Philosophy - The Presocratics Exam

The word philosophy means:

• love of wisdom

• seeker of truth

• explorer of ideas

• bringer of reason

Which branch of philosophy deals with the study of the universe, its origins, and development?

• epistemology

• metaphysics

• cosmology

• ontology

If you are interested in studying about what actions are right and which actions are wrong, then you are concerned with the philosophy of:

• metaphysics

• ethics

• epistemology

• aesthetics

This branch of philosophy is concerned with what can be known and what truth really is:

• metaphysics

• ontology

• aesthetics

• epistemology

Which of the following was not a part of the mythic view of reality?

• individuality and personal responsibility was most important

• humans saw themselves as puppets of the gods

• humans felt they had no free will

• people could not agree on the truth of mythic stories

The idea that I control my fate and order my decisions and that I am ultimately responsible for what happens in my life is called:

• mythic understanding

• free will

• fate

• fallacious reasoning

Which is true about the Greek Naturalist philosophers?

• They believed atoms were immutable and the basic substance of the universe.

• They dismissed gods as an explanation to reality and believed it was important to observe and examine the physical world.

• They believed everything was made out of the substance fire.

• They believed that only pure reason and concptualization would provide first principles for understanding the nature of reality.

Materialism is the idea that:

• reality is produced by nonphysical, primordial mathematical laws which bring in to manifestation all things that exist.

• the fundamental state of reality is mental and consciousness is a primal substance of reality

• the fundamental nature of reality is that it is composed of a material substance and all mental states are a result of complex interactions between physical substances.

• that reality is composed out of the dreams of a god-like entity that posseses omnipotence and creative control.

Which of the following is not an idea of Pythagoras?

• Metempsychosis - The idea that the soul reincarnates in order to become wiser and more connected to the divine.

• All is flux: The fundamental reality of nature is that everything is always changing and there are no eternal principles.

• Evolution is the law of life: All things in the universe evolve.

• Numbers are the laws of the universe: The tools with which the divine constructs the universe is mathematical harmony.

The Hermetic Axom "As above so is below" essentially means:

• That atoms in the universe are the unchanging and immutable objects that create reality.

• The nature of being is either that there is something about it that is only eternal or only unchanging.

• Reality is best understood by dividing the largest scale structures from the smallest scale structures and treating them completely independently.

• That the universe is self-similar in its patterns are connected by a harmony and unity by the divine cosmic order.