Myth, Science, Philosophy, and the Presocratics

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Chapter 1

• Myth, Science, Philosophy, and the Presocratics

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The Conflict Between Myth and Science
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• What characterizes mythic thinking? Who were the
  Presocratics? What characterizes their thinking?
  How do mythic thinking and Presocratic thinking
  complement and conflict with one another? How
  does Presocratic thinking pave the way for
  philosophy and for science?

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Discussion Questions

• Imagine that in the world you live in there is
  no science. You life consists of a series of
  events that intrude into your field of
  experience. How would you feel? Secure, or
  disorientated? Would you try to make sense of the
  world around you?
• How?

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Lightning strikes!

• What caused this? Why did it strike my dwelling,
  and not someone elses? Perhaps Im being
  punished in some way. But by whom? And if this is
  so, how do I appease my punisher?
• Worse yetif my punisher is so powerful as to be
  able to command even the skies, how could I even
  comprehend what it would want of me?
• How could these questions be answered?

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F.M. Cornford and Mythic Thinking as Emerging
from Self-Centeredness
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Cornford on Myth

• What are the advantages of Cornfords account
  of mythic thinking?

• What are the disadvantages of Cornfords account
  of mythic thinking?

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PRESOCRATIC THINKING

• Is mythic thinking the only sort of narrative
  that we can give to try to explain the universe
  in which we live?
• What other possibilities could there be? Try to
  think of at least two alternatives One might be
  obvious to you, but what could the other be?
• In striving to think of this, youre placing
  yourself in the same inquiring, questioning,
  puzzled position as the ancients.

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The Milesian School

• Thales and Anaximander

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• Look around you.
• Why might you think that everything in the world
  could be explained in terms of water?

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Anaximander

• What was your response to Thales view that
  everything was made of water?
• Was it similar in any way to Anaximanders,
  either in substance, or the techniques you used?
• If so, how?

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• How was Anaximander a real philosopher, rather
  than just a disciple of Thales?
• Is the trait that he demonstrated here a
  desirable one? Why, or why not?

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The Obscure One, The Dark One, The Riddler

• Heraclitus claimed that the basic stuff of
  reality is fire.

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How is Fire Fluid?

• Water

• Fire

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Why Fire?

• Why is the fire metaphor so appropriate for
  Heraclitus views?

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Zombies? Vampires?

• What did Heraclitus mean when he said that humans
  are both living and dead?

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Parmenides and the Eleatic School

• Parmenides argued that statis, stability, and
  eternal unchangeability are the true marks of
  reality

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Parmenides

• The Way of Truth

• The Way of Opinion

• What is the Truth, for Parmenides?
• Why does he believe this?

• What part of the world do those who follow this
  Way focus uponand why?
• What, for Parmenides, is wrong with this?

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• What do Heraclitus and Parmenides agree on?
• Do you agree with them?

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The Atomist School Democritus and Leucippus

• Atoms are tiny, uncuttable particles of matter

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Atomism and Particle Physics

• Why did the Nobel Prize-winning physicist call
  Democritus the grandfather of modern particle
  physics?

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A Troubling Conclusion?

• Do you believe, with Democritus, that humans are
  just lumps of matter, no different in kind from
  clay and dust?
• Why do you think as you do?
• Is it because youre worried by the
  implications?

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From Mere Wonder to Wondrous Distress

• Do you think that it would be best to promote a
  mythic understanding of the world, or a
  scientific one?
• Why do you think as you do?

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PURSUE TRUTH!

• In what way should Anaximander be an inspiration
  to everyone?