Lecture 2: Ancient Greece

Question 1

What were some early Greek religious views?

Answer 1

Early Greek humans held animistic beliefs, viewing everything in nature as alive. They practiced anthropomorphism, projecting human feelings onto nature. Spirits or ghosts were thought to reside in everything, giving it life. Magical practices evolved to influence various spirits, providing humans with a sense of control over nature.

Question 2

Who were cosmologists?

Answer 2

Cosmologists were early Greek philosophers who sought to explain the origin, structure, and processes of the universe (cosmos)

Question 3

What are some examples of primary elements proposed by philosophers in Ancient Greece?

Answer 3

Thales’ water, Anaximander’s indefinite apeiron, Heraclitus’ fire, Parmenides’ “all is one one” or “changelessness,” Pythagoras’ numbers, Democritus’ atoms, and Hippocrates and Empedocles’ four primary elements—water, earth, fire, and air.

Question 4

Join Ancient Greek philosophers with their primary elements (physis)!

1. Anaximander
2. Heraclitus
3. Parmenides
4. Pythagoras
5. Democritus
6. Hippocrates and Empedocles

a. atoms
b. fire
c. aperion (boundless, indefinite)
d. numbers
e. water, earth, fire, air
f. water

Answer 4

Anaximander –> apeiron
Heraclitus –> fire (in its presence nothing remains the same)
Parmenides –> “all is one”, changelessness

Pythagoras –> numbers
Democritus –> atoms
Hippocrates & Empedocles –> four primary elements (water, earth, fire, air)

Question 5

What was the debate between Heraclitus and Parmenides about?

Answer 5

Heraclitus believed everything was constantly changing, while Parmenides believed nothing ever changed. This raised epistemological questions such as the permanence of knowledge and the reliability of sensory experience as a source of knowledge.

Question 6

What was the difference in philosophical positions of Sophists and Socrates?

Answer 6

Sophists believed there were many equally valid philosophical positions, with truth being subjective and dependent on education, personal experiences, culture, and beliefs. Socrates agreed with Sophists on the subjectivity of truth but believed careful examination of subjective experiences would reveal stable and knowable concepts guiding proper conduct.

Question 7

What were Plato and Aristotle’s views on knowledge?

Answer 7

Plato, influenced by Pythagoreans, believed in the independent existence of ideas or forms as the ultimate reality, known only by reason through the reminiscence theory of knowledge. Aristotle, unlike Plato, emphasized empiricism, deriving concepts from careful scrutiny of sensory observations. He believed active reason isolates enduring concepts, and knowledge comes from the examination of nature.

Question 8

What were Greek philosophers views on the mind-body relationship?

Answer 8

Most early Greek philosophers were monists, making no distinction between the mind and the body. Pythagoras —> dualistic perspective, numbers were considered abstractions but real, and they could be known only by rational thought, not sensory experience. Pythagoras believed in the immortality of the mind or soul.

Question 9

What is temple medicine rooted in?

Answer 9

Superstition and magical practices, spirits causing illness

Question 10

Who started the transition from temple medicine to objective medical practice in Ancient Greece?

Answer 10

Alcmaeon and Hippocrates played crucial roles in the transition to objective and naturalistic medical practices. The focus shifted from spirits causing illness to a belief in health resulting from a balance among bodily elements or processes

Question 11

What is Plato’s theory of ideas or forms?

Answer 11

Plato’s theory posited that ideas or forms had an independent existence and were the ultimate reality. Ideas could be known only by reason, and sensory experience led only to ignorance or opinion. Plato advocated turning rational powers inward to rediscover ideas present at birth, supporting the reminiscence theory of knowledge.

Question 12

What is Aristotle’s approach to knowledge and empiricism?

Answer 12

Aristotle considered sensory experience the source of all knowledge. Unlike Plato, he did not advocate avoiding sensory experience; instead, he believed it was essential for understanding the natural world.

Question 13

What was the best life according to Aristotle?

Answer 13

The best life, according to Aristotle, involved controlling and moderating human appetites. Aristotle advocated for the “golden mean,” a life of moderation, where emotions were balanced, and rationality was used to guide behavior.

Question 14

What are four laws of association defined by Aristotle?

Answer 14

Contiguity (elements in close proximity or time are associated with each other)
Similarity (similar elements or experiences are associated with each other)
Contrast (elements that are opposite or contrasting are associated with each other)
Frequency (elements or experiences that occur together more frequently are more likely to be associated with each other)

Question 15

According to Aristotle, what are the 3 categories of living things?

Answer 15

Those possessing a vegetative soul, a sensitive soul, and those possessing a rational soul.

Question 16

Describe Aristotle’s Four Causes

Answer 16

Material cause –> the matter it is made from (marble)
Efficient cause –> who made it (sculptor)
Formal cause –> the form (figure of a person, furniture)
Final cause –> what goal, purpose? (to be sat on, honour of an important person)

Question 17

What did Anaxagoras (ca. 500–428 B.C.) postulate?

Answer 17

Postulated an infinite number of elements (seeds) from which everything is made. He believed that everything contains all the elements and that a thing’s identity is determined by which elements predominate. An exception is the mind, which contains no other element but may combine with other elements, thereby creating life.

Question 18

What’s Plato’s allegory of the cave?

Answer 18

Plato’s description of individuals who live their lives in accordance with the shadows of reality provided by sensory experience instead of in accordance with the true reality beyond sensory experience.

Question 19

What’s the analogy of the divided line?

Answer 19

Plato’s illustration of his contention that there is a hierarchy of understanding.

The lowest type of understanding is based on images of empirical objects. Next highest is an understanding of empirical objects themselves, which results only in opinion. Next is an understanding of abstract mathe-matical principles. Then comes an understanding of the forms. The highest understanding (true knowledge) is an understanding of the form of the good that includes a knowledge of all forms and their organization.

Question 20

What’s eidola (plural, eidolon)?

Answer 20

A tiny replication that some early Greek philosophers thought emanated from the surfaces of things in the environment, allowing the things to be perceived.

Question 21

What is an entelechy?

Answer 21

According to Aristotle, the purpose for which a thing exists, which remains a potential until actualized. Active reason, for example, is the human entelechy, but it exists only as a potential in many humans.

Question 22

How are Galen and personality theory related?

Answer 22

Associated each of Hippocrates’ four humors with a temperament, thus creating a rudimentary theory of personality.

Question 23

What’s a Golden Mean according to Aristotle?

Answer 23

The rule Aristotle suggested people follow to avoid excesses and to live a life of moderation.

Question 24

Being a sophist, Gorgias (ca. 485–380 B.C.) believed that…

Answer 24

…the only reality a person can experience is his or her subjective reality and that this reality can never be accurately communicated to another individual (Gorgias)

Question 25

What is inductive definition according to Socrates?

Answer 25

The technique used by Socrates that examined many individual examples of a concept to discover what they all had in common.

Question 26

What was the Olympian religion about?

Answer 26

• based on belief in Olympian gods as they were described in Homeric poems (whose activities were very much like those of upper-class Greeks)
• favored by the privileged classes

Question 27

What was the Dionysiac-Orphic religion about?

Answer 27

• preached that the soul was a prisoner of the body (because of some transgression committed by the soul) and that it longed to be released so that it could once again dwell among the gods
• the soul continues on a circle of transmigrations until it has been purged of sin
• a number of magical practices were thought useful in releasing the soul from its bodily tomb.

Question 28

What is Plato’s reminiscence theory of knowledge?

Answer 28

Plato’s belief that knowledge is attained by remembering the experi- ences the soul had when it dwelled among the forms before entering the body.

Question 29

What is teleology?

Answer 29

It’s a belief that nature is purposive. Aristotle’s philosophy was teleological.

Question 30

What is the difference between passive and active mind in Aristotle’s understanding?

Answer 30

The passive reason is involved in receiving and processing sensory information from the external world, while the active reason engages in rational thought, abstraction, and the formulation of general concepts based on the information received.