Heroes and Villains in Western Philosophy

• Published in: The objective standard Vol. 17; no. 1; pp. 11 - 38
• Main Author: Bernstein, Andrew
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Glen Allen Glen Allen Press, LLC 22.03.2022
• Subjects: Heroism & heroes; Hostility; Hume, David; Kant, Immanuel; Men; Objectivity; Philosophers; Philosophy; Rand, Ayn; Subjectivity; Greece; New York; United Kingdom
• ISSN: 1559-1905; 1559-1913

The history of Western philosophy is essentially a struggle of the human mind to discover truth and the method for achieving it, the method of objectivity.A number of leading philosophers struggled heroically to identify, define, and explain this method. In this context, a “hero” is an individual of outstanding ability who struggles against substantial impediments and/or antagonism in the pursuit of truth and the method of objectivity.1Prior to the birth of philosophy in Classical Greece circa the 6th century BC, mankind’s efforts to explain natural phenomena consisted mostly of stories and literature. For example, in the 8th century BC, Homer wrote great works such as the Odyssey and the Iliad, and told stirring tales about a legendary warrior whose moral character rose to equal his martial prowess—and about a wily, courageous man who battled gods, monsters, storms, sirens, and men to return home to his son and beloved wife. But these explanations of natural phenomena are mythical. A terrible storm rages because the god Poseidon is angry; a volcano erupts and destroys a village because Hephaestus is enraged; spring blooms with abundance at Demeter’s joy. Notice that such explanations are quasi-religious, referring to deities, but they are not otherworldly. The Greeks believed that these gods were of the natural world and should be accessible to sensory awareness—even if never observed. In myth, they appear to human beings; in real life, no one ever encountered them. Belief in such beings has no empirical basis. These are legends, not theories. Such stories are rooted in a desire of the writer (the subject) to provide some explanation of natural events for which men had no empirically supported explanation. Because such explanations are based on feelings, not facts, they are subjective, not objective. The terms “subjective” and “objective” are used a great deal in philosophy and, for clarity, they must be precisely defined. Toward that end, let’s consider another example, also from Ancient Greece.