1. Ancient Greek Philosophy
哲學研究所專任助理教授 陳斐婷

2. Last week Parmenides against change
1. What comes to be must come to be either from what is or from what is not What is cannot come to be, since it already is Nothing can come to be from what is not Therefore, nothing comes to be or perishes Therefore, there is no plurality, but only being/one itself (Aristotle’s Physics I.8, 191a24-28)

3. Atomism and change

4. The Parmenidean legacy

5. Two sorts of coming-to-be

6. Nothing really comes into or goes out of existence

7. Association and dissociation

8. Unqualified coming-to-be and qualified coming-to-be

9. Democritus on the indivisibility of atoms

10. The argument of the indivisibility of atoms (according to Irwin’s reconstruction)

11. The argument of the indivisibility of atoms (according to Irwin’s reconstruction)
Suppose that there are no indivisible parts.
Then compounds will consist of an infinite number of parts that are either extended or unextended.
If they are extended, the compound will be infinitely extended.
If they are unextended, the compound will also be unextended.
Therefore, components of compound bodies are indivisible.

12. Aristotle’s reconstruction

13. Aristotle’s reconstruction

14. Atoms, compounds, and becoming

15. The Heracleitean legacy

16. Atomists on color

17. Problem of the eliminative view

18. Eliminative view vs. Reductive view

19. Further problem of the reductive view

20. Atomists on mind and its problem

21. A Brief History of Greek Philosophy

22. The Pre-Socratic philosophers
Milesians (4/13) Thales: water Anaximander: ἄπειρον (the unlimited, unbound, boundless) Anaximenes: air
Ionians (4/20, 4/27) Heraclitus: change and logos
Eleatics (4/27, 5/4) Parmenides: the One Zeno of Elea: the paradoxes
Atomists (5/11)

23. The Pre-Socratic philosophers
Pluralists Empedocles: Four elements and two forces (Love and Strife) Anaxagoras: Mind and the divisibility of material ingredients
Sophists: Protagoras and Gorgias
Plato’s criticisms of sophists (a) Some sophists as a group responsible for decay in moral standards, e.g., Callicles (Gorgias) and Thrasymachus (Republic) (b) Other sophists such as Protagoras and Gorgias simply repeat those prejudices without founding their view on any rational basis that goes beyond the unexamined beliefs of the majority. Plato connects Sophistic with “appearances” or “images” in the Republic.

24. Socrates (470/ BCE)
Son of a midwife and a stone sculptor. Snub nose, bulging eyes, thick lips and a pot belly. Often barefoot, seldom bathed, and wore the same thin cloak winter and summer. Infantryman in the Peloponnesian War.
In the Apology: corrupting the youth, not believing in the gods of the city state, introducing new divinities.
In the Clouds (423BCE) founder of Thinkery School: (a) believing in Breath, Air, Chaos; thunder is not caused by Zeus; (b) teaching the Inferior Logic…

25. The historical Socrates
Socrates in Plato’s Apology: corrupting the youth, not believing in the gods of the city state, introducing new divinities.
Socrates in Aristophanes’ The Clouds (423BCE): a naturalist philosopher. The Thinkery School, believing in Breath, Air, Chaos. Thunder is not caused by Zeus…
Socrates in Xenophon’s Socratic writing: concerned only with ethical issues; pessimistic about knowledge of heavenly phenomena.
Socrates in Aristotle’s writing: ethical issues

26. Plato ( BC)
Two worlds: the visible world vs. the intelligible world.
Particulars exist in the visible world.
Forms exist in the intelligible world.
Particulars are inferior to the Forms.

27. Aristotle (384-322 BC) There is only one world.
Particulars are the primary substances.
Particulars are primary and fundamental to the universals.

28. Next week: 2nd midterm exam