1.1A- Ancient Philisophical Influences Flashcards
Wher is knwon to be the basis of Western Philosophy?
Greece
Athen Vs. Sparta
-between 431-404 BCE there were at war.
-Sparta was a kingdom, and wasn’t the centre of arts or culture, development of the war was their focus.
-Athens was the centre of civilisation/ arts and was a democracy, ruled by it’s citizens (men)
-shifted power from Athens to Sparta
Who was Socrates?
-born in 469 BCE
-didn’t write anything down but taught through asking questions (why?)
-was a soldier but changed perspective
problems with Socrates
-some teachings admired Spartalise
-lover of an Athenial general who fled athens for the Spartalise (he adivsed the enemies)
-put on trial and found guilty of mocking the gods and drank hemlock, poison, and died in 399 BCE.
Who was Plato?
-philisophical and literary genius
-taught by and highly influenced by Socrates
-set up The Academy (seen as the first university) in 385 BCE and wrote a series of ‘Dialouges’
Who was Pythagoras?
-best known as a mathemetician
-570-495 BCE
-had a fomr of atomic theory anf the power of numbers
-argues where math is certain, our knowledge of the world (that we use our senses to experience) is not and therefore inferior.
Who was Heraclitius?
-535-475 BCE
-best known for his concern for contasnt change in nature
Plato’s theory of the forms
-Plato’s understanding of reality; he was a rationalist- believed that the unvierse is knowable by mind alone.
-believed enlighted inidviduals (philosophers) oculd see beyond the world of the sense, to the real nature of things.
-In our mind we have aperfect idea of what something looks lige, the ideal version coulnd’t exist becuase the world is constantly changing, so there must be a world were these idea exist, which is was Plato argues is the Realm of the Forms.
-His arguement is that we must have prior knowledge of what something is, so the Form (essence) must exist somewhere.
Limitations of the Realm of the Forms
-sometimes, Plato wrote as though there were Forms only of qualities, however, at some times, he seemed to think there is a Form for everything in the world.
Plato’s Allegory of the cave
-A famous Allegory form his book ‘Republic’
-There are 3 prisoners in a cave, chained up in front of a wall, with a passageway and a fire behind them, which cast shaodws onto the wall in front of them. They see shadows of people and objects reflected but cannot make them out, they hear noises, but are echoey and distorted, therefore they cannot make them out. One of the prisoners is freed and walks out of the cave and is blinded by the light and the object. He runs back in to tell his fellow prisoners, but they cannot make out what he is saying and don’t recognise him at all due to the shadows, thefore Plato shows with this allegory the elightenment found when we see beyond the world of the sense, into the Relams of the Forms.
Who was Aristotle?
-born in Stagria in 384 BCE
-went to The Academy, there for nearly 20 years
-became a tutor to Alexander the Great
-Work isn’t well perserve
-one of his greatest discoveries is the fact that the Earth is a sphere
Differences between Plato and Aristotle
-Aristotle can be described as the 1st empiricist, which his method is known as by type and difference
-they disagree on the way in which we learn
Aristotle’s 4 causes
-interested in the nature of the world
-Matieral cause: the amtter or sustabnce that something is made from
-Efficient cause: the proccess of coming into existence, for example, a silversmith would be the efficient cause of a silver ring because they made it
-Formal cause: describes how we know what something is, for example, for a ring some descriptors would be the hollow shape, having a hole in the middle and claws to hold a diamond
-Final cause: describes the purpose, why this object is here
evaluation of the 4 causes
gives a true picture of reality:
-matieral cause is obvious, so uses a good basis of knowledge
-final cause expalins why everything has a purpose
Doesn’t give a true picture of reality:
-No matieral cause for colours
-David Hume argues that we may not be able to observe 2 processes
The Prime Mover
-Aristotle’s God, indifferent to the unvierse, contemplating his own perfection, creates motionny drawing all things to himself as the ultimate final cause.
-The Prime Mover is the only example of pure actuality
The Prime Mover explains the world
-can observe that natural things seem to have telos
-explains why there is perpetual motion
The Prime Mover doesn’t help explain the world
-observation of purpose is a human contstruct
-Aristotle cannot observe The Prime Mover
