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Thales’ Problem

Thales’ Problem. Natural Philosophers in Ancient Greece. Greek Thought: a Neo Way. Did not have to resort to animistic or deistic explanations Assumed that the cosmos was understandable, ordered and constructed intelligibly

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Thales’ Problem

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  1. Thales’ Problem Natural Philosophers in Ancient Greece

  2. Greek Thought: a Neo Way • Did not have to resort to animistic or deistic explanations • Assumed that the cosmos was understandable, ordered and constructed intelligibly • That as humans we have the special capacity: we could figure it all out…the question drove them like a splinter in the mind…

  3. Hubris and Nemesis • Be careful!! • Explosions in Human Knowledge…

  4. Q: What is the whole world made up of? Thales • Thales (625-550bc) was a smart guy, revered by Greeks and Romans in ancient world • Lived in Miletus, an Athenian colony and hotbed of intellectuals on eastern shore of Aegean (Turkey today) • Thales’ Answer: water

  5. The Guys from Miletus Debate: Anaximander’s Answer • Everything is from and made out of the Boundless

  6. The Guys from Miletus Debate: Anaximenes’ Answer • Everything is from and made out of ….Vapor…

  7. Parmenides’ Answer:540-480bc • Everything has always existed • Nothing can come from nothing • Nothing really changes • Senses are unreliable • But his problem is how are the changes in the constant universe generated?

  8. Heraclitus’ Answer 540-480bc • Everything is in flux • Opposites dominate • World based on interactions – thus change • Senses are reliable • His problem: what holds everything together?

  9. Parmenides 540-480bce Everything has always existed Nothing can come from nothing Nothing really changes Our senses are unreliable when they tell us of the transitoriness of world Rationalism Heraclitus 540-480bc Everything is in flux Opposites dominate World based on interactions – thus change Senses are reliable Empiricism Who’s right?

  10. From Parmenides, he took… There is an unchanging substratum 4 unchanging roots: fire, water, earth and air From Heraclitus , he took… But world is changing; you can trust your senses Yet 2 forces interplay and yield changes “love” - attraction “strife” – separation/repulsion Empedocles’ Answer… He combined the two philosophers’ ideas

  11. Empedocles: 2 Forces • Filotis: • love – gravity • Neikos = • escape or strife – centifugal • He believed planets orbiting sun were result of 2 forces… http://www.petra.gr/Theology/empedocles.htm

  12. 3.14.. ∞… ∂…99.999 ∏… Pythagorus’ Answer : Numbers570-495 BC of Samos • “Numbers are things, things are numbers” • “Music of the spheres” • Ratios of numbers explain harmonies • In awe of the mystical • Irrational numbers • If numbers are things, where are they? • tried to explain them • Pythagoreanism became a religion

  13. Democritus’ Answer: Atoms • Eternal and immutable pieces of material • Invisibly small and indivisible • All of it is of the same stuff • Comes in different sizes shapes • Cling to each other • In perpetual motion • Soul is also made of these atoms

  14. Sophists v Socrates (470-399BC) • Sophists: There is no truth • Everything is in flux, everything is relative • Skeptical that anything can be known • “Man is the measure of all things” - Protagorus

  15. Socrates • Assumes objectivity…a rationalist… • There are unchangeable truths…what are they? • The Power of Socratic dialogue • Euthyphro Reading…

  16. Socrates Recall 4 Views of Ethics: • Non-Cognitive Theory: Boo/Yay theory • Ethical Subjective Theory • Cultural Subjective Theory • Moral Objective Theory

  17. Would Socrates Make a Good Teacher at our School?

  18. Plato: An Idealist Answering Thales’ Problem Seeking a Unified Field Theory to Explain Everything

  19. Plato’s Theory of Forms • Premise: Thales’ answer did not include everything in the intangible world • Material stuff changes and erodes • Unchanging is the timeless ideas or molds

  20. Plato’s Theory of Forms • These molds exist in intangible real of ideas • These immutable molds: called “forms” • We relate to these “forms” through our reason • The world of senses is transitory and subject to opinion via the senses

  21. True Reality is in the realm of Idea • It is immaterial and eternal and unchanging • One cannot obtain true knowledge through the senses • Physical world is a reflection of reality but not reality itself

  22. How do we locate reality? • A rationalist approach • Dialectical discussions of ideas • Push each idea, probe, question • Locate errors and adjust thinking …This sounds like someone else we know…

  23. Man is a dual creature • Realm of forms • Permanent • real “a circle” • Realm of senses • Soap bubbles – flux • Poor reflections circle We are not born tabular rasa; we have latent knowledge of the realm of forms – we recognize types in this world because of inbred knowledge of forms…

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