Chapter 2 vocab

Question 1

According to Aristotle, the faculty of the soul that searches for the essences or abstract concepts that manifest themselves in the empirical world; Aristotle thought that this part of the soul was immortal

Answer 1

Active reason

Question 2

Plato’s description of individuals who live their lives in accordance with the shadows of reality provided by sensory experience instead of in accordance with the true reality beyond the sensory experience

Answer 2

Allegory of the cave

Question 3

Postulated an infinite number of elements (seeds) from which everything is made; he believed that everything contains all the elements and that a thing’s identity is determined by which elements predominate. An exception is the mind, which contains no other element but may combine with other elements, thereby creating life

Answer 3

Anaxagoras (ca. 500-428 BC)

Question 4

Suggested the infinite or boundless as the physis and formulated a rudimentary theory of evolution

Answer 4

Anaximander (ca. 610-547 BC)

Question 5

The belief that everything in nature is alive

Answer 5

Animism

Question 6

Believed sensory experience to be the basis of all knowledge, although the five senses and the common sense provided only the information from which knowledge could be derived; also believed that everything in nature had within it an entelechy (purpose) that determined its potential; active reason, which was considered the immortal part of the human soul, provided humans with their greatest potential, and therefore fully actualized humans engage in active reason; because everything was thought to have a cause, he postulated an unmoved mover that caused everything in the world but was not itself caused

Answer 6

Aristotle

Question 7

The philosophical belief that mental phenomena, such as learning, remembering, and imagining, can be explained in terms of the laws of association

Answer 7

Associationism

Question 8

According to Heraclitus, the state of everything in the universe; nothing is static and unchanging; rather, everything in the universe is dynamic

Answer 8

Becoming

Question 9

Something that is unchanging and thus, in principle, is capable of being known with certainty. This implies stability and certainty

Answer 9

Being

Question 10

According to Aristotle, the faculty located in the heart that synthesizes the information provided by the five senses

Answer 10

Common sense

Question 11

Offered atoms as the physis; everything in nature, including humans, was explained in terms of atoms and their activities; his was the first completely materialistic view of the world and of humans

Answer 11

Democritus (ca. 460-370 BC)

Question 12

According to Aristotle, the force that transforms a thing

Answer 12

Efficient cause

Question 13

A tiny replication that some early Greek philosophers thought emanated from the surfaces of things in the environment, allowing the things to be perceived

Answer 13

Eidola (plural, eidolon)

Question 14

Postulated earth, fire, air, and water as the four basic elements from which everything is made and two forces, love and strife, that alternately synthesize and separate those elements; he was also the first philosopher to suggest a theory of perception, and he offered a theory of evolution that emphasized a rudimentary form of natural selection

Answer 14

Empedocles (ca. 490-430 BC)

Question 15

According to Aristotle, the purpose for which a thing exists, which remains a potential until actualized; active reason, for example, is the human “this,” but it exists only as a potential in many humans

Answer 15

Entelechy

Question 16

That indispensable characteristic of a thing that gives it its unique identity

Answer 16

Essence

Question 17

According to Aristotle, the purpose for which a thing exists

Answer 17

Final cause

Question 18

According to Aristotle, the form of a thing

Answer 18

Formal cause

Question 19

According to Plato, the pure, abstract realities that are unchanging and timeless and therefore knowable. Such forms create imperfect manifestations of themselves when they interact with matter. It is these imperfect manifestations of the forms that are the objects of our sense impressions

Answer 19

Forms

Question 20

Associated each of Hippocrates’ four humors with a temperament, thus creating a rudimentary theory of personality

Answer 20

Galen (ca. 130-200 AD)

Question 21

The rule Aristotle suggested people follow to avoid excesses and to live and life of moderation

Answer 21

Golden mean

Question 22

A Sophist who believed the only reality a person can experience is his or her subjective reality and that this reality can never be accurately communicated with another individual

Answer 22

Gorgias (ca. 485-380 BC)

Question 23

Suggested fire as the physis because in its presence nothing remains the same; viewed the world as in a constant state of flux and thereby raised the question as to what could be known with certainty [“Can’t step into the same river twice”]

Answer 23

Heraclitus (ca. 540-480 BC)

Question 24

Considered the father of modern medicine because he assumed that disease had natural causes, not supernatural ones; health prevails when the four humors of the body are in balance, disease when there is an imbalance; the physician’s task was to facilitate the body’s natural tendency to heal itself

Answer 24

Hippocrates (ca. 460-377 BC)

Question 25

According to Aristotle, the pondering of images retained from past experiences

Answer 25

Imagination

Question 26

The technique used by Socrates that examined many individual examples of a concept to discover what they all had in common

Answer 26

Inductive reasoning

Question 27

The careful examination of one's subjective experiences

Answer 27

Introspection

Question 28

A thought of something will tend to cause thoughts of things that are usually experienced along with it

Answer 28

Law of contiguity

Question 29

A thought of something will tend to cause thoughts of opposite things

Answer 29

Law of contrast

Question 30

In general, the more often events are experienced together, the stronger they become associated in memory

Answer 30

Law of frequency

Question 31

A thought of something will tend to cause thoughts of similar things

Answer 31

Law of similarity

Question 32

Those laws thought responsible for holding mental events together in memory; for Aristotle, the laws of association consisted of the laws of contiguity, contrast, similarity, and frequency

Answer 32

Laws of association

Question 33

According to Aristotle, what a thing is made of

Answer 33

Material cause

Question 34

The belief that because what is considered true varies from person to person, any search for universal (interpersonal) truth will fail; in other words, there is no one truth, only truths

Answer 34

Nihilism

Question 35

Believed that the world was solid, fixed, and motionless and therefore that all apparent change or motion was an illusion

Answer 35

Parmenides (born ca. 515 BC)

Question 36

According to Aristotle, the practical utilization of the information provided by the common sense

Answer 36

Passive reason

Question 37

A primary substance or element from which everything is thought to be derived

Answer 37

Physis

Question 38

First disciple of Socrates, came under the influence of the Pythagoreans, and postulated the existence of an abstract world of forms or ideas that, when manifested in matter, make up the objects in the empirical world; the only true knowledge is that of the forms, a knowledge that can be gained only by reflecting on the innate contents of the soul; sensory experience interferes with the attainment of knowledge and should be avoided

Answer 38

Plato (csa. 427-347 BC)

Question 39

A Sophist who taught that "Man is the measure of all things"; in other words, what is considered true varies with a person's personal experiences; therefore, there is no objective truth, only individual versions of what is true

Answer 39

Protagoras (ca. 485-410 BC)

Question 40

Believed that an abstract world consisting of numbers and numerical relationships exerted an influence on the physical world; he created a dualistic view of humans by saying that in addition to our body, we have a mind (soul), which through reasoning could understand the abstract world of numbers; furthermore, he believed the human soul to be immortal; Pythagoras' philosophy had a major influence on Plato and, through Christianity, on the entire Western world

Answer 40

Pythagoras (ca. 580-500 BC)

Question 41

According to Aristotle, the soul possessed only by humans; it incorporates the functions of the vegetative and sensitive soul and allows thinking about events in the empirical world (passive reason) and the abstraction of the concepts that characterize events in the empirical world (active reason)

Answer 41

Rational soul

Question 42

For Aristotle, the active mental search for the recollection of past experiences

Answer 42

Recall

Question 43

The attempt to explain objects or events in one domain by using terminology, concepts, laws, or principles from another domain, like explaining human behavior and cognition (domain 1) in terms of biochemical principles (domain 2); in a sense, it can be said that events in domain 1 are reduced to events in domain 2

Answer 43

Reductionism

Question 44

For Aristotle, the passive recollection of past experiences

Answer 44

Remembering

Question 45

Plato's belief that knowledge is attained by remembering the experiences the soul had when it dwelled among the forms before entering the body

Answer 45

Reminiscence theory of knowledge

Question 46

Aristotle's description of nature as being arranged in a hierarchy from formless matter to the unmoved mover; in this grand design, the only thing higher than humans was the unmoved mover

Answer 46

Scala naturae

Question 47

According to Aristotle, the soul possessed by animals; it includes the functions provided by the vegetative soul and provides the ability to interact with the environment and to retain the information gained from that interaction

Answer 47

Sensitive soul

Question 48

Disagreed with the Sophists' contention that there is no discernible truth beyond individual opinion' he believed that by examining a number of individual manifestations of a concept, the general concept itself could be defined clearly and precisely; these general definitions are stable and knowable and, when known, generate moral behavior

Answer 48

Socrates (ca. 470-399 BC)

Question 49

The belief that a person's subjective reality is the only reality that exists and can be known

Answer 49

Solipsism

Question 50

A group of philosopher-teachers who believed that "truth" was what people thought it to be; to convince others that something is true, one needs effective communication skills, and it was those skills that these people taught

Answer 50

Sophists

Question 51

The belief that nature is purposive; Aristotle's philosophy was based in this

Answer 51

Teleology

Question 52

The type of medicine practiced by priests in early Greek history; was characterized by superstition and magic; individuals such as Alcmaeon and Hippocrates severely criticized this and were instrumental in displacing such practices with naturalistic medicine--that is, medicine that sought natural causes of disorders rather than supernatural causes

Answer 52

Temple medicine

Question 53

Often called the first philosopher because he emphasized natural instead of supernatural explanations of things; by encouraging the critical evaluation of his ideas and those others, he is thought ot have started the golden age of Greek philosophy; he believed water to be the primary element from which everything else was derived

Answer 53

Thales (ca. 625-547 BC)

Question 54

Plato's contention that ultimate reality consists of abstract ideas or forms that correspond to all objects in the empirical world; knowledge of these abstractions is innate and can be attained only through introspection

Answer 54

Theory of forms

Question 55

According to Aristotle, that which gave nature its purpose, or final cause, but was itself uncaused; in Aristotle's philosophy, this was a logical necessity

Answer 55

Unmoved mover

Question 56

The soul possessed by plants; it only allows growth, the intake of nutrition, and reproduction

Answer 56

Vegetative soul

Question 57

Believed people created gods in their own image; noted that darkskinned people created dark-skinned gods, likewise for light-skinned people; speculated that the gods created by non-human animals would resemble these animals; postulated that the existence of one all-powerful god without human characteristics, but warned that all beliefs are suspect, even his own

Answer 57

Xenophanes (ca. 560-478 BC)

Question 58

A disciple of Parmenedes known for his clever examples and fables (like "his" Paradox)

Answer 58

Zeno of Elea (ca. 495-430 BC)

Question 59

The assertion that in order for an object to pass from point A to point B, it must first traverse half the distance between those two points, and then half the remaining distance, and so forth; because this process must occur an infinite number of times, this person concluded that an object could logically never reach point B

Answer 59

Zeno's paradox