Chapter 2 Flashcards
animism
Looking at all of nature as though it were alive
anthropomorphism
the projection of human attributes onto nature is
explain the spirit in terms of objects and dying and dreams of other people in early human times
no distinction between inanimate or animate objects or material and immaterial thing
a ghost/spirit lived in everything including humans
death - spirit leaves body
when we dream of someone dead we can only do so ppl the spirit still exists
why did Humphrey suggest we called ppl homo psychologicus instead of homo sapiens
bc people are always trying to deter the reason of something and predict and contra, understand nature. We intuitively understand what others want us to do
Theory of mind
knowing what another person is likely thinking or intending
Describe the gods in the olympian religion. Who tended to follow this religion
gods were amoran, didn’t care about ordinary humans. The gods personified orderliness and rationality and intelligence. The greek upper class favoured this religion
Describe the Dionysian orphic religion and who followed it
based on legend of Dionysus, god of wine and sex frenzy, and disciple orpheus.
the lower class followed this
explain soul and death in olympian and Dionysian orphic religions. how did this encourage humans to live their lives?
olympian: “breath-soul” did survive death but was a blank slate from the body it was in.
Ideal life was seen by a pursuit of glory through noble deeds
Dionysian orphic: transmigration of the soul. Soul was locked in physical body like a prison. it had a circle of births – plant –> animal –> human –> plant etc. Should longed for a return to pure gods and enter a more heavenly state.
definition of philosophy
the love of knowledge or wisdom
when did philosophy begin
when natural explanations (logos) replaced supernatural ones (mythos)
what were the first philosophers called
cosmologists bc they tried to explain the origin, structure and processes governing the cosmos (universe)
who is often referred to as the first philosopher
Thales
Tell me about Thales
Thales emphasized natural explanations and minimized supernatural ones
His physics was water. Water is found in every living thing and exists in many forms.
He predicted eclipse and developed navigation methods based on stars/planets. He applied geometric principles to measurements of buildings.
Showed that knowledge of nature could provide power over environment - cornered market on olive oil by predicting weather
was the first to really welcome criticism from his students and encouraged them to improve his teachings
Tell me about Anaximander
studied Thales
Argued water was made of more basic materials. He though the physics was something that could be anything and that was boundless and indefinite.
Had rudimentary theory of evolution.
water and earth –> fish. –> humans grew in fish until puberty and burst out of fish to survive on own.
tell me about herclitus
Believed fire to be physics as everything was becoming/ transforming to something else. Everything existed b/w two polar opposites
“it is impossible to step twice into the same river”
Can we know anything if everything is constantly changing?
the sides of “can we know anything if everything is constantly changing?”
How do we see this today?
everything empirical (observed with senses) is in flux
can only know things unchangeable:
1) something real but undetectable by senses. like atomists and pythagorean mathematicians did
2) something mental (dead or soul) like plutonists and christians did
today: our scientific laws are abstractions. when in real world - only probabilistic
Bc of “can we know anything if everything is constantly changing?”
what are empiricists seen as dealing with?
concerned with process of becoming rather than with being as being implies permanance
Tell me about Parmenides
Believed all changes was an illusion and there was one reality that was motionless and only understood with reason
knowledge only attained through rational thought, as empirical observation is illusion
believed in reification (if you could speak or think or something it implies its existence)
Zeno of Elea
Disciple of parmenides
motion is an illusion (arrow halving the distance again and again between point A and point B) “Zeno’s parodic”
Pythagoras
showed math can be used to model, explain and predict nature
thought an explanation for everything in the universe can be found in numbers and numerical relationships
phythagoream theorem (probably known to babylonians first tho)
one string twice as long as other and played at same time is harmonious –> psychology first psychophysical law
though illness was due to body’s distributed equilibrium
What did the pythagoreans believe
nothing is perfect in empirical world
assumed a dualistic universe, one part abstract, permanent, and intellectually knowable (like the one by Parmenides), the other part empirical, changing and known through the senses (like the one by Heraclitus).
Sensory experience can interfere with attainment of knowledge and should be avoided
members are known for long periods of silence for rational though, “cleansed” their minds w hard physical/enta exercise, imposed taboos like eating flesh and beans.
believed everything in universe was interrelated and in mathematical harmony
encouraged women to join, argued for humane treatment of slaves, developed medical practices based on unbalance in body
experiences of flesh inferior to those of mind.
dualism of the body
- reasoning powers and physical flesh
- reasoning a function of the soul which is immortal
One of the first - clear cut mind-body dualisms in the history of western thought.
body is prison from which the should should escape
believed in cycle of births that would be stop by purification of the soul
were vegetarians
Empedocles
disciple of pythorgoras
a physician
claimed should had been migrating for a while
suggested everything consisted of 4 elements (earth, fire, air, water) including humans earth = solid of body water = liquid in body air = breath of life fire = reasoning ability
health occurs when 4 elements of body are in balance.
two causal powers of universe: love and strife
create unending cosmic cycle:
believed they always existed
theory of evolution- believed various body parts wandered around and were combined randomly. some dead off and humans and animals arose capable of surviving
theory of perception: objects in outside enviro throw off tiny copies of themselves eidola, which enter blood through pores of body. The eidola attract elements like them and the fusion of internal elements results in perception. We perceive objects by internalizing tiny copies of them in the heart
Empedocles : explain the 4 cycles of live strife and the 4 elements
where can we recognize our world?
phase 1: love dominates, perfect mix of 4 elements
phase 2: strife disrupts the perfect mix progressively separating them
phase 3: strife completely separates elements
phase 4: love becomes increasingly dominant and the elements are gradually recombined
new worlds come into existence and are destroyed as the cycle recurs
we can only recognize our world in phase 2 and 4
Anaxagoras
everything as we know it in our world were at one point mixed together
nothing can be made from nothign
believed there were an infinite number of elements he called “seeds” including water, fire, hair, bread, meat, air, wet, cold, dry, hot etc
but the seeds can’t exist by themselves, all elements contain all other elements, just in different proportions
mind contains no other seeds and mind isn’t present in other seeds. Where it is present, there is life.