Chapter 2 Self-Quiz

. In saying that all things are full of gods, Thales apparently meant that

Homer was right in saying that what happens can be attributed to the will of the gods.

traditional religious views could be defended after all.

explanations of events in the world could be explained in terms of events in the world.

science has its limits.

. Anaximander's argument for the Boundless as that out of which all things come

appeals to the infinite quality of the universe.

assumes that observable features of the world all need explaining.

holds that explanations can go back and back infinitely far.

identifies the Boundless with the gods of Homer's poems.

. How does Anaximander explain the generation of the many things in our experience?

By positing a cosmic swirl or vortex which spins like things to like.

By a theory of evolution.

By an appeal to one god, unlike us in any way.

By an infinite regress argument.

. Xenophanes criticizes the Homeric gods

for not coming to our aid when we need them.

as unworthy of our admiration and respect.

and says there are no gods at all.

and substitutes other gods from more moral traditions.

. Xenophanes says that with respect to the truth,

humans have never known it and will never know it.

it was revealed to us from of old.

even if we knew it, we couldn't know for sure that we knew it.

if we seek it, not relying on the stories of the poets, we will be sure to find it.

. What, according to Heraclitus, is wisdom?

Minding your own business and being content with what you have.

Satisfying your every desire.

Recognizing that life in this world is but a dream.

Understanding the thought that steers all things.

. Most people, Heraclitus says,

but not all, are in daily contact with the logos.

live as though their thought were private to themselves.

are willing and unwilling to be called Zeus.

fight against impulse, for what it wants it buys at the expense of the soul.

. Parmenides is rightly called a rationalist because

he rationalizes and deceives himself about the truth.

he gives reasons explaining all things, even change.

unlike his predecessors, he was a rational person.

he is willing to follow the argument wherever it leads.

. The One of Parmenides is

in continuous flux and opposition.

unchanging, all alike, and eternal.

identical in concept with the Boundless of Anaximander, which spins the many out of its own substance.

a useful fiction, Parmenides says, that confers unity on the many diverse things in the universe.

. Democritus says that sweet and bitter exist by convention. By this he means that

if we came to agree they didn't exist, they would disappear.

the words "sweet" and "bitter" (or their Greek equivalents) were agreed to by humans at a convention in Athens.

their nature depends as much on us as on the things themselves.

convention is an avenue into the real.

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