Sophos
Sage or wise man; term applied to the first philosophers; from the Greek word for "wise."
How did society see the sophos ?
As a bunch of
... [Show More] odd balls, the early western culture was not very accepting of the philosophers,
Presocratics
before socratics
Who is said to be the first western philosopher ?
Thales
Who is awarded for developing the greek culture from strictly following mythology to focusing more on philosophy and show the difference between proto-scientists and philosophers (this used to be by subject but is now by method)
the presocratics
What were the sophists roles ?
They acted more as sages because there wasn't enough scientific discovery yet for them to truly rationalize everything they were saying. The people following them were more like disciples than paying students. The sophos set up the way that philosophers should be thinking and asking questions about and the later philosophers studied these questions deeper.
Monism
the general name for the belief that everything consists of only one, ultimate, unique substance, such as matter or spirit.
Rational discourse
The interplay of carefully argued ideas; the use of reason to order, clarify, and identify reality and truth according to agreed-upon standards of verification.
How was Thales a monist ?
He believed everything came from water. This shows monism because it's focusing on one source. Thales was one of the first that developed a process for thinking, rationalizing, and coming up with a process backed by evidence and a strong argument.
Principle of Sufficient Reason
The principle that nothing happens without a reason; consequently, no adequate theory or explanation can contain any brute, crude, unexplained facts. First specifically encountered in the work of the medieval philosopher Peter Abelard (1079-1142), it is usually associated with the rationalist philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716), who used it in his famous "best of all possible worlds" argument.
Apeiron
according to Anaximander, the first principle from which all existing things develop; a vast Definite-Indefinite. The apeiron is an infinite mass of forces with no specific qualities.
How did people expand on Apeiron ?
Thales said that the earth was formed by a big basin of water, a guy named Anaximander grew on this idea and said that everything has to have equal distance and for every action there's an opposite reaction that occurs. Apeiron is sort've like yin and yang. This was originally Thales idea, but Anaximander is the one that provided reasoning for all of it.
Pneuma
according to Anaximander, the ultimate, pervasive spirit that holds the world together; all things are either produced by the rarefaction of the pneuma, which creates fire, or the condensation of the pneuma (in order of density), wind, cloud, water, earth, stone.
psyche
Greek for "soul"; in today's terms, combination of mind and soul, including capacity for reflective thinking.
Logos
one of the richest and most complex terms in ancient philosophy, associated with meanings of include 'intelligence', 'speech', 'discourse', 'thoughts', 'reason', 'word', 'meaning', the root of log, logo, logic, and the ology suffix found in words like sociology and phycology. According to Heraclitus, the rule according to which all things are accomplished and the law which is found in all things.
Who was Heraclitus ?
A philosopher before Aristotle and plato, He studied what holds the universe together and didn't set his ideas as arguments, but instead pronouncements. He studied the 'tension' of opposites and explained that ignorance came from not understanding the relationship of basic human psyche and logos. He said most people wouldn't be able to comprehend logos. He claimed logos was like a god, but wouldn't humanize it. It wasn't looking out for us, it was just there like gravity.
Cosmos
Greek term for "ordered whole"; first used by the Pythagoreans to characterize the universe as an ordered whole consisting of harmonies of contrasting elements.
What is the cosmic music of spheres ?
Pythagoras of Samos colonized in Greece and created a tight community of philosophers that studied mathematical and philosophical theories and discoveries.
Ontology
The study of being
Reductio ad absurdum
the Latin for "to reduce to the absurd." This is a technique useful in creating a comic effect and is also an argumentative technique. It is considered a rhetorical fallacy because it reduces an argument to an either/or choice
Cosmology
from the greek word cosmos meaning 'world' the study of the universe as an ordered system or cosmos.
Who was Parmenides ?
Another philosopher that researched the way cosmos fits into our daily lives. Then, he started researching change itself. He wrote a poetic book full of rational and linguistic analysis. He came up with a theory. There are two paths: what is, is -purely positive, simple, unconditioned, eternal and indevisible and the other path is what is not, is not-not being, nothing, not existing, can't refer to a thing or object, cannot be comprehended or described.
Who said that reality is in the realm of existence and variarity is appearance so it's not real. This means common opinions are mere opinions that aren't real.
-being=correct thinking
-not being =illusion
-to think=to be
Parmenides
Zeno's Paradox
...allusions to Zeno's Paradox are used by authors to convey ideas about the absurdity of time and distance.
What were Zeno's arguments
-the dichotomy
-the achilles and the tortoise
-the flying arrow
Why did Parmenides say we should follow reason?
Our senses only perceive things as discrete, but our senses are corrupted by mere belief in the reality of not being, the idea of change is self contradictory. Reason doesn't trick us like that.
Pluralism
The belief that there exist many realities or substances.
What did Empedocles say?
Reality must be 'completely full', nothing goes in or out of existence, things don't move into empty spaces, but simply switch places. Instead of everything being one, he said that there are 6 components, 4 roots, and 2 motions.
Basic roots
-earth
-air
-fire
-water
2 basic motions
-love, unites
-strife, breaks things up [Show Less]