Early Greek Philosophy

Question 1

Egyptians and Babylonians

Answer 1

Influenced the Greeks, being a major reason for the development of Early Greek Philosophy.

Question 2

Empedocles and the “four elements”

Answer 2

Empedocles tried to reconcile the views of philosophers Heraclitus and
Parmenides by identifying four
main elements: earth, air, fire,
water. These four elements were
traditional until modern science

Question 3

How did Xenophanes characterize the Olympian gods, and how did he propose to
replace them?

Answer 3

Xenophanes believed that the gods as the Greeks knew them
were created by humans, instead he believed there is one omnipotent being with no relation to humans.

Question 4

Thales

Answer 4

Thales believed that water was the origin of all matter, as it could be transformed into both gas and
solid forms. Thales also believed in a flat earth which floated on water.

Question 5

Anaximander

Answer 5

Anaximander called the original principle “the infinite” “the indefinite,”
or “the boundless”. Anaximander also developed one of the first maps of the world. Here he expanded
Babylonian research and made
it available to Europeans.

Question 6

Anaximenes

Answer 6

Anaximenes of Miletus believed in air as the first principle. He believed that the earth was flat but that it floated on air.

Question 7

Pythagoras/Pythagoreans

Answer 7

Much of what is ascribed to
Pythagoras can be attributed to his
followers or other thinkers. Pythagoreans believed
that numerical relations
were the essence of all
things. They developed
an elaborate system of
discussing such relations. Pythagoreans believed in metempsychosis (transmigration
of souls) and were interested in vegetarianism, however were strictly against eating beans.

Question 8

Heraclitus

Answer 8

Heraclitus of Ephesus (in Ionia,
contemporary with Xenophanes): saw
change as the unity of all things; he took the movement or contrary tension of things as a form of the mutual resolution of
opposites.

Question 9

Parmenides

Answer 9

Parmenides of Elea (southern Italy, active first half 5th cent.), who founded the Eleatic school taught the opposite of Heraclitus: that being must be unchanging or unmoving.

Question 10

Democritus

Answer 10

Was a part of the Atomists (Best known: Leucippus (provenance
unknown) and Democritus.) Believed void exists and contains an infinite number of indivisible
units.