The Greek Philosophy

Question 1

Thales

Answer 1

COSMOLOGICAL PERIOD

Thales is considered the Father of Philosophy; he believed that everything had come out of water.

Question 2

Anaximander

Answer 2

COSMOLOGICAL PERIOD

Anaximander believed that the world originated from what he called the apeiron- the indefinite and unlimited.

Question 3

Anaximenes

Answer 3

COSMOLOGICAL PERIOD

Anaximenes believed that the world developed out of air.

Question 4

Pythagoras

Answer 4

COSMOLOGICAL PERIOD

Pythagoras explained the universe in terms of numbers. He taught that all things are numbers or could be reduced to numbers.

Question 5

Democritus

Answer 5

COSMOLOGICAL PERIOD

Democritus taught that all the substance is made of atoms.

Question 6

Heraclitus

Answer 6

COSMOLOGICAL PERIOD

Heraclitus thought that everything constantly changes and moves, and that nothing remains the same. He asserted that the world is a fire which is a living symbol of the constant strife in the ordered world.

Question 7

Empedocles

Answer 7

COSMOLOGICAL PERIOD

Empedocles declared that there are four material elements - fire, air, water, and earth (he called them the roots of everything) and two forces, love and hate/strife interact to bring together and to separate the four substances. The elements are mixed with one another by love and separated by hate.

Question 8

The Sophists

Answer 8

ANTHROPOLOGICAL PERIOD

The Sophists were orators, public speakers and traveling teachers. They taught using the method of persuasion and are considered the first pedagogues.

Question 9

Protagoras

Answer 9

ANTHROPOLOGICAL PERIOD

Protagoras is best known for his claim that “man is the measure of all things” everything is relative to individual experience and interpretation.

Question 10

Socrates

Answer 10

ANTHROPOLOGICAL PERIOD

Socrates wrote nothing. He taught by a question-and-answer method. He asked questions to show that people hold many contradictory opinions. He wanted to replace vague opinions with clear ideas. He became a symbol of the philosopher who pursued an argument wherever it led to arrive at the truth no matter what the cost.

Question 11

Plato

Answer 11

ANTHROPOLOGICAL PERIOD

Plato a philosopher and educator of ancient Greece, student of Socrates. He founded a school of philosophy and science that became known as the Academy (the school stood in a grove of trees that was once owned by a Greek hero Academus). His great work is The Republic in which he drew the outlines of an ideal state .

Question 12

Aristotle

Answer 12

ANTHROPOLOGICAL PERIOD

Aristotle was a Greek philosopher, educator and scientist, student of Plato and the tutor of Alexander the Great. When he was 18 years old, he entered Plato’s school in Athens (Academy), Philip II invited him to supervise the education of his son Alexander the Great. He founded a school called the Lycaeum and his school, his philosophy and his followers were called peripatetic (walking around).

Question 13

Cosmologists

Answer 13

The earliest Greek philosophers who focused their attention upon the origin and nature of the physical world.

Question 14

The cosmological period of Greek philosophy

Answer 14

The earliest Greek philosophers focused their attention upon the origin and nature of the physical world, they are often called cosmologists.

Question 15

The anthropological period of Greek philosophy

Answer 15

Human being was at the center of interest.

Question 16

The Theory of Forms

Answer 16

The Theory of Forms according to Plato, all of the things that people perceive with their senses are imperfect copies of the eternal Forms (Ideas).