Introduction to Western Philosophy

Philosophy—a word that means love of wisdom—seeks to know the ultimate or eternal things. Human beings are drawn to this pursuit because of our innate sense of wonder and a concern with the good.

In the Republic, Plato attempts to describe justice, first in the city, and then in the human soul. He argues that a man's soul must be prepared by a good musical education to recognize truth.

In Book VI of the Republic, Plato reveals the nature of philosophy through two famous images: the divided line and the allegory of the cave. He depicts philosophy as a dramatic journey in which the human soul is turned from false opinions and images and toward a true understanding of reality.

In the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle seeks to discuss the best way of life that fulfills our human nature. The two possibilities—philosophy and politics—encompass the highest human activity and the conditions necessary to promote that activity.

In the first line of the Metaphysics, Aristotle writes, “All human beings desire to know.” He adds that wonder leads us to investigate the four kinds of causes of natural things: material, efficient, formal, and final.

Logic is concerned with right reasoning about reality. In his six books on logic—collectively known as the Organon—Aristotle demonstrates how we can gain a deeper understanding of reality through inductive and deductive reasoning and dialectical arguments.

Medieval Christian philosophy is characterized by a dramatic encounter between ancient philosophy and revelation. In the first part of the Summa Theologiae, Thomas Aquinas reveals the beauty and power of these traditions in his argument for the existence of God.

Thomas Aquinas argues that God governs the universe by directing all things to the good or to their perfection. In the second part of the Summa Theologiae, Aquinas explains that rational beings participate in this divine plan through the natural law.

Francis Bacon criticized the Western philosophical tradition for being barren of utility and built on a poor foundation. In The Great Instauration, he outlines a plan for the construction of a radically new philosophy that seeks to command, rather than understand, nature.

In Meditations on First Philosophy, René Descartes argues for a radical skepticism of the senses. He makes the case for a rationalist philosophy grounded in the self—“I think, therefore I am.”

David Hume—like Descartes before him—questions man’s ability to acquire scientific knowledge. Contrary to Descartes, Hume adopts an empirical approach that attempts to account for the apparent limitations of experience and observation.

Immanuel Kant offers a synthesis of the competing strains of modern philosophy and presents an account of morality that seeks to preserve human freedom. Kant concludes that morality must be based on duty for its own sake and governed by the categorical imperative.

Friedrich Nietzsche argues that modern philosophy and science destroyed our ability to believe that the world is intelligible and ordered. Nietzsche argues that man cannot escape the cave and understand the truth about reality. Therefore, the philosopher must create a fiction to direct human life.

In The Abolition of Man, C.S. Lewis confronts a false image of human reason that promotes a corrosive skepticism and often culminates in irrationalism. Lewis looks to a universal order of values—the Tao—as an antidote to the “men without chests” produced by modern philosophy.