Exam 2 - Archaic Period/Presocratic Philosophy
Study Guide
Vocabulary:
- arche
- apeiron
- sophia
- logos
- gnosis
- harmonia
- nous
- spermata
- psyche
- physis
- tyrant
- hoplon
- hoplite
- phalanx
- hoi agathoi
- hoi kakoi
- hoi polloi
- kouros
- kore
- Doric Order
- Pediment
- Metope
- Architave
- Capital
- Column
- Trigliph
- Slylobate
Names to Know:
- Thales
- Anaximander
- Anaximenes
- Xenophanes
- Heraclitus
- Pythagoras
- Parmenides
- Zeno
- Empedocles
- Anaxagoras
- Democritus
- Dike
Things to Know: short answer, listing, and essay
- Who are the three main Ionian Presocratic philosophers, and what is their main contribution to philosophical thought?
- According to Aristotle, Thale’ claim that water is the arche (principle substance) rests on what three assumptions?
- What is Xenophanes‘ main contribution to philosophical thought?
- How is Xenophanes view of God different from the Homeric/Hesiadic tradition?
- What is the problem of sensation versus knowledge according to Heraclitus.
- Heraclitus appeals to the element of fire as a central metaphor in his philosophical work. What does it symbolize?
- In what ways are the views of Parmenides divergent from earlier pre-socratic philosophers like the Melisians?
- According to Parmenides, what is the paradox of becoming?
- What are Zeno's four paradoxes, and what are they designed to show?
- What does Empedocles introduce as the cause of change in the universe (i.e., how does he explain how one thing turns into many)?
- In what sense is Anaxagoras considered a metaphysical pluralist?
- Anaxagoras is perpported to have been the first philosopher to articulate a theory of efficient causation. What does he
think is the efficient cause of the motion (vortex) in the universe and the cause of elemental separation that brings about the world
we observe?
- What is Democritus' contribution to early philosophical thought?
- Explain how the Presocratics' view of the universe is different from that of the poetic tradition of the Dark and Archaic Ages.
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