Philosphy Midterm guide 1

What does philosophy mean?

Philosophy, etymologically, is a “love of wisdom”. “Philo-“meaning a friendly love and “-sophy” meaning wisdom.

What is metaphysics?

Metaphysics is the study of reality and nature with metaphysical questions questioning reality and nature.

What is epistemology?

Epistemology is the study of human knowledge.

What is ethics?

It is moral philosophy. It studies the nature of virtue and character and the difference between right and wrong.

What is political philosophy?

It is the study of what a “good society” is

What is aesthetics?

The study of beauty

What is teleology?

The study of the end or ultimate goal.

Who are Homer and Hesiod?

They are considered to be the first philosophers. Homer wrote the Iliad and Hesiod wrote Theogony.

Who are the Milesian philosophers?

Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes

Who is Thales and what did he believe?

He is the first Milesian philosophers who believed that everything was made of water making him a monist.

Who is Anaximander and what did he believe?

He was the second Milesian philosopher, and he believed that everything was made of a boundless, infinite matter that he dubbed “apeiron”. He adduced the idea of Infinity. 

Who is Anaximenes and what did he believe?

He was the last Milesian philosopher that believed that everything is made out of air, also making him a monist.

Who are the Pythagoreans? What did they believe?

The Pythagoreans were a group that believed that everything was made of numbers, and they were very devoted to mathematics. They also believed that music was a medium in which they could read the harmonies in nature

Who is Heraclitus? What did he believe?

Heraclitus was a philosopher from Ephesus who believed that the world was made of fire and constantly changing.

Who is Parmenides? What did he believe?

Parmenides was a philosopher from Elea in Italy and he rejected the concept of change. He believed that whatever something is, it is what it is forever and cannot have come in or out of being.

Who is Zeno? What did he believe?

Zeno was a student of Parmenides and believed that all the changes that we perceived was an illusion and create paradoxes to prove his point.

What is the difference between monism and pluralism?

Monism is a belief that all this are made of one thing while pluralism leans more into all things being made of different things. One supports the idea of singularity in reality, and one supports plurality in how the universe is made.

Who is Empedocles? What did he believe?

Empedocles was a philosopher who believed he was divine. Along with this he believed that reality was made of a set of elements (earth, wind, water, and fire) and two forces (love and hate). 

Who is Anaxagoras? What did he believe?

Anaxagoras was one of the first philosophers in Athens. He introduced the idea that the sun and moon were not deities but just rocks. The also believed that the nature of reality consisted of nous, what he called the divine mind. He also believed in homoiomeriety, the idea that all parts are the same thing as a whole.

Who is Democritus? What did he believe?

Democritus is a atomist who believed that reality was made up of indestructible, invisible, and indivisible atoms.

What are the three kinds of goods according to Socrates and Glaucon in The Republic?

Harmless Pleasures

Intrinsic and Extrinsic Good

Extrinsic Only

What is Glaucon’s version of social contract theory, or where the idea of law came from?

Glaucon argued that laws are a compromise between doing injustice and suffering injustice meaning that laws aren’t a protection of the greater good but a prevention of the greatest injustices.

Why does Socrates think Glaucon’s argument for injustice is unconvincing?

Socrates believes that there argument isn’t convincing because what is best isn’t determined by our impulses because our impulses don’t know what is best.