1 - Prehistory & Antiquity Flashcards
What do language and writing allow humans to do and what makes it so important?
Language = representation communicated from one person to another
Writing = representation can be brought into someone’s head without the other being physically present
It becomes possible to have shared representations (aka the invention of the above, and numbers, to allow for the spread and storage of information)
What are four developments possible due to the “invention” of language, writing and numbers?
Religion, money, complex social structures and agriculture
What specifically is a type of knowledge that comes about because of the ability of representations?
The concept of truth and how one comes to it/what makes something true or not.
aka “theories of truth” in philosophy
How does agriculture lend itself to social developments?
Settlements and a (somewhat) stable source of food > not everyone is concerned with the arrangement of food > community with different roles and a hierarchy > higher ranks have time
What are the key concerns of ontology and epistemology?
Ontology = the study of being (what is the world like)
epistemology = the study of knowledge (aka theory of truth/how we come to it)
What are the key ideas associated with Heraclitus?
b4 socrates, etc.
- Doubts on things staying static
- The only constant is change itself
- Panta Rhei (everything flows)
What is an important development in ancient Greece?
set-up for scientific fields
Systematic research
Rationalism vs. Empiricism?
Knowledge comes from reason (cor. with nativism) and knowledge comes from sensory experience (cor. with tabula rasa)
What are Plato’s key ideas?
- Most knowledge comes from reason, specifically the most important (good, true, etc.)
- Knowledge is innate (cosmos-soul, reincarnation, divine origin)
- (as expl. for the above) We only see imperfect forms (shadows), but can see them perfectly in the mind- so we must remember them from the divine origin (Meno’s slave & getting 2x square from one)
- Also the cave example
What are Aristotle’s key ideas?
- How to gain knowledge through observation
- However, self-evident axioms cannot be rejected by observations
- The axioms are acquired through experience (aka he was not a nativist)
- True statements correpsond with states of affairs in reality (realism?)
- Also his induction (through observation)
- Logic (combining laws in a truthful way): From axioms we deduce theory using logic (premises/conclusion SSR)
- Technigally both a rationalist and an empirist, but as the axioms are more important, moreso a rationalist
What are stoicism, epicureanism and skepticism?
Stoicism = Control, self-discipline, minimize extreme feelings
Epicureanism = Happiness as persuit, live life as balanced as possible, temperament is important
Skepticism = refrain from judgement, one doesn’t know anything for sure
Pyrrho’s key ideas? What did it inspire?
- One can never know anything for sure
- Inspired Descartes and Hume
- The freedom to question anything is in modern days an important part of science
“[The] mind is in a sense potentially whatever is
thinkable, though actually it is nothing until it has
thought. What it thinks must be in it just as characters
may be said to be on a writing-tablet on which as yet
nothing stands written: this is exactly what happens with
mind”
Who said this?
Hint: antiquity
Aristotle
“We must, therefore, pursue the things that make for
happiness, seeing that when happiness is present, we
have everything; but when it is absent, we do everything
to possess it.”
Who said this?
Hint: antiquity
Epicurus
What were three features of the preliterate civilisation?
- Knowledge = “know-how” > aka no underlying principles
- animism
- Fluidity of knowledge (aka spread limited to about two gen. and mostly practical knowledge is passed down)
