Looking at Philosophy Ch 2

Protagoras

"man is the measure of all things" Relativism Accept traditional customs- go along to get along Emphasized subjectivism and relativism most famous sophist in Athens 490-429 - earliest and most famous Sophist - quotation: - means that: I am the measure of all things; these are matters of individual judgment - no universal standards -indicted for blasphemy, was burned publicly

Skepticism

A denial of the possibility of knowledge. Could be skeptical of all knowledge or a specific field

Athenian period

Age of Herodotus to Death of Alexander the Great The Sophists

Teleology

An explanation in terms of goals, purposes, or intentions

Accidents

Characteristic of a substance that is not essential to the substance

Critias

Clever rulers control their subjects by encouraging fear of nonexistent gods

Good things of sophism

Contribution to democracy Makes humanity the object of interest- Whats the nature of humans

teleological

Definition : Philosophical approach that looks at the purposes and end results of phenomena rather than causes or means (Aristotle)

Sophism

Doctrines of a group of teachers who espoused relativism against epistemological and ethical absolutism and who emphasized rhetoric over reason its subjectivism, skepticism, and nihilism Democracy human as the focus opposed Plato and Aristotle Charged their students

Plato and Aristotle

Early Greek philosophers Which two philosophers formed the basis of philosophy in Alexandria? wrote about the Sophists in a negative way

Necessary conditions

Features of a concept that must be present if the concept is to be deemed correctly define

Sufficient conditions

Features which, when present, guarantee that the concept in question had been correctly defined

The Sophists

Goal: to replace philosophy with rhetoric, to replace objectivity with skepticism, objective truth with reality, knowledge with skepticism

nihilism

Gorgias belief in nothing the belief that there are no values or morals in the universe

Socratic problem

He never wrote anything down his philosophy was nearly inseparable from his personality

Thrasymachus

Might makes right. Power should be everyone's goal- not law or morality Justice: Advantage of the stronger. Those in power make the rules, create the justice. sophist

Ethics

Moral philosophy; the branch of philosophy that answers questions such as, Is there such a thing as the good? What is "the good life"? Are moral judgements based only on preference?

Gorgias

Nihilism Denied that there is any truth at all. Believed that nothing exists, that if anything exists it is incomprehensible and that even if it is comprehensible, it cannot be communicated.

Allegory of the Cave

Plato prisoners in a cave, forced to watch the back wall and only sees shadows.. when a prisoner is forced out, his eyes hurt, he's scared, but he adapts and learns of the outside world.. when he's forced back he's deemed crazy Describes how untutored people are chained away from learning

Aristotle

Plato was his teacher (384-322 BCE) Believed, unlike his teacher Plato, that philosophers could rely on their senses to provide accurate information about the world. Designed the first classification system which divided living things into two categories: plants and animals

Forms

Plato-everything that exists in the physical of conceptual world is in some way dependent on Forms, which exist independently of the world but are the models of all reality Aristotle- forms are the essence of things, but they exist in things and are not independent of them

Callicles

Power is good- not justice. Power is good for survival. Survival allows pleasure. Food, drink, and sex are the meaning of life. Morality if the weapon of the weak masses to shackle powerful individuals sophist

Relativism

Protagoras There are no absolute standard, values or truths; all values or truths are relative to time, place, and culture The human is the standard but humans constantly change

plato

Socrates' most well known pupil. Founded an academy in Athens. Didn't like the sophist Allegory of the Cave hierarchical human appetite, reason and The good = God; the greatest form of reality Doctrine of recollection

Metaphysics

The branch of philosophy that attempts to construct a general, speculative worldview; a complete, systematic account of all reality and experience

Essence

The feature of an object or concept that establishes the nature and definition of the object or concept

Simile of the line

The most important work,the Republic. It is reality are likened to a line. The right side of the line is his ontology - his theory of being). The left side is his epistemology -his theory of knowledge).

Aesthetics

The philosophy of art. The branch of philosophy that investigates questions such as, What makes something a work of art? Are there absolute values in art?

Catharsis

The purgation of dangerous emotions. Aristotle saw this was accomplished through art

Socrates

The unexamined life is not worth living Promoted introspection by saying, "Know thyself." philosopher who believed in an absolute right or wrong; asked students pointed questions to make them use their reason, later became Socratic method his student, Plato. An opponent of the Sophists knowing that you don't know is the basis of wisdom He was sentenced to death for corrupting the minds of Athenian youth and he drank the hemlock Greek philosopher; Socratic method--questioning; sentenced to death for corrupting Athens youth. Believed writing distorted ideas. His ideas were recorded by his followers (Plato).

Nihilism

The view that nothing exists or nothing deserves to exist or the wish for destruction

Subjectivism

The view that there are no objective truths or value; all truths and values are relative to the subjectivity of the individual-

Ontology

Theory of being; the branch of philosophy that answers questions such as, What is real? What is the difference between appearance and reality?

Epistemology

Theory of knowledge, answering questions such as, What is knowledge? What can we know? What is the difference between opinion and knowledge?

The doctrine of recollection

This is how we know the form Our souls exist before we are born into our bodies. And our souls take in the Forms. But this knowledge gets erased at birth, knowing or understanding a form, then is not learning, something new but recalling or recollecting what the soul already understood. Plato

Substance

Whatever can exist independently of other things. Most basic, independent reality

cynicism

an attitude or belief that all people are motivated by selfishness general distrust for others/classical philosophy to live in virtue and agreement with nature

conjecture

an opinion or conclusion formed on the basis of incomplete information, video games lowest state of awareness cave bound prisoner and shadows

epistemological

philosophical study of how we acquire knowledge.