Term
- Famous as an Astronomer,
Geometer, and wise advisor
- [Fictional?] story about _______ falling into a well and then making lots of money |
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Metaphysics
A version of Monism: Water is the fundamental nature [phusis] of all that exists
The motion of water is attributed to divine soul |
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Epistemology
Inductive arguments used to reach conclusions about reality |
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- Astronomer and geographer; may have been the first person to make a map of the world
- May have been a student of Thales |
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Metaphysics
- Another version of monism: the nature (phusis) of all that exists is the indefinite or boundless (apeiron).
- This divine stuff moves and yields substantial opposites of hot (taking the form of fire) and cold (taking the form of dark mist). The world is then produced by the interaction of these opposites.
- All change and movement in the world is orderly, lawlike, and takes place by necessity. |
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Epistemology
1) If the earth is moving, then there is a reason it is moving [tacit premise].
2) The earth is at the center of the universe and equally related to its extremes.
3) If something is at the center and equally related to the extremes, then there is no reason for it to move up rather than down or sideways.
4) It is impossible for something to move simultaneously in opposite directions.
Therefore, the earth “is at rest of necessity.” |
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| May have been a student of Anaximander |
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Metaphysics
Another version of monism: the fundamental nature (phusis) of all reality is dense mist (aer)
Anaximenes identifies specific processes by which the fundamental nature of reality is transformed into everything else: condensation and rarefaction |
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Fire Air Winds Clouds Water Earth Stone
Less Condensed to More Condensed |
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Development of the notion of nature (phusis)
The milesians posit one, all-pervasive entity (monism)
This moves by its own necessity in an ordered (and thus predictable) manner
Divinity is not abandoned, but altered.
used to explain phenomenon
talked about as being a trait of universal nature |
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New criteria for a theory of reality
An adequate theory must explain everything -- what appears and what does not
To make claims about the unseen, arguments must be used.
Theories should be economical |
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| Knowledge is valuable for its own sake |
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- Sets up the first true philosophical school in Croton, off the southern coast of Italy
- Known for being extremely learned in a great number of areas |
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Metaphysics
Accept Pythagoras’ doctrine of “the transmigration of souls |
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Epistemology
Emphasize collection, classification, ranking |
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Ethics
Venerate Pythagoras’ views about religion and custom |
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Metaphysics and Epistemology
These thinkers believe that reality is mathematical, and that number holds the key to understanding everything that goes on in universe
They pursue knowledge in philosophy, mathematics, music, and astronomy |
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Term
| Used Gnomons (carpenter squares) and musical ratios. |
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- Born in Colophon
- Forced to wander around Greece because of political instability
- Engages in philosophy and poetry |
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Metaphysics
1) Extremely critical of popular religion
In Homer and Hesiod, the gods have vices, fight, steal, and engage in debauchery
These traits are simply the result of humans projecting their own self-image onto God
2) There is one God who is
More powerful than any other
has all the faculties of perception
is able to move all things with his mind
is complete, whole, and unmoving
Accessible only through human inquiry
3) Divinity is clearly separated from anything that goes on in the world |
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Epistemology
We must engage in cautious, careful searching if we are to make discoveries.
Knowledge is not the same as true belief |
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Term
- Born in Ephesus
- Later writers call him __________ the “Obscure” or refer to him as “The Riddler” |
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| Epistemology: knowledge requires interpretative skill |
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Metaphysical Themes
- The Unity of Opposites
- Logos and fire
- The “Flux” doctrine |
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Term
| The “Unity of Opposites”: opposites are connected |
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| The “Unity of Opposites”: hidden connections produce stability and coherence |
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| “The Unity of Opposites”: connected opposites are themselves connected at the cosmic level in God |
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| The “Unity of Opposites”: at the cosmic level there is opposition with coherence and stability |
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Metaphysics: The Cycle of Measured Fire
- Fire is not the only element
- But fire is preeminent
because it best exhibits a special kind of measure, balance, and regularity that characterizes the whole of reality |
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The Flux Doctrine
Everything is constantly changing. One never steps into the same river twice. (misinterpretation) |
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| Psychology: soul is related to the body and to world order |
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Ethical And Political Ideas
Many human customs are meaningless or even ridiculous.
Human nature is simply one aspect of logos.
Non-conventional standards for ethics and laws can be found in the cosmic order. |
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Term
- Writes in poetic form
- Extremely influential |
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Term
The Milesians: Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes
Xenophanes
Heraclitus
Pythagoras |
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Definition
| The birth of Western Philosophy |
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Term
Parmenides
Zeno, Melissus
The Pluralists: Anaxagoras, Empedocles
Atomism: Leucippus and Democritus
The Sophists |
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Term
The Milesians: Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes
Xenophanes
Heraclitus
Pythagoras
Parmenides
Zeno, Melissus
The Pluralists: Anaxagoras, Empedocles
Atomism: Leucippus and Democritus
The Sophists |
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Definition
| Classical Greek Philosophy |
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Epicureanism
Stoicism
Neoplatonism
Skepticism |
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Epistemology:
searching for a priori knowledge
Leaving the world of ordinary space
and time by using argument |
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a true belief we must justify by consulting experience
Example: “Rainstorms are most common in February”
Example: “The bathroom is on the 3rd floor by the pop machine |
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a true belief we can justify without consulting experience
Putative Example: “2,354 + 1,002 = 3,356”
Putative Example: “The interior angles of a triangle add up to 180 degrees |
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Term
a true belief we must justify by consulting experience
Example: “Rainstorms are most common in February”
Example: “The bathroom is on the 3rd floor by the pop machine |
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Premise 1
Whenever we think the truth about an object, there are two, and only two, possibilities:
Either we are thinking truly about what is,
or we are thinking truly about what is not
Premise 2
But the second option is impossible: we could never think truly about what is not
Why?
What is not is nothing – and thinking nothing is not true thought.
Conclusion
Either we think truly of what is, or we think truly of what is not.
It is not the case that we think truly of what is not.
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Thus, we think truly only of what is |
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____________ argument leads to a radical kind of metaphysical monism.
The only existing thing is an Unchanging One, and the only true thought is of this One. |
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Term
Ideas of creation and destruction
e.g. if something is created, it is what was not at an earlier time
Ideas of alteration
e.g. if something is changed, its earlier state is now what is not
Ideas of division and partition
e.g. if something is a part, it is what is not a different part |
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- Talented navel commander
- A follower of Parmenides |
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Term
Follower of Parmenides
Writes a book with 40 arguments,
each of which tries to show that the
hypothesis “being is many” leads
to a contradiction. |
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Metaphysics
The _________ posit a radical type of monism that suggests that there is but one, undivided, unchanging, eternal One. |
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Epistemology
There is a clear commitment to seeking a priori knowledge
All beliefs that are justified by experience (all a posteriori claims) are false. |
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- Development of Democracy
- Victory over the Persian Empire
- Peak of Athenian Culture: Athens heads the Delian League
- Development of Tragedy as a dramatic form (the festival of Dioysius)
- Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta |
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1st General Comparison and Contrast with Parmenides
The comparison: it is true that the world we can know by using philosophy is different from the world of sense experience.
The contrast: but we need an explanation for the divergence between what we see and what is true of the world beyond our experience of it.
2nd General Comparison and Contrast with Parmenides
Comparison: it is true that pure creation and destruction are impossible: what-is cannot come from, or go into, what-is-not
Contrast: Parmenides construed all alteration as creation and destruction. But alteration is possible…what-is can simply be rearranged |
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Definition
| The Pluralist and Atomist Response to Parmenides |
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Term
- Lives in Acragas
- Active politician, physician, philosopher, and poet
- Flashy and eccentric |
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Metaphysics
Four “roots”:
Earth, Air, Fire, and Water
Two forces:
Love and Strife
These are never generated or destroyed.
Everything else comes to be or passes away because of a mixture of these |
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Ethics
- Souls (literally, “gods” or “spirits” [daimones]) are doomed for “thrice ten thousand seasons” to inhabit other living creatures (plants, animals, and humans)
- Souls better their plight by avoiding any sort of killing, offense, or false promise
- The closest to becoming godly again is to be a prophet, poet, physician, or political leader |
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- Moves to Athens in 460s B.C.
- Forced to leave Athens in 434 B.C. |
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Metaphysics
Creation and destruction are impossible: what we call “coming to be” should be called “being mixed together”, and what we call “perishing” should be called “separated apart.”
But according to __________ this means…
There can be no “smallest” being
Every kind of thing (hair, flesh, bread, etc.) must continue to be what it is through alteration |
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Metaphysics
If all qualities continue through alteration, how is change possible?
“In everything there is a portion of everything.”
Each thing is the kind of thing it is because of a preponderance of seeds of that kind. |
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Metaphysics
The role of Mind (Nous)
Long ago there was an indistinguishable mixture of seeds of all things
Mind (Nous), the one thing that is not mixed in everything else, separated the seeds to a great extent, and still rules over everything. |
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Epistemology
Our senses are not reliable sources of knowledge. The senses tell us that the world is full of beings coming into existence and passing away from existence, but in reality there is only alteration.
“On account of their [the senses’] feebleness we are unable to discern the truth.” |
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- Lives sometime in the 5th century
- Probably the first person to posit “atomism”
- Overshadowed by his most famous student, Democritus |
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- The legend of the “happy philosopher”
- Probably takes over and systematizes the philosophy of Leucippus |
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Metaphysics
Reality is partly composed little units of indivisible being called “atoms”
temnw= = “to cut”
tomon = “a piece” or “a slice”
atomon = a thing not cut
Reality is also made up by what-is-not. What-is-not does exist, as void. |
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Term
1) Suppose any given being was completely divisible
2) If a being is completely divided, then what is left after the division is either (a) a magnitude, (b) nothing, or (c) a set of points.
3) But (a) is impossible: a magnitude cannot be left since that would still be divisible
4) But (b) is impossible: the components of the original being would be nothing, and the being would come from nothing and would be made of nothing
5) But (c) is impossible: points have no magnitude and so taken together could not make a magnitude
Thus, it is not the case that any given being is completely divisible |
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Democritus
An (A Priori) Argument for Atoms |
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Metaphysics: Atomic Theory
- Infinite in number in an infinite void
- Infinite number of shapes, and probably different sizes
- This accounts for how atoms “catch” on each other, and then cluster together to make macroscopic objects
- Always in motion and weightless |
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Metaphysics
Atoms can never be created from, or destroyed into, void.
All change is to be understood as separation and combination of atoms
Atoms are moving because of “blows” from other atoms, and all of their motion happens by necessity. |
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Epistemology
True beliefs are never found in the “bastard judgments” of sense perception
The qualities we perceive (sweetness, bitterness, heat, coldness, colors) are merely conventions [nomoi]; in reality (in nature [phusis]) there are only atoms and void. |
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Definition
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Epistemology
True beliefs are never found in the “bastard judgments” of sense perception
The qualities we perceive (sweetness, bitterness, heat, coldness, colors) are merely conventions [nomoi]; in reality (in nature [phusis]) there are only atoms and void. |
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Definition
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Term
Epistemology
True beliefs are never found in the “bastard judgments” of sense perception
The qualities we perceive (sweetness, bitterness, heat, coldness, colors) are merely conventions [nomoi]; in reality (in nature [phusis]) there are only atoms and void. |
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___________ is not a skeptic about our ability to know an objective reality beyond our subjective perceptions:
There is a perfectly comprehensible process by which our perceptions are created: atoms of different shapes hit our sense organs
While sense perceptions do not deliver the truth about objective reality, they do give us evidence which we can use to reason about reality |
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Ethics
The soul, like anything else, is just a collection of determined atoms; this thought may have lead Democritus to endorse some sort of hedonism. |
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Term
| The most famous sophists: |
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Definition
| Protagoras, Gorgias, Antiphon |
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| The __________ flourished in democratic cities: for a fee, they would train young men in skills of persuasion and public speaking |
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Term
| Though they share some similarities, the sophists did not think of themselves as part of a _________________. |
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Ethical Themes
- Virtue is something that is learned
- Anyone, with proper training, can be virtuous
- Ethical norms are not based in anything natural. Rather, the sophists draw a sharp distinction between nature (phusis) and convention (nomos), and think of all ethical claims as conventional. Indeed, they may have embraced ethical relativism. |
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Definition
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Ethical Themes
- Virtue is something that is learned
- Anyone, with proper training, can be virtuous
- Ethical norms are not based in anything natural. Rather, the sophists draw a sharp distinction between nature (phusis) and convention (nomos), and think of all ethical claims as conventional. Indeed, they may have embraced ethical relativism. |
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- Our ethical beliefs are not based on universal laws of nature
- Rather, our ethical beliefs are relative to specific contexts and frames of reference
This is___________. |
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Consider the claim that burning the dead is ethical.
Now consider two areas, Greece and India, that have different attitudes toward this claim.
If one person (or group) thinks that X is F, and another person (or group) thinks that X is not-F, then X is itself neither F or not-F.
Greeks think that burning the dead is ethical, and the Indians think that burning the dead is unethical
Thus, burning the dead is itself neither ethical nor unethical |
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Definition
| Argument for Ethical Relativism |
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| Early Advocates of Relativism? |
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- 1st Persian War
- Battle of Marathon |
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Term
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Definition
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| - Battles of Thermopylae and Salamis |
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| - The Athenian Sicilian expedition |
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Term
| - Athens surrenders to Sparta |
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Term
| - Oligarchic Rule of the 30 in Athens |
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| - Democracy restored in Athens |
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