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Summary - Eastern Philosophy
Philosophy (HBA52A)
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
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Happiness Worldwide development of philosophy Worldwide philosophies has started to develop between 5th and 6th century before Christ, in Greece, China, and India. These have contact with each other, however started philosophy around the same time. Greece (Western) (RATIO) People believed in many different Gods and stress on mythology. Priest were very important to people so people were not really independent. At a certain point philosophy started to develop. Socrates: do not need to depend upon a certain system to find the you think in the right way, you can discover the so completely independent. This was a new way of thinking. Socrates put a lot of emphasis on logos, need to think rational and In the west, this became very important. Key word western ph.: ratio (based upon intellectual thinking). China (ETHICAL, SOCIAL) Confusius stood up and developed philosophy at about same time as Socrates. Ethical, social aspect became very important. India (SPIRITUAL) Sophism was already very important and this was a very sophisticated philosophy. Buddha stood up and found sophism way too complicated for people. Main difference with Socrates: spiritual sight. Not logos or ratio, not ethical, social sight but spiritual sight. What is Happiness? How can we become happy? Many people in the west have a good quality of life, but still suffer, they are not happy. Eastern Philosophy 2015 2016 Tuur Desloovere 1 Enemies of Happiness There is a very high degree of stress and loneliness. They seem to be the enemies of happiness. Stress So: how do we get rid of stress? Stress clinics exist and often rely on mindfulness: something that became very popular, but is nothing new and is based upon old Buddhism books. Loneliness A lot of old people feel alone. For both of the problems, Buddhism gives an answer. Buddhism The Dalai Lama is the spiritual leader of Tibet but lives in India. Everybody seems wanting to meet the Dalai Lama. Why? Karl Jaspers: German philosopher wrote a book about four men: Socrates, Buddha, Confucius and Jesus. He was convinced of the fact that those four men have had most influence of all. going to talk about them all as philosophies, not as religions. Buddha and Confucius started as a philosophy, but later on they turned into religions. Why? People want hope, want to pray, want to sacrifice because in great need. Buddhism believes that many problems exist because of craving. a distinction between desiring and craving. would be nice vs really want Buddha was born in and his life exemplified the Buddhist way of life. He lived according to his own philosophy in order to free from He showed that his philosophy worked for him. Buddhism does not feel the need to convince other people about their philosophy. not less because not. There are not any dogmas. Theravada is a body of oral teaching: something that has been written down disciples. Buddha himself has not written down anything (just like Jesus, Confucius, Socrates). While Buddha lived, the developed country of India changed a lot: farmers turned into city people, manufacturer workers, traders. The society became more complex. Eastern Philosophy 2015 2016 Tuur Desloovere 2 completely understand the sense being taught about it. In the end, you need to experience things yourself. Form Process Everything has two fundamental aspects: form and process. The form gives Besides the form, there is a process. A rose is changing, growing, For this process energy is needed. This energy get lost (physics) so things are always changing and passing on energy. The form changes but the energy within always remains the same. Key Insight When Sitting Under Tree Nothing exists separately. Nothing is permanent. a connection between everything and everything is changing all the time. Everything is a matter of processes. The Truth of what Suffering (Duhkha) Is 1. 1st Noble Truth. What is suffering (duhkha)? a. Ordinary Suffering. If people are ill, old, die, are bored, get separated from loved ones, unsatisfied desires. b. Resistance to Change. People want to change so whenever they change (what is always happening), they cope with it. c. Satisfy Our Needs. d. Human Attend to Construct a Permanent and Unchanging Self. We want to become a person and remain that person. nd 2. 2 Noble Truth. The truth of the conditioned arising of suffering? 3. 3rd Noble Truth. Suffering can be eliminated. 4. 4th Noble Truth. The Noble Eightfold Path: path to get free from suffering, to live a good life. Living according to these rules will get you free from suffering. a. (1) Right Views. We can get insight through Traditional Knowledge (books etc.), but also experiencing things, doing things ourselves (Direct Insight). b. (2) Right You need the desire to get free from craving. The will becomes very important. You should be willing to get free from suffering. You should be willing to become happy. You should be willing to love. You should know what you want, because if not, you get it. c. (3) Right Speech. You need to know when you have to remain silent. In the West, a feeling to talk all the time. In far Eastern countries, different. Eastern Philosophy 2015 2016 Tuur Desloovere 4 d. (4) Right You should also behave in the right way. In all circumstances, you promote peace and happiness. No cheating, no stealing, no You respect the wellbeing of all living things. e. (5) Right Means of Profession. Make your living in the right way. You should be sure that you have the right set of values when you make your choice of profession. Earning a lot of money might not be a good value. Your profession should add something of value to your life: be something for someone. f. (6) Right Right intention of doing something. Correlation between what doing and what thinking. g. (7) Right Mindfulness. Concentrate on what doing at one moment. E. not using your mobile phone when talking to someone. h. (8) Right If you see things how they really are, meditation can be a good solution. It can make your mind completely empty or it can be to focus on one thing (as Buddha did). Four Attitudes Towards Others 1. Metta (Loving Kindness). You desire that things go well for the other person. Or do you always feel like you want to better than someone else? Though, you should wish the same for someone as you want for yourself. 2. Karuna (Compassion). Being touched the suffering of the others. This combined with Metta, makes sense. If you see someone suffering, e. having things not going well, you will suffer yourself as well. But you make other people happy because you want to be happy yourself! 3. Mudita (Sympathetic Joy). Being happy with something, enjoying things, feeling grateful, laughing, smiling. Whatever the conditions are, you always have enough reasons to feel happy. Always realize that there are plenty of things to be happy about. 4. Upekkha (Equanimity). Do not look away from certain situations. Whatever the circumstances are, you can give them your full attention. Imagine you are being confronted with a sick, suffering person: flee away from it. Link it with 3rd attitude: even if seeing his suffering, you will find enough reasons to be happy with meeting him. Further Development of Philosophy last words: He puts a lot of power in someone capabilities. Later on, philosophy turned into a religion. People want something to to pray for in times of huge problems. Make the distinction between philosophy and religion! Philosophy evolved before religion. Eastern Philosophy 2015 2016 Tuur Desloovere 5 The Smile of Buddha The smile of Buddha is very typical for Buddhism. There should always be a balance between our emotional reactions and our rational reactions. As well, between our emotional brain and our cognitive brain. There should be Distinction between a real smile and artificial smile. A real smile comes from a different smile in our brain and can only be produced if we really feel in harmony. Our brain produce a smile in which we are going to use our eyes as well just faking it. So a real smile proves that the brain is in harmony. Epicurus Epicurean philosophy. Epicurus wanted a really simple life and was convinced of the fact that luxury causes a lot of trouble. Stress on need to eliminate suffering (which we cause ourselves) and importance of sensual pleasure. Was convinced of the fact that one of the ways to become happy is to become a philosopher your own There are two questions people ask themselves constantly: 1. What will make me happy? People know whether happy or not, they ask themselves if important. 2. What will make me healthy? Not a doctor, but try to become better yourself realizing what is good for your body and what is not. Then you can become much healthier Epicurus knew that people are very bad in answering these questions and suggested them to go talk to a philosopher. He lived together with his students in a commune just to help them become happy and healthy human beings. He suggested a relation between health and happiness: if your health good, more likely to be unhappy and omgekeerd ook. He named three key parts of becoming happy and healthy (in order of importance): 1. Friendship Many philosophers consider this as a vital part of life. A friend can help you in asking yourself the right questions. our friends who confirm our identity. Eastern Philosophy 2015 2016 Tuur Desloovere 7 With friends, we can be who we really are and not wear a mask. Companion is more important in a meal than what going to eat. 2. Freedom People have the feeling like they have freedom in front of them, because they have so many tasks to do. Solution: have a less complex life. We should go back to a simple life. He created a garden, a commune. Here, they could live free from the outside. Material things do not create the real identity of a person. 3. Thought People feel anxious a lot and they should not. Being afraid of something is an awful feeling and most of the time, what anxious of is something we never meet in life. afraid of things that never happen anyway. The solution here is it calms the mind. People would not go to a doctor for mental problems, if they would write down what anxious about. Writing might help removing. Talking (to good friends or good philosophers) as well might help. Those two things help people in and they help realizing that problems that big as you thought they were. a. Example: thinking about mortality. Do people worry about before birth? No. So why should we worry about existing after death? He divided things in: 1. Natural and necessary. friends, freedom, thought. 2. Natural but unnecessary. large house, banquets, fish. 3. Neither natural nor necessary. fame, power. Avoid acquiring what we do not need, will result in avoid regretting what we cannot afford. This can be done imagining ourselves what it brought us only at the moment we have obtained it. See Toledo: text about Epicurus Alain Adam Smith The Invisible Hand: market in which everyone is fulfilling its own needs but creating prosperity at the very same time. The question he tried to answer: how come that some people are poor and others rich (in The Wealth of Nations). He has written about to become as well. Example: you go to a shop and want to steal something. As no watching you, you think okay. Smith says you still have the feeling that someone is! always an in our own head. This is a certain sense Eastern Philosophy 2015 2016 Tuur Desloovere 8 reading the magazine, at the moment she reads a good book will realize that the book gives her more happiness. On Liberty: society should give people freedom. Only then they can become flourishing and happy. Harm Principle: you can do whatever you want to in your life as long as not hurting other human beings. Tyranny of the Majority. People should always be very aware of the fact that there are many social pressures upon them. Many people are prevented from doing what they want to do because of this. Equality of Genders. Choice (Confucianism) In China, state exams are being organized. In one of these exams, it was asked if people would save their mother or their girlfriend in a fire. In Belgium, be no answer, however, in China, the correct answer was the mother. If you understand why, then understand Confucianism. A lot of China is linked with Confucianism and very important to understand Confucianism in order to understand the Chinese culture. This proves that a philosophy can have a lot of impact on people (such as Socrates on our western thinking). Confucius is the same for China as Socrates is for us. The official ideology in China is Communism, very much influenced Confucianism. However, the economic system communist anymore. Yu Dan wrote a book about Confucianism (a very old philosophy) and still sold over 10 million copies. a lot of Confucius Institutes around the world (in which you can study Chinese language and Chinese culture), even in Leuven. Missionarists were very much interested in Confucianism because of same moral values. They spread Confucianism in the West as well. C. was living in hard, difficult a bad period in Chinese history. There was a feudal system before, but it failed and turned into a very bloody period. People were getting very interested in more for and started to kill each other. Some said: you should think about nature. When you want to know to live your you have to look at nature, because part of it. Confucius disagreed. He wanted to look at humanity: how people behave and what the consequences are of Eastern Philosophy 2015 2016 Tuur Desloovere 10 certain behaviors. The philosophy suits very well to govern. why nowadays, Chinese government likes to emphasize Confucianist values. Why? Because in Confucianism, people want to reach some kind of Harmony: may we cultivate the character that reliably acts In Confucianism, one wants to take good out of History and learn from the past. Because, if we look at the past we can easily see the universal values that always come back. However, copy it. Confucius said not telling his own philosophy, his own thoughts, but just what he read from books (about the past, made a selection out of them and nowadays this selection is to be studied for the National Entrance Exams. This helps the government to easily spread the ideas they want to spread) and learned at school. He is a transmitter of the past, not a maker. He was very much against the system of heredity. He wanted a good leader to have a good character, good Heredity ensure this. Knowledge is very important to rule a country. If you study, you should make sure you study the right things. A responsibility is to make the right selection of what students should study. Students should have the feeling they can do something with their hence, knowledge should have practical consequences. Also, everyone should have the chance to study. However, he want to give knowledge for free, something had to come in return. This gives more value to education. He believe anyone could ever have a of knowledge, it was always some selection. He realized that one person cannot have all knowledge on earth and that some things are just for everyone (e. Etienne Vermeersch: In this view, Confucius want to tell anything about He want to investigate it because he felt like it needed to organize society. He makes a distinction between people and people. Inferior people always stay serene, get anxious and feel fear. not dependant on conditions so they feel free. They ruled conditions. Inferior men are ruled their conditions: they get stressed, because of conditions. He makes a distinction in between capacities of people to become wise. 1. Saints: they have their knowledge from birth. You it there are only a few. 2. Men who acquired knowledge learning. 3. Men who find it hard to learn, but they do not let this discourage them. Eastern Philosophy 2015 2016 Tuur Desloovere 11 really encourage people to obey. Examples are a better way of letting people behave in the way they have to behave. Jump to Western Philosophy Introduction Experiments: Decision between killing 1 and 5 o Train can hit 5 people unless you push the switch button to let him go on another track where 1 person is standing. Would you push it? o 5 people in hospital who all need a transplantation. Would you kill one in order to get his organs for the 4 others? Philippa Foot has thought about these o Push a man in order to let the train stop and save 5 people? a huge difference between 1 and 3. There is personal contact between you and the victim. People want this. She introduces the Law of Double Effect: intention that counts: why you make certain decisions (you want to deliberately harm people!). We have to make choices in life as well. In WW II people had to make decisions (e. give certain information to Nazis so that they bomb Londen center but outskirts, and consequence less people. But they They want to During the ferry disaster in Zeebrugge (1987), people could be saved climbing on a ladder. But one man able to climb the ladder, he was in shock. Other people want to throw him away to save the Socrates Lived during same time as Confucius (could have been friends). He wanted to organize society in a different way. He was not satisfied with how things were being ran in that time. helped people forming their ideas. Dialog is a key element for Soc. Exams 1. Combine the philosopher with the right idea: connect them. a. Explain and give information about two elements (useful). Eastern Philosophy 2015 2016 Tuur Desloovere 13 b. Example: Siddharta Guthama Rejection Insight. You tell something about both (especially about second!). Formulate answers in a wellstructured way. Exam 1 column philosophers other: elements, quotes, (is always somewhere on the slides) Connect both. Afterwards: explain answer using your own notes. (first: tell who Confucius was, then link to the quote) invent things. Better to write short and mentioning a lot. Taoism Started about the same time as Confucionism. Many people combined several philosophies. E. a king who rules according to Confucius but in his personal life, was a Taoist. People adapted to the situation they were in. Sign of Taoism is a God humanity should master and control nature. This is the opposite of Taoism! Ideas in Taoism: 1) Qi: there is in empty space, this energy Qi. What we see as empty is not empty. Chinese people already realized that there are many They were able to invent the compass thinking this. It explains a lot in Chinese culture (e. accupunctuur) 2) Tao Language: in Confucionism a lot of emphasis on words, but Taoism believes that there are many things that be explained with words, so be very careful with language and focus too much on it (e. religion: fighting over use of certain words). Language is insufficient to talk about the most important things in life. They often tried to write stories or images to bring across a certain idea. 3) Everything came into being because in the beginning there was (not a God). But this something does not have characteristics, we cannot describe it. Later on, this idea turned into a God idea but not in Taoism. 4) You have to make sure you live in harmony with this very first principle. Can be met living in a natural, spontaneous way. Human beings should feel connected to this Tao. (Buddhism: you should not resist change. In Tao: If you follow Tao, things will change, which causes no problem as long as you resist it. with the When Zhuangzi was playing music after his Eastern Philosophy 2015 2016 Tuur Desloovere 14 he wants to remove all pain from society through chemistry The Abolitionist Project). At the other hand, he encourages Positive Utilitarianism. This aims at increasing pleasure for example using drugs. He believes in the right to change our body and mind (change personality allowed, use drugs allowed) as long we hurt other human beings. He says that a parent has the right to change his child. He believes in eugenetica influencing our own genes, improve the human species). Focus on a lot of rights for humans. Tendency towards human He believes in a society without pain which has as consequence no more ethics (if happy, ethics are not needed anymore). Refer to Experience Machine. Thought experiment created Robert Nozick (book: Anarchy, State and Utopia). Imagine if we would have a machine that we could plug ourselves in to. This machine would provide us with very nice experiences So we can live our lives and just enjoy life being plugged in. Would people want this? No: we want to miss experience, we want to be recognized as a human being and be one, and the artificial reality will never be enough (we will always feel like liking nature and natural things more). Hanna Arendt (1906 1975) (notities anderen bekijken) Things can never go well in a society when people tell you that only one truth. She went to Israel. Eichmann in Jerusalem: before the trial she expected to see which would be very frightening. But seeing this man, a normal ordinary man, and realizing what he had done without him being conscious of it, was even more frightening. He called him Banality of But because of the society in which he lived, he did evil things. He was a victim of utilitarianism but made one huge mistake: he stopped thinking and obeyed, just did what he asked. This is something we should never stop doing (thinking for ourselves). thoughtlessness that turned him into a man that had to be executed. Hanna Arendt emphasizes the aspect of story telling. When we can tell what happened to us, then we can let go. You should give people the opportunity to tell their stories in public, to help them to cope with what happened to them in the past. Traudl (secretaresse Hitler): I did not feel responsible, but at a given moment I When she realized she had the same age as Sophie Scholl (she and her brother first both joined Hitlerjugend, were in favor of Nazism, not realizing what exactly it was. Their father was convinced of it that they would use all of them to do very bad things Eastern Philosophy 2015 2016 Tuur Desloovere 16 agains humanity. And indeed, Sophie and Hans at a certain moment realized what it was all about and discovered the dark side. They decided to leave HJ and make pamflets against Nazism and Were executed Traudl realized that she could have been those as well and that she was in fact able to rebelleren. N. Mandela: how can I reunite black and white after apartheid? Bring them together and let them listen to each other stories. He started the Truth Reconciliation Commission. Pumla Gobodo was part of it. She started a testimonial of Eugene de Kock. When we talked about afwul things he did, he asked if he could talk to of his victims, and he did. They noticed that he really felt sorry for what he did. Many of the victims started to forgive (however, were not asked to do so), because offenders were recognizing the facts they had done. Message: once able to forgive, free again because when not forgiving, you chain yourself in the connection with your offender. Totalitarian and authoritarian regimes make people do Eastern Philosophy 2015 2016 Tuur Desloovere 17
Summary - Eastern Philosophy
Course: Philosophy (HBA52A)
University: Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
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