Unit 1 - Chapter 3 - Rome & Middle Ages Flashcards
What were the Dark Ages?
- Roman law collapsed.
- Time of very little progress.
- Christian church dominated.
When did the Dark Ages begin?
Around 400 to 1000.
How did the Crusades lead to the rediscovery of Aristotle’s work?
- Clash between Muslim and Christian armies
- Aristotle’s work preserved in Islamic mosques
- During holy war, work was rediscovered
Describe the expansion of Islam during the Dark Ages.
- Muhammed was born
- Heard voices from god, started preaching
- Called his religion Islam
- Writings in the Koran
Who is Avicenna?
- influenced by Aristotle
- stated 7 interior states in analyzing human thinking
For Avicenna, an _____________ represented the highest level of intellectual functioning.
understanding of God
Avicenna’s 7 Interior Senses
1) Common sense
2) Retentive imagination
3) Compositive animal imagination
4) Compositive human imagination
5) Estimative power
6) Remembering outcomes of info processing
7) Rationally using information
Common sense - Avicenna
Synthesizes information provided by external senses.
Retentive imagination - Avicenna
The ability to remember synthezised information
Compositive animal imagination - Avicenna
Animals learn what to approach or avoid in the environment through associative process.
Compositive human imagination - Avicenna
Allows humans to learn what to approach or avoid in the environment.
Estimative power - Avicenna
The innate ability to make judgments about environmental objects.
What is Avicenna’s sixth interior sense?
abilty to remember the outcomes of all the information processing
What is Avicenna’s seventh interior senses?
ability to rationally use information
Averroes
- discovered retina as light-sensitive part of the eye.
- human experience reflects gods influence.
- suggested inoculation as disease prevention.
Averroism
only the active intellect part of the soul survives death, nothing personal survives death.
Maimonides
- showed relationship between ethical living and mental health.
- wanted reconciliation between judians and aristotelians.
- predicted psychosomatic disorders.
- said things are demonstrably false should be rejected.
Who invented the ontological argument for the existence of God?
St. Anselm
Describe the ontological argument for existence of God.
- Think of a being until one can think of no better or greater being.
- This perfect being is God, and because we can think of him, he exists.
Peter Lombard
- said three ways to learn about God are; faith, reason & study of empirical world.
- like Anselm, believed the empirical world was key.
What is Scholasticism?
The synthesis of Aristotelian philosophy with Christian teachings.
P. Abelard
- introduced dialectic method
- argued for realism against nominalism
- proposed conceptualism
Dialectic method
Questions are raised, and several possible answers are explored.
Realism
claims that universals and essences have a real, independent existence.
Nominalism
universals are nothing more than verbal labels allowing the grouping of resembling objects.
Conceptualism
universal essences do not exist but similarities among categories of experiences do.
- mix of realism + nominalism
St. Thomas Aquinas
- goal = reconciliation of faith & reason
- divided faith and reason resulting in study of philosophy without religion
St. Albertus Magnus
first to combine Islamic and Jewish philosophers understandings of Aristotle into one place.
Describe the philosophy of William of Occam
- study nature to find god
- sensory experience provides trustworthy info about the world
- sided with nominalists
- explanations should be kept as simple as possible
What is Occam’s razor?
the belief that extra assumptions should be “shaved” from explanations or arguments.
Why is William of Occam’s philosophy considered to be a turning point in philosophy?
- marks the end of the Scholastic period.
- beginning of modern empirical philosophy.
