Western Philosophy: Greek Thinkers to Modern Rationalism and Empiricism
Greek foundations
Western philosophy begins with Presocratics asking about archē: Thales water, Heraclitus flux, Parmenides being. Socrates turns to definition and ethical inquiry; Plato posits Forms and knowledge as recollection; Aristotle develops substance, four causes, syllogism and virtue as habituation.
Rationalism and empiricism
Descartes' rationalism starts from doubt and reaches 'I think, therefore I am'; Spinoza and Leibniz systematize reason and substance. Empiricism holds knowledge derives from experience: Locke's tabula rasa, Berkeley's 'to be is to be perceived', Hume's analysis of causation as custom and constant conjunction. Kant responds with synthesis: experience requires both sensible intuition and concepts.
Worked example
Hume asks what impression grounds 'every event has a cause'. We observe A followed by B, not a necessary link. Reasoning: if necessity were perceived, it would be an impression; none is found; so causal necessity is a habit of expectation. A rationalist replies that causality is a necessary concept of understanding. The disagreement is about the source and justification of knowledge.
Traps
Rationalism is not 'reason instead of emotion'; empiricism is not 'no reasoning'. Plato's Forms are not psychological ideas in the mind. Do not make Hume a simple sceptic who denies all belief; he explains belief naturalistically. Do not collapse Descartes' methodic doubt with actual atheism.