"Everything is made of water"
Not content with religious dogma, sought rational explanations to natural phenomena
Monism approach: theory that the universe can be reduced to a single substance
"The Dao that can be told is not the eternal Dao"
Dao (the Way) is achieved through wu wei (non-action)
the world moves in cycles of change, and man's job is to not disturb the harmonious balance
"Number is the ruler of forms and ideas"
understanding mathematical relationships of structures as key to understanding the cosmos
a2 + b2 = c2
discovery of ratios and proportions
discovery of harmonic series of octaves (eventually led to the creation of the periodic table)
established deductive reasoning
"Happy is he who has overcome his ego"
aka Buddha
the four noble truths: suffering is universal (dukkha), origin of suffering is desire (samudaya), suffering can end by eliminating desire (nirodha), following the eightfold path will eliminate desire (magga)
discovered the middle way between sensual indulgence and asceticism
one must detach from oneself from the notion of the unique self, recognize that is is illusory and transient, and understand that we are all part of a larger not-self
eightfold path: right action, intention, livelihood, effort, concentration, speech, understanding, mindfulness
enlightenment, aka nirvana - not-being, non-attachment
"Hold faithfulness and sincerity as first principles"
de (virtue) is not heaven-sent but something that can be cultivated by everyone
strict political and personal relationships based on loyalty and hierarchy
the junzi (superior man/man of virtue) knows his place in the hierarchy and fully embraces it
Golden Rule: what you do not desire for yourself, do not do to others
"Everything is flux"
balance of opposites leads to the unity of the universe
tension is constantly generated by the opposing elements, leaving everything in a permanent state of flux, or change
"You can never step in the same river twice."
"All is one"
something cannot come from nothing, and must have existed before in some form
fundamental permanent change is therefore impossible, everything that exists must be eternal, unchanging, and have an indivisible unity
we can never rely on evidence from our senses
"Man is the measure of all things"
truth depends on perspective and is therefore relative ****
"Many things prevent knowledge, including the obscurity of the subject and the brevity of human life."
member of the Sophists
"When one throws to me a peach, I return to him a plum"
universal love (jian ai): we should all care for all people equally, regardless of status or relationship
Mohism; there is aways reciprocity in our actions
"Nothing exists except atoms and empty space"
everything is made up of tiny, indivisible, unchangeable particles: atoms
"The life which is unexamined is not worth living"
did not leave behind writings; knew that he didn't know anything
legacy: tradition of debate and discussion; main character in the writings of Plato
established the Socratic, or dialectical method, involving dialogue between questions and answers
questioning the real meaning of concepts we use every day without thinking about
"there is only one good: knowledge; and one evil: ignorance"
rational discussion from the point of ignorance became the basis for inductive reasoning, and eventually the scientific method
"Earthly knowledge is but shadow"
what we know in this world is only a shadow of its Ideal Form in the world of Ideas
the world of Ideas is only perceptible to us through reason
allegory of the cave: everything we perceive with our senses are like images in the cave of a wall, shadows of reality
the material world may be subject to change but the world of Ideas is eternal and immutable
laid the foundations of rationalism
"Truth resides in the world around us"
from our experiences of the world we learn what the true forms of objects and concepts are
at birth we are unscribed tablets (blank slate) and our experiences, gained through our senses, teach us about the world
laid the foundations of empiricism
established the basis of taxonomy
man's innate power for reason differentiates us from the rest of the animals, putting us on the top of the hierarchy
"Death is nothing to us"
peace of life, or tranquility, is the goal of life
the greatest pleasure is only attainable through knowledge and friendship, and a temperate life, with freedom from fear and pain
the atoms of our soul dissolve when we die, so we don't need to fear death as it will no longer cause us pain
"He has the most who is most content with the least"
the first of the Cynics
to lead a good life, it is necessary to free oneself from the external restrictions imposed by society
"The goal of life is living in agreement with nature"
founded Stoicism
believed in free will
God at its center
"God is not the parent of evils"
sought to answer the question, "If God is entirely good and all-powerful, why is there evil in the world?"
adapted Plato's view of evil being the absence of something
man being rational explains the existence of evil: if we have the right to choose, we can choose between good and evil
"God foresees our free thoughts and actions"
Argues that though we have free will, God sees our future actions because He lives in the eternal present
"The soul is distinct from the body"
proponent of dualism; the mind and the body as two distinct substances
stripped of all senses, the mind could still be certain that itself exists
the immortal soul goes on living after the body has died
"Just by thinking about God we can know He exists"
his ontological argument proves the existence of God from two premises: 1) God is defined as "that than which nothing greater can be thought"; 2) existence is greater than non-existence
at the end of the argument the Fool with whom Anselm argues is forced to take a self-contradictory position or admit that God exists
"Philosophy and religion are not incompatible"
only educated people can think philosophically and the rest should accept the Qu'ran as true
the Qu'ran as a poetic truth which must be interpreted philosophically
"God has no attributes"
negative theology: describing God by defining what He is not
God cannot have either essential attributes (which define, and God cannot be defined) or accidental attributes (because God has no accidents), therefore God has no attributes
"Don't grieve; anything you lose comes round in another form"
part of Sufism tradition: mystical and aesthetic interpretation of the Qu'ran
the universe and everything in it is an endless flow of life, in which God is an eternal presence
as something ceases to exist in one form, it is reborn in another
"The universe has not always existed"
sought to reconcile the Aristotlean assertion that the universe has always existed with the Christian concept of the universe having a beginning
God created the universe in such a way that it existed eternally
human beings gain knowledge through their senses, but process this information using an innate "intellectual knowledge" that is not present in other animals
lasting legacy is the effort to reconcile philosophical thought with religious teachings
"God is the not-other"
God is unlike anything that the human mind is capable of grasping