Unit 1 - Chapter 2 - The Ancient World Flashcards
Describe Plato’s nature of sleep and dreams.
dreams reveal base appetites.
Describe the influence of Plato on the development of science.
- advanced the ideas of the Pythagoreans
- influence ideas in cognitive psych
- promoted dualism
Describe Aristotle’s (384–322 BC) philosophy in terms of the basic differences he had with Plato.
Plato
- forms
- knowledge exists independently of nature
- sensory info interfere with attaining knowledge
Aristotle
- essences
- knowledge & nature inseparable
- embraced rationalism and empiricism.
According to ______, all living things posses a soul.
Arisotle
Plato’s Theory of forms
- ultimate reality consists of abstract forms that correspond to all objects in the empirical world.
Forms
- abstract realities
- create imperfect manifestations when they interact with matter
- objects of sense impressions
Plato’s Analogy of the divided line
- belief that there is a hierarchy of understanding
- hierarchy; images of empirical objects –> empirical objects themselves –> abstract mathematical principles –> forms.
Understanding of empirical objects themselves results in
opinions
What is the highest understanding according to Plato?
understanding of the form of good (which is true knowledge)
Imagining (Plato)
Lowest form of understanding because it is based on images
Ex: portrait of a person, reflection in the water.
Plato’s Allegory of the cave
individuals who live in a shadowed reality provided by sensory experience instead of the true reality beyond sensory experience.
Describe escaped prisoner in allegory of the cave
prisoner sees real objects (forms) responsible for the shadows (sensory information) = true knowledge.
Plato - Reminiscence theory of knowledge
- knowledge is attained by remembering the experiences the soul had when it lived among the forms before entering the body.
- involves introspection
Plato - Introspection
- searching of ones inner understanding.
- knowledge is innate and attained only through introspection.
Plato was a _____, _______ & _____
natitivist, rationalist and idealist
Plato’s nature of the soul
- believed soul had three parts; rational, courageous and appetitive
Rational component of soul - Plato
Responsible for delaying immediate gratifications
Couragous component of the soul - Plato
emotional/spirited
Appetitive component of the soul - Plato
has appetites (ex; hunger, thirst) that must be met and play a motivational role in everyday life.
According to Plato, what must a person do for true knowledge to be attained?
suppress needs of the body and concentrate on rational pursuits, such as introspection.
Three types of people in Plato’s Republic
1) Dominant appetitive → workers and slaves.
2) Dominant courage/emotion → soldiers
3) Dominant reason/rationality → philosopher-kings.
Plato believed that societies have little chance of survival unless they are led by _______
philosophers with wisdom
Aristotle - Causation
To know anything, we must understand 4 aspects of it; material cause, formal cause, efficient cause, final cause.
Material cause
the matter of which a thing is made.
For ex; wood.
Formal cause
The particular form, or pattern of a thing.
Ex: a table
Efficient cause
The force that transforms the material thing into a certain form.
Ex: the energy of a carpenter.
Final cause
The purpose for which a thing exists.
Ex: the purpose of a table is a place to eat
Teleology
Aristotle’s belief that nature is purposive.
- involes entelechy
Entelechy
keeps an object moving in its prescribed direction until its full potential is reached
______ is human entelechy
active reason
Scala naturae
nature as being arranged in a hierarchy from formless matter to the unmoved mover.
unmoved mover
what gives nature its final cause, but was itself uncaused.
The closer something is to the ______ , the more perfect it is.
unmoved mover
Aristotle - Hierarchy of souls
A living things purpose is determined by what type of soul it possesses.
- vegetative, sensitive, rational
Three types of souls - Aristotle
1) Vegetative (or nutritive) soul
2) Sensitive soul
3) Rational soul
Vegetative (or nutritive) soul
Possessed by plants.
Allows only growth, the assimilation of food and reproduction.
Sensitive soul
Possessed by animals.
Includes
- vegetative functions
- respond to the environment
- experience pleasure and pain
- memory.
Rational soul
Possessed only by humans.
Provides all the functions of the other two souls + rational thought.
Sensation
Senses provide info about the environment.
- first step in acquiring knowledge (isolated experience).
Common sense
Integrates and synthesizes sensory experience, making it more meaningful.
Located in the heart.
Passive reason
practical use of the information provided by common sense.
Active reason
the abstraction of principles, or essences, from synthesized experiences.
- considered the highest form of thinking & source of greatest pleasure.
Memory - Aristotle
the results of sense perception.
- ex; remembering & recall
Remembering
passive recollection of past experiences
Recall
mental search for a past experience.
Laws of Association
- thought to be responsible for holding mental events together in memory.
- contiguity, similarity, contrast, frequency
law of contiguity
A thought of something tends to cause thoughts of things that are experienced along with it.
Law of similarity
A thought of something tends to cause thoughts of similar things.
Law of contrast
A thought of something tends to cause thoughts of opposite things.
Law of frequency
the more events are experienced together, the stronger they become associated
Imagination - Aristotle
the lingering effects of sensory experience.
Dreaming - Aristotle
- images of past experience.
- skeptical about providing info about the future.
- may reflect subtle bodily changes.
Reasons why images may seem odd during a dream
1) during sleep, images are not organized by reason
2) coordination with ongoing sensory experience doesnt occur during sleep
Motivation - Aristotle
- human behaviour is motivated by appetites.
- if activity eliminates discomfort, person will experience pleasure.
Aristotle - Emotions
To think rationally = purpose = greatest happiness.
All human behaviour is hedonistic
Golden mean
Aristotle described the best life, as one lived in moderation.
Requires rational control of ones appetites.
Emotions may cause
selective perception.
