Heraclitus
What is the only constant for Heraclitus?
Change
What makes Parmenides a rationalist? Is he a natural philosopher?
He wants to rely only on his reason to understand the world. He is still a natural philosopher because he is trying to understand nature by finding an arché
Aside from being a philosopher and mathematician, Pythagoras is best known for being a ______.
Cult leader. His followers were known as Pythagoreans
Pythagoras was born in this island off the coast of Ionia, but ended up establishing his cult in this other city.
Island of Samos
Croton (in Italy)
"It is necessary to say and to think that being is. For to be is possible and not to be impossible. I bid you consider this."
Parmenides (Goddess is speaking to him in "The Way of Truth"
What makes the world intelligible for humans? In other words, what holds it together in the midst of all the change?
Logos
On Nature
Dactylic hexameter (same meter used by Homer and Hesiod in their epic poems)
Three parts: Proem, Way of Truth, Way of Seeming
Name two things Pythagoras thought about the human soul?
It is immortal
More important than the body
Transmigrates after body´s death into other animals
Nickname for Heraclitus
The Riddler, The Obscure (he didn't like people!)
Listening not to me but to the Logos, it is wise to agree that all things are one.
Heraclitus (unity in opposites; change united by Logos, or unifying principle)
What is the significance of fire for Heraclitus?
It is a metaphor for change because it is constantly moving, seems alive
What deductive argument does the goddess use to make Parmenides realize that everything is________.
1. You think
2. Being or non Being?
3. You must think either being or non-being.
- Cannot think non-being. Everything is Being!
Name Pythagoras' arché and what is different about it in comparison with the arché of philosophers that came before him
Number. First abstract arché
You can never step into the same river twice
Heraclitus (idea is that everything is changing constantly)
There is geometry in the humming of the strings, there is music in the spacing of the spheres
Pythagoras. He discovered the importance of mathematical ratios in musical scales
What do we think was the title of Heraclitus' book? In what style did he write? Where was he born?
1. On Nature
2. aphorisms (obscure riddles)
3. Ephesus (on the coast of Ionia, modern day Turkey)
What does Parmenides' arché suggest about the nature of time from a human perspective?
Everything is/now
Cannot escape the present. Past are only memories; future are expectations
What did Pythagoras write?
Nothing
What are the attributes of Being, according to Parmenides?
Continuous, unchanging, eternal, homogeneous
This philosopher had a rule against eating beans and meats.
Pythagoras
Name at least one example Heraclitus gave to illustrate his idea of "Unity in Opposites"?
1. Road up and down are one and the same
2. Barley drink (river and vinagrette) stand still when they move
3. When things die, they fertilize other things
4. Sea water is deadly for humans but healthy for fish
What does Parmenides say about the way of seeming?
Is Pythagoras a natural philosopher? Why?
Yes, because like his predecessors, he was still trying to explain diversity and change in the natural world
How does Pythagoras' insight that the truth about reality is best understood through number important/influential for modern science?
If you trace the history of modern science to its pivotal points you find great scientists who are looking for mathematical principles in nature. Pythagoras was the first to suggest that the answer to nature's puzzles lies in mathematics.
The steeds that bear me carried me as far as ever my heart Desired, since they brought me and set me on the renowned Way of the goddess
Parmenides, Proem