[Soc Sci 2] Quiz 1

What are the four bases of what we know?

1. Experience

2. Reason/logic

3. Faith

4. Gut feel/intuition

Who were Socrates’ students?

Sons of the rich, powerful, and famous (scions)

Does Socrates’ charge his students for his teachings?

No. He considered philosophy a divine pursuit of truth and virtue, not a business.

Where does Socrates like to lecture?

Marketplace (agora) and gymnasia

Why does Socrates like to walk barefoot?

To be close to nature

Who is Socrates’ wife?

Xanthippe

Describe Socrates’ appearance

He was stout, with thick lips, thick neck, broad forehead, bulging eyes, and bulbous nose

What is the most well-known oracle in Greece?

Delphic oracle

Our knowledge of Socrates’ life was from who?

His students, Xenophon and Plato (mostly)

Who was Socrates’ parents and what were their occupations?

• Father – Sophroniscus, a sculptor and stone-mason

• Mother – Phaenarete, a midwife

Who paid for Socrates’ education?

Crito

Socrates was the pupil of who?

Anaxagoras and Archelaus (after Anaxagoras was condemned)

Before Socrates became a teacher, what was his occupation?

A hoplite in the Athenian military during the Peloponnesian War

How many children did Socrates have?

Three children

Who asked the Delphic oracle if there was someone wiser than Socrates?

Socrates’ childhood friend, Chaerephon

Who was Socrates’ favorite student?

Alcibiades

What was Socrates charged with during his trial?

Impiety and corrupting the youth

Who was Plato?

• Student of Socrates, teacher of Aristotle

• Founded the Academy in Athens (one of the first universities)

• Famous for his Theory of Forms and The Republic

• Wrote philosophical dialogues on justice, reality, knowledge, and politics

What is the “Allegory of the Cave”?

• Plato describes prisoners chained inside a dark cave, facing a wall

• Behind them is a fire, and people pass objects that cast shadows on the wall

• The prisoners think the shadows are the only reality

• One prisoner is freed, exits the cave, and sees the real world (sunlight, real objects)

• He realizes the shadows were illusions and gains true knowledge

• When he returns to tell the others, they reject him

• Meaning: most people mistake appearances for reality; education is the journey from ignorance to truth

What comprises the individual and state?

• Individual (3 parts):

  • Reason (rules the soul, seeks truth and wisdom)

  • Spirit (embodies courage, emotions, convictions)

  • Appetite (handles desires, physical needs)

• State (3 classes):

  • Rulers (philosopher-kings → rules the city)

  • Auxiliaries (soldiers → defends the state)

  • Producers (artisans, workers → provide material needs)

What are the three waves?

Plato’s three radical proposals in The Republic:

1. Equality of Women

   • Women in the Guardian class should receive the same education as men and serve alongside their fellow guardians

   • Sex is irrelevant to the capacity of governing

2. The Abolition of the Traditional Family

   • Private property and private family life should be abolished

   • Men and women in the Guardian class will marry collectively, and children will be raised by the state without knowing their biological parents

3. The Philosopher-King

   • The ideal city is only possible if those who rule are philosophers or individuals who have pursued knowledge of the true Forms

What is justice?

• Justice = harmony and order

• Each part of the soul (or class in the state) does its proper role

• No interference between roles (reason rules, spirit supports, appetite obeys)

What is the state for according to Plato?

• To achieve justice and harmony

• To help individuals live a good and virtuous life

• To organize society so everyone fulfills their proper function

Who is Aristotle?

• Student of Plato, teacher of Alexander the Great

• Founded the Lyceum

• Wrote on logic, ethics, politics, biology, and metaphysics

• More empirical and practical than Plato

What are the four causes?

• Material Cause – What something is made of

• Formal Cause – Its form or structure

• Efficient Cause – What brings it into existence

• Final Cause – Its purpose (telos)

What is the state for according to Aristotle?

• State = a natural community formed by humans to live together

• Humans are “political animals” (naturally social)

• Telos (purpose): to achieve the good life (eudaimonia), not just survival

What are good and bad constitutions? Which is most practicable?

• Good (serve common good):

  • Monarchy (rule of one)

  • Aristocracy (rule of the few virtuous)

  • Polity (rule of many, balanced)

• Bad (serve self-interest):

  • Tyranny (corrupt monarchy)

  • Oligarchy (rule of the rich)

  • Democracy (rule of the poor)

• Most practicable: Polity (mixed government, stable and balanced)

What makes us humans?

• For Aristotle:

  • Rationality (ability to reason)

  • Speech/language (to express justice and injustice)

  • Social/political nature (we live in communities)

• Humans are defined by reason + living in a state aiming at the good life (eudaimonia)

Reality is composed of one fundamental substance

Monism

Reality is composed of multiple, distinct fundamental substances

Pluralism

Type of pluralism arguing that everything is composed of indivisible, tiny particles (atoms) moving in a void

Atomism

Focuses on rhetoric, arguing that truth is subjective rather than based on a singular, objective reality

Sophism

Proposed that water is the fundamental substance (arche) of all things

Thales of Miletus (Water)

Proposed that the fundamental energy and source of the universe is the apeiron (an infinite, boundless, and indefinite substance)

Anaximander (Energy)

Proposed that air is the fundamental substance (arche) of all things

Anaximenes (Wind/Air)

Proposed that fire is the fundamental substance (arche) of all things

Heraclitus (Fire)

Proposed that all matter is composed of four eternal, unchanging roots: earth, water, air, and fire

Empedocles (Pluralist)

• Proposed that reality can be reduced to an infinite number of seeds

• Postulated “Nous,” omniscient yet impersonal mind that gave order and constancy to the universe

Anaxagoras (Pluralist)

First to theorize that the world consists of tiny particles called atoms

Leucippus and Democritus (Atomists)

• Orators, public speakers, mouths for hire

• Gifted with speech

• Skilled in rhetoric

• Respected, feared, and hated

• Had a gift and used it in a manner that aroused the ire of many

• Challenged, questioned, and didn’t care to arrive at the very best answers

• More concerned in winning public speaking contests, debates, and lawsuits

• Charges fees to teach

Protagoras, Gorgias, and Thrasymachus (Sophists)