Model essay on western philosophy I: Platonic love &; Look at Plato's philosophy.
Love, only affection, can make people dare to give their lives for the people they love; This can be done not only by men, but also by women.
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Philosophy, a very profound subject, often makes us flinch, but philosophy comes from life, is higher than life, is the abstraction of the most common things, and is the summary of the most realistic theory. After learning philosophy, I know more about life, know how to find truth in life, learn a kind of thinking, a kind of ability to summarize and experience, learn to find philosophy in life and sublimate life. This course is western philosophy, and western philosophy and eastern philosophy are inextricably linked. For thousands of years, East and West have been exchanging ideas and philosophies. However, western philosophy has a unique sense of mystery, and the thoughts and theories of many western philosophers also have a great influence on our lives. Their philosophy is reflected in our daily life. As long as we understand it carefully, philosophy is around us.
Plato, I believe everyone knows more or less. In order to get in touch with him better, we should first understand his life profile, the background of his times, and keep pace with the times to create heroes. Plato must have something extraordinary, which made his extraordinary life.
We have all heard and yearned for this romantic word-platonic love. In our hearts, it is the symbol of the most perfect love and the power of love beyond the secular. So, what is true Platonic love, and is our understanding correct? Let's take this beautiful word into the world of Plato, a great western philosopher, and listen to how Plato described this beautiful love for us. To understand Plato's view of love, we need to understand his thoughts, interpret his world outlook and explore his philosophical ideas. I believe that every philosopher has his own ideas and extraordinary ideological achievements. Let's listen to their hearts and appreciate the greatness of philosophers.
Plato, an ancient Greek philosopher (about 427- 347 BC), is also one of the greatest philosophers and thinkers in the whole western philosophy and even the whole western culture. His philosophical thoughts have influenced the development of European philosophy and even the whole culture. He, his teacher Socrates and his student Aristotle are called the three great philosophers of ancient Greece. Plato was born in Athens and studied under Socrates when he was young. After Socrates' death, he traveled around the world and engaged in political activities in Egypt, Asia Minor and southern Italy in an attempt to realize his noble political ideal. After the failure of his activities in 387 BC, he fled back to Athens, established a college near a gymnasium called Agal College, and taught there for 40 years until his death.
Plato did not realize his political ideal, but his teaching ideas were well spread. In teaching, Plato attached great importance to the understanding of universality and generality, especially to the cultivation of students' thinking ability, and believed that concepts and truth were the products of pure thinking. At the same time, he believes that students can recall the conceptual world through the shadow of the conceptual world in the phenomenal world, and acknowledge the stimulating effect of feeling in cognition. He particularly emphasized the role of early education and environment in children. It is believed that what children come into contact with in childhood has a permanent influence on him, and the teaching process should arouse students' memory through the perceptual inspiration of specific things. Plato's teaching system is pyramidal. In order to develop rationality, he set up a comprehensive and rich curriculum system. He divided students into several age stages according to their psychological characteristics and gave them different teaching subjects. At this point, Plato's relatively complete pyramid teaching system has been formed.
He has written a lot in his life, and his teaching thoughts are mainly concentrated in Republic and Law. Plato is the founder of western objective idealism, and his philosophical system is extensive and profound, which has a great influence on his teaching thought. Plato believes that the world consists of "the world of ideas" and "the world of phenomena". The conceptual world is real and eternal, and the real world that human senses come into contact with is only a faint shadow of the conceptual world, which is composed of phenomena, and each phenomenon presents temporary changes due to factors such as time and space. Plato's Republic also depicts an ideal utopia for us. Plato believed that countries should be ruled by philosophers. His utopia requires everyone to have his special function in society to meet the overall needs of society. But in this country, women and men have the same rights and are completely equal. Plato further developed his thoughts on the role of law in his last work, Law. He emphasized that law is the crystallization of all human wisdom, including all social thoughts and morals. Ideally, he respected the rule of the king of philosophy, "no law or regulation is more powerful than knowledge"; Starting from reality, he emphasized that human beings must have laws and abide by them, otherwise their lives would be like the most savage beasts.
Knowing Plato's philosophy, we can easily understand his view of love. Plato thought: "When the mind abandons the body and yearns for the truth, then the thought is the best." When the soul is infected by the sins of the body, people's desire for truth will not be satisfied. When human beings have no strong demand for sensuality, their mood is peaceful. Carnal desire is the expression of animal nature in human nature, and it is also the nature of every creature. People are so-called higher animals because human nature is stronger than animal nature, and spiritual communication is beautiful and moral. "So, Platonic love is a kind of spiritual love between the opposite sex, pursuing spiritual communication and rejecting sensuality. Plato's love is an ideal view of love, an extremely romantic but impossible view of love, and a pure spiritual rather than physical love that our modern society lacks. Plato said that there is only one person in this world. She (he) is perfect for you, and only for you. In other words, everyone has his perfect partner, and there is only one. This is a perfect concept of love between men and women, and it is a state that is difficult to achieve. Although we can always stick to this belief and move on on the road of love, the reality is not always as expected. We are trying to find the person who is waiting for us in a corner of the world. However, this process is sometimes so long and painful that Plato's love is ideal.
There is a philosophical story about the origin of Platonic love:
One day, Plato asked Socrates, "What is love?"
Socrates said with a smile, "You go to the wheat field and pick the biggest and best ears of wheat. You are only allowed to pick it once in the process, you can only go forward and you can't look back. " Plato did as Socrates said and never came back for a long time.
Socrates asked him if he picked it.
Plato shook his head and said, "at first I thought it was easy and confident to go out, but I came back empty-handed!" " "
Socrates continued to ask, "What is the reason?"
Plato sighed and said, "Good is hard to see, but I don't know if it is the best, because I can only choose one, so I have no choice but to give up;" So, I walked on to see if there was anything better, but the more I walked on, the more I found that it was not as good as what I saw before, so I didn't pick it; In the end, I realized that the biggest and most full ear of wheat had been missed, so I had to go home empty-handed! "
At this time, Socrates said meaningfully: "This is&; Lsquo love &; lsquo； . "
Then came Platonic love.
Platonic love is a kind of spiritual love, which contains profound philosophical thoughts. It is true that not everyone can get it and understand it. This kind of love beyond sensuality is also closely related to Plato's philosophy and teaching philosophy, which fully embodies his idealism theory. He advocates political equality and freedom, emphasizing teaching students in accordance with their aptitude and adapting to the times. From Plato's thoughts, all his theories reflect an idealized state, which is also related to his failure to realize his political ideal. When he was young, he was keen on politics, hoping to participate in political affairs and govern the polis fairly, but his practical experience told him that all the polis, including Athens, could not do this. Finally, he believes that only under the guidance of correct philosophy can justice and injustice be distinguished, and only when philosophers become rulers or politicians become real philosophers can city-state governance be truly fair.
After studying western philosophy, we know that philosophy is not so profound, but it is actually around us. Moreover, many things in life can rise to the height of philosophy, just like love around us. We long for platonic love. Although we can't achieve such pure spiritual love, we can aim at it. Philosophy and life are the best ways for us to learn. We can have a deeper understanding of philosophy and a more detailed understanding of the true meaning of life. In my later life, I will use philosophy more and combine it with practice.
Model essay on western philosophy II: Socrates' philosophical thought
Socrates is an important figure in the history of western philosophy, and his philosophy has had a far-reaching impact on the whole western philosophy. He is the greatest philosopher in the history of western classical philosophy. Because of his appearance, philosophy has become very different from the past.
I. Life
Socrates was born in an ordinary citizen's family in Athens, Greece. His father is a sculptor and his mother is a midwife. His appearance is ordinary, his language is simple, but he has sacred thoughts. As a teenager, Socrates learned carving skills from his father. Later, he became familiar with Homer's epics and the works of other famous poets, and taught himself. He made a living by imparting knowledge. In his thirties, he became a social morality teacher who didn't get paid or run a library. Socrates considered himself a gift and messenger from God to the Athenians. His task is to talk with people all over the world all day, discuss problems and explore the most useful truth and wisdom for himself. Therefore, he spent most of his life outdoors. He likes to talk with people from all walks of life in public places such as markets, sports fields and streets. For example, what is piety? What is democracy? What is virtue and what is courage? What is truth? What is your job? What knowledge and skills do you have? Are you a politician? If so, what do you know about governance? Are you a teacher? How to conquer your ignorance before educating the ignorant? Wait a minute. The theme that runs through these discussions is to lead people to realize that people are actually very ignorant on these crucial issues, so people need to seek what is true justice and kindness through critical discussion, so as to achieve the purpose of transforming the soul and saving the city-state. As a citizen, he joined the army three times and worked as a heavy infantry. He showed tenacity and courage in the war and rescued injured soldiers more than once in the battle. In addition, he served as a jury officer in the Athens citizens' assembly. Around the age of 40, he became a famous figure in Athens and attended a meeting of 500 people. In Athens, he debated with many wise men at that time on philosophical issues, mainly about ethics, education and politics, and was regarded as the most intelligent person at that time. However, after the restoration of slave-owner democracy in Athens, Socrates was accused and sentenced to death on charges of flouting traditional religion, introducing new gods, corrupting youth and opposing democracy. He refused the advice of friends and students asking him to beg for mercy and go out to escape, and committed suicide by drinking poisoned wine, at the age of 70.
Two. Main philosophical thoughts
1 epistemology
Socrates, an ancient Greek, put forward the method of seeking truth through mutual dialogue from individual to universal. The basic content is divided into three steps. The starting point of (1) is to "know its ignorance" and not to put forward any arbitrary principles in advance. Refuting the arguments put forward by natural philosophers on important issues are different from each other, and their speculation is beyond the limit of human knowledge, criticizing the wise school for doubting all the principles of denying everything and giving up seeking knowledge. (2) Loving knowledge (Elos) and talking with each other makes it difficult to find real knowledge, which also promotes the friendship between questioners. (3) The purpose is to form concepts and gain true knowledge. Concentrate all kinds of opposing examples, and seek universal concepts or eternal essence from individual concrete examples by induction. On the one hand, it plays an active role and has certain dialectical factors; On the other hand, we emphasize "knowing their ignorance" and "knowing ourselves and knowing ourselves" and seek truth from self-knowledge. Socrates' epistemology bases knowledge on rationality and holds that all knowledge is conceptual. The concept is universal and unchangeable, and it is formed without the special attributes of specific things. Therefore, knowledge is universal, absolute and eternal. He "knows his ignorance" and thinks that what people generally say is not real knowledge, because they are all changing and have no eternal value; But they still think they have knowledge. Socrates thinks that he has not reached that kind of absolute, eternal and true knowledge. In this sense, he thinks he is ignorant. This proposition put forward by Socrates contains valuable ideas, that is, it should not stay in the individual and concrete, but should rise to the universal. This view is a progress in the history of human cognition. Socrates believes that it is impossible for people to know the outside world, nor should they know the outside world. Because he thinks that nature is created, dominated and managed by God, it is impossible for human reason to know what God created. Only those who give up their knowledge of nature and admit their ignorance are wise. It can be seen that Socrates' "self-knowledge and ignorance" is against people acquiring knowledge from objective nature.
2. Teleology
Starting from the wise, ancient Greek philosophy turned from paying attention to nature itself to paying attention to social ethics and people. But they only stay in the perceptual stage and can only draw relativistic conclusions. It was not until Socrates that this situation was fundamentally changed. Socrates put forward his own opinion on the reason in his opposition to natural philosophy, that is, teleology. In Socrates' view, the world is so because there is a dominant force that makes everything like this, which is the best. This dominant force is "goodness" ("goodness"). Goodness is a basic concept of his philosophy and the reason why things are "why". In Socrates' philosophy, good or purpose has the same meaning. He believes that the existence and development of all things pursue a complete principle, and everything in the whole world has such a purpose. In this way, Socrates took teleology as his world view. Explaining the world with teleology is an important feature of Socrates' philosophy. Ancient Greek philosophy began with Socrates, and the determinist worldview in natural philosophy was replaced by teleological worldview. Teleology is put forward to give a philosophical explanation of the unity of the world, the development process of things from low to high and the harmonious phenomenon in nature. This explanation tries to overcome the mechanical determinism in natural philosophy, the circular theory of the movement of the universe, and the one-sided view that all spiritual and conscious phenomena are attributed to different ways of material composition. At the same time, it is of theoretical significance in the history of cognition to try to overcome the reason why wise men do not pay attention to research and regard everything as a relative, subjective and doubtful wrong view.
3. Virtue theory
"Virtue is knowledge" is the core proposition of Socrates' ethics, and his famous topic "Virtue is knowledge" started the western moral rationalism. "Virtue is knowledge" is Socrates' exposition on the quality of rational people and also on morality and ethics. "Virtue is knowledge", as a basic proposition of Socrates' ethics, shows that the essence of virtue is knowledge, and the rational essence of human beings is consistent with the moral essence. Socrates pursues a universal moral truth that cares about the human soul. This proposition cannot be separated from Socrates' "Know yourself" and "Goodness is the highest purpose of life". "Know yourself" is to care about your soul, that is, to pursue knowledge about virtue; Pursuing goodness and taking "goodness" as the highest purpose of life is a noble life and a meaningful life. Moreover, he believes that human nature is good and it is impossible to voluntarily follow evil, which is human nature. Some people do evil because they have no correct understanding of virtue. As long as human reason pursues knowledge, it will not make mistakes.
4. Methodology
Socrates believes that all knowledge comes from problems. The harder you make progress, the more problems you have and the greater your progress. Socrates admitted that he had no knowledge, and he wanted to teach others knowledge. He solved this contradiction in this way: this knowledge is not what he instilled in people, but what people already have; People have a "fetus" in their hearts, but they don't know it yet. Socrates is like a "midwife", helping others to produce knowledge. Socrates' midwifery is concentrated in the form of "cross-examination". He often uses cross-examination to expose the contradictions in various propositions and theories put forward by the other party, so as to shake the foundation of the other party's argument and point out the other party's ignorance. In the cross-examination, Socrates himself did not give a positive answer to Sue's self-comparison with the midwife, but used the method of reeling from the conversation to make the other side gradually understand their ignorance, discover their mistakes and establish a correct view of knowledge. This kind of conversation also has several characteristics: first, the conversation finds out the other party's thoughts by asking and answering questions, so that they can discover the truth themselves. Only in conversation, Sue focuses on asking questions, and he doesn't answer each other's questions easily. He only asked the other party to answer his questions. He asked questions with humility, and the other party elicited information about other questions in his answer, until finally, due to constant questioning, the youth admitted his ignorance. In the process of asking questions, Su gave students the highest wisdom, which is the famous rhetorical method of Socrates.
Three. meaning
Socrates is a watershed in ancient Greek philosophy. Before him, ancient Greek philosophers focused on the study of the origin of the universe and the ontology of all things, and paid little attention to life. Socrates expanded the scope of philosophical research, and he introduced philosophy into the concern of human mind. He believes that it is meaningless to study the structure and laws of the material world and explore the essence of external things, but for philosophers, there should be more valuable problems than trees, stones and stars, which are spiritual problems, moral problems and knowledge problems. These problems are closely related to people. He appealed to the world by quoting the Oracle carved in the temple of Apollo at Delphi: "Know yourself" in the hope that people can pursue virtue by thinking and caring for their hearts. It can be said that Socrates expanded the field of philosophy, which had an indelible impact on the later development of western philosophy and religion, as well as social and democratic systems, and also laid a humanistic foundation for the Europeanization of _ _ _. Cicero, a Roman philosopher hundreds of years later, said that Socrates summoned philosophy from the sky, made philosophy take root everywhere, entered every family, and forced it to examine life, ethics and good and evil.
Papers related to western philosophy:
1. Philosophical papers
2. China's philosophical papers
3. University elective philosophy thesis
4. Senior two political philosophy papers.
5. On the basic connotation of China's philosophical spirit.