The Question of
Reality- Unit 2
Reality & Metaphysics
The Question of Reality
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What is reality?
What is ultimate?
What is really real?
Read pp. 55-56 (Introduction)
Chapter 3– The First Metaphysicians
• The Problem of the One and the Many
– What is the ultimate reality (the One)?
– How is everything else (the Many) related to
it?
Presocratics
• World’s first official philosophers
• Sometimes called monists because they
sought to isolate one thing (usually one of
the elements) as the basic stuff to which
all reality could be reduced
• Their ancient efforts paved the way for the
Scientific Method
• Their ideas were literally written in stone
• Pronounciation p. 60
Thales
624-546 BCE
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Water is the ultimate reality
Necessary for all living things
Is present in most things
Seems to be everywhere (especially for a
Greek)
• There is a lot of it!
• Can exist in different forms
• Thought of as the 1st philosopher
Anaximander
610-546 BCE
• “All elements are
comprised of ‘apeiron’
or ‘the boundless’”
• All things are made of
apeiron & return to
apeiron
• http://en.wikipedia.org/
wiki/Apeiron_(cosmolo
gy)
Anaximenes
585-528 BCE
• “Air is the root of all things”
• “The soul is composed of air”
• The breath is linked to the soul (e.g. “Bless
You” air leaving the body = soul leaving
the body)
Pythagoras
571- 497 BCE
• Life is a numbers game
• It can be explained
through mathematical
theorems (e.g.
movement of planets,
music, physics)
• One of the first cult
leaders killed
followers who revealed
his numerical secrets
Heraclitus
536- 470 BCE
• Everything is composed
of fire
• Also means everything
is in flux
• “You can’t step into the
same river twice.”
• “All things flow”
• “The sun is new
everyday”
• “We are and we are not”
• “All we are is dust in the
wind, all we are is dust
in the wiiiiii- iiiiiiiind…..
Ahhhhhh ah ahhhhhh!!!”
Parmenides
540 or 515-492 BCE
• Opposite of Heraclitus
everything is stagnant
• “It is”
• The more things change, the
more they stay the same
The Sophists
• Sophists are the ancient version of selfhelp gurus or motivational speakers.
• They were teachers & philosophers who
charged money for their “wisdom”
Protagoras
• “The First Sophist”
• “Man is the measure of
all things”
• Had an apathetic view of
God
• Followed the “anything
goes” principle
Gorgias
• “The Nihilist”
• Nothing exists
• If anything did exist,
you could not know
about it
• If something existed
and you knew about it,
you could not
communicate that
awareness to others
Socrates
• Compared himself to a gadfly (annoying to
Athenians)
• Wanted to find the TRUTH
• Posed questions & then questioned the
response others gave him (Socratic Method)
• Never wrote his ideas down (couldn’t read or
write)
• We know about Socrates’s ideas through Plato’s
accounts
• Accused of corrupting the youth
• Was put on trial, convicted, and sentenced to
death
Plato
• Protégé of Socrates
• Allegory of the Cave meant to illustrate how
people live with a veil over their eyes
• Can people respond to the TRUTH or one who
has seen the TRUTH?
• Theory of Forms perfect form of beauty,
perfect form of numbers, cure for cancer, etc.
• The Republic Most famous work; describes
Plato’s perfect government system (philosophers
rule– surprise, surprise)
Aristotle
• “Plato is dear to me, but dearer still is
truth”
• “Friendship is one soul living in two
bodies”
• He believed we have souls but they die
with the body. Agree?
• Too little or too much of anything is bad
• Avoid extremes
• Balance = harmony
The Golden Mean
• The cause of things is not just what happens as
a lead up to an event, it is also a goal being
realized (or a sense of purpose). It is as if the
outcome is already there ahead of time, pulling
reality along with it.
• Also considered an attribute of beauty
• Do you agree with this concept? Are there
religious beliefs that match up with this concept?
• Teleology: the study of the purpose of things
PAGE 62
• Read the quotes in the green box on page
62
• You need a half sheet of paper to answer
these questions:
• Which do you agree with the most and
why? 5 sentence minimum explanation.
• Which one do you agree with the least &
why (excluding Empedocles’s quote)? 5
sentence minimum explanation.