Greek Words

Front 1

arche

Back 1

The 'starting point' or 'ruling principle' of a thing. Aristotle uses the term in reference to the Milesians' competing views of the single basic material substance

Front 2

apeiron

Back 2

the indefinite, indeterminate, or unlimited thing. The term is used by Anaximander to refer to the basic substance that produces, surrounds, and controls all things

Front 3

logos

Back 3

'word' 'account' 'explanation' and (later) 'reason' or 'rational faculty.' The Ionian thinkers sought to give a correct logos of all things. Heraclitus' logos was both his 'word' and the larger 'rational structure' of the universe

Front 4

kosmos

Back 4

'order,' 'ordered world'. In Homer, the verb kosmeo meant 'to order or arrange'. For the Ionian thinkers generally, and for the Pythagoras and Heraclitus in particular, the kosmos is the order evident in the arrangement of nature as a whole

Front 5

theoria

Back 5

'viewing' or 'contemplation'. The activity identified by the Pythagoreans as the key to living well

Front 6

historia

Back 6

'Inquiry' or 'knowledge gained by inquiry.' Probably the term used by the Ionian thinkers to refer to the acquiring of knowledge through travel and direct observation

Front 7

Dike

Back 7

'penalty', 'justice', or 'custom.' In Anaximander, it is the 'penalty' that must be paid by each overreaching opposite. In Heraclitus, it is the force that imposes order on the cosmos.

Front 8

noos

Back 8

In Homer it is a person's 'mind' 'intention' or 'clever intelligence'. In Heraclitus, it becomes the 'wisdom' or 'deep understanding' of the structure of the cosmos (as contrasted with a superficial familiarity gained through sense perception)

Front 9

to atomon

Back 9

literally: the uncuttable. In the 5th century BC, Leucippus and Democritus developed the idea of to atomon in part as a solution to the problems generated by the arguments of Parmenides.

Front 10

philosophia

Back 10

'love or pursuit of wisdom.' an expression coined by the Pythagoreans to refer to the way of life taught to them by their master- a life devoted to perfecting the psyche by means of historia and theoria of the kosmos

Front 11

tetraktys

Back 11

the pythagorean name for the sum of the first four numbers; also the representation of these numbers in a triangle, as well as the various 'four-fold progressions' (point, line, surface, solid, etc)

Front 12

psyche

Back 12

The 'soul' or 'life spirit' in a person. In Homer the ____ is simply the 'breath' or 'spirit' in a person that goes out of the body at the moment of death; the ___ becomes an object of interest for the Pythagoreans and Heraclitus; Socrates equates it with the whole person.