6.2 Flashcards
Which belief did Xenophanes challenge?
Anthropomorphism
What does Xenophanes say about anthropomorphism?
it is a consequence of human imagination rather than divine nature
Which other ethnicities does Xenophanes mention and how do they describe their gods?
Ethiopians - snub-nosed, black-skinned
Thracians - blue-eyed, fair-haired
Which three animals does Xenophanes use to represent his ideas about anthropomorphism?
What is the quote?
oxen, horses, lions
“each species would make he body of its gods in accordance with its own appearance”
What does Xenophanes say Homer and Hesiod have attributed to the gods?
Who does he think this reflects instead of the gods?
theft, adultery, mutual fraud
us
What does Xenophanes think we know for sure about the gods?
nothing
What was Xenophanes?
monotheist / henotheist
What does Xenophanes think about the god?
he is omniscient
In summary, what are the 3 things Xenophanes argued?
1 - challenged divine anthropomorphism (physical & behavioural)
2 - insists no one had certainty about the gods
3 - believed in one omniscient, omnipresent god who rules through thought
Where is Xenophanes from?
Colophon
When was Xenophanes?
6th century
When and where were sophists?
later fifth century athens
who were sophists?
THought words more powerful than logic and would prove by persuasively arguing controversial ideas
Who had scepticism about traditional gods spread to?
some of the edcated elite
Who thought scepticism about the traditional gods was something shared with the pre-socratics?
Garland (1994)
Who does Garland think Xenophanes influenced?
Quote?
Heraclitus
“To God all things are beautiful, good and just”
Who does Garland name as a sophist who continued Xenophanes ideas?
Quote?
Anaxagoras
“All living things are controlled by Nous (Mind)” - not the traditional gods
What did Benitez and Tarrant think the pre-sophist philosophers were doing instead of attacking traditional religion?
correcting the parts that didn’t align with reason
Who argued that the anti-traditionalist movement of the sophists was a new thing?
Benitez and Tarrant (2015)
What is the issue with Aristotle’s quoting method?
Only quoted the pre-sophists wherever they challenge traditional thinking, omitting their potentially traditional ideas
Who misrepresented pre-sophists?
How?
Aristotle
As anti-traditionalists
Who was aristotle?
A 4th century philosopher
What did Aristotle impose on the pre-sophists?
his belief that philosophy is a rational alternative to myth
What comment does Aristotle make about some of Xenophanes’ ideas?
They’re “rather crude”
What is the main problem with Garland’s thesis?
Why?
regards the critics all as a single movement, trying to challenge popular piety head-on
There’s not enough evidence to support it
What are Benitez and Tarrant right to do?
But what might they do?
take issue with transmission through Aristotle
Overstate to what extent the pre-socratics were just interpreting religion
Who may have been an Athiest?
Who was he educated by?
Euripides
sophists
What is there no evidence of?
pre-socratics causing an immediate stir amongst ordinary Greeks
Who points out that 6th century philosophers relied on oral communication?
Muir (1985)
Who are named to have transmitted their religious ideas to the educated elite?
What effect did this have?
Anaxagoras and Protagoras (an agnostic)
Allowed their ideas to reach a larger audience
What affect did the poetic form of philosophers’ claims have?
When may this have changed?
Limited their impact
With the sophists of 5th century Athens
Who mocked popular superstition?
in a source by who?
educated by?
three aristocratic young men
Lysias
Sophists
Who fell foul of the asebeia decree?
Alcibiades 415BC (escaped)
Socrates, executed 399
such views only belonged to who?
the elite
Who regects Zeus?
In what?
What is he replaced with?
Socrates
I. 367 “Zeus doesn’t exist”
Vortex
In which play are sophists views mocked?
Year?
By who?
Clouds
432BC
Aristophanes
What does the humour rely on?
the assumption that most of the audience would accept the traditional gods
What other evidence suggests these views were unpopular?
Year?
The Diopeithes Decree
432
