GreekPhil

Chapter 2 The Early Greek Philosophers

Chapter Outline

The World of Precivilized Humans (p. 24)
Early Greek Religion (p. 25)
The First Philosophers (p. 26)
- Thales
- Anaximander
- Heraclitus
- Parmenides
- Pythagoras
- Empedocles
- Democritus
Early Greek Medicine (p. 32)
- Alcmaeon
- Hippocrates
The Relativity of Truth (p. 34)
- Protagoras
- Gorgias
- Xenophanes
- Socrates
Plato (p. 37)
Aristotle (p. 40)
The Importance of Early Greek Philosophy (p. 47)

Lecture Outlines

The Road to Civilization
- The "uncivilized mind"
- Writing and intelligence
  - South Seas navigation
  - hunting and gathering
- Agriculture and its effects
  - specialization of labor and gender
  - population explosion
- Becoming "civilized"
Philosophy: Reason vs. Sensation
- Natural vs. supernatural explanations
  - Necessity for natural explanations
    - kosmos and cosmology
    - physis the stuff of the universe (water for Thales)
- Crititical method (Thales)
  - crucial to further development
  - forshadows Hegel's dialectic
- Change: a constant (Heraclitus)
  - The problem of measuring things that are not constant
    - change as the only constant
    - continuua
    - "No man steps into the same river twice."
- Empiricism and Rationalism: The first time through
  - becoming vs. being :: empiricism vs. rationalism
- Pre-Platonic Thought
  - The primacy of reason (Parmenides and Zeno)
    - Reality not seen by senses
    - Zeno's paradox
  - Pythagorean dualism and the ideal vs. the real
    - A compromise
    - Two realities--ideal and real (Dualistic)
    - Influenced Plato
  - Early physical theory: Four elements and two causes (Empedocles)
    - earth, fire, air, water = elements
    - love, strife = causal powers
    - eidola theory of perception
  - Atomism and reductionism (Democritus)
    - First definition of atom
    - Materialism
    - Elementism and reductionism
    - Five senses
    - Atomic disintegration at death
- Greek Medicine
  - Temple Medicine vs. Naturalistic Medicine
  - Natural equilibria (Alcmaeon)
    - Health = equilibrium
    - Physician's job is to restore equilibrium
    - Dissection and brain
  - Hippocrates and the four humors
    - No supernatural causes of illness
    - elements and humors associated
      - earth--black bile
      - air--yellow bile
      - fire--blood
      - water--phlegm
    - persistence of humor terms in vocabulary
      - melancholic, choleric, sanguine, phlegmatic
- Sophism
  - The relativity of truth
    - Many truths vs. one truth
  - Rhetoric, logic, and communication
    - How can we know? (Instead of what is there to know?)
  - Protagoras, Gorgias (nihilism and solipcism), & Xenophanes (religion)
    - Truth depends on the perceiver
    - Six Billion truths?
    - The first social construction of reality?
Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle
- Socrates (469-399)
  - Inductive method
    - i.e., What makes a chair a chair?
  - Search for essence (What is truth?)
    - Looked for a complete definition
  - Socratic method (dialogues)
  - Hemlock
- Plato (427-347)
  - Socrates's student, founded the Academy of Athens after Socrates's death
  - Forms (from essences)
    - Forms existed in the abstract world
    - Understanding forms is highest kind of thinking
    - Allegory of the cave
  - Soul, reason, and innate knowledge (reminiscence/introspection)
    - Rationalist (knowledge of forms is innate)
    - Knowledge of forms comes from introspection
    - Three part soul: rational, courageous, appetitive
  - Conflict of rational thought and bodily needs
    - Specialization of human labor
  - Influence on Christianity (Neo-Platonism)
    - Platonic philosophy plus Christian mysticism was long lasting
    - Not overturned until Renaissance
- Aristotle (384-322)
  - Plato's student
  - Alexander's tutor
  - The Lyceum (first university?)
  - Direct examination of nature (not search for ideal)
    - Study nature not introspection
    - De-emphasis of mathematics
  - De Anima (First psychology)
    - first physiological psychologist
    - Hippocratic model
  - Final causes and entelechy (his faults to moderns)
    - material, formal, efficient, and final causes
    - entelechy--built-in purposes
    - scala naturae
    - unmoved mover
  - Hierarchical souls
    - vegative, sensitive, rational
  - Specific topics
    - Sensation
      - rejected eidola model
    - Common sense and reason
      - hierarchy: active and passive reason, common sense, sensation
    - Memory and Recall
      - laws of association
    - Imagination and Dreaming
      - natural explanation of dreams
    - Motivations and Happiness
      - The golden mean
    - Emotions
      - Amplifiers of experience
The Decline of the Golden Age: From Alexander to the Roman Empire
- Alexander and the Successors (Seleucids, Ptolemys, and others)
  - Alexander's empire was divided after his death
  - Ongoing wars and shifting alliances ensued
- Rome's Western view
  - Rome had traditionally looked west (Gaul, Britain)
  - Roman administration was local (hire the strong man)
  - Roman culture was Greek already (Greek used more than Latin)
- Rome's eventual takeover of the East
  - As the Successors bickered a power vacuum was created
  - Rome eventually took over the East (Egypt, the Holy Land)
  - High point of Roman Empire
- Greek thinking, Roman power and administration
  - Rome's takeover spread Greek ideas East and West
  - Roman culture copied nearly all of Greek culture
    - had effect of "freezing" Greek culture in its classic age
- The Hellenization of the "world"
  - Hellenization is the spread of Greek ideas
    - polis
    - gymnasium
    - stadium
    - agora
  - Christianity spread because of Hellenization

'isms and 'ologies

Chapter 2

The Early Greek Philosophers

Chapter Outline

Lecture Outlines

'isms and 'ologies

Graphics

URLs

Plato

Aristotle