Chapter 1- The Presocratics Flashcards
What was Thales’ object of philosophical inquiry?
- Nature (the cosmos- universe and all things in it) –> this would fall into the field of sciences like astronomy, biology, physics
Who is philosophy said to have begun with? And what did he do?
- Thales in 600 BCE, Southern Italy
- He predicted an eclipse and heavy olive harvest in 585 BCE
What was the nature of greater Greece at the time of the presocratics?
- Rugged
- Unpredictable in terms of weather and navigation
- There was occasional, random savagery, but in there stood the beginnings of civil war, peace, prosperity, law and administration
What do Plato and Aristotle say philosophy begins with?
- A sense of wonder
What were the presocratics fascinated by?
- The endless dance of chaos and order, the idea of being vs not being, life vs death
- They sought the reason for being and this is where philosophy began
What was the world like prior to the presocratic philosophers?
- The world was predominantly explained in mythological, religious terms
- For the Greeks, the two fundamental references were Homer (described the Greek Gods) and Hesoid (wrote a creatin story, like the bible. It took place over 6 days). –> Both used Myes in their poems, the goddess of inspiration.
Who believed that the only thing permanent Is permanent change?
- Heraclitus
What does Heraclitus mean when he says ‘One cannot step twice into the same river”?
- This are constantly changing, so that river will never be the same
How are Heraclitus’ theories contadictory?
For example, with his quote about stepping into the same river twice: The river is not what it is, because different water runs through it. But at the same time he accepts tacitly that there is something constant to be stepped in twice.
What is the archery bow analogy and who is it used by?
- Used by Heraclitus
- Says that being alive is like being in a state of tension, like a drawn archery bow.
- Being, like the bow, exists somewhere in the tension between life and death, between coming into being and falling back into not being. Like the bow, it gives birth to the arrows flight, although the lively arrow is ultimately an instrument of death
What are Heraclitus’ fundamental oppositions?
TRANSFORMATION AND GENERATION
1. Identity and difference
–> the opposition between the two = transformation. Things move from one state to the next one.
Ex: I am in the state of transformation as I am who I am (identify) and different from who I was 10 years ago (difference).
- Being and not being.
- -> The opposition of the two= generation, the second type of change.
- This truth = logos- it’s the reason, balance, measure, tension that is the law of the cosmos.
How is Heraclitus’ theory undemocratic?
- The truth of being is only there for those who have the eyes for its inner fire, the underlying principe (arche) of being and its truth.
What is arche?
- An underlying principle that Is also the fundamental element/ substance of all things, it’s crucial to presocratic philosophy
- the notion that there is an Underlying principle of all things- this is crucial to presocratic philosophy
What is Heraclitus’ arche?
- Fire
- Represents change and transformation
- When things are burnt, we experience their true essence, expressed in the tension holding together opposing elements (air/ smoke) (water/ vapor) (earth/ ashes)
- fire= movement and a tension and exchange between the opposites and what unifies them
- Fire casts light- it is this light that illuminates those who are able to see tensions at play. Fire can also be dangerous, particularly for those who don’t know how to approach it.
What was Parmenides’ philosophy?
- “It Is”
It = cosmos, all of nature.
Is = state of being that exists in an undivided form. Exists because there is no idea of non- existence, it doesn’t know time/have a beginning or an end.
