terms

Question 1

critical thinking

Answer 1

not having the answer before asking the question

Question 2

humanism

Answer 2

assumption that human beings were essentially the same in the ancient world as in the present and therefore understandable

Question 3

thesis

Answer 3

a statement based upon facts that a reasonable person could disagree with. not an observation!

Question 4

observation

Answer 4

statement about more than one fact that every reasonable person would agree with

Question 5

historicism

Answer 5

the ideas that human beings had fundamentally different ideas of how the world worked and their motives cannot always be understood

Question 6

idealism

Answer 6

the belief that categories exist “out there” independent of language and human beings. sometimes these categories are referred to as “natural.” invented by plato

-reality is entirely a mental construct
-any of various systems of thought are held to be in some way dependent on the activity of mind

Question 7

textualism

Answer 7

because categories and even mythic figures are constructed by language it is better to try to understand categories and mythic figures as subject to limited change over time rather than imperfect copies of an ideal hero or category.