Consider the three following questions:
What is knowledge?
What is the nature of reality?
What is the good life, and how ought I live it?
These are the basic questions that were considered by the Ancient Greek Philosophers. They are also critical questions for our own lives today. As you have learned in the course, philosophical inquiry is fundamental to the human experience.
A. Directions
Step 1: Define Philosophy
Create a concrete definition of philosophy. Then, distinguish and define each of the three main branches of philosophy introduced in Challenge 1.1.
Your response should be approximately 100-200 words.
Make sure your information and citations come from the Sophia tutorials to support your response. When citing material from a tutorial, please include the name of the lesson and use the following format for in-text citations:
EXAMPLE (Aristotle’s Highest Good, n.d.)
EXAMPLE (The Footnotes to Plato, n.d.)
Please note these are examples only. You will have to adjust the citation based on the specific part of the tutorial you are referencing.
Step 2: Connections and Differences
First, identify which of the following questions align with the three branches of philosophy outlined in the course:
What is knowledge?
What is the nature of reality?
What is the good life, and how ought I live it?
Second, illustrate the differences between the three branches of philosophy by applying a specific Greek philosopher to each branch and question, using examples from the course material. For example, explain how Socrates would answer the question “What is knowledge?” or how Epictetus would answer the question “What is the good life?”
Your response here should be approximately 200-400 words.