight to discover the illuminating thoughts which came to the minds of these men; and, on the other hand, it is amusing to see how recklessly they launched themselves on boundless seas when they were unprovided with chart and compass. They were like brilliant children, who know little of the dangers of the great world, but are ready to undertake anything. These philosophers regarded all knowledge as their province, and did not despair of governing so great a realm. They were ready to explain the whole world and everything in it.
of Heraclitus, who was so impressed by the constant flux of things that he summed up his view of nature in the words: "Everything flows"; of Empedocles, who found his explanation of the world in the combination of the four elements, since become traditional, earth, water, fire, and air; of Democritus, who developed a materialistic atomism which reminds one strongly of the doctrine of atoms as it has appeared in modern science; of Anaxagoras, who traced the system of things to the setting in order of an infinite multiplicity of different elements,—"seeds of things,"—which setting in order was due to the ac
Aristotle shows us how Thales may have been led to the formulation of his main thesis by an observation of the phenomena of nature. Anaximander saw in the world in which he lived the result of a process of evolution. Anaximenes explains the coming into being of fire, wind, clouds, water, and earth, as due to a condensation and expansion of the universal principle, air. The boldness of their speculations we may explain as due to a courage born of ignorance, but the explanations they offer are scientific in spirit, at least.