The classical & medieval world

Question 1

Factors that allow critical enquiry to develop:

Answer 1

Absence of religious explanation.
Uncoupling of belief value/desire-> willing to subject belief to test
Started in classical Greece (social/material conditions)

Question 2

Presocratics:

Answer 2

Thales & ontological issues (the physicists) natural explanations
Universe made of water-> single element-> atomic theory
Pythagoras- reasoning =truth

Question 3

Socrates and Plato:

Answer 3

Socratic method- critical dialogue, rationalism
Self knowledge= ultimate value
Personality= 3 aspects/tripartite (rational, spirite, appetitive

Question 4

Aristotle:

Answer 4

sympathetic to empirical view held by scientists today, naturalistic
•Scientific: in practice and theory of knowledge
•Argued for purpose in nature- each structure has a function