History of Western Philosophy Flashcards
It explains how things came to be–like the origin of the
universe or the creation of humans
Myths
Myths on the origin of
the world and of
humanity
Cosmogony
Who considered water to be the basis of all matter.
Thales of Miletus
Who measured the height of the great pyramid.
Thales of Miletus
Who introduce opeiron an infinite element? He is also a pupil of Thales
Anaximander
Who believed that life originated in the sea from the moist element which evaporated from the sun
Anaximander
A student of Anaximander that believed that the basic principle of the universe is air
Anaximenes
He considered fire as the primary element. “It is not possible to step into the same river
twice”
Heraclitus
Who believed everything was in the process of flux (panta rhei). Everything fights against the other
(almost like the Ying and Yang)
Heraclitus
Nous is the all-pervading “mind”
which imposes an intelligible
pattern in an otherwise
unintelligible universe; nous affects
things without being in them.
Anaxegoras
Who believed that atoms are uncuttable
Democritus
He believed that the Earth was a
sphere rotating around a central fire. Known for the Pythagorean theorem
Pythagoras
The greatest philosopher widely recognized
Socrates
What did Socrates write
nothing
The unexamined life
is not worth living.
Know Thyself
Who is the gadfly
Socrates
A group of teachers
of philosophy and rhetoric
Sophist
What is the central concern of philosophy
the perfection of individual human character
Who was Plato to Socrates
Student and lover
What did plato do
founded the Academy and wrote about Socrates
What did the Allegory of the Cave represent
Socrates to the Sophists
one’s physical body and soul are separate entities and that one lives on after the other has died
Platonic Dualism
The carpenter replicates the mental idea as closely as
possible in each table he makes, but always
imperfectly.
Idealism
There are two realms: a realm of forms or ideas,
containing the perfect form of everything and the
material realm in which these forms or ideas are
imperfectly replicated.
Idea and material
