Parmenides of Elea

[Ancient Greece] platon (427~ 347 BC) was born in Athens. His family is an Athenian aristocrat, and he has close ties with celebrities in Athens. Socrates was tried, Plato went to the scene and wrote a famous article "Defense". In 387 BC, Plato, who was nearly 40 years old, returned to Athens and founded a school in the suburbs, the famous Plato Academy.

Parmenides is divided into two parts: In the first part, Plato questioned and criticized young Socrates' previous concept of "separation of ideas" expressed by parmenides, and critically reflected on his previous concept theory. The core question is whether the opposing things can be combined with each other, and points out the insurmountable difficulties caused by young Socrates' insistence on the separation of ideas and things. In the second part, Plato put forward eight groups of hypothetical reasoning through parmenides's mouth and made a detailed discussion, and continued to explore how to reach a preliminary solution to the above-mentioned core problems from both positive and negative aspects.

According to the Chinese translation of Commercial Press 1982)

2. Metaphysics (384~ 322 BC)

metaphysics

[Ancient Greece] Aristotle (384~ 322 BC) was the most learned man in ancient Greece, and his works were extremely rich, mainly including Metaphysics, Physics, Politics, Nicodemus Kyle Ethics, On Soul, On Heaven, Zoology, On Plants and Poetics. His students (especially Andronico) edited and arranged most of his works.

Metaphysics is an important work of Aristotle on general philosophical problems. The book holds that philosophy is a science of wisdom, a science of origin and rationality. Although philosophy is worse than other disciplines in practicality, it is better than other disciplines in exploring reasons, so it has more cognitive value. There are four reasons for things: formal reasons, material reasons, change reasons and purpose reasons. Formal reason is the most basic basis for the existence of things. In ontology, the existence of things is the existence of entities first. Entity is an individual, a concrete and objective existence. Entity does not depend on the subject; Other categories outside the entity are only predicates that define the attributes of the entity, that is, the category of quantity. There is no independent substance or form. Man's creative activity is an activity combining form with matter. Pure matter is only a potential entity, and form is the essence of realization, that is, the real real entity. Form has universal validity and is the stipulation of the essence of things; As a general formula, form is also the purpose of things, and at the same time it is the motive force of things, that is, the concentrated expression of purpose reasons and motivation reasons. Matter is the possibility that the purpose of things can be realized, which is also negative. Form can only be explained by an eternal, non-perceptual entity, which is the "first promoter" of things: what is motionless but moving is an eternal, realistic entity; In other words, "God is alive and life is the real activity of thought, so God is realistic, that is, his own reality, and his life is perfect and eternal".

Metaphysics is of great significance in the history of western philosophy and occupies a particularly important position. It is the first book devoted to philosophical issues in the history of western philosophy, and makes a valuable summary of previous philosophy. It had a great influence on the medieval scholasticism in western Europe, and Aristotle's works such as Metaphysics became the absolute authority after the Bible. A large number of terms demonstrated in this book have become the foothold to promote the discussion of modern and even modern philosophy, especially many concepts derived from these terms have created many recent theories. Metaphysics has had an immeasurable impact on the progress of human understanding.

(According to the Chinese translation of the Commercial Press 1962)

3. Theory of matter (about 99~ 55)

Dratura

[Ancient Rome] Lucretius (about 99~ 55 BC) was born in the last years of the Roman Republic, almost at the same time as Caesar. There is no credible record of Lucretius' life and achievements in history except Nature.

On Nature is written in Latin iambic six-step verse, which integrates philosophy, natural science and poetry. The book is divided into six volumes, which discuss the infinity of the universe, atomic motion, spiritual essence, portrait and feeling, the origin of life and strange phenomena in nature and society respectively. The theory of nature holds that all nature is composed of unchangeable initial atoms and void. Atoms are solid and inseparable ultimate factors, with different sizes, shapes and weights, which can move forever and exist in unlimited quantities; The tilt of the atom from orbit leads to collision and combination, which constitutes everything; When these atoms separate for various reasons, things will die. Void is the existence of an invisible body, which is an invisible starting group contained in solid objects and providing places and conditions for atomic movement; It is based on atoms, mutually exclusive, interdependent and inclusive, and naturally creates everything. The universe is an infinite and eternal material cycle.

(According to the Chinese translation of the Commercial Press 198 1)

4. New tools (1620)

New organ

Francis Bacon (156 1~ 1626),/kloc-an outstanding materialist philosopher in the 7th century, the founder of modern materialist empiricism and experimental science. On a cold day at the end of March, 1626, he unfortunately got bronchitis and died on Easter morning in April. Bacon was highly praised by later generations. Diderot, a French philosopher, called Bacon a mentor in the preface to the Encyclopedia edited by him, saying that he should be credited with Bacon's encouragement and guidance in completing this masterpiece. Marx and Engels said: "The real ancestor of British materialism and the whole modern experimental science is Bacon". Bacon's position is closely related to his masterpiece New Tools.

The purpose of "new tools" is to clear the obstacles on the road of human cognition: mistakes in concepts and argumentation methods. This book is divided into two volumes. The purpose of the first volume is to destroy the traditional scholasticism system and help people establish correct concepts. The second book is based on the first book to help people establish a scientific induction.

The book points out that under the rule of scholasticism, there are four wrong ideas: racial illusion, cave illusion, market illusion and theater illusion. The illusion is not as good as reflecting the thing itself, but adding something that does not belong to the thing itself. Racial illusion comes from human prejudice and narrowness, as well as sensory incompetence. It uses the senses to measure things, thus distorting the truth of things. Cave illusion means that everyone pays attention to different things because of different environment, education and ability; Market illusion is the influence of words on ideas; Theater illusion refers to the misunderstanding caused by philosophical dogma and some wrong argumentation rules. To understand things correctly, we must explore things, and draw a regular understanding of things from experience through experience.

(According to "A Thousand Comments on Chinese and Foreign Social Science Masterpieces-Western Philosophy", Huaxia Publishing House, 1992 edition)

5. Philosophical Principles (1644)

Philosophical principle

Descartes (rene descartes, 1596~ 1650), philosopher. During Descartes' life in France, religious conservatism was very powerful. He was very cautious and lived in seclusion all his life, trying to avoid persecution by religious conservatism. However, he still has great academic courage. He pointed out that the scholastic philosophy system was nonsense, and emphasized the establishment of a new philosophy serving the scientific development with new rational methods. However, he did not take a radical approach, but combined the progressive ideological content with the acceptable form of religious forces in a hidden form. Principles of Philosophy has this feature.

This book is divided into four parts: the principle of human knowledge, material things, the visible world and the earth. First of all, the book points out that in order to pursue the truth and establish a complete knowledge system, "we must doubt everything once in our life", not only all existing knowledge and concepts, but also religious teachings and our bodies, so "I think, therefore I am" is the starting point of theoretical deduction and the cornerstone of establishing a knowledge system. I am thinking and doubting, so I exist and am not perfect. The idea of perfection in my mind can only come from the most perfect God. Because God contains all kinds of attributes (including the attribute of "being"), it must exist and is the source of objective matter in the external world. So there are three entities: self (mind), God and object. The fundamental attribute of the former is thinking, which is not produced by matter, nor is it transferred by matter. The fundamental attribute of the latter is universality, which can't think and produce thinking and consciousness. By confirming the existence of these three entities, the main task of "metaphysics" has been completed, which has laid a solid foundation for establishing a complete philosophy and human knowledge system.

(According to the Chinese translation of the Commercial Press 1958)

6. The theory of human understanding (167 1~ 1690)

An article about human beings

John Locke (1652~ 1740) is an English philosopher. Born into a family of small landowners and lawyers. 1668 was elected as a member of the royal society. From 65438 to 0667, he worked as a family doctor and secretary in the home of Earl shaftesbury, a Whig in England. 1682, shaftesbury failed in the struggle with the Tories representing the royal family and fled to the Netherlands. 1683, Locke followed up. 1688 after the victory of the "glorious revolution", he held an important position in the government and became an important theorist of the Whig Party.

The central problem put forward and solved by the theory of human understanding is to "explore the origin, accuracy and scope of human knowledge." The book puts forward the famous "whiteboard" of the mind, saying: "The human heart is like a blank sheet of paper, with no cuts and no thoughts". All ideas come from experience, and our knowledge is based on experience, and finally comes from experience. Experience can be divided into two types: the feeling of acting on external objects, and the concepts of yellow, white, hot, cold, soft, hard, sweet and all so-called sensible things can be obtained; Introspection of inner function, that is, inner experience, is the investigation and attention of human mind to its own inner psychological activities such as perception, thought, belief, reasoning, understanding and desire, as well as all functions of human heart.

(According to the Chinese translation of the Commercial Press 198 1)

7. People are machines (1747)

Lhomme Mochine

[France] Rukian? Auffray. Lamat (1709~ 175 1), a philosopher, was born in a wealthy family in the northwestern French city of Saint Marlowe. 1747, he published the book Man is Machine anonymously in the Netherlands. Because of disrespect for God, he was hated and slandered by local monks and nobles, and was threatened with death, so he had to flee to Prussia. Under the protection of "enlightened monarch" Frederick II, he continued to practice medicine and write, and served as a court physician. 175 1 died of food poisoning. When he was buried, Frederick personally delivered a eulogy, praising his knowledge and character.

Man is a machine, starting from the relationship between body and mind. According to different answers to this question, the philosophical system is divided into two opposing factions: materialist system; The system of spiritualism. Mind is just a meaningless empty noun. When a careful person uses this term, he only refers to the part of our body that thinks. This book holds that "man is a machine and … is also an animal." "The human body is a self-starting machine: a living model of a perpetual motion machine. Body temperature pushes it and food supports it. " People just have more gears and springs than the most perfect animals, and the distance between the brain and the heart is proportionally closer. Only education can pull us up from the animal level and finally make us higher than animals. The reason why a person as an individual is different from another individual lies in the difference in physique and body fluids. All physical and mental activities are mechanical movements.

(According to the Chinese translation of the Commercial Press 1959)

8. Critique of Pure Reason (178 1)

Criticism of the future

Immanuel Kant (1724 ~ 1804) is a famous philosopher. Kant's most famous works in his life are three criticisms: Criticism of Pure Reason, Criticism of Practical Reason and Criticism of Judgment. Among them, Critique of Pure Reason is the basis of the latter two critiques.

The analysis and judgment of the object has been implied in the subject in advance. This kind of judgment is just to infer what is implied in the question in advance. It is transcendental and can be deduced without relying on experience, which is universal and inevitable. In comprehensive judgment, the object is not included in the subject in advance, but can only be provided by experience. The object provided by experience expands the connotation and increases the content of the subject. But there is no universal inevitability in comprehensive judgment. Scientific knowledge such as mathematics has the characteristics of comprehensive judgment, universal inevitability and apriori. How is it possible to make a comprehensive transcendental judgment on scientific knowledge such as mathematics? This is the central issue put forward and studied in Critique of Pure Reason.

(According to Kant's Peking University Publishing House, 1987 Edition, by Zhang Shiying)

9. Phenomenology of Spirit (1807)

Spiritual manifestation

[Germany] Hegel (George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, 1770~ 183 1), a famous philosopher, was born in Stuttgart, the capital of the Principality of Wü rttemberg, Germany, to a family of tax officials. He was clever and diligent when he was young. He entered Latin school at the age of five and Stuttgart middle school at the age of seven. He not only observes things around him extensively, but also carefully ponders all kinds of contradictions. 180 1 When he was a supernumerary lecturer at the University of Jena, he set out to write this book, in order to make philosophy speak German.

Phenomenology of Spirit is divided into three parts: preface, introduction and text. The text is divided into six parts: consciousness, self-consciousness, reason, spirit, religion and absolute knowledge.

This book holds that truth is a process. Truth is not an isolated, static and one-sided thing, but exists in the development process of concepts and things, and is a concrete and organic unified whole. Truth is everything. Truth does not exist in intuition or direct knowledge. Truth is the perfect essence achieved through its own development. The development of truth is a process in which "absolute" itself splits into two or sets up opposites, transforms into its own counterpart and other things, then reflects itself through the intermediary of the other party or other things, and finally returns to its own identity. Truth and falsehood are not isolated, nor are they isolated from each other. Truth is obtained by overcoming a series of mistakes. The development process of truth is the process of constantly overcoming and sublating mistakes.

The book holds that the individual process of spiritual development is consistent with the systematic process. Consciousness, self-consciousness and rationality are the development process of personal consciousness. The development of social ideology is also divided into three stages: true spirit, ethics; The spirit of self-alienation; A spirit and morality that is sure of itself. No matter the consciousness, self-consciousness, rationality with individual consciousness as the object, or the spirit with social consciousness as the object, it still stays in a limited range and has not finally realized the unity of subject and object. Only in religion and absolute knowledge can consciousness take infinite absolute spirit as the object and develop into absolute spirit, thus achieving the ultimate unity of subject and object. Religion grasps the absolute spirit by appearance, which leads to the inconsistency between form and content, so it must be upgraded to absolute knowledge. Absolute knowledge is to grasp absolute through concept, that is, the conceptual understanding of spirit itself by spirit.

(According to the Chinese versions of Commercial Press 1962 and 1979)

10, the world as will and representation (18 18)

Will and Holland's World

Arthur schopenhauer (1788~ 1860) is a famous philosopher in modern times and the founder of the voluntarism of philosophy. Born in Danzig, Germany (present-day Gdansk, Poland), her father is a banker with excellent cultural literacy and strong spirit of freedom, and her mother is a female writer who is keen on communicating with cultural celebrities and lacks feelings and responsibility for her family. Schopenhauer broke up with his mother in 18 14 and moved to Dresden. It took him four years to write the most important book in his life, The World as Will and Representation, which was published in 18 18.

This book consists of three prefaces, four chapters, namely, the world as representation, the world as will, the world as representation and the world as will, and an appendix entitled Critique of Kant's Philosophy.

The book explains the world from the relationship between subject and object: "The existence of this world is only in terms of its relationship with a' presenter' of another thing. This person who carries out' characterization' is the person himself. " The representation world has two inseparable aspects: subject and object, in which the subject is the pillar, foundation and condition. It is wrong to be paranoid about materialism and idealism at one end. Intuitive representation includes time and space, perceptual intuition, cognition and matter; Abstract representation is a concept, and intuition is the source of all knowledge.

(According to the Commercial Press 1982 Edition)