Lesson 1 - Greek and Roman Philosophy

Question 1

What led the great minds of Ancient Greeks to think about philosophy?

Answer 1

Their want to understand the world around them (we are less fearful of things when we understand them - gives us a sense of control)

Question 2

What is the transition from mythos to logos?

Answer 2

From mythological thinking to logical thinknig (seeking explanations about the world)

Question 3

What are the 3 techniques used by people before ancient greek philosophers to make sense of the world around them? What do these techniques lead to?

Answer 3

• Animism: everything in nature has a soul or essence - gives agency to inanimate/animate things (ex: knocking on wood - from the idea that there was an evil entity in wood, so we knocked on it to make sure they did not hear us while we talk about our fortunes)
  
  • Anthropomorphism: easier to relate to non-human beings and natural phenomena as though they possess human attributes (ex: mother nature)
• Magic: we might reach for magical thoughts/rituals when we do not understand the things around us (ex: incantations, candles, sacrifices, etc)

These techniques tend to be how we form religious thinking

Question 4

Which religion did rich people relate to in Ancient Greece?

Answer 4

rich ppl related to Olympian religion (gods) - did not really care about men, but they cared about wars/etc

Question 5

Which religion did poor people relate to in Ancient Greece?

Answer 5

Not of noble descent: Dionysiac - orphic religion (Son of Zeus), viewed as kind and understanding

Question 6

How did the Dionysian-orphic religion perceived human nature?

Answer 6

• Working-class life was hard
  * Part of human nature seeks chaos, adventure, experiences (etc)
  * Common ppl had no chance to get to the mount olympus with the gods, therefore the dionysiac-orphic religion offered something similar
  * Transmigration of the soul: possibility of being reborn in another body after death (mortal body and immortal soul) - we begin to consider two worlds, physical and non physical (metaphysical)

Question 7

Name some factors that influenced the philosophic revolution to happen in greece?

Answer 7

• Unique culture - Greeks believed that the gods did not care about humans - did not fear repression if they tried to explore philosophy
  
  • Influence from Persia (maths/science)
  • Pursuit of knowledge

Question 8

Describe the origin of the word philosophy

Answer 8

Philo (love) sophy (wisdom)

Question 9

Define what is physis

Answer 9

one substance that was fundamental to all things (physis)

Question 10

What were pre-socratic philosophers interested in finding?

Answer 10

Physis: what is the nature of everything?

• One substance/element from which everything is derived

Question 11

What did Thales of Miletus believed the physis was?

Answer 11

believed it was water
• Known as the 1st philosopher
• Emphasized natural explanations for everything
• Universe made up of substances and following laws
• Life depends on water (exists in all things, in many forms - sea and sky)

Question 12

What did Heraclitus believed the physis was?

Answer 12

believed it was fire
• Fire transforms everything
• He believed the physis was change (we are constantly changing)
• A man cannot step in the same river twice

Question 13

What did Anaximander believed the physis was?

Answer 13

believed it was apeiron
• A substance we cannot perceive
• Boundless/infinite
• Can become anything, and is indestructible (sounds like atoms; even though he did not know about those)

Question 14

Describe the beliefs of the Pythagoreans

Answer 14

• Practiced the orphic religion (treated the immaterial as material (reification), strong belief in the transmigration of the soul, vegetarian, maths and astronomy would purify the soul)
  
  • All things are nbrs
  • Maths are the basis of everything, and geometry is the highest form of math studies
  • The physical world can be understood through maths
  • The soul is immortal: It moves from one being to another until it becomes pure
  • Both maths and music can purify the soul
  • The world depends upon the interaction of opposites (male/female, fast/slow, etc)
  • Certain symbols have a mystical significance (1=generator of all nbrs, 2 = opinion, etc, males = even nbrs, females = uneven)
  • All members of the society (Pythagorean society) should observe strict loyalty and secrecy

Question 15

The Pythagoreans introduced the first mind/body debate. What was it about? What were the 2 perspectives about this debate?

Answer 15

First mind/body debate
• Body: flesh (weak, fallible)
• Mind: reasoning (infallible, soul)

Can be divided into 2 perspectives:
• Rational perspective: reason/rationality were ways to cleanse the soul
• Empirical perspective: experience of the flesh (senses) were inferior to those of the mind - interferes with knowledge

Question 16

Socrates and post-Socratic philosophers shifted from physis to…?

Answer 16

From physis (searching for that one element that can explain everything) in the pre-socratic world, we are shifting to the post-socratic world, which emphasizes dialectic

Question 17

What was Socrates vision on knowledge/philosophy?

Answer 17

One of the 1sts to suggest that seeking knowledge/wisdom is imperative
• Philosophy - down from heavens
• Made people think, reflect on their lives and customs and essentially examine their lives
• “One must seek knowledge and wisdom before private interests”
• Knowledge=means to ethical action

Question 18

What is the name of the Socratic method? What is this method?

Answer 18

(Elenchus)
Brining ppl together and asking questions to start a discussion
Immorality stems from a lack of knowledge of what is right

Question 19

With his method, Socrates sought to find what?

Answer 19

Socrates sought to find the essence of things (its most basic nature, its enduring qualities)
• Ex: What is beauty? Its symmetry. What does that mean? Anyone who is not symmetrical is not beautiful? Why are we even asking this?

Question 20

How did Socrates use inductive reasoning to find the essence of things? What is the difference between this and the scientific method?

Answer 20

Examine instances of a concept (beauty, truth), then ask what all those instance have in common, and you can find the essence of the concept
• Observation -> patterns -> hypothesis -> theory
• Similar to scientific method - BUT inductive reasoning creates conclusions while scientific method creates hypotheses

Question 21

How did Socrates die?

Answer 21

Forums of discussion were not regarded favourably
• Warned not to do this wih ppl younger than 30, but did not listen
• Questioned authority
• At 70, accused of impiety (not worshipping gods) and corruption of the youth, among others
• Escaping would have been contrary to his beliefs

Question 22

Explain Plato’s theory of Forms

Answer 22

Duality of existence: how can the world be both permanent and changing?
• The physical world: exists in our senses, ever-changing, imperfect (ex: there are all sorts of cats)
• The Abstract world: exists in our minds, permanent and composed of ideals and perfection (ex: there is one perfect cat) - Called The Forms

Question 23

Explain Plato’s reminiscence theory of knowledge

Answer 23

How do we know The Forms if they cannot be experienced through senses?
• True knowledge is innate (our souls come from The Forms, therefore they contain all the knowledge we need), and it can be attained through introspection
• The Abstract world is + important: makes Plato a rationalist

Question 24

Explain Plato’s 3-part soul theory

Answer 24

The soul and the mind are relatively synonymous
3 parts of the soul:
• Appetitive: responsible for effortless desires (food, water, sex, drives to survive)
• Spirited/Courageous: seeks victory/honour
• Rational: judges what is factual or not and makes sensible decisions (guide the entire system by delaying instant gratification from bodily needs)

Question 25

What did Plato suggest in The Republic?

Answer 25

People can be guided more by one of the facets of the soul
• Appetitive: craftsmen, farmers
• Spirited/Courageous: soldiers, guards
• Rational: Philosophers, kings (only those were fit to govern, being led by rationality meant that those people were balanced)

Question 26

How does Plato view the acquisition of true knowledge?

Answer 26

With the analogy of the divided line; where different levels of intelligence are separated between the World of Appearance (lower) and the Intelligible World (higher), and 4 levels correspond to specific objects and states of mind (lowest - images/imagining, and highest = the Forms/intelligence)

4 levels are

1. (lowest) images - imagining
2. visible things - beliefs
3. Mathematical objects - thinking
4. (highest) the Forms - Intelligence/knowledge

Question 27

How can Plato’s Allegory of the Cave be analyzed regarding his theory of acquisition of true knowledge?

Answer 27

World of Appearances: inside the cave
• May form a belief system based on the limited knowledge that the cave provides (which is not necessarily the truth)
• Will not want to hear about the other person that got out of the cave, because adapting to this other reality will hurt too much (people are hard to convince to get out of their belief systems)
Intelligible World: outside the cave
• Seeking out truth rather than just accepting the info fed to you (critical thinking)
• It takes work and discomfort to attain this higher state of knowledge

Question 28

What was Aristotle’s view on rationalism/empiricism?

Answer 28

Was a rationalist and empiricist
• Body is necessary to knowledge, not a nuisance (empiricist approach) - truth can be known by observing nature
• Nature and knowledge are inseparable
• Sought to explain psychological phenomena in biological terms

Question 29

What are the 4 causes that allow us to acquire knowledge through nature, according to Aristotle?

Answer 29

• Physical
  * Material cause (what is it made of?)
  * Ex: table is made of wood
  * Formal cause (what is its shape?)
  * Ex: table has flat surface with 4 legs
  
  • Metaphysical
    
    • Efficient cause (what is the primary change of change or rest, who made it, what gives it some sort of agency?)
      
      • Ex: table was made by a carpenter, he had a vision for it and made it through woodwork
    • Final cause (why does it exist?)
      
      • Ex: To put books and meals on it, to write on it, etc

Question 30

Describe Aristotle’s Unmoved Mover theory, and its related concepts (theology and entelechy)

Answer 30

Theology: everything in nature has a function built to it
Unmoved Mover: cause everything in nature, set everything in motion (was a logical necessity, not a god)
Entelechy: everything has a purpose/final function, everything in nature is this force that keeps us moving in this direction
• To Aristotle, the unmoved mover was perfection, and the planets/stars were trying to imitate its perfection by going in circles (circle=perfection in maths, and Aristotle believed in a geocentric universe)

Question 31

Describe the 3 levels of souls, according to Aristotle’s hierarchy of souls

Answer 31

All living things have a soul, but they are divided in 3 categories
• Vegetative (nutritive) soul: plants (grow, reproduce)
• Sensitive soul: all the attributes of vegetative, plus the ability to sense and respond to environment, feel pleasure/pain, and experience memory (animals)
• Rational soul: possessed by humans, all functions of sensitive, plus ability to think/rational thoughts

This also corresponded to differences in the ability to reason
• Sensory - plants
• Passive - animals and humans
• Active - humans
Sensory only: plants
Passive: using sensory to act
Active: going beyond sensory experience to act

Question 32

According to Aristotle, what was the role of the brain?

Answer 32

Aristotle believed that the brain was a cooling system for the blood - calming instinctual responses and be capable or rationality, unlike animals (since our brain is bigger)

Question 33

Who believed that the brain was responsible for learning in the Post-Socratic epoch

Answer 33

Pythagoreans/Egyptians suggesting that the brain was responsible for reasoning
• Info on human anatomy was not available
• Dissection was a taboo

Question 34

Who was Asclepius?

Answer 34

Asclepius: god of medicine, son of Apollo
• Carried a snake wrapped around a rod with him (symbol of modern medicine - caduceus)
• Symbol of power, knowledge and mystery
• Was able to restore the dead to life - was destroyed because of it because it was a crime against natural order

Question 35

How were early practitionners viewed in Greek Medicine?

Answer 35

Practitioners were considered to follow God’s footsteps (were revered)
Temples were built to honour them and to see their clients
Temple medicine:
• Healing rituals
• Ceremonies
• Both kept secret, only practitioners were allowed to have this knowledge

Question 36

Name the 3 key figures in the influence of the theory of balance in Greek Medicine, and explain their contributions

Answer 36

Alcmaeon of Croton: early Greek medical writer/philosopher
• Suggests that the brain is the seat of understanding
• Realized the importance of balance within the body (isonomia = balance in the body)
• Ex: too much hot (fever) required cooling down to bring back balance

Hippocrates: Father of medicine (Hippocratic oath)
• Believed that illnesses has natural causes and natural remedies (ex: sleep, diet, exercise, etc)
• The physician = facilitator who treats the patient’s lifestyle not jus the disease
• Attacked supernatural medicine (epilepsy =/ evil, but chemical imbalance in the body)
• Humoral theory (see below)

Galen: Early Personality theory - associated the 4 humors of Hippocrates with 4 temperaments
• All these humors were in the blood and the blood was the dominant humor (blood = hemoglobin, bilirubin = yellow bile, platelets = black bile, and plasma = phlegm)
• Blood = friendly, YB = bitter, BB = lazy, sickly, Phlegm = low spirited
• Excess of one component could be solved with a bleeding

Question 37

Define Hippocrate’s humoral theory

Answer 37

4 humors were central to health, and diseases were caused by an imbalance in those (purging and bleeding were used to re-equilibrate the balance between the fluids)
Black Bile
Yellow Bile
Blood
Phlegm
Hippocrates associated those 4 fluids with the 4 basic elements that Alcmaeon discovered

Question 38

Define the 4 humors and what happens when they are unbalanced, as well as treatments

Answer 38

Yellow bile: (hot/dry) out of balance, the body would stagnate (too much = stone formation)
• Treat this: hydrate
Black bile: (dry/cold) associated w earth, autumn and the spleen (too much = melancholy (depression))
• Treatment: eating warm/moist foods, lifestyle adjustments
Blood: (hot/wet) linked with air, spring and the heart (bleeding disorders, hemophilia and menstruation problems)
• Treatment: eating lighter, bloodletting and using leeches
Phlegm: (wet/cold) connected to water and the brain (too much = heaviness and lethargy)
• Treatment: heat and reduction of stress

Question 39

What was the difference between Romans and Greeks in terms of temperament?

Answer 39

Romans: Pragmatic, sought law/order
Greeks: championed debate and the chaos of democracy

Question 40

Describe the theory of stoicism of romans. Who were their influences for this theory?

Answer 40

Stoicism - Pragmatic Romans developed
• World ruled by a divine plan
• The good life involves accepting one’s fate
• Accept their stations in life without question
4 cardinal virtues of stoicism
• Wisdom
• Courage
• Justice
• Temperance
Influenced by Socratic and Platonic teachings

Question 41

What contributed to the blending of cultures in the Roman Empire? What will be the result of this?

Answer 41

Blending of different cultures as the Roman Empire moves East (Persia, far-East)
• Due to merchants travelling the Silk Route
• Will contribute to the rise of religion

Question 42

Name a few religions that were influencing Romans because of the Silk route

Answer 42

Religions from India/Persia
• Vendantism: one of the 6 schools of Hinduism which teaches about the nature of the relationship between the eternal core of the individual self (atman) and the absolute (brahman)
• Zoroastrianism: one of the oldest monotheistic religions - constant struggle between good (ahura mazda) and evil (angra mainyu): people choose either one everyday and their afterlife will be based on these choices
Different religions from Near East that focused on the divinity of the female
• Cults of Magna Mater (Great Mother)
• Isis: ancient Egyptian goddess of the moon, fertility, healing and magic (essence of femininity)
• Mithra: Iranian god of the sun, justice, and war, infallible in the battle with evil, often seen battling a bull (birthday is Dec 25)
Religions from the Middle East
• Judaism: monotheistic religion with one God with an interest in human affairs and a strict code of behaviour
Teachings of Jesus: suggest that the knowledge of good and evil is revealed by God and should guide human conduct (meshing of Judaeo-Christian traditions)

Question 43

What can we remember from the story of Adam, Eve and Lilith?

Answer 43

What to remember from this story
• Humans were created in perfect form, above all other creatures
• Faith is better than knowledge
• It is dangerous to go against God’s will and seek out more knowledge than is allowed
• There is fallibility and weakness of the flesh
• Females have a lesser moral code than men
• The female is subservient to the male

Question 44

What is the Christian thinking regarding the role of the body, soul and spirit?

Answer 44

Human divided into 3 parts: body, soul, spirit
• Spirit was the spark of God within humans
• Through the spirit, humans can become close to God
• The body is a source of evil
• The mind is caught between the body and spirit (sometimes serves one or the other)
• Faith gets placed above reason

Question 45

What was the contribution of the Emperor Constantine for Christianity?

Answer 45

Emperor Constantine: made Christianity a tolerated religion in the Roman Empire (edict of Milan)
• Followed a slow institution of Christianity in society, until it became the official religion of the Roman Empire

Question 46

What was the contribution of Theodosius for Christianity?

Answer 46

Theodosius made the Christian religion the official religion of the Roman Empire
• Combined stoicism, Neo-Platonism, Judaism, and Christianity into a powerful Christian worldview

Question 47

What marks the start of the fall of the Roman Empire? What is the link with this and the rise of Christianity?

Answer 47

Fall starts with the Empire being split
- Think about why the people at those time were hanging onto religion and spirituality - uncertain times (people were constantly scared of fights and assaults)

Question 48

What were the Dark Ages?

Answer 48

• Greek/Roman books were lost: little/no progress in philosophy and literature
  
  • Europe became anti-intellectualism, superstitious and dominated by mysticism
  • Church dogma became very powerful because it was no longer challengeable -Are you a believer or a heretic? Heretics were killed

Question 49

During the Dark Ages, the Arabs were in a Golden Age. Why/How?

Answer 49

Their scholars assimilated the scientific knowledge of the civilizations they encountered
• Preserved the writings of Aristotle and Socrates
• Arts, Science and other fields advanced during this time
Once the Dark Age was over in Europe, the preserved writings of Aristotle were rediscovered

Question 50

Who was Avicenna? What was his role in the Islamic Golden Age?

Answer 50

Avicenna: wrote many books on scientific topics (most popular is the Book of Healing and the Cannon of Medicine)
• According to Persian Medicine, mental states have direct effects on human well-being and development of diseases
• Prevented and managed depression based on lifestyle modifications and natural remedies (aromatherapy)
• Added 7 internal sense to the basic 5 external senses (arranged in a hierarchy)

Question 51

name the 7 internal senses the Avicenna added to the basic 5 senses

Answer 51

1. Common sense (synthesize info from external senses)
   2. Retentive imagination (remember the synthesized information)
   3. Compositive Animal imagination (learn what to approach or avoid in the environment (associative))
   4. Compositive Human Imagination (learn what to approach/avoid based on common sense and retentive imagination)
   5. Estimative power (ability to make judgements about environmental objects)
   6. Ability to remember outcomes of past events
   7. Ability to use this information

Question 52

What were the contributions of Averroës in the Islamic Golden Age?

Answer 52

Averroës :Known as the founding father of secular thought
• Revived the interest in ancient Greek philosophy
• All human experience reflects god’s influence
• Commentary in Avicenna’s Cannon of Medicine (best intro to medicine ever)
• Retina = light sensitive part of the eye
• First to state that smallpox occurs in the human only once (understanding of inoculation)

Question 53

Who founded Islam?

Answer 53

Muhammad