COMPARATIVE PHILOSOPHY
Introduction
The three declared Objects of the Theosophical Society are:
1. To form a nucleus of the universal brotherhood of humanity, without distinction of race, creed, sex, caste or color.
2. To encourage the comparative study of religion, philosophy and science.
3. To investigate unexplained laws of nature and the powers latent in humanity.
Here we are going to focus on the part of the Second Object which deals with a comparative study of PHILOSOPHY. Previously we have done a comparative study of Religion, which can be found on this website.
Initially, think of Philosophy as a pre-loaded operating program for your brain supplemented by your experiences and beliefs. It is the program that affects how you see the world, yourself in it and how you interact with others. Think of its many Movements and Schools as “apps”. You supplement your pre-loaded operating program with as many different apps as may be necessary on an “as needed” basis to create and change your experiences and beliefs. Together the pre-programed operating system, chosen apps and life experiences form the basis of your life.
Your CHARACTER comes from your pre-programed personality type, chosen philosophy (apps) and life experiences .
Pre- programmed personality type is the biologically based tendencies that you inherited from your parents (your pre-programed operating system). This is your disposition and temperament to think and feel a certain way that appeared in your early childhood.
Chosen Philosophy (apps) are the types of Movements or Schools of Philosophy which you chose to adopt in order to guide your life , either consciously or unconsciously. One's time would be well spent in consciously choosing the correct philosophy for your personal circumstances.
Experiences make up the remainder of your character. You generally have good experiences by choosing the correct apps (movements or schools of philosophy). The converse is also true, bad experiences come from choosing bad apps. There are random experiences ( family , society , historical time period, climate, economic conditions, available education, technology, etc.) over which you have no control, but the manner in which you react to those random experiences is governed by you choosing the correct philosophical apps.
Around 50% of the variations in human personality are defined by genetic factors (inherited operating system) the remaining half comes from the schools of Philosophy with which you choose to live your life (selected apps). It is possible to modify your operating system with selected apps.
What operating system did you inherit that controls your life? There are four basic human personality types (pre-programed operating systems). These personality types can exist alone or in any combination within any person. The four basic types are:
The Sanguine Type
This type is characterized by spontaneity, optimism, enthusiasm, high energy, mental flexibility, novelty seeking, impulsiveness and curiosity. These traits are associated with specific genes in the dopamine system. These people often have very expressive faces and love using words like “adventure”, “energy”, “new”, “fun”, “active”, “travel” and similar.
The Phlegmatic Type
These people are mainly defined by their social skills, such as their ability to express themselves and read other people face expressions and body language. They do well at connecting facts and seeing “the big picture". They are nurturing, sympathetic, agreeable and emotionally expressive. Some of these character traits are linked with estrogen that is present in both men and women. Physically you can recognize them by their smooth skin, full lips, round faces and small noses. Their favorite words are “passion”, “passionate”, “sensitive” and “sweet”.
The Choleric Type
This type is associated with testosterone, which is also present in men and women, but more so in men. These people are direct, focused, tough, analytical, logical and strategic. They have a great deal of courage and like to compete, often against each other. They often have square jaws, high cheekbones and high foreheads and love to use words like “intellect”, “ambition” and “challenge”.
The Melancholic Type
Melancholics tend to be calm, loyal and orderly, just as their personality name sounds. They are cautious and conventional. These men and women inherited genes in the serotonin system and their favorite words are “family”, “loyal”, “respect”, “caring”, “values” and “moral”.
Every personality type and type of character can be modified by experiences by your choice of good or bad philosophical apps.
.
EXPLANATION
The derivation of the word "philosophy" from the Greek, meaning “philo—love of, affinity for, liking of” and Sophos—wisdom. The term “sophist—means one who loves knowledge. Therefore a Philosophist is “one who loves knowledge.”
The popular public Dictionary, Wikipedia, defines PHILOSOPHY as: “Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. The Ancient Greek word (philosophia) was probably coined by Pythagoras and literally means "love of wisdom" or "friend of wisdom".
Philosophy as a whole is traditionally split into four or more main branches. The main four are:
1.) Metaphysics
(the study of existence and the nature of reality)
2.) Epistemology
(the study of knowledge, and how and what we know)
3.) Ethics
(the study of how people should act, and what is good and valuable)
4.) Aesthetics
(the study of basic philosophical questions about art and beauty)
In addition to these, two more branches are often added:
a.) Logic
(the study of good reasoning, by valid inference and demonstration)
b.) Political Philosophy
(the study of how people should
interact in a proper society)
Philosophy is historically further divided in one of three ways:
CHRONOLOGICALLY. This can be done numerous ways, but it is often done with "frames" such as Ancient, Medieval, Modern, and Contemporary. For example, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle would fall under Ancient while Hume, Descartes, and Leibniz would be in Modern. This gets even more complicated by the fact that what we would call "Contemporary" in this "frame" really has two branches: (1) Analytical philosophy and (2) Continental philosophy. In Analytical philosophy, one is looking usually at things like the philosophy of science and formalistic logic; conversely, Continental philosophy is not easily defined because it can cover everything from phenomenology (Husserl), existentialism (Sartre), linguistics (Saussure), and power (Foucault) to postmodernity (Lyotard) and feminism (Irigaray).
GEOGRAPHICALLY. This is usually simply done via the East/West divide established by British imperialism. Eastern philosophy includes Shintoism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Sufism, Taoism, etc. In contrast, Western philosophy is what most people think of when they think of philosophy and what the previous category of chronology was framing. Sometimes, there are colleges courses in British philosophy (eg., Mill and Benthem), American pragmatism (Dewey), French philosophy (Derrida), etc.
TOPICALLY. The word "topically" doesn't really fit; it may be better to call it categorically, but each of these are really "subsets" within philosophy. Yet, any statement has any of these within it. It is divided into six sub-parts:
Metaphysics--what is the fundamental nature of reality?
Epistemology--what counts as knowledge? How does one know when he/she has knowledge?
Ethics--what counts as "right" action? The study of how man should act.
Aesthetics--what counts as beauty?
Logic- Logic is the study of correct reasoning and arguments.
Politics- the study of how men should interact in a proper society and what constitutes proper.
Wisdom, leadership, happiness, love and the capacity to resolve human conflicts cannot be guaranteed by any philosophy; but philosophy has traditionally pursued these ideals systematically, and its methods, its literature, and its ideas are of constant use in the quest to realize them. Sound reasoning, critical thinking, well-constructed prose, maturity of judgement, a strong sense of relevance, and an enlightened consciousness are never obsolete. The study of comparative philosophy is the most direct route, and in many cases the only route, to the full development of these qualities.
Hereafter, the remaining part of this Section will be devoted to the study of various schools and movements of Philosophy in a Topical manner. Since many are antiquated , tied to specific religions and/or religious practices or no longer relevant , only the major ,still in use schools of Philosophy will be examined here.
For a more detailed analysis, complete listing of Philosophical schools and movements ,and as a reference material, see this excellent website: http://www.philosophybasics.com/general.html
Again here, like in the section on comparative religion, some of this material has been copied , pasted , re-arranged and modified in order to make this section intellectually manageable and understandable. Nevertheless, there remains much in the way of original work here. The purpose of all of this is to rearrange the information found in highly technical and difficult to understand scholarly text and treatises (that has had the practical effect of keeping the information esoteric in nature) into short pieces of easily understood information. Hopefully, that has been accomplished here.
Thanks.
Scott Ramsey
September 13, 2017
Introduction
The three declared Objects of the Theosophical Society are:
1. To form a nucleus of the universal brotherhood of humanity, without distinction of race, creed, sex, caste or color.
2. To encourage the comparative study of religion, philosophy and science.
3. To investigate unexplained laws of nature and the powers latent in humanity.
Here we are going to focus on the part of the Second Object which deals with a comparative study of PHILOSOPHY. Previously we have done a comparative study of Religion, which can be found on this website.
Initially, think of Philosophy as a pre-loaded operating program for your brain supplemented by your experiences and beliefs. It is the program that affects how you see the world, yourself in it and how you interact with others. Think of its many Movements and Schools as “apps”. You supplement your pre-loaded operating program with as many different apps as may be necessary on an “as needed” basis to create and change your experiences and beliefs. Together the pre-programed operating system, chosen apps and life experiences form the basis of your life.
Your CHARACTER comes from your pre-programed personality type, chosen philosophy (apps) and life experiences .
Pre- programmed personality type is the biologically based tendencies that you inherited from your parents (your pre-programed operating system). This is your disposition and temperament to think and feel a certain way that appeared in your early childhood.
Chosen Philosophy (apps) are the types of Movements or Schools of Philosophy which you chose to adopt in order to guide your life , either consciously or unconsciously. One's time would be well spent in consciously choosing the correct philosophy for your personal circumstances.
Experiences make up the remainder of your character. You generally have good experiences by choosing the correct apps (movements or schools of philosophy). The converse is also true, bad experiences come from choosing bad apps. There are random experiences ( family , society , historical time period, climate, economic conditions, available education, technology, etc.) over which you have no control, but the manner in which you react to those random experiences is governed by you choosing the correct philosophical apps.
Around 50% of the variations in human personality are defined by genetic factors (inherited operating system) the remaining half comes from the schools of Philosophy with which you choose to live your life (selected apps). It is possible to modify your operating system with selected apps.
What operating system did you inherit that controls your life? There are four basic human personality types (pre-programed operating systems). These personality types can exist alone or in any combination within any person. The four basic types are:
The Sanguine Type
This type is characterized by spontaneity, optimism, enthusiasm, high energy, mental flexibility, novelty seeking, impulsiveness and curiosity. These traits are associated with specific genes in the dopamine system. These people often have very expressive faces and love using words like “adventure”, “energy”, “new”, “fun”, “active”, “travel” and similar.
The Phlegmatic Type
These people are mainly defined by their social skills, such as their ability to express themselves and read other people face expressions and body language. They do well at connecting facts and seeing “the big picture". They are nurturing, sympathetic, agreeable and emotionally expressive. Some of these character traits are linked with estrogen that is present in both men and women. Physically you can recognize them by their smooth skin, full lips, round faces and small noses. Their favorite words are “passion”, “passionate”, “sensitive” and “sweet”.
The Choleric Type
This type is associated with testosterone, which is also present in men and women, but more so in men. These people are direct, focused, tough, analytical, logical and strategic. They have a great deal of courage and like to compete, often against each other. They often have square jaws, high cheekbones and high foreheads and love to use words like “intellect”, “ambition” and “challenge”.
The Melancholic Type
Melancholics tend to be calm, loyal and orderly, just as their personality name sounds. They are cautious and conventional. These men and women inherited genes in the serotonin system and their favorite words are “family”, “loyal”, “respect”, “caring”, “values” and “moral”.
Every personality type and type of character can be modified by experiences by your choice of good or bad philosophical apps.
.
EXPLANATION
The derivation of the word "philosophy" from the Greek, meaning “philo—love of, affinity for, liking of” and Sophos—wisdom. The term “sophist—means one who loves knowledge. Therefore a Philosophist is “one who loves knowledge.”
The popular public Dictionary, Wikipedia, defines PHILOSOPHY as: “Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems concerning matters such as existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. The Ancient Greek word (philosophia) was probably coined by Pythagoras and literally means "love of wisdom" or "friend of wisdom".
Philosophy as a whole is traditionally split into four or more main branches. The main four are:
1.) Metaphysics
(the study of existence and the nature of reality)
2.) Epistemology
(the study of knowledge, and how and what we know)
3.) Ethics
(the study of how people should act, and what is good and valuable)
4.) Aesthetics
(the study of basic philosophical questions about art and beauty)
In addition to these, two more branches are often added:
a.) Logic
(the study of good reasoning, by valid inference and demonstration)
b.) Political Philosophy
(the study of how people should
interact in a proper society)
Philosophy is historically further divided in one of three ways:
CHRONOLOGICALLY. This can be done numerous ways, but it is often done with "frames" such as Ancient, Medieval, Modern, and Contemporary. For example, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle would fall under Ancient while Hume, Descartes, and Leibniz would be in Modern. This gets even more complicated by the fact that what we would call "Contemporary" in this "frame" really has two branches: (1) Analytical philosophy and (2) Continental philosophy. In Analytical philosophy, one is looking usually at things like the philosophy of science and formalistic logic; conversely, Continental philosophy is not easily defined because it can cover everything from phenomenology (Husserl), existentialism (Sartre), linguistics (Saussure), and power (Foucault) to postmodernity (Lyotard) and feminism (Irigaray).
GEOGRAPHICALLY. This is usually simply done via the East/West divide established by British imperialism. Eastern philosophy includes Shintoism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Sufism, Taoism, etc. In contrast, Western philosophy is what most people think of when they think of philosophy and what the previous category of chronology was framing. Sometimes, there are colleges courses in British philosophy (eg., Mill and Benthem), American pragmatism (Dewey), French philosophy (Derrida), etc.
TOPICALLY. The word "topically" doesn't really fit; it may be better to call it categorically, but each of these are really "subsets" within philosophy. Yet, any statement has any of these within it. It is divided into six sub-parts:
Metaphysics--what is the fundamental nature of reality?
Epistemology--what counts as knowledge? How does one know when he/she has knowledge?
Ethics--what counts as "right" action? The study of how man should act.
Aesthetics--what counts as beauty?
Logic- Logic is the study of correct reasoning and arguments.
Politics- the study of how men should interact in a proper society and what constitutes proper.
Wisdom, leadership, happiness, love and the capacity to resolve human conflicts cannot be guaranteed by any philosophy; but philosophy has traditionally pursued these ideals systematically, and its methods, its literature, and its ideas are of constant use in the quest to realize them. Sound reasoning, critical thinking, well-constructed prose, maturity of judgement, a strong sense of relevance, and an enlightened consciousness are never obsolete. The study of comparative philosophy is the most direct route, and in many cases the only route, to the full development of these qualities.
Hereafter, the remaining part of this Section will be devoted to the study of various schools and movements of Philosophy in a Topical manner. Since many are antiquated , tied to specific religions and/or religious practices or no longer relevant , only the major ,still in use schools of Philosophy will be examined here.
For a more detailed analysis, complete listing of Philosophical schools and movements ,and as a reference material, see this excellent website: http://www.philosophybasics.com/general.html
Again here, like in the section on comparative religion, some of this material has been copied , pasted , re-arranged and modified in order to make this section intellectually manageable and understandable. Nevertheless, there remains much in the way of original work here. The purpose of all of this is to rearrange the information found in highly technical and difficult to understand scholarly text and treatises (that has had the practical effect of keeping the information esoteric in nature) into short pieces of easily understood information. Hopefully, that has been accomplished here.
Thanks.
Scott Ramsey
September 13, 2017