We spent some time on introducing ourselves and on administrative matters – the structure of the course, evaluation etc. See Evaluation and Syllabus above; see also the previous posts on this blog.
We also tried to spell out what this course is about. Of course, since in this course we ask, among other things, what are concepts, we cannot start with a definition of concepts. So we implicitly started with words – since, intuitively at least, words stand for, or express, concepts.
What we tried was to grasp some of the problems raised by concepts by looking at some historical examples. In the Meno, Socrates says that we first need to know what is virtue before we can know if it can be taught. In Euthyphro we see the same pattern – what is piety is now the question.
This kind of question – ‘what is X?’ – seems to imply something like this: X is a kind of thing. There are many X-s around [e.g. many different virtuous acts], but, to the extent that they are Xs, they all have something in common. What they have in common can be captured by a definition. What the definition will specify is, in fact, our concept of X. Something is an X if and only if it satisfies the conditions given by the definition.
At the very roots of Western philosophy – of Western thought in fact - we find this effort to define fundamental concepts. Fundamental in different respects – for thought [what is knowledge? what is truth?], for society and social life [what is good? what is value? what is virtue?] or for art [what is beauty?].
This question came up quickly in the class: can we really define these fundamental concepts? If we leave that aside for a moment, we can ask: can we define any concept at all? It seems that we can, at least in logic or mathematics. But what about something as simple as ‘table’? Surely we know what tables are? But what is it that we know? Is it a definition?
The point is not that we can be seriously skeptical about tables and our knowledge thereof. The point is that in a simple move we question what tradition taught us about thought, about how the mind meets and understands the world.
More on definitions next time.
