philosophy final

In what way is Anaximander developing to its ultimate consequences the insight of Thales regarding the formlessness of the beginning of all things?

-he says water is not unlimited, something has to unlimited to be the beginning of all things.

Heraclitus said "War is the father of all things, the king of all things..." Which of the four causes is he talking about? Why?

-the calling war the father and king of all things, he is speaking of the mover, not the matter of all things.

What image does Heraclitus use to represent the reality of all things?

-the flowing river as an image of the world

Pythagoras is sometimes regarded as the founder of what?

-the mathematical science of natural things.

Why is he such an important thinker in the history of human thought? In other words, what did he center philosophers' attention on?

-the most central thinker in human history

What is the meaning of the second and third fragment of Anaximander?

-the nature of the unlimited never grows old, the unlimited is immortal and indestructible

What deficiency in Heraclitus' and Empedocles' movers does Anaxagoras address?

- Heraclitus talked about fire and Empedocles talked about hate . because they don't explain order in the universe they both to seem to be mindless.

Where is Anaximander from?

- Miletus

How does Pythagoras connect mathematics and the natural world?

- Octave, is produced by objects in the ratio of two to one. This inspired him and his followers to look for simple numbers and ratios under all natural phenomena.

So, how has Anaximander improved on Thales?

- he shows Thales is wrong about water being the beginning of all things, that it is something that is unlimited

What does form mean when it refers to one of the four causes?

- not only shape, but also order and ratio

What are two ways in which a guess can be reasonable?

-1. There is a reason for the guess 2. Because our reason is naturally inclined to think so

What are two reasons it is important to understand change?

-1.it is most known to the senses. 2. If you don't understand change, you don't understand anything

Where is Heraclitus from?

-Ephesus

What problem does Anaximander see with water being the beginning of all things? What qualities does water still possess?

-If the beginning or source of all things is definitely wet and cold, it could not be the beginning of the hot or the dry.

Where was the third philosopher from ?

-Melitus

Who brought philosophy to Athens?

-Pericles

What is the connection between reason and beginnings?

-Reason naturally wonders, wonder looks for beginning, beginning is causes

What is the first meaning of the Greek word for soul, "psyche,"?

-air or breath

Which of the three guesses for a material beginning is the thinnest among them?

-air, being invisible

What is Pythagoras most commonly associated with?

-arithmetic and geometry

Why does Empedocles think that there is more than one first matter?

-because form has no definitive qualities

How is Thales's claim in some way even connected to theology or religion?

-because he was influenced by living bodies. Water is close to hydrogen the simplest element. Water is the source of life, God is the source of life, the soul I said to thirst for God

Why is it reasonable to think that the beginning of things is matter rather than form or a mover/maker?

-because matter is made up of a compound and it depends on the mover, but the mover would not work without its makeup

Why is it absurd to deny either the reality of change or the impossibility of a contradiction in reality?

-because our knowledge begins in our senses and nothing is more striking to our senses than change.

So why would the beginning of all things have to be formless?

-because then is would have the same quality throughout

Why did Empedocles' theory regarding the four elements as the basic components of all material things last for more than 2000 years?

-because we live in a world of contraries

When Heraclitus said, "all things flow, nothing abides," what was he talking about?

-change

Why does there seem to be a problem in the way we speak about change?

-change seems to involve the contradiction

How does Empedocles distinguish the first four matters?

-distinguishes by opposites

Before Thales, what did the poets think was the material beginning of all things?

-earth (soil, ground)

What opposites does Empedocles use to distinguish the first four matters?

-earth, fire, water, and air

How does he do it? In other words, how does he match up the opposites with the four matters?

-earth: cold dry water: wet cold air: wet hot fire: hot dry

Why does Heraclitus say, "it is impossible to step twice into the same river"?

-everything is changing, the water moves

Why is Anaximenes's candidate for the beginning of all things a better guess than Thales's guess?

-for there is more air than water around. Air is not more unlimited that the unlimited, but it is easier for our mind because air is somewhat sensible.

If there is no matter in mathematics, how do mathematicians explain things? In other words, what cause do they use to explain the things they talk about and study?

-form and order. The cat explanation

1. What discovery did Pythagoras make regarding harmonious sounds in music?

-harmonious sounds in music are produced by objects in simple numerical ratios.

Why might Empedocles be considered a precursor to modern chemistry?

-he combined the basic elements in ratios like we do in modern chemistry

When Anaxagoras speaks of a greater mind, is he thinking of a human mind? What is he thinking of?

-he is not thinking of a human mind. He is thinking of a greater mind, God

How did Anaxagoras arrive at his conclusion concerning the mover of all things?

-how could hair come from what is not hair and flesh from what is of flesh? Hence everything must be inside of everything. There is an infinite or unlimited multitude of things unlimited in size or infinitely small. And because they are so small, they cannot be distinguished.

What was Heraclitus talking about when he said that "the most beautiful universe is a heap piled up at random"?

-if a mindless matter is the beginning of all things, it seems that the universe would be a heap piled up at random.

What difficulty would one run into if one thought that the beginning of all things was sugar?

-if everything was sugar in the beginning then everything would have qualities of sweetness like sugar... this is not true.

What are the two ways in which the beginning of all things could be thought to be unlimited?

-immortal and indestructible

What ordinary experience may have led Anaximenes to think that air was the beginning of all things and not water?

-influenced by living things, the need to breathe in order to live.

Why does Parmenides think that change is an illusion, that is, that it really does not exist?

-it is impossible to both be and not be at the same time. Hence one opposite cannot be the other.

Why does he call it a "greater" mind?

-it is responsible for a greater order

What is happening as we move from what the poets thought was the beginning of all things to what Thales thought and finally to what Anaximenes thought?

-it's becoming more unlimited

Why did Anaximander also say "That from which existing things come to be is also that into which they are corrupted by necessity"? What is he thinking about?

-justice and injustice

What simple and homely example was given in class to show that the beginning of things must also be their end?

-lego pieces and the wooden block. you end up with what you start with

How can it be explained that water is a beginning of both living and nonliving things?

-like a seed being watered to grow, and bodies are made up of water, without they will die. Also the rock comes from the tree and it comes from a seed back to water.

What does Empedocles think is the mover of all things? Does he have one or two movers? Why?

-love and hate

Pythagoras came into natural philosophy, or the study of natural things, from what branch of human knowledge?

-mathematics

Of the four causes, which is the only one found in mathematics?

-matter

Which of the four causes did the first philosophers first talk about? Why did they begin there?

-matter, because everything starts from somewhere

What are the four causes?

-matter, form mover/maker end/purpose

According to modern science itself, in what way can Thales be thought as having come very close to something first?

-metaphysics

Which of the four causes is Heraclitus responsible for introducing? What primarily was it that led him to posit the need for this cause?

-mover and maker. political and economic systems, war.

Give one example of how the gradual discovery of the four causes exemplifies or illustrates the natural road in our knowledge.

-natural road... order in kinds of knowing, order in different things, order in the same thing

What does natural philosophy study?

-natural things

Is Anaximander's beginning of all things something that can be seen, heard, touched, smelled, or tasted?

-no but he doesn't single out them because they have qualities

Does Anaximander single out any particular element of our sensible experience, as did Thales, as the beginning of all things? Why not?

-no, because he has moved on to something without qualities,

Is there any matter in mathematics? Why or why not? You may give examples.

-no. because numbers are not made up of anything.

Why does Heraclitus say "the same in us is the living and the dead, the awake and the asleep, the young and the old..."?

-opposites

Why is it reasonable to look for one beginning as opposed to more than one beginning?

-order looks for one beginning

Where were Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximenes from?

-prosperous trading port of Miletus, what is now Turkey

Is Heraclitus talking about what is a cause of all, or what is said of all? Why?

-said of all, because it's how things are, nothing is causing anything at the moment.

So why does Anaximander say that the beginning of all things must be unlimited qualitatively?

-same problem like the sugar. If the first beg was not unlimited quality, then everything would have that qualities, and you could not get that opposite quality then.

What did Aristotle remark about Anaxagoras? Why?

-seemed like a sober man among drunk men when he spoke of the mind

In how many steps did we examine Thales's claim?

-six from general to the particular

define matter

-that out of which something is made/composed and existing within it

How does Empedocles use the insight of Pythagoras regarding ratios?

-that there are ratios underlying natural things with the thought that there are four elements. These elements combine in different numerical ratios to become various compounds

What was Thales claim?

-that water was the beginning of all things

What did Anaximander say was the beginning of all things? Why does this claim seem odd when compared to Thales's claim?

-the beginning is unlimited for it cannot be sensed?

What is the solution to Heraclitus's supposed contradiction in change? Is it the hot itself that becomes cold? Or the young itself that becomes old? Or the wet itself that becomes dry?

-the opposite is useful and from those differing comes the most beautiful harmony and all things come to be by strife. Something wet becomes dry

Which is more undeniable: the dependence of the word "cat" on its letters or the dependence of the word "cat" on the order of the letters? Why?

-the order of letters. Because it would not be cat if the letters switched to tac.

How does Empedocles explain the composition of white bones?

-the ratio of dry elements to wet elements in greater in bone than n blood and even in flesh.

Following Pythagoras's discovery, what is the difference between carbon monoxide and carbon dioxide?

-the ratio to two to one is harmless, but the ratio of one to one will kill you

If the beginning of things is also their end, what consequence follows, according to Anaximander?

-the second and third fragments

Is he claiming that there is one beginning or more than one beginning?

-there is one beginning to everything, everything has a certain starting point

Why is it reasonable to suppose that the material beginning of all things would be the thinnest/smallest of all things?

-thick cannot be the matter of the thin. We cannot make something thin out of something thick: the thin cannot be composed of the thick.

What is the principle of non-contradiction?

-to admit that one opposite really becomes the other is to admit contradiction.

Why did Heraclitus say, "... We are and we are not"?

-we are always changing

What is the definition of end?

-what is after everything else, but not before anything

What is the definition of middle?

-what is both before and after

Give at least two reasons why we studied the natural fragments?

-wonder, and because we want to find the first causes of all things

Was Anaximenes's guess better than Thales's guess? Quantitatively? Qualitatively? How so?

-yes quantitatively, because air is more unlimited that water because it is formless

What did Anaximenes say was the beginning of all things?

Air

Who was the third philosopher

Anaximenes

In what order did we proceed in examining Thales?

Matter, form, mover/maker, end/purpose

Who was the first philosopher to bring the principle of non contradiction explicitly to our attention?

Parmenides

What would it mean to say that the beginning of all things was unlimited in quality?

also more unlimited

Pluralists

believed that one that more thing was the beginning of all things

monism

belived that one thing was beg of all things

How might Empedocles be reasoning to his conclusion regarding what he thinks moves all things?

contrary effects have contrary causes

What would it mean to say that the beginning of all things was unlimited in quantity?

more unlimited than water

What does formless mean?

not having definitive qualities shapeless, colorless, tasteless

Love and hate sound very much like what two forces used by 19th century physicists to explain everything?

the force of attraction and the force of repulsion

What is the mover of all things for Anaxagoras?

the mind

How does Empedocles explain the order in the natural world?

thinking and reasoning are a motion and that thought can penetrate things and is therefore finer than other things.

What is the definition of beginning?

what is before everything else but not after