Here’s a copy of the weekend’s homework, due Monday, 9/26. The reading continues from where you left off in your binders, beginning with “The Birth of Philosophy” heading (p. 19-25).
MAKE SURE your answers come from the text. Try to put things in your own words, but don’t rely too heavily on outside sources; remember, the dictionary/internet is for those terms Tarnas does not necessarily explain fully in the text. It’s also a good idea to compare the definition you find on the internet with the way the word appears in the text – does it make sense, or do you need to do more research?
1) Terms:
humanism
polis
archē
empiricism
Parmenides
naturalism
rationalism
Anaxagoras
elements (Love/Strife)
atomism (anankē)
Pythagoras
skepticism
2) Choose any two other words in this section that you do not know. Record their definitions, too.
3) Describe the conflict that occurred between the divine, mythic elements of Greek thought and the ideas of the early philosophers. Use specific examples.
4) Compare and contrast the ideas of Parmenides and Anaxagoras/atomists. If you could sum up their differences in one major characteristic, what would it be? Why do you think the atomists revised Parmenides’s ideas in the ways that they did?
Humanities I & II 