Phil 201 Exam # 1 Study Guide Lectures: 1 - 8Lecture 1 (January 13)Origins of Western Philosophy-How does a "mythopoeic worldview" differ from the worldview introduced by the Greek pre-Socratic philosophers of nature, like Thales? o Mythopoeic worldview cultures are myth-making cultures, explaining the world in terms of actions of intelligent beings that can be viewed as persons. Thales worldview is there is an underlying rational order to nature.-Within a hundred years, in what century did Thales live?o 624-546 BC-Thales suggested that the fundamental substance is "water". What sorts of facts about water might help to explain why Thales would say such a thing?o Water can take on different forms, is fundamental to life, and is an observable part of our environment.Socrates and the Search for Wisdom-Within 100 years, in what century did Socrates live?o 469-399 BC-What features are associated with Socrates' method of questioning?o 1. Socrates' partner must answer every question according to his own beliefs, andthe partner (not the audience if there is one) judges the outcome.o 2. Socrates' questions start from his partner's initial statement, which usually implies a claim to wisdom or to knowledge of a subject related to virtue.o 3. Sometimes Socrates seeks clarification of the claim; at other times he proceedsdirectly to elicit his partner's agreement to premises that will turn out to be inconsistent with the initial claim.o 4. The line of questioning usually ends in the confusion and/or embarrassment of the partner, who now appears unable to support his initial statement.o 5. In general, Socrates does not offer a positive answer of his own to the questions he asks, and the question remains unresolved. It's unclear whether Socrates is ever satisfied with any of the definitions he considers in the dialogues.-Socrates often asks his partners to give a definition of an important concept, like "virtue", or "holiness", or "beauty", or "courage". What is Socrates looking for, in a definition?o Essences are what makes an act “holy” or “beautiful”The Theory of the Four Elements-What are the four elements that comprise the dominant Greek theory of the elements supported by Plato and Aristotle?o Earth, water, air, and fire.-What are the "natural motions" of the four Greek elements? What would the earth look like ifeach of the elements was allowed to follow its natural motion and eventually come to rest?o Earth is the "heaviest" element, followed by water, followed by air, and then fireo "Heaviness" is defined by an object's natural tendency to move toward the centerof the universe (which was the center of the earth); the greater this tendency, the"heavier" the object-How does the theory of the Greek elements explain the following phenomena?: rain falling from clouds; rocks falling to earth; volcanoes erupting out of the ground; geysers erupting out of the ground; fire moving upward.o Heavy object fall to the groundThe Divine Command Theory-In the Euthyphro dialogue, what is the deep question sitting at the heart of the dialogue?o Is a thing holy because it is dear to the gods? Or is a thing dear to the gods because it is holy?-What is the Divine Command theory of ethics?o Divine command theory is a meta-ethical theory, which proposes that an action'sstatus as morally good is equivalent to whether it is commanded by God. The theory asserts that what is moral is determined by what God commands, and that to be moral is to follow his commands.-We looked at three historically influential objections to the Divine Command theory. Outline the reasoning behind these objections.o The Divine Command theory makes ethics ARBITRARY -- there is NO REASON whyan act is moral or immoralo The Divine Command theory makes it hard to view God as a rational being that acts on the basis of reasonso The Divine Command theory makes it hard to see how it could be meaningful to praise God for his goodnessThe Greek/Medieval Worldview and the Great Chain of Being-The Greek/Medieval worldview was "geocentric". Outline the main features of the geocentric model of the cosmos.o Earth is at the center of the universe, is motionless, and planet sorbit around earth. -The Greek/Medieval worldview was conceived as a hierarchy (Great Chain of Being). There are aspects of this hierarchy that are a literal spatial hierarchy, and others that are not (a hierarchy of categories, or classes, of beings). Give examples that are spatial, and examples that are not spatial. -The Great Chain of Being has roots in Greek metaphysical views, derived from Plato and Aristotle, about the nature of substances and properties, and their relation to abstract "essences", which Plato called "forms". Plato's "theory of the forms", and how forms are related to physical objects. Use an example from geometry to describe Plato's theory of theforms. -The Greek/Medieval worldview was strongly "essentialist" in its metaphysical views. In this context, what does it mean to say that the Greek/Medieval worldview was "essentialist"?-The Greek/Medieval worldview was strongly "teleological". In this context, what does it meanto say that the Greek/Medieval worldview is "teleological"?-What does it mean to say that there is a "form of redness"?o All red objects share features, which are responsible for them being red rather than any other color.-What does it mean to say that there is a "form of an oak tree"?o 6. There are also forms for higher-level entities, like oak trees. There is a form of an oak tree, defined by those properties which all, and only, oak trees have. -How did Christian theology, through the Middle Ages, integrate and transform the Greek elements of the Great Chain of Being?-How does the Greek/Medieval view hierarchy in human societies?o There were different human “types” corresponding with the Great Chain.-Why is this aspect of the Greek/Medieval worldview regarded as deeply problematic, from a modern perspective?o Egalitarian ethical and political principles now dominate public thinking.The Problem of Evil-What does the term "theodicy" mean?o The tradition of intellectual thought that focuses on a single problem-What is the "problem of evil"?o 1. There is a great deal of pain and suffering in the worldo 2. There is a God that is all-powerful.o 3. There is a God that is all-good.-One way of formulating the problem of evil is in terms of an argument against the existence of God, based on the existence of certain kinds of pain and