The Ancient Greeks Flashcards
1
Q
While other bronze age societies shared this large feature, ancient greece did not
A
they all were tied to large productive rivers. But greek city states did not
2
Q
How did smaller, less productive rivers effect ancient greece?
A
-less worry about very destructive floods, which perhaps lead to less belief/power in the gods
- there was more isolation between city states
- a large emphasis on trade because climate/soil conditions limited vegetation growth
- were more reliant on oceans
3
Q
why did men have so much free time to participate in knowledge and philosophy in ancient greece?
A
- society was extremely hierarchical, where most physical labor was done by slaves, and domestic work was done by women. so upper class men had lots of free time
4
Q
Who was Thales?
A
- Ionian presocratic philosopher
- trained philosophers, some of whom had proto-evolutionary ideas
- emphasized knowledge gained through observation and experience! empirical measurement and using the senses
- made a model of the world where the 4 main elements composed everything
5
Q
Who was Democritus?
A
- proposed atomic theory, that all matter is composed of particles separated by ‘void’
- applied this theory to explain everything, sense perception, life and death
- was an empiricist through and through
- later greek philosophers were very antagonistic to his ideas
6
Q
Who was Hippocrates
A
- Father of medicine
- emphasized the patient, observation, and had respect for facts
- emphasized that patients had unique circumstances
- rejected supernatural explanations for disease
7
Q
What was Humoral theory?
A
- Hippocratic idea that health depended on the balance of the four humors (phlegm, blood, yellow bile, black bile)
- very influential, and long lasting
8
Q
Who were the three Athenian Philosophers?
A
- Socrates
- Plato
- Aristotle
9
Q
Who was socrates?
A
- Athenian philosopher primarily concerned with moral philosophy than science
- “socratic method”= way to guide people to realize knowledge, rather than just handing over the information (questioning, not telling)
10
Q
Who was Plato?
A
- Student of Socrates
- thought that knowledge could only be attained through the exercise of pure reason
- theory over empiricism!
- developed teleology
- emphasized the primacy of humans, that all humans were created first, everything else is degenerate humans
11
Q
What is teleology?
A
- developed by Plato
- Philosophical idea on ultimate causation
- questions why things are the way they are
- in opposition to explanations based on physical causes
