Philosophy: Medieval, Modern, & Contemporary Period

Question 1

Medieval Period is what and it is focused on what?

Answer 1

Theocentric, focused on God

-dominated by Christian concerns

Question 2

Composed the Medieval Period

Answer 2

1. St. Augustine and Platonic Influences
2. Scholasticism Aquinas
3. Nominalism Ockham

Question 3

Where is St. Augustine from?

Answer 3

Egypt

Question 4

Explain: Augustine and Platonic Influences

Answer 4

• synthesized platonic ideas with Christian doctrines

- God is pure Form = most real being

Question 5

Explain: Scholasticism Aquinas

Answer 5

• time of Charlemagne
• blended Aristotelian philosophy with Christian doctrines
• tends to be Realist because of Aristotelian influence
• forms are real, but only in particular things
• Aquinas & Scotus

Question 6

Explain: Nominalism

Answer 6

-Nominalists said that forms are only names (nomen)

Question 7

Followed the Atomists

Answer 7

Nominalists

Question 8

Modern Period is about?

Answer 8

Human Person

Question 9

In modern period, they believe that two things should be together

Answer 9

Subject (Cogito)

Object (World)

Question 10

Composed the Modern Period

Answer 10

1. Descartes & Cogito
2. Rationalism & Empiricism
3. Kant Synthesis

Question 11

Explain: Descartes and Cogito

Answer 11

• started & put philosophy on the foundation of certainty
• Epistemology (knowing) over Ontology (being)

Question 12

Explain: Rene Descartes

Answer 12

• applied methodical doubt

- you cannot doubt doubting/thinking, so you exist

Question 13

Descartes said that this is the most certain thing in the world

Answer 13

Cogito

Question 14

What did Descartes said? This is foundation of subsequent development

Answer 14

“Cogito, ergo sum!”

-“I think, therefore I am!”

Question 15

Explain: Rationalism & Empiricism

Answer 15

Rationalism: knowledge is based on reason, not senses. (Spinoza, Leibniz)
Empiricism: the source of knowledge is senses. (Hume, Locke, Berkeley)

Question 16

Explain: Kant Synthesis

Answer 16

Immanuel Kant reconciled Rationalism & Empiricism

• knowledge starts from the sense experience
• structure of knowledge come from reason

Question 17

What is Contemporary Period about?

Answer 17

Reaction to Modern Period Philisophy

Question 18

Composed the Contemporary Period

Answer 18

1. Phenomenology
2. Analytic Philosophy
3. Marxism

Question 19

Explain: Phenomenology

Answer 19

• from phenomena = “appearances”
• study of phenomena/structure of experiences
• our knowledge of things are from its appearance (Edmund Husserl, German)

Question 20

Explain: Analytic Philosophy

Answer 20

• originated in England by G. E. Moore and Russell

- arguments are based on the meanings of terms and propositions, employing the method of formal and analysis of language

Question 21

Explain: Marxism

Answer 21

Karl Marx - German; exiled in England

• notion of consciousness: consciousness is always the consciousness of something
• there is always consciousness & something

Question 22

What did Karl Marx said?

Answer 22

It is a political method of societal analysis that focuses on class relations, and societal conflict, that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, and the dialectical view of social transformation.