History of Philosophy and Christian Thought

Introduction

Thales and Anaximander were two philosophers in the sixth century BC that lived in Miletus.

Heraclitus and Pythagoras lived into the 5th century BC.

Any worldview addresses the subjects of God, ultimate reality, human knowledge, ethics and human persons.

Fundamental beliefs of a naturalistic worldview is that nothing exists outside the physical universe and that all things evolved.

Plato was a student of Socrates and lived into the fourth century BC. He opposed hedonism, empiricism, relativism, materialism, atheism and naturalism.

Plato described the universe as having three levels: the world of particulars, the world of forms, and the form of the good.

Plato's view of the universe was dualistic.

One of Plato's fundamental arguments is that the human soul is immortal.

Evaluation of Plato's arguments and comparison of Plato's philosophy with biblical theology.

Empiricism teaches that all human knowledge arises from sense experience. Rationalism teaches that some human knowledge does not arise from sense. experience

Aristotle was a student of Plato and lived in the fourth century BC.

Aristotle rejected Plato's doctrine of two worlds.

Discussion of Aristotelian philosophy as it relates to the incarnation.

Aristotle's philosophy as it relates to attributes of God and fundamental assumptions about psychology.

Aristotle made a distinction between passive intellect and active intellect.

Discussion of the strengths and weaknesses of the law of non-contradiction.

Discussion of the nature and substance of matter.

Hellenistic philosophy was an approach that was popular from the fourth century BC to the fifth century AD.

Stoics were determinists who believed in living according to nature.