A passion for Wisdom
In “A passion for wisdom”, Robert Solomon and Kathleen Higgins take the reader into a lively and gratifying tour of the history of philosophy. The presentation of history and development of philosophy is not only a witty and refreshing approach but also within a dense and concise text. The authors delve into the question of philosophy from a global perspective capturing various human attributes of the field. The book highlights significant philosophies on logic, ethics and politics by different founders including William James, Plato, Karl Max and Simone de Beauvoir and Buddha. The coverage begins with the most ancient religious beliefs from the East, Africa and the West that try to understand the concept of the world and existence, including its origin. The book also tackles multicultural postmodern philosophies of the current era such as feminism.
Religion was one of the fundamental aspects that characterized ancient philosophies. The quest form meaning of life, existence and the afterlife influenced religious theories (p 3). Monothetic ideas of one God could be traced to 1730 BCE to ancient Babylonians and Egyptians. This philosophy was adopted by Christians and Jews who believe in definitive existence of a single supernatural being who made the world from nothingness. Christianity borrows many principles from Judaism, such as the temptations, holy trinity, the existence of evil in the world as a result of human sins and God’s role as a caring being. Christianity, however, emphasizes the fall of man from the Garden of Eden and Jesus role as a personal saviour.
Hinduism is also one of the religions with a recorded mystic history of the deep philosophy around existence dating back to 1400 BCE (P 5). China and Tibet were at an advanced level of political culture under Confucius who dealt entirely with social issues such as personal virtues, statesmanship and harmonious interpersonal relationships. Later philosophers such as Lao Tzu developed a mysterious philosophy that contrasted that of Confucius. Buddhist teachings perceived the world and life as full of suffering that emanates from selfish desires. Buddha’s philosophies dealt with the transcending from suffering by eliminating selfish desires in the right strategies such as mediation and right thinking. Th impermanence of life is similar to that of Christian and Islamic principles that liken death to the end of suffering and transition to eternal peace.
Greek borrowed their philosophies from other cultures, including Egyptians and Phoenicians form whom they borrowed education and religious ideas. They thus made themselves a desirable mixture of creative and rich cultures. Their philosophies were a mixture of mystic and mythological aspects. Greek philosophers, including Plato and St. Augustine maintained the mystic view of God, such as that of the Jews but also included modern human views. Neoplatonic philosophy views, however, reduced the world into a material form ‘s devoid of spiritual realities Socrates’ concepts were non-conformist and contrasted the Athenians by believing in many gods. In his speech, he referred to the supreme power as God rather than many gods and cited virtue as a concept of human life. This was one of the reasons that led to his trial in 399 BCE for the corruption of the youth. He often sited truth, reason and logic as a means of understanding fundamental truths about human life.
Postmodern and New Age domains of reason, experience and ethics are driven by philosophers such as Kant emerged in the18th Century. These theories influenced the political space in Europe and prominent events such as the French Revolution. Science began taking center stage in human philosophy as religious concepts dissolved gradually with every philosophy. Knowledge and enlightenment replaced mystic concepts in the prominent philosophies of Hume, Napoleon and Aristotle. These philosophies emphasized human freedom of thought that is inspired by physics and biology as sciences rather than faith. Philosophers, in this era, prioritized understanding the world as occupied by a human being and within the reach of human experience.