Philosophy of Religion Unit 1 Notes

Out of Africa Theory

A theory that Stephen West used to explain early human life and migration

Presocratic Philosophers

6th and 5th century BCE Greek thinkers who introduced a new way of inquiring into the world and the place of human beings in it

Metaphysics

The study of what everything around us is made of and how it got here

Epistemology

The study of knowledge. Epistemology answers the question, “How do we know what we know?”

Milesian School

an early Pre-Socratic school of philosophy founded in the 6th Century B.C. in the Ionian town of Miletus

Thales

Known as the first western philosopher. He believed everything was made of water.

Theogony

This ancient work by Hesiod provided a theological understanding of the world for ancient Greeks

Monism

The theory that everything is made up of a single fundamental substance

Members of the Milesian School

Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes

Heraclitus

An eccentric Presocratic philosopher with a strange, paradoxical writing style

Logos

some universal cosmic law that governs all things

Heraclitus Quote

“You can never step into the same river twice.”

Democritus

A Presocratic philosopher known primarily for his theory of atomism

Atomism

A completely mechanistic view of the universe in which all reality is simply atoms moving in the void

Democritus Quote

“Like attracts like”

Rationalist

Someone who uses reason, rather than experience, to arrive at knowledge

Philosophy

The literal definition of philosophy is “the love of wisdom”

Pythagoras

A Presocratic philosopher who we would today consider the leader of a religious cult

Pythagoras Quote

“Number is the ruler of all forms”

Who coined the term “philosophy”?

Pythagoras

Parmenides

A Presocratic philosopher who believed that change is impossible

Empedocles

A Presocratic philosopher who thought he was a god

Four Elements of Empedocles

Earth, Fire, Air, and Water

Love

A force that brings us together and causes our emotions

Strife

A force that drives both elements and people apart

Legacy of Empedocles

He was the first person to propose an intangible force responsible for the actions of the elements

Jostein Gaarder

A Norwegian intellectual and author who wrote Sophie’s World

Sophie Amundsen

A 14 year old girl who lives in Norway. She is the title character of Sophie’s World

Two Philosophical Questions

Who are you? Where does the world come from? These are the questions that begin Sophie’s philosophical quest.

Sophie’s Den

A hole in the hedge where Sophie goes to be alone and think

Joanna

Sophie’s friend from school. She represents ordinary people who are less interested in philosophical questions.

Philosophy and Wonder

“Philosophy begins with a sense of wonder.”

Rabbit in a Hat

A metaphor for the philosophical task

Two Thought Experiments

Jostein Gaarder uses two thought experiments to illustrate the sense of wonder needed for philosophy. These thought experiments are a Martian in the woods, and a father floating around the breakfast table.

Myth

A story about the gods meant to explain why the world is how it is. A myth proposes a supernatural explanation for a natural phenomenon.

Xenophanes

A Greek philosopher who claimed that men had simply created the gods in their own image.

Reasoning

a process of going from some given facts/information/assumptions to some new information or statements

Logic

the study of reasoning

Argument

a series of statements composed of premises and a conclusion

Premise

the given or known information

Conclusion

the new information

Formal Logic

Formal logic deals with the “shape” of arguments

Valid Argument

An argument in which it would be contradictory (impossible) to have the premises all true and the conclusion false

Invalid Argument

An argument in which all the premises might be true, but the conclusion could still be false.

Sound Argument

A valid argument in which every premise is true