May 16

May 16 Notes ϕ ➡Thales & Anaximander > Implicit criticism of Greek Mythology -> No mention of the Gods to explain things , world. This has a major impact on the way things are done. ➡Xenophanes ➡ Greek mytholgy begins by influencing greek ϕ but ends up greek ϕ criticizing greek mythology ➡Critique of Homeric Gods ➡Portrayal of the gods as unworthy of respect and reverence ➡Anthropomorphic view of the gods ➡God not similar to mortals in mind or body, and there can only be one super powerful god with lesser gods who moves everyhing with the thought of his mind ➡The gods have not revealed all things from the beginning to mortals , but by seeking men find out in time what is better ➡Poets’ claim of inspiration is no guarantee of truth ➡Correct way to develop our views or beliefs is by a process of search that we have to engage in we will not find the hole truth, and even if we had we would not realize that we had ➡Give up the idea of finding absolute certinty because there will always be a doubt for human beings, our mind is limited. (Moderate skepticism) ➡Skepticism because we cannot reach total truth but moderate because we can improve our opinions ➡Not all opinions have the same worth ➡Xenophanes is the first epistemologist he directsthought upon itself ➡Truth can be known only by God ➡Humans must remember : we are not gods ➡Pythagoreans ➡Before the end of V BCE we have a change of place in philiosophy

May 16 Notes ϕ ➡Pythagoras moved from Samos to Southern italy this change in location was an impact on both the purpose of ϕ and the content of ϕ ➡Pythagoreans are first and foremost a religious community, they are secretive they do not want o share their knowledge with outsiders and severe penalties to those who would disclose knowledge to outsiders of the community ➡They are searching for a rational justification for their religion, which they already believe in ➡What they belive in becomes more abstract and more mathematical ➡They use the olympic games as a way to describe three different ways of life 1. Athletes> action their life is oriented to a goal 2.Buy and sell > wealth the goal that they pursue is monetary gain 3.Spectators > contemplate ➡This is called life in contemplation where the goal is neither wealth or action but to gain knowledge ➡Φ> Milesians (thales and anaximander) > theoretic knowledge ➡Φ> Pythagoreans > way of life ➡Φ as a dynamic unity of both ➡One obstacle for the life in contemplation and that is the human body ➡This will led to a long tradition in western civilization that the body is something derogatory We need to become free of the body without losing it Body=prison of the osul ➡They believe in the immortality of the soul and when the body died they also believed tha thespirit could take another body ➡Tehy believe that the wise person is the perfect citicen who withdraws from his body ➡Pythagoreans an mathematics ➡Egyptian mathematics were developed to solve particular problems a ‘cook book approach’ ➡Pythagoreans turn mathematics into a science, a discipline , science being an organized bdy of knowledge based on principles, it can be taught and com-

May 16 Notes ϕ munticated easily . How to solve problems in generaly applying o a specific area >> there is an order of teaching/learning ➡They make a major discovery ➡A new kind of real objects , a new kinf reality, mathemtical reality, specifically numbers and figures this thught will also profoundly effect plato ➡For the pyhtagoreans, funadmental reality is mathematical ➡Things imitate numbers ➡Mathematical objects they are ficed, static, do not change.and they are immortal, thus divine things imitate numbers because they strive to be unchangeable ➡Lengths of strings in aa musical instrument make a specific sound ➡When the length of the second string is in a certain ratio to the length of the second one then there is a distinct sound that is made harmony can also betied up to a number ➡Heraclitus (the obscurer) 500 BCE, Lived in epherus (N. Of Miletus) ➡Writings were usually in the forms of riddles, epigrams ➡His view of reality ➡“all things come in t being through opposition and everything is in flux to opposition” ➡Reality of flux ➡Stepping in river you can step several times in the same river, but the waters are going to be different so we can both step, and not step in the same river, since the water is always chnging. The oneness of things that are different ➡Thepath of the pen is straight and crooked ➡There is a patternin the way everything changes in the universe ➡Dialectical materialism ➡Heraclitus uses thesymbol of fire to describe this change - it does not have a fixed shape it is changeable and hus a symbol of flux ➡The key idea here is that this flux has a pattern of structured change

May 16 Notes ϕ ➡