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CHAPTER 2
THE PRESOCRATIC SOPHOS
INSTRUCTIONS: Select the best answer according to the text.
TRUE/FALSE
1. Pierre Hadot suggests that, in the ancient world, to be a
philosopher implied a rupture or split from daily life.
2. Traditionally, Thales is thought to have been the first
Western philosopher.
3. Thales was a pluralist.
4. Thales called his first principle apeiron.
5. Thales direct legacy culminated in Anaximenes
doctrine of the pneuma.
6. Heraclitus thought that only the Logos could end
universal strife.
7. According to Parmenides, only change is real.
8. Parmenides denied the possibility of not-being.
9. Parmenides careful reasoning led him to deny the
possibility of change.
10. Empedocles agreed with Parmenides that all motion
takes place within existing reality.
11. According to Empedocles, the world cycle begins with
the marriage of Love and Reason.
12. Anaxagoras was troubled by Empedocles theory that
different kinds of things could change into each other.
13. In place of Love and Strife, Anaxagoras posited Love
and Nous.
14. The Atomists solution to the problem of the one and
the many was to argue that there are many ones.
15. Democritus rejected Parmenides distinction between being and
not-being.
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16. The Greek word atom means many in one.
17. One difficult consequence of the Atomists solution to
the problem of the one and the many is that it cuts us off
from ever experiencing reality itself.
MULTIPLE CHOICE
18. Traditionally, _____ is said to have been the first Western
philosopher.
a. Heraclitus
b. Thales
c. Parmenides
d. Homer
19. _____ is significant for his being the first philosopher
on record to attempt to find a single substance
underlying all things.
a. Thales
b. Mones
c. Anaximander
d. Heraclitus
20. Thales believed that everything is composed of _____ .
a. fire
b. being
c. atoms
d. water
21. Heraclitus seemed to believe that everything is always
_____ .
a. changing
b. being
c. atoms
d. water
22. Anaximander called the first principle _____ .
a. pneuma
b. atoma
c. apeiron
d. fire
23. Anaximenes called the underlying element _____ .
a. pneuma
b. atoma
c. apeiron
d. fire
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24. A fundamental problem of the presocratic
philosophers was _____ .
a. making a living in a religion-dominated culture
b. accounting for change from one kind of thing into
another
c. accounting for the existence of different gods
while not rejecting the new scientific theories
d. discovering uniform laws of logic
25. According to Heraclitus, _____ alone is unchanging.
a. Change
b. Pneuma
c. Strife
d. The river
26. Heraclitus is one of the first philosophers to have distinguished
between _____ and_____ .
a. change/fire
b. Logos/pneuma
c. appearance/illusion
d. appearance/reality
27. According to Heraclitus, the world is _____ .
a. in a constant struggle between opposing forces
b. in a constant struggle between complementary
forces
c. a shimmering harmony underneath the illusion
of stability
d. water and Logos is fire
28. Heraclitus believed that he had identified
a(n)_____ hidden reality.
a. violent
b. atomic
c. Empedoclean
d. harmonious
29. Which of the following is not one of the meanings of
Logos identified in the text?
a. speech
b. thought
c. psyche
d. word
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30. According to Heraclitus, _____ is the rule according
to which all things are accomplished and the law
that is found in all things.
a. Psyche
b. fire
c. opposition
d. Logos
31. The _____ insisted that all is number.
a. Pythagoreans
b. Heracliteans
c. Numberians
d. Apeireans
32. According to the Pythagoreans, _____ .
a. number was an abstraction created to talk about the
Logos
b. number exists in space
c. nothing is number, all is music
d. number is the masculine component of creation
33. The Pythagoreans were the first philosophers to use
the term _____ to refer to the universe.
a. astronomos
b. nomos
c. cosmos
d. unos
34. Aesara of Lucania was one of a group of _____
philosophers.
a. Pythagorean
b. Heraclitean
c. Eleatic
d. Atomistic
35. According to Aesara of Lucania, _____ reveals the
natural foundation of all law and the structure of
morality.
a. the human gestation period
b. mother love
c. contemplation of the human soul
d. astronomical regularity
36. According to Parmenides, none of the other
Presocratic philosophers adequately accounted
for _____ .
a. number
b. rationality
c. order
d. change
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37. Parmenides presented his philosophy as a _____.
a. poem
b. story
c. trilogy
d. mathematical equation
38. Parmenides philosophy rests on the distinction
between _____ and _____ .
a. number/being
b. being/doing
c. knowing/being
d. being/not being
39. According to Parmenides, being equals _____ .
a. not-being
b. what is
c. no thing
d. number
40. Parmenides associated not-being with _____ .
a. thinking
b. the soul
c. illusion
d. the afterlife
41. According to Parmenides, being _____ .
a. cannot be eternal because there are infinite
modes of being, many lasting only moments
b. paralyzes thought because the finite human
mind cannot grasp infinite being
c. must be eternal because to come from not-being
is impossible
d. and not-being both emerge from the vaporous
Nous
42. According to Parmenides, being _____ .
a. is the fundamental stuff that the earlier
Presocratic philosophers were looking for
b. is not a basic principle
c. is the basic principle from which everything
else derives
d. a and c
43. According to Parmenides, being _____ .
a. is the same thing as Logos
b. is created by the operations of reason
c. is recognized by reason as a perfect whole
d. is recognized by reason as one-half of reality; the
other half is not-being
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44. According to Parmenides, _____ .
a. the senses cannot recognize being
b. the senses recognize that being is One
c. reason cannot recognize being
d. reason recognizes being and the senses recognize
not-being
45. Parmenides solution to the problem of change was
the conclusion that _____ .
a. change alone is unchanging
b. change is only temporary; once being is established
throughout the cosmos, there will be no more change
c. the very concept of change is self-contradictory
d. the One is only the appearance of the Many in static
form
46. Empedocles built upon Parmenides idea that _____ .
a. there is no empty space
b. there never was a problem of change
c. the One is only the appearance of the Many in static
form
d. the One is the child of Love and Strife
47. According to Empedocles, motion _____ .
a. occurs as things move into empty space
b. is actually a form of exchange
c. can only be grasped with the third eye
d. is controlled by the Nous God known as Strife
48. According to Empedocles, such bizarre combinations as
oxen with human heads and faces without necks were
the results of _____ .
a. the wrath of Zeus over the disrespect of the
philosophers inquiries into reality
b. the domination of Strife during a particular
evolutionary stage of the world cycle
c. the domination of Love during a particular
evolutionary stage of the world cycle
d. unnatural sexual habits and worshipping false gods
brought on by the opening of trade routes with Asia
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49. Anaxagoras responded to the problem of change by
asserting that _____ .
a. change is merely the transformation of one kind of
stuff into another kind
b. things only appear to change
c. motion is impossible
d. everything contains elements of every other thing;
what we see as change is merely the alteration of
various combinations of seeds
50. In place of Love and Strife, Anaxagoras posited _____ .
a. Harmony
b. Nous
c. Growth
d. Psyche
51. Anaxagoras referred to the all-pervading Mind that
imposes an intelligible pattern on the universe as _____ .
a. Nous
b. Logos
c. Cosmos
d. God
52. Parmenides denial of the possibility of motion was
intensified by a series of reductio ad absurdum arguments
known as _____ .
a. Protagoras s Wager
b. The Finger of Heraclitus
c. Zeno s Paradoxes
d. The Atomistic Void
53. According to Democritus, space _____ .
a. can be empty without being empty of being
b. cannot be empty, since to be empty is to be
empty of being, and not-being cannot exist
c. and being are the same thing
d. refers to areas of light being
54. _____ is Democritus s term for no-thing.
a. Not-being-there
b. Aspatial
c. Void
d. Mind-alone
55. Atom comes from a Greek root meaning _____ .
a. no-space
b. having no parts
c. little bit
d. tiny power
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56. According to Democritus, things come into existence
when _____ .
a. atoms combine in certain ways
b. space is sufficient to contain them
c. atoms become so full they explode
d. Nous decrees that they shall
57. According to Democritus, _____ .
a. Nous and Logos do not order the universe
b. Logos guides the atoms in their arrangements
c. all atoms contain a fiery nucleus
d. the void is the origin of all things
58. According to Democritus, _____ .
a. there is no internal order to the universe, but
there is predictability
b. there is neither order nor predictability in the universe
c. mechanical laws of nature cannot account for
everything
d. creation occurs at random
59. According to Democritus, perceptual qualities _____ .
a. exist as direct properties of atoms
b. are matters of convention, not facts of nature
c. are recognizable because we can experience atoms
themselves
d. change as we move between reality to the void
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Chapter 2
THE PRESOCRATIC SOPHOS
1. What is the problem of the one and the many ? Why is
there a problem ?
2. What is rational discourse, and what role did it play in the
origins of Western philosophy?
3. Using Heraclitean principles, analyze this statement: One
cannot step twice into the same river, for the water into which
you first step has flowed on.
4. Why is the idea of the Logos so significant in Greek
philosophy? How did belief in the Logos influence the
individual s sense of self? (This is an excellent paper topic and
can be used to draw together concepts from Chapters 5, 6, 7 and
8.) *
5. What role did the distinction between appearance and
reality play in the development of Presocratic thought? *
6. Explain how the Parmenidean One was supposed to solve
the problem of change. Did it? Why?
7. How did Democritus alter the Parmenidean picture of reality?
As part of your answer, be sure to compare their views of empty
space.
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CHAPTER 2 ANSWERS