History of Philosophy Flashcards
Thales
Monist – considered water to be everything. Considered 1st mathematician.
Anaximander
+ Monist – claimed everything to be apeiron
+ Apeiron – loosely translates to “boundless” or “unlimited”
+ Rejected Thales idea that everything was water – if everything is a simple element [water] then how do its opposites exist? [fire]
+ Apeiron is immortal and indestructible
Anaximenes
+ Also a monist - everything is air
+ Other forms are obtained through rarefaction and condensation
Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximenes
[referred to as ‘physicists’] are commonly referred to as the Milesians [from the Greek colony of Miletus]. Their common characteristics are a desire for simple explanations, reliance on observation to support their theories, and a commitment to naturalism [monism].
Pythagoras
+ All things are numbers
+ Made Pythagorean theorum
+ Studied musical harmony and numbers
+ Claimed for there to be a divine harmony, which can be heard with proper discipline
Heraclitus of Ephesus
+ Claimed everything to be fire
+ Everything is Change, and fire is an easy example
+ Logos is the governing principle of change
His idea of logos would influence Plato [laws of nature] and eventually Christianity
Parmenides
+ The ultimate reality is Being
+ The Being is rational, uncreated, indestructible, eternal, and indivisible
+ It is spherical without holes
+ Motion is impossible since it would have to involve Being going from where Being is to where Being is not
+ Empty space is an impossible idea
Zeno of Elea
+ Best known for several paradoxes designed to show that motion is not possible
+ How are you going to get form point A to point B when you have to get halfway? How are you supposed to get halfway when you have to get halfway of that? Ad infinitum.
Empedocles
+ Everything is considered of four roots – fire, air, earth, and water
+ They are governed by two forces – love [force of unity] and strife [force of destruction]
+ First thinker to formulate a theory of evolution
+ The force of love brought together many different combinations and only those that could survive, did
Anaxagorus
+ Instead of four roots, proposed infinite seeds
+ Each object contains seeds of all elements, and the seeds of one element dominate in any particular object
+ In place of love and strife, he proposed one force, Nous [the Mind]
+ Nous works within an individual as a self-ordering principal in an organic world. Organizes objects externally in an inorganic world
Leucippus + Democritus
+ Advocated Atomism [that the world is composed of atoms] and materialism [that atoms that constitute the world are material]
+ Atoms are uncreated, indestructible, eternal, indivisible, and without holes
+ Atoms move in empty space via rigid natural laws
+ Determinism – everything is only where it needs to be
Before Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle came Sophists.
+ Sophist = “smart ass/wise guy”
+ A lot of historians wont consider them philosophers
+ These include:
o Protagoras - Claimed Homo mensura, that man is the measure of all things
o Gorgias claimed - There is nothing. If there was anything, no one could know or communicate it
o Thrasymachus - Claimed that Justice is the interest of the stronger, might makes right
Socrates
+ Did not write, all we know about him is from Plato
+ Claimed that he knew nothing
+ Oracle of Delphi story – was called the wisest man, wondered if this was because he was honest about knowing nothing
Plato
+ Allegory of the Cave
+ Pure reason and understanding lies within the realm of knowledge [the intelligible world]
+ The sun plays the most important part in the realm of opinion
+ The form of the Good
+ The whole of the visible world is an inferior copy of the intelligible world
+ For an opinion to become knowledge, the particular object has to be rasied to the level of theory
+ All knowledge is ultimately knowledge of the Good
Plato CONT.
+ Knowledge makes people good, ignorance is at fault. No one willingly does wrong.
+ Human souls have three parts - the rational [wisdom], the spirited [courage], and the appetitive [moderation]
Aristotle
+ Different from Plato in that he believed Form and Matter can be distinguished only in thought, not in reality
+ A particular object contains both form and matter
+ Substances contain both form and matter
+ Potentiality and actuality - an acorn has the potential to become a tree, which actualizes the potentiality
+ Teological system - purpose driven system
Aristotle CONT.
+ Prime Mover - Final Cause - the cause of the universe. Pure actuality.
Aristotle’s Three Primary Laws of Logic
+ Principle of Identity [A = A]
+ Principle of non-contradiction [If A, then not not A]
+ Principle of excluded middle [Either A or not A]
Epicureanism
+ Philosophy wasn’t based in finding out the truth but in leading a good life. The goal is human happiness. Hedonistic?
Stoicism / Zeno of Cyprus
+ More interested in conduct
+ Dispassionate approach to life. Only goal is enlightenment
+ Advocated suicide if enlightened state is to be disturbed by life
Neoplatonism / Plotinus
+ Basically just took Plato’s stuff and converted it to Christianity
Rene Descartes
+ Sense data is not to be trusted
+ Came up with Mad God idea
+ Ultimately decided math was the only thing that could be trusted
+ Argued that God had to exist
+ Distinguished two substances - mental substance and material substance
Thomas Hobbes
+ Claimed that our acts are motivated by self-interest only
+ We only do social contracts to survive
John Locke
+ Claimed that knowledge comes from experience
+ Mind is a blank slate [tabula rasa]
