Fun Trivia : Greek Philosophy

Structure Sub-topic of: Philosophy Quizzes Interesting Questions, Facts and Information There are a total of 25 general entries. Special Topics Stoic Philosophy AP English Aristotle Class Diogenes the Dog (and his Friends) Ancient Greek Philosphy Thales, First among the Seven Sages Pre-Socratic Philosophers

Interesting Questions, Facts, and Information

Greek Philosophy

Who was the coeval inventor to Archimedes, credited with the invention of the piston and cylinder?

Greek Philosophy and History


Ctesibius. The same technology of the cylinder and piston is used for automobiles and water pumps.



Plutarch in his 'Quaestiones Convivales', borrows the notion that men were born in a fish, then after being placed within a galei, they finally arose to become as men. Which early Greek thinker were these notions derived from?

Greek Philosophy and History


Anaximander. Anaximader, a student of Thales, was the first to hint at the origin of man, as evolving from more primitive organisms.



Of the early Greek thinkers, he was the first to excise and record the findings of the function and anatomy of the eye. Who was he?

Greek Philosophy and History


Alcmaeon. Alcmaeon's theory on sleep was also interesting...he believed we slept due to retirement of blood into larger vessels.



In Plato's Theory of Forms, did he equate forms with the magnitude of numbers? (yes or no )

Greek Philosophy and History


yes .



An early Greek thinker, he first suggested that the universe was not geocentric, suggesting that instead all the planets, and the sun, revolved around a central fire. Who may he be?

Greek Philosophy and History


Philolaus. Philolaus was a 5th century B.C. Pythagorean thinker. His ideas preceded the heliocentric theory espoused by Aristarchus by several centuries.



In the Second Peloponnesian War 404 B.C., Athens was soundly defeated by the strategies introduced by a Spartan commander so named _____?

Greek Philosophy and History


Lysander.



Anthisthenes the founder of the Cynic School (Kynosargus) determined that virtue was tantamount to what type of quality?

Greek Philosophy and History


wisdom. He generally believed that wisdom or the ability to see beyond the values of the society as the key to transcending the earthly realm of the senses. Or to sniff through the false idols which heavily burden our minds.



Which philosopher had 2 fathers, named Ariston and Pyrilampes?

Greek Philosophy and History


Plato. Plato had a sister named Potone and brothers: Adeimantus, Glaucon, and Antiphon.



The founder of the Cyrenaic School valued intellectual pleasure as the highest goal in life. Who was he?

Greek Philosophy and History


Aristippus.



Democritus was an extraordinary philosopher in more ways than one. He was not only influential in the introduction of the concept of the 'atom' but also in the development of the eudaimonic-symmetry of pleasures. He also was called the 'laughing philosopher' and lived to a very ripe old age. How old was he (roughly) when he died?

Greek Philosophy and History


90.



And finally, do you know what philosophy means?

Greek Words and Greek Philosophy


The love of wisdom. I already told you what sophía means. Philos means friends, or love towards something.



Sophós is an adjective; who was a sophós in ancient Greece?

Greek Words and Greek Philosophy


A wise man. Sophós is the one who has sophía, wisdom.



Ousía is a fundamental word in every philosophy; do you know what it means?

Greek Words and Greek Philosophy


Essence, reality, entity. Philosophical questions regarding ousía include: Is it the soul? Is it what it makes us different from each other? Is there an essence at all?



Éthos is the word from which ethics come from. But what was the meaning of it for a Greek man?

Greek Words and Greek Philosophy


Habit, custom. This is one of the reasons why Aristotle considered that being a virtuous man was a habit, not the performance of only one good action, but the habit of always choosing rightly.



Teleology is the conception that everything has a télos, but do you know what télos means?

Greek Words and Greek Philosophy


End, purpose. This was Aristotle's conception. By now you should be able to know that he believed that the telos of every men was happiness, acquired by virtue, which is only achieved by being good.



The word eîdos means in strict terms, vision. But this was much more complex for Plato, how did he understand this word?

Greek Words and Greek Philosophy


Idea, form with independent existance. This is the Greek word for what we know as theory of the forms, or theory of the ideas. For Plato these were independent beings, which existed beyond man and nature, and were in a different level of reality, the true level, not in the sensible world. He who reached them had acquired epistéme.



Let's stick to the first philosophers; this might be an easy one since it remains in actual words: phýsis. Do you know what it means?

Greek Words and Greek Philosophy


Nature. Phýsis is nature, that's why physics today is the study of nature. But what does nature mean? The anwer to that question is what brings the differences, and with it, philosophy.



Every cosmologic philosopher wanted to know what it was. Water, said Thales, ápeiron said his disciple. Do you know what the arché is?

Greek Words and Greek Philosophy


Ultimate cause of everything, constitutional principle, what things are made of. In the beginning there was no real difference between philosophy and physics, for instance. Philosophers were eager to find out what was that, that formed everything, the substance or material that everything was made of, the arché.



Another word deeply developed by Aristotle, in close relation to eudaimonía, which we saw in an earlier question: Areté. Can you translate it?

Greek Words and Greek Philosophy


Virtue, nature, excellence. Every man's areté is virtue, because it is his nature, and he has to achieve excellence in it, only then he will really possess eudaimonía (happiness), by practicing virtue with excellence, by fullfilling his areté.



The word is Díke, and it has been of great interest to Socrates and Plato. Do you know the meaning of it?

Greek Words and Greek Philosophy


Justice, just, fair. The justice was good, it was a virtue, it was related to the law, but Díke means specifically Justice, and not the others. It is also the word used for the goddess Díke.



The word is alétheia, and it is what every philosopher wants to find: the truth. But do you know how the Greek philosophers interpreted the word truth?

Greek Words and Greek Philosophy


To reveal, to remove the veil, to enlighten. The "a" is a privative alpha, and "letheia" would mean veil, cover, something that obstructs or does not allow to reach what's beneath it. So to remove that veil would be to find the truth. Heidegger has written a lot about this. The word may have originated from words meaning "that which cannot escape notice."



This word might have gained its highest importance in Aristotelic philosophy: eudaimonía. Can you tell me what it means?

Greek Words and Greek Philosophy


Happiness, bliss, joy. It is, according to Aristotle, the end to which every human aims by nature, due to the fact that it's an end wanted by itself and not by anything else.



The word is Gnósis, and it was something that every good philosopher, even today, had. What is the translation of this term?

Greek Words and Greek Philosophy


Knowledge. The translation of the word Gnósis is quite literal: it means knowledge in the sense of "accumulation". This is why nowadays the discipline in philosophy that deals with the study of knowledge itself is called Gnoseology.



We'll start with what might be the most important Greek word in terms of philosophy: Lógos. This word appears in general Greek culture, but also in specific philosohical authors and systems, from Heraclitus to Plato. What does it mean?

Greek Words and Greek Philosophy


Word, rational thinking, speech, discourse, treaty. The word Lógos comes from the verb légo, which meant to count in its strict sense, to count, enumerate. Therefrom it became to count in the sense of telling a story or to speak. Finally the word Lógos separated from the word Légo, meaning word, rational thinking, study of, treaty, speech, etc.