Heraclitus and the Ionian Philosophers

 

For this Wednesday's class (16/11/22), we will discuss the philosophy of Heraclitus and some of the other Ionian Philosophers.  The above Youtube video gives an introduction to Heraclitus.  

The following articles discuss the Ionian Philosophers:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ionian_School_(philosophy) 
• Ionian Thinkers by Professor C D C Reeve
  

The Presocratic Philosophers

 

We will be looking at the Presocratic Philosophers for the remainder of this term.  The video above gives an introduction to the Presocratic Philosophers.

The following is the playlist of videos of Presocratic Philosophers from the Academy of Ideas:

• The Presocratics videos from the Academy of Ideas on Youtube

The part of the chart on Western Philosophy relating to the Presocratics is attached below:

Existentialism

The following article from Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy provides a good introduction to Existentialism.

Existentialism - Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

History of Philosophy

 

The picture above is a small part of a fairly long chart on the History of Philosophy from superscholar.org.  The chart provides an abbreviated, easy to follow, and informative overview of the general flow of thought in Western Philosophy.  Although probably missing some influential scholars, it does a great job at presenting the general timeline of Western philosophy.  I hope you like this chart and find it helpful.

Click on the link below to view:

• The chart on History of Western Philosophy via the Superscholar website

Below is a chart on the flow of thought in Eastern Philosophy.  Due to limited space and simplicity, I would think many important philosophers are not listed in the chart, nevertheless the chart still does a great job at capturing the basic movement of things. I hope you enjoy this chart find it helpful.

Click on the link below to view:

• The chart on History of Eastern Philosophy via the Superscholar website

Conscience - what is this thing?

 Conscience

Please find attached to the link below the extract from Hugh MacKay's book 'Right and Wong':

• What is this thing called 'conscience'?

Social Identity Theory

 

The followings are some articles on Social Identity Theory:

Britannica - Social Identity Theory

Simply Psychology - Social Identity Theory

Wikipedia - Social Identity Theory

The following article talks about the Minimal Group Paradigm:

Minimal Group Paradigm - Wikipedia

In-group bias and Out-group bias

 

At the end of term 3, we briefly looked at in-group bias and out-group bias.  The above videos talk more about the issues involved.  

Discrimination and biases may be difficult to discuss. But surely understanding our flaws is as important if not more as understanding our strengths.    

Some questions for discussions may be:

• Are discrimination and biases part of human nature? 
• Are these characteristics still appropriate?
• If not, why not?
• How should we view these characteristics in ourselves and others?