PS390 Lecture Notes - Socratic Method, Sophist, Scientific Method
Document Summary
Believed that god"s controlled their behavior: direct intervention. First group to reject the gods" all-powerful abilities. They looked at things empirically, but also questioned whether or not these empirical observations were correct. Rationalism vs. empiricism: rationalism = knowledge comes from within, empiricism = knowledge comes from observations, trusting senses vs. trusting minds. Being vs. becoming: being = natural objects stay the same for their duration, becoming = stay in flux. Creating an idea through conversation and coming up with a hypothesis from this conversation (induction) People sitting represent humanity and their shadows represent what our senses allow us to see and we can never see the actual thing, which is the fire (the light that produces the shadows). In order to see real things, we need to break free of these chains to see the actual sunlight, but this can never happen.
