May 17 Philosophy

May 17-φ ➡To explain things for thales ad anixmander can be found in the things themselves, you don’t need to turn to a god to figure out what they do ➡Xenophanes is basically conscerned with two things: critique of greceian mythology or trying to explain reality in non rational ways (a.k.a. Wit the gods) nd epistemological thought on god, truth, knowledge ➡Pythagoreans had a saying : “mathematics helps to purify the soul” the pursuit of mathematics free th body from consideration and directly offers enrichment o the mind and to the soul ➡The contemplation of order brings order into the should, and thus more oder in your life ➡Metempsychosis is the same thing as reincarnation ➡The logos for heraclitus we know is rational, and it is he right order an thus lawful and thus inherently good and what is rational and good is beautiful order from nature shoul be reflected n the order of society ➡Parmenides 515 bce -450 bce ➡Crticizes heraclitus d extremely important to defining philosophy ➡Wrote his φ in the form of a poem “ ➡The introduction included the daughters of the sun carrying him in a chariot from the realm of darkness to that of light ---> where a goddess wil reveal the truth to him (which symbolizes a shift from mythic to theoretic consciousness). Te daughters part their veils so that he can see their faces ----->Aletheia or unvieling ➡Part I (the way of truth): ➡He learns from the goddess that being is and non being is not (anything that we cn think or speak either is or is not) and anything that does not exist is nothing ad we cannot speak nor think bout nothing ➡A unity between thought and being ➡Anything that we can speak or think about exists ➡There are three central problems in Greek φ ➡The one and the many; what is the one common thing among the many things that exist in the universe ➡How do we separate appearances from reality ➡Change:things can change in quantity, quality, location, coming to be and ceasing o be, birth & death problem: wat remains unchanged that allows us to identify it as the same thing ➡In part I of the poem he learns the anlysis of change from the goddess

May 17-φ ➡Change can be either coming to be or ceasing to be ➡Coming to be = non-being to being something ➡Nothingness cn come from non being ----->, therefore coming to be is logically impossible ➡Ceasing to be is going from being to non-being thus is also implausible since you cannot become nothing ➡He is the first metaphysician he is concerened with the very existnce of things ➡Parmenides φ is centrally “what does it mean to exist?” ➡What ‘is’ is unchangeable therefore it has no begining and no end, it is eternal and it is ONE (there is nothing to separate being and non-being) and what this is is called the ‘entity’ ➡Part II ➡Why is it that most mortal believe that change is real? The change that we perceive to the senses is an illusion to the senses the way of appearances uses the senses and haat is why it leads to error ➡The way of truth (part 1) does not use the way of appearacnes, only the intellect ➡The intelect (the nous) ➡Zeno , the student of parmenides , took it upon himself to defend him ➡Democritus (the atomists) ➡The atomists believed that eerything I the world was made up of very small parts , called atoms (a tomus=cannot be divided), they are material so everything is material---> nothing but matter exists (materialism) (indestructible)they arein constant motion an unpredictible and they have different shapes ad sizes ➡There is an inviolable and ultimate level to the size of something, at some point somthing cannot get anything smaller ➡Space for atoms to move is called the void ➡The agreed that being is and not being is not , but they said that parminedes overlooked a third possiility; ➡The void is not being and it is not a non being since it exists. It is spatial reality ad it is a type of reltive non-being ➡Coming to be is the result of atoms oming together and the view of something ceasing o be is atoms falling apart

May 17-φ ➡And since everything is material, the soul is material (made of very light atoms, but ultimitely made of materials) ➡Knowledge, from the vie of a materialist ➡Perception all things release very light atoms which exist as a copy of the thing releasing them ➡The copy penetrates our senses and reaches our soul ➡The ethicl implications of this: we have a view of th universe as a giant machine and everything is a result of the unpredictible atoms. We cannot change ➡The features of the wise man are serene, will not be bent out of shape by adversity, display self control, ➡