Elisabeta María Telegaru

Philosophy exercises:
1) Look for the meaning of “religion” and “myth”. What is the difference between a religion and
a mythological belief?

The term religion defines a system of formally organized beliefs and practices typically centered around the
worship of supernatural beings or forces, and it often involves a code of ethics and philosophy. On the other
hand, mythology refers to a collection of myths, or stories, belonging to a particular religious or cultural
tradition used to explain a practice, belief, or natural phenomenon.

The main difference between them is that mythological stories are fiction whereas religious stories are
considered to be true. Another distinction is that mythology only consists of stories while religion consists of a
set of morals, ethics, beliefs, and rituals that guide people.

2) Find and explain the myth of Prometheus.

Prometheus was the son of Iapetus and Clymene. Iapetus was a Titan, the Titans being the group of gods who
preceded the Olympian gods, so named because they resided on Mount Olympus.

Prometheus was one of the first gods, a cousin of Zeus and brother of Atlas, as well as two other Titans,
Menoetius and Epimetheus. But Prometheus is also credited with creating the very first humans from clay, so
he has a central place in the Greek pantheon. And he would continue to be a friend to mankind.

Prometheus was also one of the Titans, who at some point, were sent to Tartarus by the enraged Zeus who
didn’t accept the Titans fighting against him in the famous battle of the Titans – Titanomachy.

However, Prometheus was not directly involved in the war, so Zeus saved him from Tartarus and gave him a
mission – to form a man from water and earth. Prometheus accomplished the task, but he grew fond of men
while working on his creation. He didn’t care much ever about the Gods and their hierarchy, and however
friendly treated them, he was much more comfortable being around the immortals.

In any case, Zeus’s idea was not to have men with any unusual power. But Prometheus was thinking the other
way and decided to steal one of the powers Zeus was particularly sensitive about – fire.

Thinking about stealing fire was easy, but it finally proved a bit more complicated. Prometheus, known for his
wit and intelligence, had an immediate plan – to trick the goddesses by throwing them a golden pear (in some
version – an apple) into the courtyard with a message: “For the most beautiful goddess of all”.

It worked as he planned – the goddesses started a fight over the fruit while the gods were completely enjoying
the scene. All of them were distracted and Prometheus didn’t have a hard time stealing the fire from
Hephaestus’s workshop. Hephaestus was, among other stuff, the Greek god of fire. Prometheus happily left the
Gods’ playground and took the fire with him either in a hollowed pumpkin or hollowed reed (depending on the
interpretation) and brought it to Earth and gave it to humans.

Zeus was mad. After so many times being defied by Prometheus, Zeus decided that it was enough.
Nevertheless, he made Hephaestus himself chain Prometheus on Mount Caucasus where the eagle would eat
his liver forever.

But time passed and Zeus offered on one occasion to free Prometheus in exchange for a revelation of the
prophecy that predicted the dethroning of Zeus. Prometheus refused. But much later Zeus’s son Hercules, on
his journey to fulfill the Twelve Labors, passed by the Mount Caucasus, saw Prometheus, and decided to kill
the eagle and free the chained Titan. Zeus was very angry initially but eventually agreed to grant Prometheus
his freedom.

Well, some sort of freedom since Zeus wanted Prometheus to carry a reminder of his punishment forever – he
ordered Prometheus to make a steel ring from the chains he was in and wear that ring from then on. Since then,
mankind started creating rings to celebrate Prometheus and commemorate his help.
3) Find and explain why the year’s four seasons are produced according to Greek mythology.

The four seasons came to be originated with Demeter, the Greek mythological goddess of the harvest. Since
she was the goddess of the harvest, she would often come down from where she lived in order to check on the
progress of the crops on the earth. She loved her daughter, Persephone, so much that she couldn’t endure being
away from her. And every time she came down to Earth, she would bring her daughter with her.

Persephone was especially known for her beauty and was also described to be a particularly happy and carefree
child. She could often be found picking bundles of the very flowers she caused to grow in order to present
them to her mother, Demeter, as a gift.

On one of the trips that Persephone took with her mother, Hades caught a glimpse of the beautiful girl as she
was in a field picking flowers. Hades was the ruler of the underworld, and he was constantly surrounded by
images of death. The fact that Persephone was not only beautiful but also full of life, was especially appealing
to him. Not only that, but he was incredibly lonely, so he wanted to make Persephone his queen.

When Hades saw Persephone without her mother, he used this opportunity to grab her and take her down to the
underworld. She became his queen by force, and Demeter had no idea what happened. She just knew that her
daughter was gone. In her grief and depression, all the crops died, and the harvest was ruined.

Initially, Zeus didn’t want to get involved in the conflict due to his complicated relationship with Hades.
However, Demeter’s depression was affecting every living thing, and according to some resources, led to a
famine that lasted a year. At first, Zeus tried talking to Demeter about the problem, but she said she wouldn’t
end the famine until her daughter returned.

Zeus had no choice – he struck a deal with Hades that would allow Persephone to be by her mother’s side for
six months out of the year. Thus, the four seasons were born. During spring and summer, Persephone was by
Demeter’s side and the harvest was allowed to thrive. In autumn and winter, Persephone was with Hades,
which would cause Demeter to become depressed.

4) Archimedes, Pythagoras, Eratosthenes, and Aristarchus were Greek philosophers who made
discoveries about nature and mathematics. What did each one discover? Explain each of these
discoveries.

Archimedes

Archimedes has gone down in history as the guy who ran naked through the streets of Syracuse shouting
"Eureka!" — or "I have it!" in Greek. The story behind that event was that Archimedes was charged with
proving that a new crown made for Hieron, the king of Syracuse, was not pure gold as the goldsmith had
claimed.

Archimedes thought long and hard but could not find a method for proving that the crown was not solid gold.
Soon after, he filled a bathtub and noticed that water spilled over the edge as he got in and he realized that the
water displaced by his body was equal to the weight of his body. Knowing that gold was heavier than other
metals the crown maker could have substituted it, Archimedes had his method to determine that the crown was
not pure gold. Forgetting that he was undressed, he went running naked down the streets from his home to the
king shouting "Eureka!"  

Pythagoras

He is mainly remembered for what has become known as Pythagoras’ Theorem (or the Pythagorean
Theorem): that, for any right-angled triangle, the square of the length of the hypotenuse (the longest side,
opposite the right angle) is equal to the sum of the square of the other two sides (or “legs”). Written as an
equation: a2 + b2 = c2.
 Elisabeta María Telegaru

The simplest and most commonly quoted example of a Pythagorean triangle is one with sides of 3, 4, and 5
units (32 + 42 = 52), as can be seen by drawing a grid of unit squares on each side, but there are a potentially
infinite number of other integers “Pythagorean triples”, starting with (5, 12 13), (6, 8, 10), (7, 24, 25), (8, 15,
17), (9, 40, 41), etc. It should be noted, however, that (6, 8, 10) is not what is known as a “primitive”
Pythagorean triple, because it is just a multiple of (3, 4, 5).

Pythagoras’ Theorem and the properties of right-angled triangles seems to be the most ancient and widespread
mathematical development after basic arithmetic and geometry, and it was touched on in some of the most
ancient mathematical texts from Babylon and Egypt, dating from over a thousand years earlier. One of the
simplest proofs comes from ancient China and probably dates from well before Pythagoras’ birth. It was
Pythagoras, though, who gave the theorem its definitive form, although it is not clear whether Pythagoras
himself definitively proved it or merely described it. Either way, it has become one of the best-known of all
mathematical theorems.

Eratosthenes

He may have been the first to use the word geography. Yet his most lasting achievement was his remarkably
accurate calculation of the Earth’s circumference (the distance around a circle or sphere). He computed this by
using simple geometry and trigonometry and by recognizing Earth as a sphere in space. Most Greek scholars
by the time of Aristotle (384-322 BCE) agreed that Earth was a sphere, but none knew how long it was.

It all begins when Eratosthenes heard about a famous well in the Egyptian city of Swenet (Syene in Greek, and
now known as Aswan), on the Nile River. At noon one day each year — the summer solstice (between June 20
and June 22) — the Sun’s rays shone straight down into the deep pit. They illuminated only the water at the
bottom, not the sides of the well as on other days, proving that the Sun was directly overhead. (Syene was
located very close to what we call the Tropic of Cancer, 23.5 degrees north, the northernmost latitude at which
the Sun is ever directly overhead at noon.)

Eratosthenes erected a pole in Alexandria, and on the summer solstice he observed that it cast a shadow,
proving that the Sun was not directly overhead but slightly south. Recognizing the curvature of the Earth and
knowing the distance between the two cities enabled Eratosthenes to calculate the planet’s circumference.

Eratosthenes could measure the angle of the Sun’s rays off the vertical by dividing the length of the leg
opposite the angle (the length of the shadow) by the leg adjacent to the angle (the height of the pole). This gave
him an angle of 7.12 degrees. He knew that the circumference of Earth constituted a circle of 360 degrees, so
7.12 (or 7.2, to divide 360 evenly by 50) degrees would be about one-fiftieth of the circumference. He also
knew the approximate distance between Alexandria and Syene, so he could set up this equation:

Eratosthenes estimated the distance from Alexandria to Syene as 5,000 stadia, or about 500 miles (800
kilometers). He made this estimation from the time it took walkers, who were trained to measure distances by
taking regular strides, to trek between the cities. By solving the equation, he calculated a circumference of
250,000 stadia, or 25,000 miles (40,000 kilometers).

Aristarchus

He was born on Samos Island. He probably studied in Alexandria, Egypt, under Strato of Lampsacus. His only
surviving work is entitled On the Sizes and Distances of the Sun and Moon.

Aristarchus managed to place the Sun in the middle of the solar system, and he also placed the planets in the
right order from the Sun. He gave a model of the universe with a stationary Sun and planets rotating in circular
orbits around the Sun. The stationary stars seemed to be rotating because the Earth rotates on its axis.

5) Could we say that science was part of Philosophy until recently? Justify the answer.

Science used to be called “natural philosophy”. In ancient Greek, the people who wondered what it meant to
lead a just life were also the same people who wondered where the universe came from. Back then they
considered experimentation beneath them, so they did not get very far. Aristotle apocryphally declared that
men had more teeth than women, probably he could not be bothered to count them.
 Eventually, these natural philosophers developed the “scientific method”. A formalized system of making
inquiries about the universe which was not itself the product of science but the product of philosophy. The
invention of the scientific method caused a split between science and philosophy because philosophy did not
use the method.

But that’s just the history of science as an academic discipline. At the same time that Thales of Miletus was
telling people that everything was made of water, another form of science was being done completely unrelated
to philosophy. Ordinary people were discovering the properties of the things around them using nothing more
than trial and error. Experimentation. A crude form of the scientific method.

Every society has some form of traditional medicine, for example. These symptoms can be treated by ingesting
these plants in this form. A lot of this traditional medicine works, and traditional western medicine was the
foundation for modern pharmaceuticals. The reason it works is that the people who discovered it used science
to do so.

6) Watch this summary video (in Spanish) and reflect.

To begin with, I do agree with what the man said in the video about the necessity of reflecting and being able
to use philosophy in our own life. He also mentioned that everyone’s philosophy is different and that we must
give importance to reflecting. I consider that he got a good point because thanks to people that began
questioning the meaning of life and how the world was created, we now have advanced in knowing more about
the world.

What I try to say is that, for instance, science was part of philosophy because ancient scientists were called
natural philosophers. But they not only helped with scientific work, but they also thought about how to make
the world more just. Therefore, they contributed to finding out which are the best laws or government systems
throughout history.

Overall, I think philosophy is useful in many ways in our lives, for example, we can reflect on a problem so
that we can find a solution to it.