Ancient Greek Philosophy: Pre-Socratics to Hellenistic Lineages

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering Pre-Socratic thinkers, Socrates, Sophists, Plato, Aristotle, and Hellenistic lineages based on lecture notes.

Mythos to Logos

The historical shift from mythic, narrative explanations based on anthropomorphic gods to logical arguments based on rational, natural laws.

Mythos (Mythical Thinking)

A way of thinking that uses anthropomorphic (human-like) gods as causes, where decisions are arbitrary, passed down traditional/family lines, collective, anonymous, and rooted in fantastic imagination.

Logos (Logical Thought)

An approach that searches for natural causes of physical phenomena, governed by necessary laws and critical analysis; it is individual, innovative, and relies on observation.

Conceptual Framework

An overall worldview (such as religion, politics, or philosophy) in which individual concepts are prioritized and understood.

The Forms (Ideas)

For Plato, the perfect, eternal, spiritual essences of things that exist beyond the physical realm in the transcendental World of Forms.

Teleios

The Greek word for perfection, meaning complete, eternal, and unchanging.

Apathea

The Stoic ideal of emotional detachment, freedom from irrational passions, and freedom from emotional disturbance.

Arete

The Greek concept of excellence or virtue, achieved through heroic acts in the epic tradition.

Golden Mean

Aristotle's ethical principle stating that virtue and happiness lie in moderation between extreme defect and excess.

Syllogism

A form of deductive reasoning consisting of a major premise, a minor premise, and a conclusion (e.g., All trees need light; an oak is a tree; therefore, an oak needs light).

Thales

A Pre-Socratic philosopher who proposed that water is the fundamental material element of the universe and taught that all events can be explained in natural terms.

Pythagoras

An immaterialist and inventor of mathematics who taught that reality and truth can be expressed through numbers and mathematical ratios, and that music and geometry reflect universal order.

Anaximander

A Pre-Socratic philosopher listed in class notes as proposing fire as the fundamental element and primary substance of nature.

Heraclitus

A Pre-Socratic philosopher who taught that change is constant, famously stating that 'no one can step in the same river twice.'

Zeno's Paradoxes of Motion

Pre-Socratic philosophical arguments asserting that motion/movement is logically impossible because space can be divided in half infinitely.

Democritus

The philosopher who formulated the Atomic Theory, proposing that uncuttable particles called atoms make up nature, thereby solving Zeno's paradox.

The Sophists

Self-proclaimed 'wise ones' and paid rhetoric teachers who focused on winning arguments and debate for public display rather than discovering objective truth.

Socrates

An Athenian philosopher who wrote no texts, taught that 'the unexamined life isn't worth living' and that knowledge is intrinsic, and was executed for 'corrupting the youth' and impiety.

Socratic Method

A method of conversational questioning designed to reveal inconsistencies and draw out implicit truths.

Allegory of the Cave

Plato's allegory wherein prisoners in a cave mistake shadows on a wall for reality until one escapes into the sunlight, which represents the Form of the Good.

The Academy

The philosophical school in Athens founded by Plato.

The Lyceum

The philosophical school in Athens founded by Aristotle.

Material Cause

Aristotle's cause addressing what an object is made of (e.g., marble for a sculpture; molecules for a human being).

Efficient Cause

Aristotle's cause addressing what caused or created an object (e.g., the sculptor Myron for a sculpture; birth for a human being).

Formal Cause

Aristotle's cause addressing what an object's form, shape, or essence is (e.g., Discus Thrower for a sculpture; DNA for a human being).

Final Cause

Aristotle's cause addressing an object's ultimate purpose, end, or goal (e.g., art, money, or perfection for a sculpture; fulfilling purpose as a creature of God for a human being).

Aether (Quintessence)

The fifth element in Aristotelian cosmology that makes up the heavens, distinct from the four earthly elements (Earth, Air, Fire, Water).

Three Levels of Happiness

Aristotle's concept in Nicomachean Ethics describing happiness pursued across three levels: Pleasure (goal of the vulgar person), Honor (goal of the cultivated person), and True Principles/Virtue (goal of the wise person).

Ethos

A mode of persuasion based on the moral character and credibility of the speaker.

Pathos

A mode of persuasion based on emotional appeal and passion.

Logos (in Rhetoric)

A mode of persuasion based on clear logic and evidence in the speech itself.

Immanent Forms

Aristotle's view that forms are perceptible inside physical objects through observation of multiple examples, contrasting Plato's transcendental World of Forms.

Cynics & Skeptics

Philosophical movements descending from Plato's lineage that taught that no truths can be known with certainty and recommended suspension of judgment.

Diogenes of Sinope

A leading 4th-century BC Cynic philosopher who rejected societal norms, lived in poverty, and searched with a lamp for an honest man.

Stoics

A school founded by Zeno of Athens focused on living in harmony with Nature/Logos, accepting fate, practicing virtue, and achieving Apathea.

Peripatetics

Followers of Aristotle who sought truth through empirical natural science.

Epicureans

Thinkers in Aristotle's lineage focused on living well, honorably, moderately, and seeking tranquility/Golden Mean.

Hedonists

A corrupted branch of Epicureanism that pursued immediate physical pleasure.

St. Augustine

An early Christian Church Father who integrated Platonic concepts of an eternal, unchanging God and Stoic ethics of virtue and emotional restraint into Christian philosophy.

St. Thomas Aquinas

A medieval theologian who integrated Aristotelian philosophy into Catholic theology.