Chapter 1 Flashcards
Rather than making the conventional choice to study with _____, Plato opted to study with ______
the sophists; socrates
in the course of his dialogues with his students, socrates emphasized the mind’s inborn properties. This approach to mental philosophy is known as?
nativism
Aristotle’s emphasis on the importance of systematic observation of the natural world made him one of the first important proponents of?
empiricism
the ancient Greek word psyche as used by Plato and Aristotle is traditionally and literally translated as _____, but in modern english it is also often translated as _____
soul; mind
The Achilles and the tortoise paradox, proposed by the philosopher Zeno, is an illustration of what concept?
Infinity, particularly the idea that any linear distance contains an infinite number or intermediary points between its start and end
Which of the following is true of the Hippocratic Corpus?
It explains health and illness in terms of humoral theory
The humoral theory holds that health and illness result from the balance or imbalance of four substances, or humors, in the human body. These humors are
blood, yellow bile, black bile, phlegm
Xenophon, one of Socrates’s most famous students, became a great scholar of?
history
The playwright Aristophanes’s comedy The Clouds portrayed which philosopher in a satirical light?
Socrates
After a period of self-imposed exile from Athens, Plato returned to the city and established a school known as the?
Academy
Plato’s allegory of the cave was used to illustrate what aspect of his philosophy?
the appearance-form distinction
According to Plato the three components of the human psyche are
appetites, courage, and reason.
According to Plato, the ideal form of government is
oligarchy
As a child Aristotle witnessed and absorbed his father’s practices as a __________, likely influencing his future emphasis on empirical observation.
physician
As a student Aristotle studied at the
Academy
Theophrastus, a student and close friend of Aristotle, shared with his mentor an interest in
systematic observations of the natural world.
Which philosopher served as tutor to a teenaged Alexander the Great, instilling in him a lifelong respect for learning and education?
Aristotle
Aristotle undertook careful and detailed observations of organisms in the natural world and classified these specimens into logically meaningful groups. This was the beginning of the field of
taxonomy.
In On the Psyche Aristotle argued that
all living organisms possess psyches, but these psyches vary in complexity accord-ing to the organism’s position on the scale of nature.
According to Aristotle, the vegetative soul is comprised of the two most fundamental functions of the psyche. These functions are __________ and __________.
nourishment; reproduction
what is NOT one of the 4 functions of Aristotle’s sensitive soul
reason
Select the correct ordering of psyches, from lowest to highest complexity, according to Aristotle’s scale of nature.
vegetative soul, sensitive soul, rational soul
Which of the following best describes Aristotle’s conception of the contents and capacities of the rational psyche?
Although originally empty of specific memories, it contains within itself innate categories into which experiences can be classified.
The notion that there is a limit to the divisibility of material objects is known as __________ and was formulated by __________.
atomic theory; Democritus
Democritus’s atomic theory was widely dismissed because
the contention that the movements of atoms were random was counter to the dominant view that caused events had to have purpose.
Which is NOT one of Aristotle’s four essential components of caused events?
expedient cause
Epicurus adopted Democritus’s atomic theory and used it as his basis to argue that
individuals need not fear the whims of the gods and are free to pursue socially responsible forms of happiness.
The poem De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things) by the Roman poet Lucretius is more than 200 pages long and celebrates the work of which philosopher?
Epicurus
During centuries that followed the fall of the Roman Empire the work of classical Greek scholars was dismissed and even regarded as sacrilegious by early European scholars. This period is often referred to as the
Dark Age of Western Europe
After the fall of the Roman Empire many classical Greek works were preserved, translated, and extended by scholars living in
the Islamic Empire
Which of the following is NOT one of the scholars who elaborated upon and helped preserve the work of the classical Greek scholars who came before him?
Aristophanes
__________ was a leader in the House of Wisdom and was known as “the philosopher of the Arabs” for his commentaries on Aristotle. He also described and advocated the use of a numbering system known as __________.
Al-Kindi; Indo-Arabic numerals
Which of the following is NOT true about Indo-Arabic numerals?
is a system invented in classical Greece
Indo-Arabic numerals encompassed an infinite series of numbers that could be studied in completely abstract terms and arranged into various categories. This study of “pure” numbers and their interrelationships gave rise to a new mathematical field known as
number theory
The term camera obscura refers to
a pinhole camera and predecessor of modern cameras.
The seven-volume Book of Optics was based on extensive experiments and observations on optics and visual perception. It was written by
Alhazen
Avicenna’s Canon of Medicine described the most effective treatments for various diseases, including more than 700 herbal and chemical remedies. Avicenna considered this list of treatments to be
open to revision and extension on the basis of systematic tests of new remedies.
Avicenna’s The Book of the Cure (or The Book of Healing) was intended to provide the cure for
ignorance
In his discussion of the soul Avicenna extended upon Aristotle’s hierarchy of functions, especially in relation to the sensitive soul. In addition to distinguishing between exterior and interior senses, Avicenna argued that the sensitive soul possessed a function that he referred to as
appetition
Avicenna’s Floating Man thought experiment imagined a man suspended in space who has nonfunctional sense organs and limbs that are unable to move or touch, and he asked whether this man had any conscious awareness of his soul or self. According to Avicenna the answer to this question was __________, because __________.
yes; self-awareness is an innate part of the rational soul
As a young man, __________ often made trips with his merchant father to North Africa, during which time he learned of Indo-Arabic numerals. Following this discovery he wrote a book in Latin, Liber Abaci (Book of Calculations), describing the uses and importance of this system.
Leonardo Fibonacci
A series of numbers in which each new number is the sum of the two numbers preceding it is called
the Fibonacci sequence.
The reintroduction of classical Greek ideas into Western Europe took place within
newly established universities.
Islamic scholars who preserved and elaborated upon classical Greek philosophy also sought to make these ideas compatible with their monotheistic faith. During Europe’s intellectual reawakening a similar process occurred and scholars interpreted these ideas so that they harmonized with
Christianity.
Thomas Aquinas equated Aristotle’s idea of the creator of the universe as a purposeful unmoved mover with
god
