Balder's German 2 Flashcards

Question

Anaximander (610 BC–546 BC)

Answer 1

Anaximander of Miletus is the famous pupil of, and in many ways a philosophical successor to, Thales himself. He is credited as being the first known writer on philosophy because the first surviving lines of Western philosophy were written by him. He is also well known in the fields of early biology and geography. He created the first world image of an open universe, a move away from the notion of a closed universe, making him the first speculative astronomer in human history. He further extended the philosophical views of his master, proposing an “arche” or a principle that he believed to be the basis of the whole universe. But unlike Thales, he thought that this basis had an “apeiron” (an unlimited substance) that acted as a source for everything. This source acted as the prime point of differentiation for polar opposites like hot and cold, light and dark, and so on. Much of his work remains truncated, especially at the hands of subsequent generations of philosophers. But he was indeed one of the greatest minds in ancient Greece.

Answer 2

Empedocles was one of the most important pre-Socratic era philosophers and even more outstanding were his poems that went on to have a great influence on later poets including the likes of Lucretius. One of his philosophical landmarks has been his assertion of the four-element theory of matter. It states that all matter is basically composed of four primary elements – earth, air, fire, and water. This became one of the earliest theories to have been postulated on particle physics, although some historians see it as a complex effort to negate the non-dualism theory of Parmenides. He simply rejected the presence of any void or empty space, thus completely contradicting the philosophical ideology of Parmenides. He put forth the idea of opposite motive forces involved in the building of the world, namely love as the cause of union, and strife as the cause of separation. He also went on to become the first person to give an evolutionary account on the development of species.

Answer 3

Zeno further expanded and defended the philosophical ideologies established by Parmenides, which were facing much opposition from common opinion at that time. He propounded multiple paradoxes himself, which were debated among later generations of philosophers. The majority of contemporary arguments on his paradoxes were on the infinite division of time and space, such as if there is a distance, there is also half that distance and so on. Zeno was the first in philosophical history to show that the concept of infinity existed.

Answer 4

Another pre-Socratic Greek philosopher, Pythagoras is known far more for his theories and ideas in mathematics than in philosophy. In fact, he is best known for the theorem in geometry that is named after him. He is one of the most familiar names in pre-Socratic society, yet we know surprisingly little about him. He is credited with founding a philosophical school that amassed a great many followers. It was at this school that Pythagoras tried to find a mutual harmony between real life and the practical aspects of philosophy. His teachings were not strictly confined to what we know as philosophy, but also included common issues like rules on living, what daily food to eat and so on. He regarded the world as the perfect harmony and based his teaching on how to lead a harmonious life.

Answer 5

Socrates embarked on a whole new perspective of achieving practical results through the application of philosophy in our daily lives, something that was largely missing in the approach of pre-Socratic philosophy. He openly moved away from the relentless physical speculations that previous philosophers had been so busy interpreting and assimilating and attempted to establish an ethical system based on human reasoning rather than various (and often widely debated) theological doctrines. Instead of regurgitating ideas based solely on his individual interpretations, he would question people relentlessly on their beliefs, and try to find definitions of virtues by conversing with anyone proclaiming to possess such qualities. Socrates became a key figure and amassed numerous followers, but he also made many enemies. Eventually, his beliefs and realistic approach to philosophy led to his execution. But one might argue that his philosophical martyrdom, more than anything else, turned him into the iconic figure that he is today.

Answer 6

Plato was a student of Socrates and was visibly influenced by the philosophical approach of his master. But while Socrates was relentlessly occupied with interpreting philosophy based on human reasoning, Plato combined the two major approaches of pre-Socratic metaphysics and natural theology with Socratic ethical theology. The foundation of Plato’s philosophy is threefold: dialects, ethics, and physics, the central point of unison being the theory of forms. For him, the highest of forms was that of the “good,” which he took as the cause of being and knowledge. In physics, he agreed with many Pythagorean views. Most of his works, especially his most famous work The Republic, combine various aspects of ethics, political philosophy, and metaphysics among others, into a systematic, meaningful, and applicable philosophy.

Answer 7

Aristotle of Stagira was the most influential among the disciples of Plato. His interpretation of things was more based on facts learnt from the experience people would gain in their lives, an approach that differed from that of his master who preferred a perspective that was beyond the accessibility of the physical senses. He proved to be an imaginative writer and equally creative polymath, gradually re-writing pre-established concepts in almost all areas of knowledge that he encountered. At a time when human knowledge was still far too generalized, he broke down this knowledge into distinct categories such as ethics, biology, mathematics, and physics – a classification pattern still used today. Aristotle is truly a key figure in ancient Greek philosophy whose influence went on to have an impact way beyond the bounds of ancient Greece.

Answer 8

Thales of Miletus gets the top spot on this list for representing a pivotal point in ancient Greek philosophy from which subsequent generations of famous thinkers, theorists, dialectics, meta physicists, and philosophers sprouted. He is hailed among historians as the father of ancient Greek philosophy. The majority of Thales’ ideologies come from Aristotle, who points to Thales as the first person to have investigated basic principles such as the origin of matter. Thales is also said to be the founder of the school of natural philosophy. As a philosopher, Thales rarely confined his research to the limited area of contemporary knowledge and was actively engaged in understanding various aspects of knowledge such as philosophy, mathematics, science, and geography. He is also said to have developed a well-defined standard to theorize why changes occur. He proposed water as the basic underlying component of the world. Thales was highly esteemed among ancient Greeks and his hypotheses usually added meaning and breadth to already existing ideas on nature.

Answer 9

Foucault’s notion of epistemes is not that different to Thomas Kuhn’s “paradigms” of scientific thinking, and it is interesting that Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions came out just four years before Foucault’s. In a nutshell: Every age makes unconscious assumptions about how the world is ordered, making the flavor of knowledge quite different from one era to another. The Order of Things (1966) was the book that made Foucault a famous intellectual in France. Subtitled “an archaeology of the human sciences,” it attempts to show how knowledge is a cultural product, with different disciplines simply being expressions of the prevailing worldview and the power dynamics inherit in that. Foucault’s basic idea is that each era, or “episteme,” is redolent with a “positive unconscious,” a way of seeing the world that it is quite unaware of. Our linear minds are used to taking a particular discipline, such as biology or economics, and seeing it as one evolving area of knowledge from its earliest conceptions up to the present day. But this does not reflect reality. The way that people saw the science of life (biology) in the 17th century, Foucault says, has more in common with the way they saw wealth and money in that era than it has with 19th-century biology. Each episteme is culturally contained and does not “lead” into another episteme.

Answer 10

1. verleihen | 2. übertragen

Answer 11

räuberisch

Answer 12

1. Unterstellung | 2. Bezichtigung

Answer 13

the policy or practice on the part of people in positions of authority of restricting the freedom and responsibilities of those subordinate to them in the subordinates' supposed best interest. "the arrogance and paternalism that underlies cradle-to-grave employment contracts" noun 1. Bevormundung

Answer 14

In ordinary English, "necessary" and "sufficient" indicate relations between conditions or states of affairs, not statements. For example, being a male is a necessary condition for being a brother, but it is not sufficient—while being a male sibling is a necessary and sufficient condition for being a brother.

Answer 15

veraergert

Answer 16

beruhigungsmittlel a trite and unoriginal idea or remark, typically intended to soothe or placate. "feel-good bromides create the illusion of problem solving"

Answer 17

1. entgeistert | 2. fassungslos

Answer 18

``` put on (an item of clothing). "in the locker room the players donned their football jerseys" anziehen, angezogen donned ```

Answer 19

cancel or refrain from exacting or inflicting (a debt or punishment). "the excess of the sentence over 12 months was remitted" 1. erlassen 2. überweisen

Answer 20

cause to get up or start moving; rouse. | "I rousted him out of bed with a cup of coffee"

Answer 21

a long, narrow open container for animals to eat or drink out of. troege

Answer 22

1. Wiederkäuer adjective 1. wiederkäuend 2. grübelnd

Answer 23

1. allgegenwärtig