Lesson 1.3: The Exile and the Riddler

Focus Questions

• Xenophanes continued the trend of moving away from the traditional Homeric conception of the gods that defined Greek religion. How did Xenophanes’ view of a monotheistic, supreme god differ from the traditional conception of the gods?

• As epistemic inquiry continues to develop throughout the Greek city-states, so too does the criterion for what actually constitutes knowledge. In what way did Xenophanes’ belief in knowledge being divine contrast with the prevailing views about knowledge?

• Xenophanes emphasized the importance of epistemic self-awareness and reflecting on one’s beliefs to know if they have proper justification. What are examples of how he applied this type of thinking to the average citizens and philosophical contemporaries of his day?

• What is Xenophanes’ naturalistic explanation of religious beliefs?

• Contrast the notions of epistemic humility and epistemic arrogance. Provide an example of someone is epistemically humble and someone who is epistemically arrogant either from pop culture or from your own life.

• Heraclitus’ conception of knowledge depends upon his ideas of flux and his particular brand of relativism. Discuss Heraclitus’ relativistic views. In what way can one, for example, both step and not step into the same river twice?

• What is Heraclitus’ doctrine of flux? (Note: I provided a Buddhist-adjacent interpretation of this idea from Heraclitus.)

• Heraclitus stressed the importance of effort in recognizing the interconnected and ever-changing nature of the world and our conception of it. What role did interrelatedness and flux play in his understanding of the relationship between body and soul?

• According to Heraclitus, what things can we do to improve the state of the soul?