Chapter 3 - Rome and the Middle Ages

Question 1

What was Epicurus’s paradox?

Answer 1

The problem of evil: if God is willing to prevent evil but is not able to, he is not omnipotent; if he is able to but not willing, he is not good; if he is both willing and able, why is there still evil?

Question 2

Who am I?

• stoic
• only personal freedom was in choosing whether to act in accordance with nature’s plan
• 4 cardinal virtues (wisdom, courage, justice and temperance)

Answer 2

Zeno of Citium

Question 3

What was neoplatonism?

Answer 3

Philosophy that stressed the mystical aspect of Plato’s philosophy

Question 4

Who were the two biggest names in the neoplatonic circle?

Answer 4

Philo (the “Jewish Plato”)

Plotinus

Question 5

What were some of Philo’s beliefs?

Answer 5

• senses cannot provide knowledge
• sensory experience interferes with direct understanding of and communication with God
• All knowledge and wisdom comes from God, not from introspection (but soul must be purified)
• true knowledge can be attained only be a purified, passive mind

Question 6

What were some of Plotinus’s beliefs?

Answer 6

• arranged all things in a hierarchy:
  God (The One)

Spirit (a part of every human soul; image of The One)

soul (cause of all things that exist in the world)

Question 7

What were some religious influences on the Roman empire?

Answer 7

• Vedantism
• Zoroastrianism
• Cults of Magna Mater
• Judaism

Question 8

What is the philosophy of Vedantism?

Answer 8

perfection could be approximated by entering into a semi-ecstatic trance; nature of the relationship between individual (atman) and the absolute (brahman); Upanishads = sacred philosophical texts)

Question 9

What is the philosophy of Zoroastrianism?

Answer 9

constant struggle between good (Ahura Mazda) and evil (Angra Mainyu); people have the option to choose either or - afterlife based on choices…responsibility placed on people and not on God

Question 10

Describe the philosophy of Judaism?

Answer 10

one God with an interest in human affairs and a strict code of behaviour; knowledge of good and evil is revealed by God and should guide human conduct

Question 11

What did Emperor Constantine do to influence the religious ideology in Rome?

Answer 11

He made Christianity a tolerated religion in the Roman Empire (Edict of Milan); he also charged bishops with creating a single set of Christian documents concerning the teachings of Jesus (may have been more political than religious)…council of Nicea

Question 12

What were some of St. Augustine’s beliefs?

Answer 12

• He combined stoicism, neoplatonism, judaism and Christianity (his ideas dominate for the next 1000 years until the 13th century)
• Proposed a dualistic nature of man (body & spirit)
• Humans have the ability to choose between good and evil and since we have an awareness of good and evil, we are made responsible.
• Time cannot be measured but occurs in the mind

Question 13

What happened in the Dark Ages?

Answer 13

there was a pause on progress and science (things are fine the way they are and we shouldn't question it) 
Education stops (except for the clergy and the nobility)

Question 14

What did the crusades result in? What was rediscovered?

Answer 14

Crusades resulted in a rediscovery of Aristotle’s writings (which were preserved by Arab Muslim thinkers)

Question 15

Who am I?

• I am a physician/philosopher who wrote many books on medicine, math, logic
• added seven “internal senses” (common sense, retentive imagination, composite animal imagination, composite human imagination, estimative power)

Answer 15

Avicenna

Question 16

Who am I?

• all human experience reflects God’s influences
• retina as light-sensitive part of eye
• inoculation (science + God)

Answer 16

Averroës

Question 17

Who am I?

• sought to reconcile Judaism and Aristotelian philosophy
• Attempted to show that many passages in the OT could be understood rationally and need not be taken on faith alone

Answer 17

Maimonides

Question 18

Who am I?

- perception and reason can and should supplement Christian faith (attempted to reconcile faith and reason)

Answer 18

St. Anselm

Question 19

Who am I?
- we do not need to escape from the empirical world to know God (one could learn about God by studying the empirical world)
- three ways to learn about God:
faith, reason and the study of God’s works
- wrote 4 books (the mystery of the Trinity, On creation, on the incarnation of the Word, on the Doctrine of Signs

Answer 19

Peter Lombard

Question 20

What is scholasticism?

Answer 20

• synthesized Aristotle’s philosophy and Christian theology, showed what implications that synthesis had on one’s life

Question 21

Who was William of Occam? What did he argue?

Answer 21

Argued for the most simple explanation of things (Occam’s razor)

Question 22

Describe the spirit of the times before the Renaissance

Answer 22

• people were either believers or heretics (who were burned or imprisoned for being possessed)
• astrology and magic was practised by everyone (clergy, nobility, peasants, etc)
• superstition was very present

Question 23

What is the philosophy of skepticism?

Answer 23

Attacked dogmatism (belief that an absolute truth had been attained)

• suspension of belief in anything
• whatever one believed could turn out to be false

Question 24

What is the philosophy of cynicism?

Answer 24

• cynicism: “dog-like”

- renounced passions and comfortable life to live in a back-to-nature lifestyle

Question 25

What were some responses to skepticism and cynicism?

Answer 25

1) Epicureanism: greatest good in life is to seek modest pleasures in order to attain a state of tranquility, freedom from fear and absence from pain
2) Stoicism: the good in life accepting one’s fate with indifference even if suffering is involved

Question 26

Describe the neoplatonic philosophy. How did this affect early Judaeo-Christianity?

Answer 26

Neoplatonism stressed the mystical part of Plato’s philosophy. A combination of Judaism and Neoplatonism asked the question about human immortality and passions. “While the Greek asked questions until he was skeptical, the Jew kept a fiery passion of faith and asked questions concerning the human state”