Greek Philosophy: The Pre-Socratics and the Sophists

Early Ancient Greek Philosophy: The Pre-Socratics and the Sophists

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PHIL 1381: Introduction to Philosophy                                                   Spring  2021

Instructor: Dr. Doug Gilmour                                                                           UIW

 Reading Exam #One:

Early Ancient Greek Philosophy:

The Pre-Socratics and the Sophists

Multiple Choice (4 points each)

1) Which pre-Socratic philosopher said that reality was one and that nothing changes?

1. a) Pythagoras.
2. b) Parmenides.
3. c) Heraclitus.
4. d) Protagoras.

2) What was Heraclitus’ symbol for reality (or possibly the original element of reality)?

1. a) earth.
2. b) air.
3. c) fire.
4. d) water.

3) Which pre-Socratic philosopher said reality consisted of the four basic elements, earth,

air, fire, and water (along with the forces of love and strife)?

1. a) Anaximander.
2. b) Anaximines.
3. c) Democritus.
4. d) Empedocles.

4) Which pre-Socratic philosopher said that you cannot step into the same river twice?

1. a) Empedocles.
2. b) Parmenides.
3. c) Heraclitus.
4. d) Pythagoras.

5) The Sophist who taught that truth was relative to belief was

1. a) Protagoras.
2. b) Gorgias.
3. c) Heraclitus.
4. d) Thales.

6) Which pre-Socratic philosopher argued that change and motion were illusions and that

we shouldn’t listen to what our senses tell us about the world?

1. a) Heraclitus.
2. b) Thales.
3. c) Empedocles.
4. d) Parmenides.

7) Which pre-Socratic philosopher believed that nature or the world came to be out of the

struggle of fundamental oppositions (like dry and moist and hot and cold and light and

dark) and the cyclic movement of these into and out of the apeiron (or the boundless

or the unlimited)?

1. a) Thales.
2. b) Anaximander.
3. c) Anaximines.
4. d) Anaxagoras.

8) Which pre-Socratic philosopher believed that the cosmos generated a kind of glorious

symphony (the Harmony of the Heavenly Spheres) that we could not hear unless our

souls were sufficiently purified of the influence of our bodies?

1. a) Pythagoras.
2. b) Protagoras.
3. c) Heraclitus.
4. d) Anaximines.

9) Which pre-Socratic philosopher said that everything was ultimately air?

1. a) Anaximander.
2. b) Thales.
3. c) Anaximines.
4. d) Empedocles.

10) Which of the following sayings is attributed to the Sophist Protagoras?

1. a) “you cannot step into the same river twice.”
2. b) “wherever you go, there you are.”
3. c) “man is the measure of all things.”
4. d) “dogs bark at those whom they do not know.”

11) The pre-Socratic philosopher associated with music, mathematics, and mysticism was

1. a) Pythagoras.
2. b) Empedocles.
3. c) Heraclitus.
4. d) Parmenides.

12) Which pre-Socratic philosopher believed that the body was the source of evil and that

the purpose of life was to purify the soul of the influence of the body?

1. a) Protagoras.
2. b) Parmenides.
3. c) Pythagoras.
4. d) Pericles.

13) Which pre-Socratic philosopher thought that the constantly changing nature of reality

was nevertheless made uniform and orderly insofar as it was governed by a force or

principle he called the logos?

1. a) Democritus.
2. b) Pythagoras.
3. c) Parmenides.
4. d) Heraclitus.

14) The pre-Socratic philosopher who thought reality was composed of atoms and empty

      space (or the void) was

1. a) Democritus.
2. b) Parmenides.
3. c) Pythagoras.
4. d) Empedocles.

15) Which of the following thinkers was a Sophist?

1. a) Pythagoras.
2. b) Democritus.
3. c) Protagoras.
4. d) Empedocles.

16) Which pre-Socratic philosopher wrote in riddles and various paradoxical sayings?

1. a) Heraclitus.
2. b) Parmenides.
3. c) Anaximander.
4. d) Empedocles.

17) Which Sophist said that we couldn’t know the nature of the gods because our mind

are too limited, the subject is too obscure, and life is too short to attain such ultimate

knowledge?  Hint: he also said, “man is the measure of all things.”

1. a) Empedocles.
2. b) Protagoras.
3. c) Democritus.
4. d) Gorgias.

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18) Which pre-Socratic said that Being neither was nor will be but simply is?

1. a) Pythagoras.
2. b) Heraclitus.
3. c) Thales.
4. d) Parmenides.

19) The word philosophy was coined by Pythagoras.  It’s a combination of philo and

sophia which together mean

1. a) the love of God.
2. b) the will of Zeus.
3. c) the love of wisdom.
4. d) the search for love.

20) What were the two general attitudes toward life embraced by the Sophists?

1. a) pragmatism and animism.
2. b) skepticism and relativism.
3. c) humanism and anthropomorphism.
4. d) apathy and cynicism.

21) Which of the following statements was not included in Gorgias’ treatise “On Nature

or What is Not”?

1. a) Nothing exists.
2. b) Even if something did exist, we could not know that it existed.
3. c) Even if we could know that something existed, we could not communicate this

knowledge to anyone else.

1. d) Even if we could communicate this knowledge to someone else, he or she would

probably not be that interested in it anyway.

22) Philosophy emerged in ancient Greece when thinkers began to move from

1. a) more mythological to more rational ways of explaining the world.
2. b) more agricultural to more industrial ways of making a living.
3. c) more rational to more mythological ways of explaining the world.
4. d) more scientific to more religious ways of explaining the meaning of life.

23) Which of the following figures is known as “the Father of Western Philosophy”?

(Hint: there’s a famous story told about his having once fallen into a cistern because

he was so preoccupied looking up at the heavens.)

1. a) Thales.
2. b) Heraclitus.
3. c) Parmenides.
4. d) Pythagoras.

24) Which pre-Socratic philosopher developed a theory of reincarnation?

1. a) Protagoras.
2. b) Heraclitus.
3. c) Pythagoras.
4. d) Parmenides.

25) Which pre-Socratic philosopher used his theory of the nature of atoms to explain the

character of our sensations (such as our sense of color or the way certain foods taste)?

1. a) Empedocles.
2. b) Thales.
3. c) Democritus.
4. d) Heraclitus.

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Early Ancient Greek Philosophy: The Pre-Socratics and the Sophists