philosophy test 1
The Principle of the Lever
- Archimedes established this and realizing that a great weight at a small distance could be balanced by a small weight at a large distance, and constructed devices to move ships.
Author of The Nature of the Universe
- Epicurus
Archimedes' Principle
- his most famous discovery, tasked with finding if king Hierons golden laurel crown had been diluted with silver, Archimedes realized, allegedly in his bath, that bodies displace their own volume of fluid. Establishing the volume of the crown enabled its density, and therefore purity, to be calculated from its weight.
The Lyceum
Aristotle tutored young alexander the great. Returning to Athens with alexanders backing, he founded the lyceum to rival the academy, teaching more subjects. It is from lecture notes never intended for publication that his ideas endure.
Nous
Anaxagoras rest on his interpretation of the material world, his cosmology, and his use of mind (nous) as the driving force in the universe. He concluded that everything contains a portion of everything else.
Gnomon
Anaximander ventured into meteorology, attributing thunder to the clashing together of clouds. He introduced the gnomon (vertical sundial) he used it to determine equinoxes as well as measuring time.
Stamina
Antisthenes admired Heracles for his virtue and valour, and urged his followers to develop stamina as well as virtue. He was a competent wrestler himself, and had distinguished himself by bravery at the battle of Tanagra.
Ascetic life
Antisthenes taught people to shun external things like property and pleasures, and instead pursue inner things such as truth and self-knowledge. This was the path to wisdom and virtue, whereas the pursuit of pleasure led to reckless and foolish behavior.
Dialectic-
Aristotle credits Zeno with the invention of dialectic, the method of trying to bring out inconsistencies through dialogue with an opponent.
Tutor of Nero-
Claudius
The void
Democritus postulated that the universe consists of two things: atoms and the void. The void is not nothingness, but space through which atoms can move.
Atomic theory of matter
Democritus was called the 'laughing philosopher/ bc of his cheerful temperament, and bc the absurdity of human follies amused him. He is known for this theory bc a pupil of Leucippus, some of whose ideas he elaborated and sysyematized, Democritus had travelled to Egypt and Babylon, and perhaps india, picking up some of the knowledge of different countries. He discovered that a cone has a third of the volume of the cylinder of the same base and height, and reported to have known about herb extracts and their properties.
Stoics
Diogenes claimed that to fortune he could oppose courage to convention nature, to passion reason, and his indifference to life's comforts powerfully influenced later philosophers, including the Stoic school.
Pythagoras' basis of reality
He observed the musical notes made by plucking a string vary in proportion to its length, just as those made by striking an anvil vary with its size. He deduced that mathematical ratios lay at the heart of musical harmony, and concluded that all reality is based on mathematics. (this can be expressed in mathematical formulae and this applies to all objects.)
Centerpiece of Heraclitus' philosophy
Heraclitus has had a lasting influence. Most if his near contemporaries sought to find the comfort or permanence amid disorder and uncertainty, but Heraclitus embraced change and made it the centerpiece of his philosophy.
Pre-Socratics
Heraclitus of Ephesus was one of the group of greek philosophers, not only bc they lived and wrote before Socrates but bc they wrote about different things from Socrates. (many of them struggled to explain what the universe was all about, why it took diff. shapes and forms, and whether there was a deeper reality underlying appearances, rather than simply examining the human goodness and virtue.)
Primordial element
Heraclitus thought fire to be the primordial element and source of the others- all things are an interchange for fire. Even in men, the most worthy souls were dominated by fire, and less contaminated by 'base' water. (he was called the 'father and king", deciding the status of men.)
Logos
Nothing changes. The universe, he says, is a single entity which always was, always will be, and is the same throughout. Observation does not show us this bc the senses belong to the world of opinion rather than the truth. Only pure reason (or logos) can show this.
Parmenides view of reality
Parmenides deduces that change is illusory, things continue to exist as they eternally are. Furthermore, that which is could not have come into being, for nothing comes from nothing. Reality is thus, according to Parmenides eternal and unchanging. Since motion and is illusory bc there can be nothingness btwn objects, the universe must be the same throughout. It is indivisible, static sphere, he tells us.
Ideal/perfect forms
Plato believed that earthly objects are but pale shadows, or representatives, of their ideal, perfect forms, and that the philosophers should try to gain insights to that perfection.
He said "Man is the measure of all things."
Protagoras
Agnostic-
Protagoras may be the first recorded agnostic. He wrote: concerning the gods, I have no means of knowing whether they exist or not or of what sort they may be. Many things prevent knowledge, he said including the obscurity of the subject and the brevity of human life.
Author of The Consolations-
Seneca ...alain de botton
Thales' view of magnets
Thales noted that some objects could move each other when rubbed and given what we now call an electrostatic charge. He concluded that a magnet must have a soul, classifying it with living things that have the power to move things.
Thales' ultimate constituent of matter
Thales taught that all things were made of water. He had seen it assume different forms such as ice and mist, and concluded it was the ultimate constituent of matter. He thought the earth itself floated on water, and that earthquakes were caused when it was buffeted by waves.
The First Philosopher
Thales, from the lonian city of Miletus in Asia minor
One spherical supreme God
Xenophanes postulated that one supreme gods, spherical in shape, eternal and unchanging, and unlike humans in form or nature. Anticipating Feuerbach, he observed that humans equip their gods with human attributes.
Reductio ad absurdu-
Zeno introduced this, and it is still in use, which shows a position to be untenable bc of the absurdities it leads to. Some credit him with the start of modern logic.
Diogenes' "home"
a bathtub
Epicurus' view of the gods
are immortal and blessed, but do not interact with humans at all, giving people no reason to fear them.
Empedocles' death
he believed that he was immortal and he believed he had god-like powers. He jumped into Mount Etna to prove it. He failed, leaving Bertrand Russel to quote an unnamed poet, great Empedocles, the ardent soul, leapt into Etna and was roasted whole.
Socratic method
he had been a stonemason, but gave it up to teach philosophy, by charging no fees, he was to be found at the marketlace, engaging people in dialectical enquiry, the so-called socratic method. This method questions what people think they know, trying to elicit internal contradictions so that the initial assertion is rejected for more consistent hypotheses.
Aristotle as Tutor
he joined Plato's academy at 17 and rapidly became a teacher of rhetoric and dialectic. When Plato died, Aristotle went to Assos and did the research on biology which formed the basis of the science, and thence to Philips court in Macedonia, where he tutored the young alexander the great.
Basic building blocks of Empedocles
he thought that all things were made up of 4 basic building blocks which others would call elements, and these were earth, air, fire, and water. They combined into different mixtures and arrangements to make up different objects.
Socrates' death-
he was charged for corrupting the youth and he accepted the courts death sentence, he was unafraid of death, and obedient to the laws he had accepted.
Epicurus' highest good
is happiness, best attained by avoiding pain and fear, and by being satisfied with the modest rather than extreme pleasures.
Pythagoras' 3 pursuits
not only did mathematics rule earthly things, Pythagoras taught, but even heavenly bodies moved in the ratio of musical harmonies, making the celestial 'music of the spheres'. Things were part of the unbounded until their shapes and forms were defined by numbers. He thought people were motivated by the persuit of gain, honour, or wisdom, and to achieve wisdom his adherents led self-disciplined, monastic lives.
Philosopher most influenced by Pythagoras
plato
The Academy
school for philosophers
Anaximader's "firsts"-
successor to Thales, has two firsts to his credit, being the first philosopher to write down his ideas, and the first person to draw a map of the world.
Cleanthes
the Stoic wrote against Aristarchus, calling for his prosecution for his impiety for putting in motion the hearth of the universe, while their Derucyllides declared that he set in motion the things which by their nature and position are unmoved, such as supposition being contrary to the theories of mathematics.
Plato's 3 elements of the soul
the appetitive, which seeks satisfaction of basic desires; the spirited, represented by qualities such as courage; and a third part belonging to the mind, the intellectual side. A balanced mind keeps the three elements within their proper domain, not allowing any to rule unduly.
Relativism
the belief that there are no objective and eternal standards, but tht they vary with the individual. Only a person can judge whether they feel hot or cold, and different people experience things differently.
The 4 causes of Aristotle
the material cause it is made of; the formal cause which is what it is; the efficient cause which is the means of its creation; and the final cause which is its purpose.
Rational Responses
the true stoic, said Seneca, will try to live not ruled by emotions, but by rational responses. Anger was especially to be avoided, as were fear and grief.
Apeiron-
the unbounded, a substance that is not limited into being any particular thing. (Anaximader critized Thales idea of water changing into other things.) (everything except apeiron is either a source or a derived from a source.)
Anaxagoras' view of the earth
the universe began with everything packed together in on mass. It was set spinning by 'nous', and became a vortex, like those on earth, but larger. It separated into two great masses, the outer one hot, dry ether, and the inner one of moist air. The latter developed first mist, then water, earth and stones, progressively colder at each stage. The earth, flat in shape, was supported by its size and by the air it rested on.
Plato's 3 classes of society
there are the rulers, the soldiers and the common people, and they can be likened to the metals gold, silver and bronze in their qualities and worth.
Cynic-
there were no surviving writings by Diogenes of Sinope, dubbed 'the cynic', but we have a vivid picture of the man and his ideas from those who wrote about him. Diogenes was not a cynic in the modern senes of questioning people's motives. In his case, the description came from the Greek kynikos, or dog-like bc he was thought to live like a dog.
Aristarchus' view of the earth
was a mathematician and astronomer whose calculations led him to suppose that the earth people inhabit is a very small part of a gigantic cosmos, and that it revolves around the sun. he viewed it as a tiny speck in a gigantic universe, a view which diverged from contemporary opinion, and which upset religious convention.
Homer and Hesiod
was criticized by Xenophanes for encouraging moral degeneracy by describing gods with human weaknesses such as theft, adultery, and deceit - incompatible with divine goodness.
