...Empedocles is believed to have travelled to Thourioi shortly after it was established approximately 444 B.C. Empedocles's keen intellect enabled him to combine talents in philosophy, natural history, poetry, and politics, and to achieve superstar status in his day. According to the Greek philosopher Aristotle (384–322 B.C.), Empedocles was the inventor of rhetoric, a talent Empedocles often utilized as a statesman. He became popular among his fellow citizens through his support of democracy. Empedocles's scientific inquiries usually included mysticism. However, his philosophies contained early insight into basic laws of physics, including atomic theory. Although sometimes labeled a Pythagorean, Empedocles followed the Greek philosopher Parmenides (c. 515–c. 445 B.C.) in the belief that matter (or, "what is") is indestructible. Empedocles claimed that matter was the only principle of all things and that four elements in the universe—air, fire, earth, and water—made up all things according to various ratios of these elements. Empedocles further stated that two forces, which he called love and hate, or eros and strife, controlled how the four elements come together or move apart. In addition to creating a philosophy that closely resembles modern atomic theory, Empedocles also studied the nature of change in the universe. Empedocles asserted...
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...The analogy of the cave is the method that a Greek philosopher named Plato used to describe the philosophical different between the ‘fake world’ in which we live and the world of forms. Plato portrays this message through a story of a group of prisoners in a cave who can only see shadows cast upon the wall in front of them. These shadows are created by puppeteers behind them and they believe that the shadows are reality. The message created through this scene is that the real world is full of illusion which hides reality. It subtly represents the human which confines the soul, preventing it from seeking the truth, in this case, reality and the world of the forms. The analogy represents the entire human race that is yet to seek the philosophical truth. It teaches us that the world in which we live is full of illusion and everything we see is just an imitation of the forms. Each element of the analogy is symbolic and holds a meaning which may not be completely obvious until the analogy is further understood. We, as prisoners are believed to be rejecting of new ideas and that the actual process of teaching is distressing and difficult due to the fact that when the prisoner is first released he continuously attempts to return to the cave as it is where he feels comfortable. The way the prisoner is dragged up into reality again reiterates the idea that we are all quite narrow-minded and we don’t want to open up to new thoughts and ideas. When the prisoner begins to differentiate...
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...A618C90F-C2C6-4FD6-BDDB-9D35FE504CB3 Philip Stokes A618C90F-C2C6-4FD6-BDDB-9D35FE504CB3 ENCHANTED LION BOOKS New York Contents The Presocratics Thales of Miletus . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Pythagoras of Samos . . . . . 10 Xenophanes of Colophon 12 Heraclitus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 The Scholastics St Anselm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 St Thomas Aquinas . . . . . . . 50 John Duns Scotus . . . . . . . . . 52 William of Occam . . . . . . . . . 54 The Liberals Adam Smith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 Mary Wollstonecraft . . . . 108 Thomas Paine . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 Jeremy Bentham . . . . . . . . . 112 John Stuart Mill . . . . . . . . . . 114 Auguste Comte . . . . . . . . . . . 116 The Eleatics Parmenides of Elea . . . . . . . 16 Zeno of Elea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 The Age of Science Nicolaus Copernicus . . . . . . 56 Niccolò Machiavelli . . . . . . . 58 Desiderus Erasmus . . . . . . . . 60 Thomas More . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 Francis Bacon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 Galileo Galilei . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 Thomas Hobbes . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 Sir Isaac Newton . . . . . . . . . . 70 The Evolutionists Charles Darwin . . . . . . . . . . . 118 Henri Louis Bergson . . . . 120 A. N. Whitehead . . . . . . ....
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...Explain Plato’s analogy of the cave. Plato’s cave analogy of the cave it this because it is a simple story that has a metaphorical meaning. Plato uses this analogy to show the link between the physical world and the world of forms. Plato thinks that this analogy helps people to understand why the physical world is all an illusion. Only true reality can be found in the world of forms, in which everything is unchanging. Plato’s analogy is set in a cave, the cave is meant to represent the physical world, from which people only see what Plato describes to be an illusion. The prisoners within the cave know of nothing but what they have seen for all their lives. Behind the prisoners are a low wall and a walkway, in the walkway a fire burns, every now and then people walk past the fire carrying objects that reflect into the cave as shadows. The prisoners see the shadows and think that what they see is reality, like we think about our world now. The sounds made by the people walking past are thought to be from the shadows, what is seen and herd here is thought to be real. The shadows represent the images of the forms, which are all that is seen in the physical world. The prisoners in this case represent the ignorant individuals who need to discover the philosophical truth; they believe that the shadows they see are the real objects because they know of nothing else. Plato relates this to the 5 senses, touch, taste, smell, sound and sight, it is easy for people to believe what...
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...a) Explain Plato’s Theory of Forms Plato’s Theory of Forms is similar to many other beliefs about the world. For instance, Heraclitus’ notion was that we see a world of perception in constant flux of which we have no true knowledge, while Zeno believed that we can see a static unchanging world and it can be grasped through reason. Plato’s theory is strongly based on what is real and what is not. What is real is thought to be perfect, but something cannot be real or perfect if it is transient. He explains that the World of Forms is very different to the World of Shadows. The World of Forms can only be properly understood by philosophers and those who seek knowledge, not by the ignorant or those who do not wish to learn the truth. The Theory of Forms makes a distinction between those objects that are real and those that are only real in our minds. His dialogues, like the Allegory of the Cave, portray knowledge as the process of leaving the cave and going into the sunlight. The people in the cave find their reality in the shadows cast in the cave and assume there can never be anything beyond these shadows. These shadows symbolise how the world that we see is just a shadow or reflection of what is real. For Plato, the real world is not what we see around us, it is only the World of Forms that is real. Plato believes there are two distinct realms of existence which exists simultaneously. This approach to the two different worlds is know as dualism. The world we live in is...
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...Explain the concepts of Plato’s forms (25 marks) Plato believed in two worlds, the sensible world and the intelligible world. Within the intelligible world there exists the realm of forms which possesses true knowledge and perfection. The realm of Forms is eternal, unchanging, there are abstracts of a perfect object and organisms (human beings or animals), meaning there is a perfect abstract of a chair in the intelligible world which possess a certain value which cannot be possessed in the sensible world. However within the sensible world there exist shadows which are cast by abstracts from the intelligible world but they never possess their true value, and within the sensible world all things are temporarily meaning they will soon die, change and decay. The term “Form” to Plato meant the idea of what a thing is, this is because he realized that there are things which look different but have the same features which make it recognizable to the specific thing you have in mind e.g. when someone says “look at that boy” you immediately know/recognize that it’s a boy you have to look at because he will have the features of a boy, but once you see him you may figure out that his appearance may be a little different to some other boys but nonetheless since he has some set of characteristics that resemble a boy, you will be confident to come to a conclusion that he is a boy. This is also the same with what Plato says but he also goes on to argue that the true Form of a...
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...a) Explain Plato’s Form of the Good Plato believed that the world we around us is an illusion, and that everyday things that we take for granted are merely weak imitations of the true object behind it. He believed that behind every earthly object, and every earthly concept (e.g. beauty), there is an unearthly truth; a perfect version. He believed that there was a place where everything that is, has been, or ever will be in existence in kept, and that is how we know that a pen is a pen, a chair is a chair. This he believed, was the only possible explanation to the philosophical question: ‘What makes a thing, the thing that it is?’ Plato believed in the soul- the only part of a human that yields any importance or relevance. He believed that it was once, (before we were born), free to roam the World of the Forms, and now that it is in our world, held prisoner in our bodies, it longs to go back. Whilst I in the World of Forms, the soul had access to true knowledge, and everything that we ‘know’ today, is just remembering what we have already learnt. Forms are placed in a Hierarchy, the Form of the Good, being the most important. It is central to the existence of our entire Universe and without it there would be no perfect beauty, no perfect justice, no perfect anything. It structures each form, giving it its own characteristics. Plato used an analogy to explain his theories. He told people of a cave, where there is a row of men, chained up, facing the...
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...Explain Plato’s analogy of the cave. Plato, a famous Greek philosopher who wrote the ‘Allegory of the cave’ attempted to answer some philosophical questions (Why are we here? What is reality?). Plato tells the ‘Allegory of the Cave’ as a conversation between him and his teacher, Socrates, who inspired may of Plato’s philosophical theories. The Analogy of the cave is one of the most famous passages in Plato’s republic. Imagine prisoners being chained up in a cave, since their childhood. Theses prisoners are chained up and forced to look at the wall in the cave. The only source of light in the cave comes from a fire. Behind these prisoners is the fire and between them is a raised walkway, which allows people to walk through the cave. As the people walk through the cave their shadows are reflected onto the wall and their voices are cast as echoes. The prisoners assume that the echoes come from the shadows cast on the wall. This makes that prisoners believe that the shadows on the wall are real, because they are unable to see what is really happening. This means that the prisoners are unable to see the true causes of the shadows, as they are unable to see behind them. Suppose one of the prisoners is finally freed. This prisoner is forced into the real world; he feels confused and doesn’t understand what is going on. He naturally wants to go back to his familiar surroundings of the cave, if the prisoner is prevented from going back to the cave. Gradually his eyes become accustomed...
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...The Theory of the Forms is also seen as unconvincing as it is highly abstract. Therefore it is too incomprehensible to see the way in which these detached Forms can be practical or have significance in the real world as they are too distant. Even if they do exist, do they have a practical function? Can they help humans make decisions about practical matters? In addition very few people will obtain knowledge of the good therefore can the Forms realistically be understood and accepted by all? In this way the Theory is not convincing as it leaves many basic questions unanswered. We are also to question whether there are Forms for everything, from a stone to a lampshade. Plato rarely discusses physical and material objects but more Forms of concepts such as Justice. While he does mention the Form of a bed in The Republic, we are uncertain as to whether this was a serious remark, some even think it was a joke. Furthermore Plato does not clearly explain the link between the World of Forms and that of Appearances, how do they connect? Furthermore we question how general the Forms are. Is there a Form for every breed of horse or just a general Form of a horse? If a Form is a general idea then there is a risk that it lacks detail. However if every breed has a Form then surely the Form loses it's point. One could argue that every breed of horse has enough in common to reflect to some extent the Form of a horse. Again this may not be an issue for Plato if the Theory of Forms applies...
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...Pre-Socratic Philosophers Democritus, in my opinion, had the most compelling ideas as a Pre-Socratic Philosopher. Not only did he shun fame and fortune, he set out to search for wisdom. His belief is that everything is made up of Atoms, and that these atoms are in continuous motion. ”The Atomists held that all things are composed of physical atoms—tiny, imperceptible, indestructible, indivisible, eternal, and uncreated particles composed of exactly the same matter but different in size, shape, and (though there is controversy about this) weight.” (pg. 31) This belief is compelling to me because without today’s scientific and technological advances, a statement of this magnitude thousands of years ago is unbelievable. They did not have the means to know whether or not this was true, only a belief that it was correct. This set the stage for science over two thousand years before it was conferred. One particular point of his belief on how Atoms are related I found fascinating. “That things move is apparent to sense perception and is just indisputable, they maintained, and because things move, empty space must be real—otherwise, motion would be impossible.” (pg.32) Relating substance to supposed empty substance, directly involves the two. Even though solid objects are composed of atoms, non-existent space around the object is composed of the same substance. The fact that the early Atomists believed that substance and non-substance have the same structure is years beyond their...
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...Plato and Aristotle were both renowned philosophers throughout history who were known for their different perspectives of the Theory of Forms. Plato was one of Socrates’ students and he believed in idealism. Plato’s metaphysics which is also referred to as the Theory of Forms explains that there are two sides of the world of Forms. One of them is separated from the reality and one of them is the reality of the world. (Moore, pg 38) Aristotle was Plato’s student and he disagree with Plato’s believes. He was the first philosopher to explain what existence and essence is (Moore, pg. 63). One of Aristotle’s strongest arguments against the Theory of Forms was his Third Man argument. He explains that there must be a third thing or person to tires together a Form (Moore, pg. 65). Plato and Aristotle have excellent views of Theory of Forms and the Third Man argument; however there are points I agree and disagree with. Plato was one of the most important philosophers. Plato spends most of his life living in Greek. He was the first metaphysics thinker Theory of forms was one of Plato most important idea. He believed that we are living in two worlds; the world of appearances and the world of ideas. The appearances world is the world we are living in where we can touch and see around us. Our senses help us guide us in the visible world. In the ideas world, we can only sense it with our thinking. The intelligible world is in our mind, we control what the intelligible world looks like. The...
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...Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle were important philosophers in classical Greece (Matthews, Noble, Platt, 2014). Plato was one of Socrates followers. Plato was recognized for his most famous doctrine known as the Doctrine of Forms, even though there was never a clear explanation for its existence; but his student Aristotle did offer various arguments for it. Plato knew that his doctrine never made sense; however, he created an analogy and called it the Allegory of the Cave which supports what he stood for in regard to common sense as well as embodying his doctrine. Socrates was an intelligent man, who loved philosophy and challenging the people who he lived around. His main goal was to achieve understanding. The citizens were not actually fond of Socrates because he made them feel as if they did not know anything. He was happy to prove others wrong, in which made him disliked. Socrates spent his life voicing his opinion about how people should live and proving that they did not actually know as much as they thought, which in the end caused him unpopularity and led to his execution. Because Socrates refused to accept the Gods and was accused of corrupting the youth, he was sent to trial and executed. Rather than defending himself, he focused on the citizens and what their mission should be. Plato belonged to a wealthy and politically influential family, his career, many believe should have been leaning towards in politics; however, he preferred to develop a political philosophy...
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...PARMENIDES p. 55 Labing walang pangingilatis * Kung meron mang mga walang kakwenta-kwentang tao, ito na yun * Sa sobrang katindihan ng mga karanasan, wala ka na talagang masabi * #6 * Itong walang kamatayan ay talagang may ginaganap na mabuti * Ngunit ang mga taong ito, may ginagawa sila na talagang mamamatay. Walang kwenta na alalahanin * Dalawang ulo * Walang pamamaraan ang kanilang ginagawa = walang daan. Walang methodos * Palipat-lipat lang. Walang paninindigan. Kahit ano, pwedeng panindigan. Sabog. Walang sistema. * Dahilan: “ang pag-iral at pag-hindi-meron…” * Ang meron ay wala. Ang wala ay meron. Pareparehas lang yan. * Mga taong inaakala nila na ang meron ay wala.. vice versa. * Lahing hindi nangingilatis * Wala talagang pakielam * Meron kang mata pero wala kang nakikita * Dila pero puro salita/endless chatter * Bakit ganyan ang iyong pandama? = hindi mo nilalapatan ang mga yan ng logos. * Logos ang hukom * Ang taong hindi nangingilatis, hindi nilalapatan ng logos ang kanilang pandama. Hindi nabibigyan katwiran ang kanilang pandama * Kayang maghirap sa harap ng driver dahil walang logos. Hindi nakikita bilang tao. Pero sa kaibigan, pag pumasok, tumatahimik. May pakielam. Hindi nagiging malinaw ang pagturing niyo sa kailkasan ng taong iyon. * Hindi mo sila nakikita dahil hindi mo nilalapatan...
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...Parmenides and Ancient Greek Mythology In early 6th century BC, certain ancient Greeks called the Pre-socratics began to challenge mythological tradition, one of Greece’s first methods for explaining natural phenomena and the cosmos. One of these revolutionary thinkers, Parmenides, diverged from the typical mythological frameworks in three specific ways. Parmenides moved from the standard divine source of appeal for truth, in the form of muses, to a personal source of appeal for truth. Furthermore, Parmenides dictates that reasoning, which in ancient myths is often contradicting and non-provable, should be both logical and provable. Parmenides developed his own theoretical framework that explained reality and the cosmos through a poem, Parmenides of Elea, describing two views of reality: “The Way of Truth” and the “Way of Opinion”. In the first view, reality consists of one whole where change is impossible and all that exists has always been existent and will always be existent (T8 v. 1-34). In the latter view, he explains that the concrete reality of life is deceitful and a matter of opinion, and ultimately does not exist. In his philosophy, Parmenides both sustains certain aspects of the mythological framework and diverges to Pre-Socratic thinking. Structurally, the “Road of Truth” reflects the famous mythology The Odyssey because both are an epic and a metaphysical journey. Furthermore, the Goddess, Eros, replaces the general muse found in myths. Eros, like myth goddesses...
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...Nothing is no thing,[1] denoting the absence of something. Nothing is a pronoun associated with nothingness,[1] which is also an adjective, and an object as a concept in the Frege-Church ontology. In nontechnical uses, nothing denotes things lacking importance, interest, value, relevance, or significance.[1] Nothingness is the state of being nothing,[2] the state of nonexistence of anything, or the property of having nothing. Contents[hide] * 1 Philosophy * 1.1 Western philosophy * 1.1.1 Parmenides * 1.1.2 Leucippus * 1.1.3 Aristotle * 1.1.4 John the Scot * 1.1.5 G. W. F. Hegel * 1.1.6 Existentialists * 1.2 Eastern philosophy * 2 Language and logic * 3 Mathematics * 4 Computing * 5 Physics * 6 See also * 7 Notes * 8 References * 9 External links | [edit] Philosophy [edit] Western philosophy Some would consider the study of "nothing" to be foolish, a typical response of this type is voiced by Giacomo Casanova (1725–1798) in conversation with his landlord, one Dr. Gozzi, who also happens to be a priest, “ | As everything, for him, was an article of faith, nothing, to his mind, was difficult to understand: the Great Flood had covered the entire world; before, men had the misfortune of living a thousand years; God conversed with them; Noah had taken one hundred years to build the ark; while the earth, suspended in air, stood firmly at the center of the universe that God had created out of nothingness...
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