Name: __________________________

Final Exam for Ancient Greek Philosophy

Section I: 40 Quiz-style questions. Answer all 40.

1. Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximenes were all from the city of ________________.
2. In 585 B.C., what did Thales do that allows us to confirm when he lived? _______________
_____ ___________________
3. For many of the Presocratics, the ____________________ is the basic stuff out of which
everything is made.
4. ______________________ thought that denser substances were made by felting of air.
5. Draw Xenophanes explanation for what supports the earth.

6. __________________ noticed that human babies cannot take care of themselves, and said that
the first humans must have been born from something like fish.
7. Parmenides was escorted to the House of the Goddess by wise ______________ that conducted
him "as far as his spirit aspired."
8. Give (in numbered premises) Parmenides argument proving that what-is cannot move.

9. Heraclitus said that the universe was an everliving ___________________, kindled in measures
and extinguished in measures.
10. Heraclitus said: Although this _______________ holds always humans prove unable to un-
derstand it both before hearing it and when they have first heard it. For although all things come
to be [or, happen] in accordance with this _______________, humans are like the
inexperienced when they experience such words and deeds as I set out, distinguishing each thing
in accordance with its nature (physis) and saying how it is. (Same word in both blanks.)
11. ___________________ believed that all things are number, and that souls are transmigrated
and reborn as, e.g. puppies or other animals.
12. Gorgia and Protagoras were ___________________s, meaning that they taught rhetoric and
dialectic (debating skill) to young men.
13. When Socrates says to Euthyphro, It is because I realize this that I am eager to become your
pupil, my dear friend, this is an example of ______________________.
14. Socrates method by which he turns back his interlocutors arguments and leads them to
contradict themselves is called the _____________________.
15. One of Socrates prosecutors in his trial was named _____________________.
16. _______________ was Socrates rich friend who tried to get him to escape from prison and
execution.
17. Socrates special sense that warned him whenever he was about to do something wrong was
called the ______________________.
18. Socrates died by drinking ______________________.
19. _____________________ was Socrates lover, and a leading politician in Athens.
20. Euthyphro 7b4 is an example of a ___________________ number.
21. - 24. Draw Platos allegory of the cave. Be detailed and include everything we discussed. (4
points)

25. Aristotle said that the most complete and choiceworthy human good is __________________.

Give the four Aristotelian causes of a puppy (baby dog).
Name of the Cause Explanation
26. __________________ ______________________________________________

27. __________________ ______________________________________________

28. __________________ ______________________________________________

29. __________________ ______________________________________________

30. Aristotles ontology was called ___________________ because he taught that being consists of
both matter and form together.
31. Pyrrho of Elis taught that the key to a happy life was to suspend ____________________.
32. Diogenes of Sinope was the founder of ______________________ism, so named because he
lived like a dog.
33. Epicurus taught that the highest good for human beings was __________________, which is
best maximized by living a moderate life.
34. Democritus and Epicurus both believed that everything is made up of _______________.
35. The Stoics and Aristotle both taught that human beings should live lives of virtue, which they
defined as rational activity in accordance with _________________ (Greek: physis).
36. Platos school was called the ____________________.
37. ____________________ was the tutor of Alexander the Great.
38. Diogenes threw away his cup when he saw a little child drinking out of __________________.
39. __________________ was the city where sophists came to teach because they were attracted by
its policy of parrhesia, or __________________ of _________________.
40. Socrates kallipolis bears the closest resemblance to the actual ancient Greek city of
______________________.
Section 2: Gobbets

Choose 10 of these quotations to answer, plus ONE FOR EXTRA CREDIT. In your answer,
identify the source and speaker (if its a dialogue) and comment on any underlined phrases or words.
Explain what argument or idea is at work in each passage.

1. I will tell a double story. For at one time they grew to be only one out of many, but at another
they grew apart to be many out of one: fire and water and earth and the immense height of air,
and deadly Strife apart from them, equal in all directions and Love among them, equal in length
and breadth.

2. Nor was it ever, nor will it be, since it is now, all together
one, holding together: For what birth will you seek out for it?
How and from what did it grow? From what-is-not I will allow
you neither to say nor to think: For it is not to be said or thought
that it is not. What need would have roused it,
later or earlier, having begun from nothing, to grow?

3. Both Homer and Hesiod have ascribed to the gods all deeds
which among men are matters of reproach and blame:
thieving, adultery, and deceiving one another.

4. Most mens teacher is Hesiod. They are sure he knew most things he who did not recognize
Day and Night, for they are one.

5. Lets suppose, then, that there were two such rings, one worn by a just and the other by an
unjust person. Now, no one, it seems, would be so incorruptible that he would stay on the path
of justice or stay away from other peoples property, when he could take whatever he wanted
from the marketplace with impunity, go into peoples houses and have sex with anyone he
wished, kill or release from prison anyone he wished, and do all the other things that would
make him like a god among humans.
6. A: What is your case, _______________? Are you the defendant or the prosecutor?
B: The prosecutor.
A: Whom do you prosecute?
B: One whom I am thought crazy to prosecute.
A: Are you pursuing someone who will easily escape you?
B: Far from it, for he is quite old.

7. Are you so much wiser at your age than I am at mine that you understand that wicked people
always do some harm to their closest neighbors while good people do them good, but I have
reached such a pitch of ignorance that I do not realize this, namely that if I make one of my
associates wicked I run the risk of being harmed by him so that I do such a great evil
deliberately, as you say?

8. And if there had been any honors, praises, or prizes among them for the one who was sharpest
at identifying the shadows as they passed by and who best remembered which usually came
earlier, which later, and which simultaneously, and who could thus best divine the future, do you
think that our man would desire these rewards or envy those among the prisoners who were
honored and held power?

9. Statements and beliefs, however, remain themselves entirely unchanged; it is because the facts
change that the contrary comes to hold of a statement or belief. For the statement that someone
is sitting remains the same, but it beomces now true and now false because the facts change.
Thus even if one were to allow that statements and beliefs can receive contraries, it would still be
characteristic of a substance that it can receive contraries in this way by a change in itself.

10. In contrast to these, a bed, a cloak, or any other artifact insofar as it is described as such, and
to the extent that it is a product of a craft has no innate impulse to change; but insofar as it is
coincidentally made of stone or earth or a mixture of these, it has an innate impulse to change,
and just to that extent. This is because a _________________ is a type of principle and cause of
motion and stability within those things to which it primarily belongs in their own right and not
coincidentally.



11. Those who reproach injustice do so because they are afraid not of doing it but of suffering it.
So, injustice, if it is on a large enough scale, is stronger, freer, and more masterly than justice.
And, as I said from the first, justice is what is advantageous to the ________________, while
injustice is to ones own profit and advantage.

12. At another time he was eating dried figs, when Plato met him, and he said to him, "You may
have a share of these;" and as he took some and ate them, he said, "I said that you might have a
share of them, not that you might eat them all."
Section 3: Essay

Choose one of these three to answer. The essays are designed to give you a chance to show me that
you have a grasp of the overall history of Greek philosophy, and that you can accurately discuss and
critique the views of the philosophers we have read. A successful essay will show synthesis and
ability to critique fairly and accurately.

1. Ontology: What exists, and what is existence? Survey the Greeks philosophy of being and point
out the problems with their various views. Then say whether we moderns have arrived at
something better.

2. Ethics: What is the best life for a human being? Survey the Greeks answers and argue for your
own.

3. Epistemology: How can we know anything? Survey the Greeks views on knowledge and argue
for your own view.

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