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C82CHI 18/19 > Ancient Greeks > Flashcards

Ancient Greeks Flashcards

1
Q

Before the 1970s, who wrote numerous books on the history of psychology?

A

Academics (e.g. medics and philosophers) who identified themselves as psychologists.

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2
Q

What were the underlying purposes of pre-1970s histories?

A

The establishment of psychology as a scientific discipline and showing its long history (i.e. it follows on from the Ancient Greeks such as Aristotle and Plato) and continuity through the ‘great men’.

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3
Q

What cliché ascribed by Ebbinghaus does Richards (2002) cite?

A

“Psychology has a short history but a long past”.

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4
Q

Why and how did psychology histories change post 1960s?

A

Because of challenges from historians and socialists of science; the great men (and a few women) approach was more or less abandoned and the emphasis was placed on psychological practise and not practitioners.

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5
Q

What issues did the Ancient Greeks explore?

A

The foundations of philosophy and the relationship between us and the universe.

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6
Q

What was the main belief of The Atomists?

A

Material determinism - the notion of free will is an illusion.

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7
Q

What did The Sophists discuss?

A

Rhetoric and persuasion - the question of more than one truth.

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8
Q

How can Aristotle be described?

A

As the first “true” scientist.

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9
Q

When did Thales of Miletus live?

A

Around 585BC.

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10
Q

What did Thales of Miletus state about the gods?

A

The gods treat people as chess pieces - we have no choice but to fight their wars.

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11
Q

Describe critical examination of the state of things before Thales.

A

It was hit and miss and dogma dominated, for example Pythagoras was both a mathematician and a mystic, and stated that people should abstain from beans as certain beans will give you a genetic deficit and kill you (favism or haemolytic anemia).

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12
Q

What did Popper (1965) state about Thales in his book Conjectures and Refutations?

A

“Thales was the first teacher who said to his pupils ‘This is how I see things – how I believe that things are. Try to improve upon my teaching’” “It was a momentous innovation…a tradition that admits a plurality of doctrines in which all try to approach the truth by means of critical discussion”.

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13
Q

What did Thales belive about elements?

A

Only one element - water

Called this one element phusis

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14
Q

What did Thales believe controlled humans?

A

Nature, not the Gods. His claims were a radical step away from supernatural explanations of the world and the stuff of which it is made to a more naturalistic explanation.
This neturalism is fundamental to modern science

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15
Q

What were followers of Thales searching for the 1 universal element called?

A

Physicists.

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16
Q

When did Anaximander of Miletus live?

A

Around 560BC.

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17
Q

What did Anaximander of Miletus say about the phusis?

A

Disputed that water is the phusis

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18
Q

What did Anaximander of Miletus state about apeiron?

A

It is not a recognisable element (cannot be seen but it’s there) which is the building block of matter.

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19
Q

What did Anaximander of Miletus do which was particularly ahead of his time?

A

He predated Darwin in using fossil evidence to argue that the human primeval form must’ve been different to that which he saw around him.

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20
Q

When did Parmenides live?

A

Around 475BC.

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21
Q

What did Parmenides state was the underlying permanent reality of the universe?

A

An unchanging IT, pure Being.

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22
Q

What does Parmenides’ claim of the existence of pure Being suggest?

A

That there are eternal Truths and Values that exist beyond humanity and that we should search for these to guide our lives.

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23
Q

What did Parmenides state about science?

A

That the truth of the external world should guide the internal world.

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24
Q

When did Heraclitus live?

A

Around 500BC.

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25
Q

What did Heraclitus suggest about reality?

A

That the only reality in the universe is change (which is fundamental to the workings of the universe) - you can’t step in the same river twice (the water is always changing), and the odds are that over a 10yr period none of the molecules in our bodies will be the same.

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26
Q

What major issue was made clear by Heraclitus’ opinions on change?

A

This conflict in understanding showed that Appearance and Reality aren’t necessarily the same thing, causing questions like whether we remain the same person throughout our lives despite changes.

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27
Q

When did Democritus of Adbera live?

A

Around 420BC.

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28
Q

What did Democritus of Adbera state about reality?

A

That only “atoms and Void exist in reality”.

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29
Q

What did Democritus of Adbera state about free will?

A

There’s no free will since there is no will to direct the atoms. Nothing happens at random, it happens out of reason and reality.

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30
Q

What philosophical position did Democritus of Adbera take regarding materialism and determinism?

A

A position which combines both - there’s no soul, no will that can be free, there is only material (atoms) that operates in lawful ways.

31
Q

What is essential for understanding the universe and ourselves in terms of Democritus of Adbera’s philosophy?

A

Finding the laws which operate the atoms (and therefore the world).

32
Q

What could be said to lead to hedonism?

A

Democritus of Adbera’s ideas about free will etc.

33
Q

What is hedonism?

A

The pursuit of pure pleasure and the avoidance of pain as the only good.

34
Q

What problem is there with hedonism and Democritus of Adbera’s ideas?

A

How can we pursue pleasure if we have no free will? This is a problem similar to psychology’s dualism of having choices but being determined by genetics.

35
Q

Define polis.

A

A Greek city-state, a small, independent government consisting of a single city and its immediate environs.

36
Q

What were the two most influential city-states in Ancient Greece?

A

Athens and Sparta. Both had different focuses - Athens was famous for its culture and art and intellectual life. Sparta was famous for its toughness and its martial lifestyle.

37
Q

What was the Peloponnesian War?

A

A civil war between Sparta and Athens which was won by Sparta but so weakened Greece that it allowed the rise of Philip of Macedon and his son Alexander (the Great).

38
Q

Who were the Sophists?

A

Experts in rhetoric (the art of persuasion) who operated in the Athenian polis to teach and practise rhetoric.

39
Q

What did Leahey (2004) argue about the Sophists’ philosophical position?

A

That fundamentally they were humanists, which can be seen as the foundation of a relativist empiricism.

40
Q

What did the sophists argue?

A

That truth is that which we experience; the search for the phusis is not truth in a practical way.
Pragmatic truth is to be found not in some possible external reality but rather truth lies in how things appear to us humans - different people make different sensory judgments, perceive things differently, and each judgment is ‘truthful’ to the perceiver and no hidden reality is required.

41
Q

When did Socrates live?

A

Around 470BC.

42
Q

What did the humanism implicit in sophist thinking lead Socrates to focus on?

A

The nature of human truths, for example what are justice, courage, beauty, goodness etc.? Also, importantly, if all such human values are good, which intuitively seems to be the case, what do they have in common?

43
Q

What is aporia?

A

The state of enlightened ignorance in which Socrates lived - he didn’t claim to have all the answers, but at least he asked questions about beliefs etc.

44
Q

What did Socrates believe in essence?

A

That everyone possesses moral truth - he attempted to show people the virtues they inherently known through dialogues.

45
Q

What happened to Socrates during the Peloponnesian war?

A

His superior intellect made the prominent Athenians he publicly questioned (e.g. on the relationship between humans and gods) look foolish, turning them against him and leading to accusations of wrongdoing. He was accused of offending the Gods (in particular, Athena) and corrupting the youth of Athens (questioned the morality of war). He was given the choice of exile or death by hemlock, and he chose death by hemlock as it was considered honourable.

46
Q

When did Plato live?

A

Around 427BC.

47
Q

What did Plato do differently to Socrates?

A

Socrates focused on the virtues, whereas Plato’s endeavour knew no such bounds. He asked many questions regarding what things are, as we can’t determine what is what by commonalities alone.

48
Q

What is the inductive method?

A

The idea that the same observation can be made over and over again.

49
Q

What does the inductive method fall prey to?

A

Plato’s observation that what seems true today may well seem false tomorrow; knowledge is true if, and only if, it’s true in all times and all places and is rationally justifiable (problem for psychology!).

50
Q

What did Plato appeal to?

A

Forms - idealised, eternally existing perfect exemplars which belong to the realm of Being - the Form of a cat is an idealised cat, whereas a particular cat is an ephemeral, temporary copy of its Form and thus belongs to the realm of Becoming.

51
Q

What is true knowledge, according to Plato?

A

Knowledge of Forms and not of things themselves. We come to this knowledge through nativism - our character and knowledge are innate, being carried by the soul from its vision of the Forms and its previous incarnations.

52
Q

What did Plato believe were intrinsic features of human motivation?

A

Happiness and virtue (eudemonia) - we seek happiness through virtuous action.

53
Q

How did Plato and Socrates view behaviour differently?

A

Socrates believed that bad behaviour was a product of mistaken or absent beliefs, Plato viewed it as the failure of the individual rational soul to master the desiring soul (Freud id-ego link!).

54
Q

How did Plato define reason?

A

The rational, cognitive processes that direct our behaviour.

55
Q

What did Plato state that reason was derived from?

A

Irrational passions and desires.

56
Q

What did stoics attempt to do?

A

Eradicate emotions and to live by logic alone.

57
Q

When did Aristotle live?

A

Around 384BC.

58
Q

Who did Aristotle study with?

A

Plato, for 20 years in his academy.

59
Q

What did Aristotle look to the world to define?

A

What is - didn’t look to Platonic Forms.

60
Q

How did Aristotle distinguish between forms and matter?

A

An object’s form is what it actually is, its matter is what it’s made from.

61
Q

How did Aristotle define forms?

A

A form is defined by causes:-
Essential: what it actually is
Efficient: how it came to be
Final: the purpose for which it exists

62
Q

What idea did Aristotle reject?

A

The idea that the soul and body could be separated - a body without a soul is dead, a soul without a body doesn’t exist.

63
Q

What structure did Aristotle introduce?

A

Applied teleological structure - a thing, process, or action is teleological when it is for the sake of an end - to behaviour, which driven by goals to do something (achievement).

64
Q

What are the three forms of souls in Aristotle’s naturalism?

A
  • Nutritive ([possessed by] plants)
  • Sensitive (animals)
  • Rational (humans)
65
Q

What directs the rational soul according to Aristotle, and how is acquired?

A

Knowledge acquired through the perception of individual objects until a generalised universal form is attained.

66
Q

How does Leahey (2004) describe Aristotle’s structure of the human sensitive and rational soul?

A

The special senses (vision, hearing, touch, taste, smell) relay to common sense, which is connected to imagination and memory. Common sense leads on to passive mind (not thinking, just doing), which leads to active mind (thinking state, therefore possess a rational soul).

67
Q

When was the polis destroyed?

A

Following the conquest of the Hellenic World by Alexander the Great and later, the Roman Empire.

68
Q

How did Hellenistic peoples’ lives change after the polis was destroyed?

A

They rejected public life and began to focus on private pleasures, seeking a form of happiness called ataraxia, a lesser form of happiness than eudemonia, and emphasised what was personally, rather than culturally/socially, achievable.

69
Q

What are the four happiness theories?

A

Epicureanism, cynicism, scepticism and stoicism.

70
Q

Outline the ideas of epicureanism.

A

Happiness can be found by avoiding the passions and by living a simple life in the company of like-minded others, but avoiding dependence on others.

71
Q

Outline the ideas of cynicism.

A

Happiness can be found by living outside worldly conventions but as naturally as possible. We shouldn’t follow laws/rules; Diogenes “the dog” was the most famous of the cynics, and he defecated/ate whenever and wherever he wanted.

72
Q

Outline the ideas of scepticism.

A

If you don’t believe anything strongly then you avoid the upset of finding out that you are wrong. A thoughtful state of aporia (ignorance) was recommended.

73
Q

Outline the ideas of stoicism.

A

A combination of absolute determinism and complete expulsion of an emotional life. Feeling unhappy about an unavoidable fate is within our control and a little ridiculous. External locus of control, you only get depressed when you think you have control over the world (PIN link!).

C82CHI 18/19 (10 decks)

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