Michel Foucault: The Hermeneutics of the Subject
Michel Foucault (10/15/1926-6/25/1984), a preeminent philosopher of France in the 70s and 80s, taught at the College de France from January 1971 until his death. His title there was "The History of Systems of Thought."
Major writings:
Showing posts with label 西方近代哲学家. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 西方近代哲学家. Show all posts
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Descartes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rene_Descartes
Rene Descartes (3/31/1596-2/11/1650, aged 53) was a French philosopher, mathematician, physicist, and writer who spent most of his adult life in the Dutch Republic. He has been dubbed the "Father of Modern Philosophy", and much of subsequent Western philosophy is a response to his writings, which continue to be studied closely to this day. In particular, his Meditations on First Philosophy continues to be a standard text at most university philosophy departments.
Descartes was a major figure in 17th-century continental rationalism, later advocated by Baruch Spinoza and Gottfried Leibniz, and opposed by the empiricist school of thought consisting of Hobbes, Locke, Berkeley, and Hume.
His most famous statement is "Cogito ergo sum" (French: Je pense, donc je suis; English: I think, therefore I am), found both in Discourse on the Method and Principles of Philosophy.
Descartes concludes that he can be certain that he exists because he thinks. But in what form? He perceives his body through the use of the senses; however, these have previously been proven unreliable. So Descartes concludes that the only indubitable knowledge is that he is a thinking thing. Thinking is his essence as it is the only thing about him that cannot be doubted. Descartes defines "thought" (cogitatio) as "what happens in me such that I am immediately conscious of it, insofar as I am conscious of it". Thinking is thus every activity of a person of which he is immediately conscious.
Rene Descartes (3/31/1596-2/11/1650, aged 53) was a French philosopher, mathematician, physicist, and writer who spent most of his adult life in the Dutch Republic. He has been dubbed the "Father of Modern Philosophy", and much of subsequent Western philosophy is a response to his writings, which continue to be studied closely to this day. In particular, his Meditations on First Philosophy continues to be a standard text at most university philosophy departments.
Descartes was a major figure in 17th-century continental rationalism, later advocated by Baruch Spinoza and Gottfried Leibniz, and opposed by the empiricist school of thought consisting of Hobbes, Locke, Berkeley, and Hume.
His most famous statement is "Cogito ergo sum" (French: Je pense, donc je suis; English: I think, therefore I am), found both in Discourse on the Method and Principles of Philosophy.
Descartes concludes that he can be certain that he exists because he thinks. But in what form? He perceives his body through the use of the senses; however, these have previously been proven unreliable. So Descartes concludes that the only indubitable knowledge is that he is a thinking thing. Thinking is his essence as it is the only thing about him that cannot be doubted. Descartes defines "thought" (cogitatio) as "what happens in me such that I am immediately conscious of it, insofar as I am conscious of it". Thinking is thus every activity of a person of which he is immediately conscious.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Martin Heidegger： Dasein
Being and Time
Dasein: Da-Sein literally means being there/here, a German term for "existence." Heidegger's Dasein used it for "human entity," some structured awareness or an institutional "way of life." Dasein is essentially an entity with Being-in. Dasein is always a being engaged in the world. The fundamental mode of Being is not that of a subject or of the objective but of the coherence of Being-in-the-world.
Dasein: Da-Sein literally means being there/here, a German term for "existence." Heidegger's Dasein used it for "human entity," some structured awareness or an institutional "way of life." Dasein is essentially an entity with Being-in. Dasein is always a being engaged in the world. The fundamental mode of Being is not that of a subject or of the objective but of the coherence of Being-in-the-world.
Friday, September 25, 2009
Nietzsche - 尼采
Ecce Homo (behold the men):
I cannot remember that I ever tried hard--no trace of struggle can be demonstrated in my life; I'm the opposite a heroic nature. "Willing" something, "striving" for something, envisaging a "purpose," a "wish"---I know non of this from experience. At this very moment I still look upon my future---an ample future!---as upon calm seas: there is no ripple of desire. I do not want in the least that anything should become different than it is. I myself do not want to become different.
But that is how I have always lived. I had no wishes. A man over 44 who can say that he never stove for honors, for women, for money!
All the problems of politics, of social organization, and of education have been falsified through and through because one mistook the most harmful men for great men---because one learned to despise "little" things, which means the basic concerns of life itself.
Life was easy for me---easiest when it made the hardest demands on me.
I cannot remember that I ever tried hard--no trace of struggle can be demonstrated in my life; I'm the opposite a heroic nature. "Willing" something, "striving" for something, envisaging a "purpose," a "wish"---I know non of this from experience. At this very moment I still look upon my future---an ample future!---as upon calm seas: there is no ripple of desire. I do not want in the least that anything should become different than it is. I myself do not want to become different.
But that is how I have always lived. I had no wishes. A man over 44 who can say that he never stove for honors, for women, for money!
All the problems of politics, of social organization, and of education have been falsified through and through because one mistook the most harmful men for great men---because one learned to despise "little" things, which means the basic concerns of life itself.
Life was easy for me---easiest when it made the hardest demands on me.
Schopenhauer - 叔本华
Reading Schopenhauer again, I have to say that he still is my favorite philosopher.
From him we have the following ideas:
No man can be in perfect accord with anyone but himself--not even with a friend or the partner of his life.
A man can be himself only so long as he is alone; and if he does not love solitude, he will not love freedom.
Solitude will be welcomed or endured or avoided accordingly as a man's personal value is large or small.
That genuine, profound peace of mind, that perfect tranquility of soul, which next to health, is the highest blessing the earth can give, is to be attained only in solitude, and, as a permanent mood, only in complete retirement; and then, if there is anything great and rich in the man's own self, this way of life is the happiest that may be found in this wretched world.
A man is best off if he be thrown upon his own resources and can be all in all to himself. And Cicero goes so far as to say that a man who is in this condition cannot fail to be very happy.
The more a man has himself, the less others can be of him.
Ordinary people are sociable and complaisant just from the very opposite feeling: to bear others' company is easier for them than to bear their own.
A man, in the full sense of the word--a man par excellence--does not represent a fraction, but a whole number; he is complete in himself.
It is the monotony of his own nature that makes a man find solitude intolerable.
Almost all our sufferings spring from having to do with other people and that destroys peace of mind.
Peace of mind is impossible without a considerable amount of solitude.
The love of solitude is not an original characteristic of human nature; it is rather the results of experience and reflection, and these in their turn depend upon the development of intellectual power, and increase of the years.
Speaking generally, sociability stands in inverse ratio with age.
From him we have the following ideas:
No man can be in perfect accord with anyone but himself--not even with a friend or the partner of his life.
A man can be himself only so long as he is alone; and if he does not love solitude, he will not love freedom.
Solitude will be welcomed or endured or avoided accordingly as a man's personal value is large or small.
That genuine, profound peace of mind, that perfect tranquility of soul, which next to health, is the highest blessing the earth can give, is to be attained only in solitude, and, as a permanent mood, only in complete retirement; and then, if there is anything great and rich in the man's own self, this way of life is the happiest that may be found in this wretched world.
A man is best off if he be thrown upon his own resources and can be all in all to himself. And Cicero goes so far as to say that a man who is in this condition cannot fail to be very happy.
The more a man has himself, the less others can be of him.
Ordinary people are sociable and complaisant just from the very opposite feeling: to bear others' company is easier for them than to bear their own.
A man, in the full sense of the word--a man par excellence--does not represent a fraction, but a whole number; he is complete in himself.
It is the monotony of his own nature that makes a man find solitude intolerable.
Almost all our sufferings spring from having to do with other people and that destroys peace of mind.
Peace of mind is impossible without a considerable amount of solitude.
The love of solitude is not an original characteristic of human nature; it is rather the results of experience and reflection, and these in their turn depend upon the development of intellectual power, and increase of the years.
Speaking generally, sociability stands in inverse ratio with age.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
George Berkeley: An Empiricist
George Berkeley (1685-1753) has basically one point to make: Physical objects are nothing but ideas in the mind. In fact, there are no objects beyond our ideas.
An idea is just a mental entity. There is a mind. There is an external object. Sensation translates real properties of object into ideas in the mind.
An idea is just a mental entity. There is a mind. There is an external object. Sensation translates real properties of object into ideas in the mind.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Michel Foucault
Michel Foucault (10/15/1926-6/25/1984), a preeminent philosopher of France in the 70s and 80s, taught at the College de France from 1970 (age 43) until his death. The title of his chair was "The History of Systems of Thought."
Major works: The Order of Things, Madness and Civilization, The History of Sexuality, Discipline and Punish, and The Hermeneutics of the Subject.
Major works: The Order of Things, Madness and Civilization, The History of Sexuality, Discipline and Punish, and The Hermeneutics of the Subject.
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