The Ancient World Flashcards
What is attributed to Greek philosophers?
Inventing science (broadly defined) and scientific curiosity
What is science?
-Nothing is science until it provides a successful explanation
What are the 3 attributes of science?
- Tries to provide an explanation - trying to understand natural processes.
- Explanations should be natural, not supernatural. (supernatural=mental states which have no connection to non-mental states)
- The natural explanations that you offer should be rational. You should be able to state them and the should be open to explanation and investigation
Greek philosophers tried to find natural causes of things by?
- Applying logic to the world. The most sublime thing that they could think of was thinking logically.
- Zeno’s paradox- race between tortoise and achilles=suppose you have two things in a race but the tortoise gets a head start, achilles should catch up and pass but he never does and this is observation versus logic.
Why did these philosophers discard religious and supernatural explanations of the world?
- Greek religion did not have a comprehensive view of the world. The greek gods had their own lives, but took little interest in the people of the world.
- Priests did not dominate greek civilization (they were still important)
Thales of Miletus (650? - 580? B.C.)
- Very little is known about him.
- He had followers that wrote down what he said
- He was a founder of natural philosophers
- Aristotle wrote about Thales, Anaximander and Anaximenes in his book
Thales and metaphysics
- He thought that matter could be transformed
- He thought everything was made of water
- The forces that cause change in matter are consolidation and expansion
Milesians and science
-Because of their naturalism and their ideas about the unity of matter, the Milesians claim to have invented sceince
Empedocles (492-432 B.C.)
-Had a materialist and casual view of nature
-Believed in some supernatural like transformation of souls
-Came up with the 4 element model of nature (air, fire, water and earth)
-Believed that these elements combine and dissociate because of two forces: love and hate.
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Empedocles Biology:
-We think with our blood, because this is where the 4 elements mingle evenly
How did Empedocles think that animals evolve over time?
-animals have evolved over time from bizarre ancestors. Originally separate limbs, torsos, and heads arose from the Earth and then combined at random, by chance, producing animals of different adoptive characteristics. ‘Darwin honoured Empedocles for shadowing forth the principle of natural selection.’
Democritus (460-360 B.C.)
-Democritus represents the peak of the first period of Greek philosophy, which is most noted for it’s interest in the natural world for it’s own sake. He learned atomism from his teacher Leucippus, and became the foremost ancient atomist and religious skeptic.
What were Democritus’s thoughts on atomism?
- Atoms are infinite in number and shape
- Qualities of matter derive from the number, size, shape and motion of the atoms of which matter is composed.
How did Democritus relate atomism and biology?
- Life and soul are the same thing. The soul consists of fire atoms
- Respiration brings in a fresh supply of soul atoms from the air. These atoms are constantly being given off by the body
- Sleep, asphyxia and death are all due to a loss of soul atoms
- Sensory perception is due to the movement of atoms from the perceived object to the perceiver, interacting with soul atoms from the perceiver.
What were the other biological benefits of Democritus?
- The human brain is the organ of thought; the heart is the organ of courage and the liver is the organ of sensuality
- Democritus performed dissections of many types of animals
