Intro to Philosophy
Study Guide to Test One
Test one covers chapters: Intro to 11.

Who taught Plato?

How did Pythagoras define philosophy? 

What branch of philosophy is concerned with knowledge?

What branch of philosophy is concerned with the nature of reality?
  	
What philosophical theory says that all knowledge arises from experience?
 
What theory says that reason provides superior knowledge that is independent of experience?

What philosophy doubts everything?
  	
Determinism is the belief that:

Thales was the first to ask what question?

According to Thales, what is everything made of?
 
Anaximander believed that the basic nature of reality is To Apeiron. What properties does To Apeiron have?
	 
What great scientific thoughts were first attributed to Anaximander?

Where does Heraclitus think knowledge comes from?

Was Heraclitus an empiricist or rationalist?
  	
What did Heraclitus say about change?

According to Xenophanes, what traits does God have?
 	
What did Xenophanes say about knowledge?

What faculty did Parmenides think is the proper guide to truth?

What was Parmenides' starting point?
  	
What was Parmenides' vision of reality?

What did Zeno's Paradoxes attempt to prove?

What did Anaxagoras think the basic nature of reality is?

What did Democritus say the basic nature of reality is?

What properties does Democritus say that atoms have?

Thales was the first person to:
  	
What did Anaximander believed the basic nature of reality was?
  	
Who was the first to ask: what is the basic nature of reality?
  	
Who was the first to ask: what is the cause of all things?
  	
What did Anaximander believe?

Who was the first person to call himself a philosopher - lover of wisdom.
  	
What did Pythagoras believe was the language of the Universe?
  	
What did Xenophanes believe?
  	
What did Heraclitus believe?

What did Parmenides believe?

What philosophers that we studied were rationalists?
  	
What philosophers that we studied were empiricist?

According to Democritus, what are the objective properties of atoms?

Who advanced the atomic theory of reality?

Did Protagoras believe that we experience external reality indirectly through senses?

The Oracle of Delphi claimed that Socrates was the wisest man in all of Athens. Why did Socrates conclude that this was true?
  	
Who said that to know the good is to do the good; no one chooses to do evil knowingly.

What did Protagoras believe?

What did the Sophists believe about objective truths?

What did the Sophists teach?

Is it true that Socrates believed that our true identity is our eternal soul.

Is it true that Socrates advanced the contract theory of state; if you remain in a society, you must obey the laws, and he also said that he would refuse to stop doing philosophy if the law ordered it.

PLATO:
For Plato, what is our greatest faculty?  Is it Reason, Intuition, Imagination, or Perception?
	
What did Plato say makes a person virtuous?

What did Plato say about the Good?

What did Plato say about the forms?

What did Plato say about perceptions and physical things?

Who thought that wisdom is the awareness of our own ignorance, and we gain wisdom by the constant critical examination of what we think we know?

Who thought wisdom is acquired through power, and one obtained it by learning the skills necessary to be successful in the public arena?
  	
Who did the Oracle of Delphi claim was the wisest man in Athens?

What is the Socratic Method?

What was the punishment that Melatus proposed for Socrates?

Who did Melatus, Anytus, and Lycon bring charges against?

How did Plato defined knowledge?

What things are adequate objects of knowledge for Plato?
		
Who believed that moral values are relative?

Who believed that moral values are objective universal truths?

Is it true that the Sophists position of relativism is self-contradictory because they claim that their beliefs are right and better?
  	
According to Plato, what is the ultimate object of wisdom?
  	
What in math is an example of a Platonic Form?
	
According to Plato, what things are in a constant state of change, so they are not adequate objects of knowledge?
  	
How did Plato divide the soul, or how did Aristotle define Virtue?
  	
Would Plato agree that although there are no dinosaurs, the Form still exists?  
  	
Plato founded the first college; what was it called?

ARISTOTLE

Who taught Aristotle?

What did Aristotle believe is the highest good?

How did Aristotle define Virtue?

What trait would Aristotle say is virtuous?
Arrogance       (thinking you're better than you are)
Humility        (thinking you're less than you are)
Bravery         (having no fear)
Courage         (having fear, and doing the right thing)

Who said the excellence of a thing is the full development of the potential of its essential nature?

Who taught Alexander the Great?

Who believed that man is the rational animal, and a life of moderation accords best with reason.

Would Aristotle agree that although there are no dinosaurs, the Form still exists?

Aristotle believed that scientific knowledge of the physical world was possible while Plato believed that it was impossible because physical things are constantly changing. Is that true or false?

Aristotle defined man as the rational animal. If humans became extinct, would Aristotle say the form human would no longer exists?

Who was the first philosopher to create a system of logic?

Aristotle founded a school. What was it called?

THEOLOGY

How does Anselm's Ontological Argument attempt to prove the existence of God?

What claim does Anselm's ontological argument make?
It is a contradiction to say that God does not exist.
It is greater to exist in reality than thought alone.
It is even greater to exist necessarily in reality.

How did Anselm define God?

What position does agnosticism take?

What position does the theist hold?

What position does an atheist hold?

Did the Catholic scholastics agree that reason and philosophy could prove the existence of God?

Anselm's Ontological Argument attempts to prove the existence of God by using reason to go beyond experience. Is this an example of empiricism or rationalism?

Does realism or nominalism hold the view that universal concepts refer to a collection of similar things, and they are not real entities in the world?

What is NOT true of Anselm's Ontological Argument?
	  God is defined as that which no greater can be thought to be.
	  Since the universe shows evidence of design, God must exist.
	  Existence is a part of God's essence.
	  It is a contradiction to say that God doesn't exist.

Is it true that Anselm's Ontological Argument claims that the existence of God follows from the essence of God?

Is Anselm's Ontological Argument a rationalist or empiricist argument?
  	
Gaunilo argued that Anselm's Ontological Argument is flawed because:
	  Existence is not a property of things.
	  If it was a valid argument, we could argument that a perfect island also exists.
	  The essence or idea of God is not in the mind because it is inconceivable.

What two ancient philosophers had the most influence over Scholasticism?

Was Saint Thomas Aquinas a rationalist, and did he believe that we are born with innate ideas?
  	
Did Aquinas believe that before we have any perceptions, the mind is a blank slate?

Does Aquinas' Cosmological argument claim that you cannot have an infinite regress, so God must exist.

Did Thomas Aquinas believe that everything must have a cause?