Ancient Greek Quiz 2 Notes and Answers
• What did Heraclitus mean by the claim that "everything flows", or "all is in flux"? - Everything is
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- What is the logos, for Heraclitus?
▪ The arrangement of all mater
• What role does the logos play in the natural world, according to Heraclitus? - It is a unifier in nature
• Explain Heraclitus's claim that "sea is the purest and the most polluted water". - 199: The sea is pure for fish but undrinkable to man
• What are the images of the back-stretched bow and the lyre supposed to illustrate about the natural world, for Heraclitus?
- 209: Things don't explain how a state of change (opposites) agrees with itself, it just is
• What does the river exemplify about the world, for Heraclitus? - The river is always changing but still flows as one
• What role does fire play in Heraclitus's natural philosophy? Explain why fire is well suited to this role.
- Fire symbolizes the interchanging of elements. This works because fire is always changing.
• What are the archai (plural of archê), according to Philotas (hint: there are 3 of them). - Unlimited, limited, and harmony
• Explain the role of each of the 3 Pythagorean archai (i.e., explain how they interact with one another).
- Unlimited are the universe as a whole; limiters are everything in the universe; harmony is a combination of the two that brings them together
• What is the tetractys? - The tetractys are the numbers that create a harmony
• What is the observation that led the Pythagoreans to believe that the cosmos and all of its contents are expressible by numerical ratios? (This was discussed and demonstrated in class.)
- The octave, fifth, and fourth are all beautiful tunes and they are all made of numbers of the tetractys
• Give 4 pairs of contraries that are said to be Pythagorean principles. - Tetractys, unlimited, limiters, Harmonia
• According to Aristotle's report, why exactly did the Pythagoreans posit a "counter- Earth", even though no such thing has ever been observed?
- They used it to make it fit into their theory of things around the central fire
• In fr. i, the goddess tells the youth that he is there to be taught three things. What are they?
- I: Still heart of truth, human opinion, and how the interpreted world exists
• In fr. ii, the goddess claims that there are two ways to understand the world. What are these two ways? Which one leads to truth and reality?
- It is (leads to truth and reality) and it isn't
• In fr. vi, the goddess bars the youth from two roads. What are they? - Nothingness
• Name all of the characteristics of "it is" (i.e., being), according to Parmenides.
- Motionless, neither starts nor stops, Ananke keeps it in its boundaries, Themis
keeps it complete, totally deficient if at all, the why of all thinking
• What reasons does Parmenides give for his claim that "it is" (being) is uncreated (i.e., there is no genesis of what is)?
- Creation didn't come from nothing, IT must BE totally or not at all
• According to Parmenides, being is like what shape? What reasons does he give for this claim? - Sphere; since IT is bounded it must be complete
• Give 3 characteristics of the world interpreted by "human opinion" or "common opinion". - Being & non-being, locomotion & change, darkness & light
• According to Anaxagoras, when "all things were together" (the original mixture), could colors and other qualities be distinguished? Why/why not (Anaxagoras's reasons)?
- No, because all things were one
• According to Anaxagoras, what is really going on when it appears as though something is coming to be? And what is really going on when it appears as though something is perishing? - "Coming to be" = Composition
- "Perishing" = Dissolution
• What role does Mind play is Anaxagoras's cosmogony? (Cosmogony = theory of the creation of the cosmos)
- Mind controlled the rotation of everything which started the separation of things
• According to Aristotle's report, how many principles (archai) did Anaxagoras have? - Unlimited
• According to Aristotle, what is the reasoning that led Anaxagoras to believe that everything is mixed in everything?
- Opposites proceed from another; one must have existed in another
• How does each thing get its name (according to Aristotle's report of Anaxagoras's view)?
- 485: Things appear different and are named according to nature of the thing that
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