ch.1: Foundational Ideas from Antiquity

Question 1

socrates (470 BC)

Answer 1

greek philosopher who engaged his students in dialogues so they could arrive at the truth on their own

Question 2

nativism

Answer 2

approach to mental philosophy that emphasizes innate properties of the mind

Question 3

rationalism

Answer 3

approach to mental philosophy that emphasizes the mind’s capacity for reason

Question 4

Plato (424 BC)

Answer 4

Classical Greek philosopher; student of Socrates

Question 5

sophists

Answer 5

group of highly respected teachers who specialized in teaching rhetoric and public speaking

Question 6

the academy

Answer 6

intellectual gathering place for scholars and a site of teaching and learning, established by Plato

Question 7

Aristotle (384 BC)

Answer 7

Classical Greek philosopher and student at the Academy who emphasized the importance of systematic operation of sensory experience

Question 8

empiricism

Answer 8

the theory that true knowledge is arrived at through sensory experiences of the external world

Question 9

psyche

Answer 9

greek word traditionally translated as “soul”

synonymous with “mind”; the root word for psychology and psychiatry

Question 10

Pythagoras (570 BC)

Answer 10

attracted a school of followers who discovered mathematical regularities in relation to the physical world, including the Pythagorean theorem

Question 11

Heraclitus (530 BC)

Answer 11

argued for the sometimes ambiguous relationship between stability and change, as well as for the idea of the unity of opposites

Question 12

Hippocrates (460 BC)

Answer 12

renowned physician who attracted a dedicated group of students and followers

Question 13

Hippocratic Corpus

Answer 13

extensive medical writings produced by the followers of Hippocrates, in which diseases are regarded as natural phenomena

Question 14

humoral theory

Answer 14

the theory that health and illness result from, respectively, a balance and an imbalance of the humors

Question 15

humors

Answer 15

four substances within the human body: blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm (calm)

different ratios of these humors were thought to affect personality and disposition5

Question 16

appearance (plato)

Answer 16

plato’s term for an individual’s actual conscious experience of something

Question 17

idealism

Answer 17

the notion that more fundamental and ideal forms, or essences, underlie our sensory experiences

Question 18

allegory of the cave (platonic idealism)

Answer 18

example used by Plato to illustrate the difference between appearances and ideal forms

we use our schemas to interpret the “shadows” we see

Question 19

theophrastus (370 BC)

Answer 19

Aristotles student at the Academy

conducted systematic observations of plant life with Aristotle

Question 20

Aristotle tutored…

Answer 20

Alexander the Great

Question 21

Democritus (460 BC)

Answer 21

younger contemporary of Socrates who developed the atomic theory

led to questions about breaking down the levels of the brain/thoughts –> cognitive psychology

Question 22

Al Kindi

Answer 22

“philosopher of Arabs”
promoted the numbering system of Indo-Arabic numerals

Question 23

Indo-arabic numerals

Answer 23

numbering system with unique symbols for the numbers 1-9 and zero.

created a function system for making arithmetical calculations

Question 24

Alhazen

Answer 24

great Arab scholar known for his work on optics and visual perception

discovered camera obscura

Question 25

Camera obscura

Answer 25

dark box with a small hole on one side through which light enters the box and projects an inverted image of an exterior scene/object

Question 26

Avicenna

Answer 26

Arab scholar who studied medicine and wrote extensively on Aristotelian concerns, starting as a child prodigy

empirical observations of disease and treatment

Question 27

Avicenna’s work includes

Answer 27

Canon of Medicine

The Book of the Cure (Healing)