Chapter 2 Part 1: Ancient Greeks Flashcards
What were some of the main ideas that arose during the Bronze age?
Warriors with a warrior mentality, age of rule by semi-divine kings, conceptions of virtue and the good life (battlefield glory and fighting well- if you die, make sure you die virtuously)
How was the psyche mentioned in Homer’s “the Illiad?”
Idea of the soul/conscious mind- soul-like entities.
What are the 3 soul like entities described by Homer?
Phrenes: Action
Thumos: mind
Noos: perception and visual recognition
Who was the first major philosopher?
Pythagoras.
What does the term philosopher mean?
Lover of wisdom.
What did the Pythagoreans believe (cult)
Believed math underlies all nature and can cleanse the mind- attune self to harmony of the universe.
What was Pythagoras idea of opposites?
Suggested natural opposites exist in nature- unity only described through tendencies that contradict. There are 10 pairs of opposites.
What are the 10 pairs of opposites?
1) Limited/unlimited
2) Odd/even
3) Unity/plurality
4) Right/left
5) Male/female
6) At rest/in motion
7) Straight/curved
8) Light/darkness
9) Good/evil
10) Square/oblong
What is the most important pair of opposites?
Limited vs unlimited- as people, everything we experience is limited even if it is viewed as unlimited.
What were Pythagoras’ two ideas on a dualistic world?
Physical and abstract worlds
What is the physical world?
Known through the senses, can’t provide true knowledge. Contempt for physical pleasure corrupts thinking- due to this he outlawed excess and eating of flesh, strict puritanical living.
What is the abstract world?
More permanent and knowable- focuses on our ability to reason rather than our senses. Believed to be an immortal world (soul, not body). Pre-cursor to mind body dualism.
How did Alcmaeon use these ideas of opposites in medicine?
Health results from balance, among the first to use dissection.
How did Alcmaeon contribute to psych?
Prior to him, the mind was believed to be in the heart and sensory information reached the brain via air channels.
Perception, cognition, memory, as well as founded epistemology.
What did Hippocrates believe in?
The natural healing of the body, rest, fresh air, and baths work to heal
What was Hippocrates known as?
The Father of Medicine- discovered medicine from superstition. Observe, diagnose, prognosis.
What were Empedocles’ 4 humours?
Blood (sanguine), yellow bile (choleric), black bile (melancholic), and phlegm (phlegmatic). These are all seasonally based.
What were Galen’s contributions to psychology?
Added temperament to the 4 humours- early version of personality theory.
Who were the Sophists?
A group of teachers of rhetoric (art of persuasion), and logic (characterizing valid arguments). Xenophanes, Protogoras, Gorgias. Anything can be true if you are convinced, focus on what humans know and what they come to know.
What was Socrates idea on induction?
A method to search for truth- examine common examples that are stable and knowable to find out the truth.
Why did Socrates view himself as the “midwife of thought”
Helped others find their own ideas- knowledge acquired through reasoning from within and not through experiencing.
How did Socrates influence psychology?
Views on knowlege influenced Plato, Kant and others. Innate trait ideas also influenced.
What was Plato’s republic about?
Features Socrates talking to Athenian’s about the meaning of justice.
What is Plato’s theory of forms?
Plato believed we inherently had knowledge- everything in our world represents a pure form (idea of an object). Form will always remain the same- things in the physical world as flawed perceptions of an ideal form.
