B1E 07/10
Awuino
B1C descartes
Brief history of philosophy, the four periods
There are four main periods in the history of philosophy: Ancient Philosophy, Philosophy in the Middle Ages, Modern
Philosophy, and Contemporary Philosophy.
1. Ancient Philosophy (VI bC - IV aD centuries)
Plato and Aristotle
The most important philosophical ques on about the true reality are se led, in contraposi on to the mythological
mindset. It is the beginning of ra onality and science versus supernatural explana ons. The rst period is known as
a. Presocra c philosophers. They were the rst philosophers and scien st. Their philosophy was mostly about the real
nature of reality, looking for the arje, the substratum and rst principle of reality. The rst philosophy in history,
according to Aristotle was Thales of Miletus. Other presocra c philosophers were Heraclitus, Parmenides, and
others.
b. Socrates widen the range of philosophical problems, taking mostly about ethical and poli cal issues. His disciple,
Plato, was the rst philosopher who built a complete philosophical system about the whole reality, like his disciple,
Aristotle. Philosophy con nued building complete philosophical system un l the XIX Century; current philosophy
has quit crea ng philosophical system and philosophers are interested in di erent par al areas of reality.
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Augustine fo Hipo Thomas of Aquinas
c. A er the coming of the Alexander the Great’s Imperium, when polis ceased being poli cal independent,
philosophers turned their focal point into Ehical ques on. This is the Hellenis c period, and the most important
philosophical schools were Epicureísmos, Stoicism, and Skep cism.
2. Philosophy in the Middle Ages (V - XV centuries)
Chris anity has already se led as the prevailing religious
belief in Europe, and philosophy must nd its place in rela on
with it. The main ques ons are about the rela onship
between reason and faith, reality and God, and the place of
human beings in the crea on. There are two main periods:
A.Patris c (II - V centuries), being the main philosopher of this
period Augus ne of Hipo -who se le the main doctrine of the
Chris an church based mostly in Platonic philosophy.
B.Scholas cism (XII-XVII centuries), being Thomas of Aquinas
the main philosopher during this period -they introduced the
Aristotelianism, that remained lost during the last centuries,
into the Chris an doctrine.
Descartes
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David Hume Immanuel Kant
3. Modern philosophy (XVI - XVIII centuries)
This period started mostly with Rene Descartes and its turn into epistemology as the main concern of philosophy during
this me. We dis nguished three great tendencies:
A. Ra onalism, with Descartes, Leibniz and Spinoza. Ra onalist philosophy state that our main source of knowledge is
our reason, and mistrust senses. According to them, we have innate contents in our minds that allow us to reach
universal knowledge about reality.
Nietzsche Marx
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B. Empiricism, with John Locke and David Hume. They establish that our mind is blank at the beginning, and it gets its
contents a er our experience. In accordance with this, our knowledge is not universal and permanent, but based in
habits and agreement.
C. Trascendental Idealism, form Immanuel Kant, is a mix and a overcoming of both, ra onalism and empiricism, sta ng
the our knowledge starts always in our sense, in percep on, but it doesn’t only come from experience, we have
some universal structures in our mind that allow us to order this informa on that comes from percep on and
establish universal knowledge.
4. Contemporary philosophy (XIX Century un l now)
Contemporary philosophy assumes our impossibility of crea ng complete philosophical systems, or an absolute
knowledge, focusing its interest in human beings and their rela onship with the world.
Some of the most important names in this period are Karl Marx, Friedrich Nietzsche, Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de
Beauvoir, and José Ortega y Gasset.
Karl Marx, a er analyzing Capitalism, states that our consciousness is materialis cally determined by our posi ons in
society and by the economic system in which we live. Modern capitalism disolved old social classes and resulted in a
society with two classes, capitalist and working class or proletariat, apart form the lumpen proletariat (those who doesn
´t own even a salary). The way you see and understand reality depends on ideology, which is determined by your social
class. This way, capitalist have a par al vision of social reality, mostly aligned with their class interests. Working class, as
they don’t belong the means of produc ons, and don’t have par cular interest, are capable of a universal approach to
social reality, whenever they manage to overcome aliena on, a false conscience that make them believe that they
deserve their own situa on.
Friedrich Nietzsche stated that the history of European philosophy and culture is a history of decadence since the
Ancient Greek culture. The history of chris anity and philosophy is the history of a thought against the values of life,
that ended up in the nihilism and the two World Wars. But there is a posi ve way of seeing nihilism, as an opportunity
to look for new values that are aligned with live, the values of the ubermensh, superman, the values of crea vity.
Jean-Paul Sartre’s existen alism stated that existence was prior to essence. There is nothing xed, either science or
morality, it is humans who create their own values and knowledge, and our condi on is that of radical freedom. Our
duty is to be authen c. Simone de Beauvoir wrote The Second Sex, the most important approach to sexism and
patriarchalism. In this book, under existen alist principles, Beauvoir said that there is a limit to our freedom, like the one
oppressed women has su ered un l the women libera on.
The most famous Spanish philosopher, José Ortega y Gasset created the Ra ovitalism, being heir to Nietzsches ideas,
Ortega proposed a concept of ra onality that is compa ble with life, the main value. There is always a par al
perspec ve on life, determined by our circumstances, that’s why he said we are Me and my circumstance.
Unfortunately, not everybody has been able in history to prac ce philosophy, or at least academic philosophy. Social
stra ca on makes it impossible for many people to devote their lives to philosophy. This happened with women,
especially in the past, and it happens quite o en with poor people and working classes.
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