Landmarks in philosophy

• Five milestones that have punctuated human thought over the centuries

Since philosophy has never been accorded its rightful place in our society, the grasp of philosophical concepts on the part of most individuals is based almost entirely on a fragment heard in this motion-picture or a random line read in that novel. It’s hardly surprising under the circumstances if that understanding leaves something to be desired. It is with this background in mind that the author has written a few lines by way of introduction to this dynamic subject. With obvious constraints for space, the author hopes to be forgiven for failing to go into more detail.

‘You can’t step in the same river twice.’ Heraclitus of Ephesus (535–475 BC) is one of the earliest Greek philosophers. It’s surprising how sophisticated and ahead-of-his time his thought was considering that he comes from an age when they used to count backwards. Foreseeing that many daredevils would try to prove him wrong by stepping in the same river twice, he goes on to explain: ‘It’s not the same river, and you are not the same man.’ No, it’s not a dig on your masculinity; Heraclitus is merely describing the fleeting nature of experience, and the ever-changing ‘realities’ including yourself. Contrast this with the equally antiquated Parmenides who held that nothing ever changed, and it only seemed so. The two thoughts have been competing ever since; we must give Heraclitus’s view precedence as it is adhered to by bachelors and youngsters in general, while Parmenides’s is by older, married folks. An amazing fact about Heraclitus is that the poor fellow had no first name.

‘I think, therefore I am.’ René Descartes (1596–1650) was a French mathematician and philosopher. In addition to being considered the father of modern western philosophy, Descartes has the honour (or infamy, if you are an engineering student) of having the cartesian coordinate system named after him. His otherwise French text Discours de la méthode included the ‘Cogito ergo sum’ part in Latin, which appears to have been the language of choice to express profound things in those days; just as, ironically, French is today. Va savoir pourquoi! Whether you are a thinking man or otherwise, don’t worry about your existence; for if you are reading this, you most definitely exist. Everything else is in doubt, and could be an illusion or your own dream. Western philosophy is sometimes categorised as pre-Cogito and post-Cogito, although logic (another branch of philosophy) tells us that the same can be said about any event barring the Big Bang, which takes us to our next milestone.

‘Principle of sufficient reason.’ Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716) was an accomplished mathematician (he is credited for inventing calculus independently of Newton) and an important philosopher. His principal of sufficient reason states that God does nothing without a sufficient purpose or reason. That is, God is not whimsical or random in his decisions. Now, Newton had argued that time and space must be absolute – or independent of everything, including God. Leibniz was having none of it, because with absolute time and space God would be obliged to pick an arbitrary time and point in space to put his universe in, which would violate the law of sufficient reason. Apart from the minor problem that God had no option but to follow Leibniz’s laws, this was a clever argument. Since it ruled out the Steady State model of the universe, this was a powerful argument in favour of the Big Bang model; and he could very easily have proposed the latter more than two hundred years before it was actually proposed. In fact, it’s a mystery how after this flash of brilliance, he failed to join the remaining dots. But then, having to wear that heavy – and quite frankly silly – wig for sixty odd years must have taken its toll on the intellect.

‘God is dead.’ Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) was a German philosopher who has had more influence on popular literature and cinema than all other philosophers combined. Unfortunately, he is also one of the most misunderstood philosophers. He goes on to explain that God not only is dead, but remains dead, and what’s more: we have all killed Him. The ‘remaining dead’ part is important to negate the Christian idea of Resurrection – he has said elsewhere that the last Christian had died on the cross. However, he is not thrilled by the idea, as is widely believed by theists who point out triumphantly that God had the last laugh. Nietzsche is probably the world’s greatest reluctant atheist to-date. His predictions of chaos and destruction for the post-God world (in a manner of speaking) have turned out to be remarkably accurate.

‘I am what I am not. I am not what I am.’ Jean-Paul Charles Aymard Sartre (1905–1980) was a French writer, political activist, a Marxist and a leading existentialist philosopher, all rolled into one. The rumour that only seven people knew what Sartre really meant, all of them dead, is most definitely false. And no, he couldn’t have been referring to his sexual orientation, for he lived in a long open relationship with prominent feminist Simone Lucie Ernestine Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir. ‘I am, what I am not. I am not, what I am’ simply means: I am not what I am in the sense of not being merely my facticity. I am what I am not in the sense that I am continually creating myself and turning myself into something that I was not previously. See, easy as ABC! Hence, with Sartre we have come full circle from Heraclitus, traversing 2600 years and yet saying pretty much the same thing – a not uncommon realisation in the exciting world of philosophy. It should be noted however that while Heraclitus didn’t even have one, Sartre was blessed with four given names. Perhaps there was a deadlock on the question of christening him, and all close relatives ended up naming him separately.