PH300 First Quiz

Thales

• Archē: Water

• Everything comes from water

• Possibly everything is made of water (water as fundamental constituent)

• Alternative interpretation: water is only the origin, not the material everything is made of

• Earth rests/floats on water

• Animism: “All things are full of gods”

• Magnet has a soul because it has the power of movement

• Key question: relationship between soul and water

Anaximander

• Archē: Apeiron = unlimited, indefinite, that which lacks limit

• Unlike water/air, the apeiron is not one of the ordinary elements

• Eternal, ageless, indestructible

• Everything comes from and returns to the apeiron

• Cosmology: hot and cold emerge from the apeiron and generate the rest through physical processes

• Celestial bodies = rings of fire surrounding Earth

• Cosmos may eventually return to the apeiron

• Famous fragment: things must “pay penalty” for injustice according to time

• Key problem: How can opposite things emerge from the same principle?

• Unclear whether apeiron is material

Anaximenes

• Air is what everything is made of and what everything comes from

• Preserves Anaximander's idea that the principle is unlimited

• Condensation + rarefaction transform air into different elements

• Air is constantly changing → always in motion (kinēsis)

• Soul = breath/air

• Air is associated with god

• No sharp distinction between philosophy, science, and religion

Heraclitus — Logos

• Nature “loves to hide” → difficult for humans to understand

• Sensory evidence requires correct interpretation

• Humans all possess the capacity for thinking

• Most people fail to think correctly

• Greatest excellence = wisdom/right thinking

• Wisdom means thinking according to the cosmic logos

Heraclitus — Fire

• Cosmic principle = fire

• Everything is ultimately made from fire

• Fire transforms into different states → generates cosmic constituents

• Cosmos is an eternal, living fire

• Unlike earlier Ionians, Heraclitus does not give a traditional cosmogony

• Cosmos has always existed and will always exist

Theory of Flux - Heraclitus

• Everything is in flux

• Nothing remains completely stable

• Change is essential to the identity/existence of things

• River example: the river remains “the same” precisely because its waters are constantly changing

• Later thinker Cratylus takes flux further: if everything changes constantly, nothing has a stable identity

• The notes emphasize that this extreme view does not appear to be Heraclitus’ own

Unity of Opposites

• Things are a unity of opposites

• Opposites are fundamental to reality

• Heraclitus' view is ontological, not merely relativistic

• Opposites are united within the thing itself

• Possible interpretations:

  • Opposites are literally identical

  • Things actually possess contrary properties simultaneously

  • Opposites exist as potentialities realized through processes over time

• First two interpretations violate non-contradiction

• Strife/war is a fundamental natural law

• “War is the father of all”

• No harmony without opposites being brought together

Heraclitus — Soul

• Soul is made of fire

• Soul's deterioration/death involves becoming moist

• Psuche = soul; seat of:

  • Intelligence

  • Emotions

  • Personal identity

• Character → destiny: character acquired through habit determines an individual's destiny

• Wise people understand the cosmic plan connecting everything through struggle

Parmenides — Proem

• Poem begins with a journey

• Speaker travels along a route and eventually encounters a goddess

• Likely modeled on initiation rites

• Goddess probably symbolizes wisdom/reason

• Uses metaphors and epic poetic style

Parmenides - Two Paths of Investigation

• Mortals have two possible paths:

  1. “Is” — what exists/is

  2. “Is not” — what does not exist

• Greek grammar allows “is” and “is not” to function as complete statements

• The two paths exclude a third option

• Only the path of “is” can actually be followed

Parmenides — Why “What Is Not” Cannot Be Thought

• What-is-not cannot be thought or spoken

• Thinking/speaking requires an object that in some sense exists

• Whatever we name necessarily is

• Therefore, we cannot meaningfully think/speak about absolute non-being

• There is no middle ground between total being and total non-being

Parmenides — Path of Opinion

• Mortals mistakenly believe in plurality

• If there are many separate things, they believe something both is and is not

• Example: a chair is a chair but is not a table

• This violates Parmenides' fundamental principle

• Therefore, perceived plurality is illusory

Parmenides — Senses vs. Reason

• Senses make us perceive a world of many things

• Sensory perception produces the illusion of plurality

• Reason must override sensory appearances

• Major methodological innovation:

  • Start with a priori principles

  • Infer conclusions from those principles

  • No induction

Parmenides — Nature of Being

• Being is ungenerated and imperishable

  • Otherwise something would have to come from non-being

• Being is whole, unique, complete

  • Nothing else can exist outside it

• Being exists only in the present

  • Past = “no longer being”

  • Future = “not yet being”

• Being is indivisible

• Being is motionless

• Being is homogeneous/self-contained

• Often described as a sphere

Parmenides vs. Ionian Philosophers

• Ionian philosophers propose a material monism

  • Water, air, apeiron, etc.

• Parmenides' monism is different

• His monism concerns Being itself, not simply one material substance

• His goddess presents a cosmology involving night and light

• This cosmology is not necessarily true—it illustrates how mortals have gone astray

Empedocles

• Born c. 492 BCE in Acragas/Sicily

• Physician, poet, prophet, political leader, philosopher

• Wrote On Nature and Purifications

• Famous ancient story: died by jumping into Mount Etna

Empedocles — Pluralism

• Concerned with the relationship between unity and multiplicity

• Unlike Ionian monists, proposes multiple fundamental principles

• Four fundamental Roots:

  • Fire

  • Air

  • Earth

  • Water

• Roots possess Parmenidean qualities:

  • Eternal

  • Unchanging

  • Complete

  • Each has a single nature

• Sensible objects are mixtures of the roots and can change

Empedocles - Love and Strife

• Roots do not mix by themselves

• Two cosmic forces control them:

  • Love → attraction/combination

  • Strife → separation/repulsion

• Love and Strife are spatially extended but invisible

Empedocles — No Creation or Destruction

• Nothing genuinely comes into existence from nothing

• Nothing is completely destroyed

• What appears to be creation/destruction is actually mixture and separation

• Basic elements remain eternal

Empedocles — Cosmic Cycles

• Love combines all four roots into a unified sphere

• Sphere is not yet a cosmos

• Strife separates the roots

• Separation generates the differentiated cosmos

• Eventually roots become completely separated

• Love then begins combining them again

• Cycle repeats eternally

Empedocles — Soul & Transmigration

• Souls were originally daimones in a blessed state

• Souls are expelled because of sin

• They undergo transmigration as purification

• Souls can enter:

  • Humans

  • Animals

  • Plants

• Goal = eventual return to the blessed state

Empedocles — Vegetarianism

• Avoiding bloodshed is necessary for purification

• Because souls can inhabit animals, killing/eating animals interferes with purification

• Therefore vegetarianism is connected to his theory of transmigration

Empedocles vs. Parmenides

• Empedocles preserves eternal, unchanging fundamental reality

• But explains the changing sensible world through mixture/separation

• Four roots + Love + Strife = eternal realities

• Problem: roots must move spatially to mix

• This potentially exposes Empedocles to Zeno's arguments against motion

Anaxagoras

• Born in Clazomenae, Asia Minor

• Lived in Athens for ~20 years

• Part of Pericles' intellectual circle

• Ancient sources report a trial for impiety and exile

• Wrote one book in Ionian prose

“Everything in Everything” - Anaxagoras

• Basic constituents must be:

  • Complete

  • Self-sufficient

  • Eternal

  • Not subject to genuine creation/destruction

• Sensible things are mixtures of these basic ingredients

• Nothing is genuinely created or destroyed

• Every body contains all ingredients

• Ingredients are never found completely in isolation

• Everything is always a mixture

• There is no smallest thing

• Everything can be divided infinitely

• Even after division, it remains a mixture

Predominance Principle - Anaxagoras

• Since everything is present in everything, why do things appear different?

• A thing's identity depends on the predominance of particular ingredients

• Example concept: something is X because X's ingredients predominate in its mixture

Anaxagoras — Nous

• Nous = Mind

• Unmixed

• Self-ruled

• Complete

• Self-sufficient

• Controls the rotation that separates things from the original mixture

• Governs the order of the cosmos

• Finest thing

• Has knowledge of all things

• Question left open: Is Nous incorporeal?

Principle of Sufficient Reason - Atomism

• For every fact, there must be a sufficient reason why it is the case

• No brute facts

• If something seems unexplained, we should continue searching for its explanation

Leucippus

• Very little is known about his life

• Credited as creator of atomist theory

• Associated with:

  • The Great World System

  • On Mind

• Only one fragment survives

Democritus

• Born in Abdera, c. 460 BCE

• Same city as Protagoras

• Contemporary of Plato

• Possibly student of Leucippus

• Wrote extensively on:

  • Natural philosophy

  • Ethics

  • Medicine

  • Other subjects

Atomism — Parmenidean Elements

• Distinction between genuine reality and appearance

• Genuine reality = atoms

• Atoms are:

  • Unchangeable

  • Unaffectable

  • Imperceptible

• Sensible world results from different atomic aggregations

• Creation/destruction only occur at level of appearances

• Atoms + void make motion and plurality possible

Atoms

• Infinite number

• Imperceptible

• No secondary qualities:

  • No smell

  • No taste

  • No color

• Only properties:

  • Shape

  • Size

  • Arrangement

  • Position

• Indivisible because there is no void inside them

• Homogeneous → no sufficient reason for them to split

• Infinite number of shapes because there is no sufficient reason for atoms to have one particular shape rather than another

Void - Atomism

• A type of non-being

• Functions as spatial gaps/intervals

• Atoms are separated by void

• Void makes motion possible

• Atoms move through space

Atomic Motion

• Dissimilar atoms → repel

• Similar atoms → attract

• Primary cosmic swirl is attributed to chance

• Atoms form bodies by coming close together without merging

• “Contact” means near each other, not literally fused

Mechanistic Cosmos

• Leucippus: nothing happens randomly; everything happens by reason and necessity

• No purposive explanation is required

• “Reason” means explanation, not purpose

• Necessity = mechanical forces such as impact and repulsion

Atomist Epistemology

• Objects emit continuous streams of atoms from their surfaces

• These affect our sensory organs

• Perception results from interaction between atoms and our senses

• Senses cannot directly perceive atoms

• Sensory qualities are “by convention”

• In reality, only atoms and void exist properly

• Democritus is not a skeptic → he is a theoretical realist

Atomist Psychology & Ethics

• Soul is made of atoms

• Soul permeates the entire body

• Thoughts are physical experiences

• Goal of life = cheerfulness/enjoyment

• Avoid distress

• Key to cheerfulness = moderation in pleasures

• Conformity to conventional morality