Format for test:
1. "mix and match" or T/F & multiple choice
2. several short answer questions (not argumentative essays)
3. possibly 1-2 short essays -- see below possible topics
1184 BC (mythical date of fall of Troy), 776 BC (Olympics) 600 BC (Thales), 540 BC (Persians seize Miletus), 470 BC (Anaxagoras goes to Athens), 469-399 BC (Socrates), Presocratics, Thales, Anaximander, Anaximendes, Pythagoreans, Miletus, Heraclitus, Athens, Croton, Elea/Eleatics, Parmenides, Zeno, Xenophanes, Empedocles, Anaxagoras, Athens, Democritus, Atomists, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Ship of Theseus, Acropolis, Iris, Zeus, Apollo, polytheism, monotheism, pluralism (dualism), methodological, metaphysical naturalism, empiricism vs. rationalism, anthropomorphism, agnosticism, atheism, relativism, utopia, Pythagorean theorem, mathematical science, necessary vs. contingent truth, attributes of 'being', necessary vs. contingent being, theology, scientific realism, idea(s) of being associated with the Presocratic philosophers (e.g. who said being is e.g. “water” etc.)
SHORT ANSWER/MIX MATCH: Name and/or explain. NOTE: these concepts are discussed in the online lectures or guidebook. Those in BOLD are possible short essay topics. (If I give short essay questions, I will give some choices, e.g. do 2 of 4 or 1 of 3).1. nature vs. custom ('way')
2. methodological vs. metaphysical naturalism (materialism).
3. The 5 features of Milesian/Anaximandrian vision of the 'natural universe'.
4. How Pythagorean conception of "Being is number" informs their understanding of the kosmos/sensible universe and practice of science
5. How the Pythagorean “Way” and practice (askesis), including akousmata "maxim," is related to katharsis (purification, enlightenment) of the psyche (‘soul’) and its destiny; how it is related to their politics.
6. Pythagorean concept of psyche and how different it was from the traditional Greek concept of psyche and human being. ['Heavenly' vs. 'earthly' concepts of human origin.]
7. Explain and give an example of the Heraclitean concept of the co-presence of opposites and Parmenides' response to it.
8. “All things flow” (Panta rhei): explain the Heraclitean 4-fold doctrine of radical flux.
9. Name 4 of the metaphysical attributes of Parmenidean "being"
10. Concept of anthropomorphism in theology, Xenophanes’ concept of the God of Reason, and his view of our knowledge of God.
11. Explain the Principle of Non-Contradiction in logic and in metaphysics, logical foundationalism vs. anti-foundationalism.
12. Ship of Theseus puzzle, evaluative discussion of CPT (component parts theory), STC (spatio-temporal continuity theory), and FFT (functional form theory).
13. Necessary vs. contingent truth, necessary vs. contingent being. (examples)
14. Zeno's dialectical logic and his paradoxes of motion and the sensible world, e.g. the arrow, the heap.
15. Empedocles' ‘dualism' =?
16. How Empedocles would explain the existence of apparent design in living things, e.g. the webbed feet on a duck or sharp teeth on a shark.
17. Distinction between causal and teleological causation or explanation, e.g. in relation to why teeth grow as they do. [Distinction between internal/biological, rational/human and external/providential teleology.]
18. Anaxagoras’ concept of God, and God's relation to the universe, "Design theology."
19. The parable of the chair or the problem of qualitative properties (if the tree falls in the forest, does it make a sound?)
20. The "3 metaphysical problems" posed by the Atomists– what are they? how do these “problems” arise out of Atomist philosophy? Is the Atomist analysis correct?
QUOTES. Who said it? What does it mean or what is its significance? Those in BOLD are possible short essay topics.
the attempt to give a complete account of all of the different kinds of things that exist
the resolution, to live in accordance with reason
the things that are perish into the things out of which they come to be, according to necessity, for they pay penalty and retribution to each other for their injustice in accordance to the ordering of time.
Do not look into a mirror by night. Friends do not divide bread. It is easy and hard to walk on a path. Contemplate the white rooster. Y.
In Croton, a community arose of men and women united by the rule of bios [spiritual life], not zoe [physical existence].
this cosmos, the same for all, none of the gods or humans made, but it was always and is and ever shall be: an ever-living fire being kindled in measures and going out in measures.
We step and do not step into the same rivers. We are and we are not.
The sun has the width of a foot.
To the God, all things are beautiful and good and just; but humans suppose otherwise...
In no way may this prevail, that things that are, are not.
If lions had hands, they would draw gods in the shape of lions.
God is one. Without effort he shakes all things by the thought of his mind.
no man has seen nor will anyone know the truth about the god I speak of, for even if true, he would only shape a belief about it
I tell a double story.
The front teeth grew sharp and well adapted at biting, and the back ones broad and useful for chewing food…whenever such parts came about, the animals survived, since their form, though coming about by chance, made them fit for survival.
Mind rules all things that possess life—both the larger and the smaller. And Mind set in order all things, whatever kind of things were to be—whatever were and all that now are and whatever will be.
The arrow can never reach the target.
By convention (nomos), sweet, bitter, hot, cold, color; in reality (physis), atoms and the void.
Nothing happens at random but all things because of a reason and by necessity.
There are two kinds of judgment, one legitimate, one bastard; the bastard are: by sight, hearing, taste, smell... vs. Do you overthrow us, wretched reason? Then you overthrow yourself!
NOTE TOO THE BLUE HIGHLIGHTED PASSAGES IN THE CHAPTERS, which you should be able to explain.