Greek Words and Greek Philosophy Quiz

Answer: Word, rational thinking, speech, discourse, treaty

The word Lógos comes from the verb légo, which meant to count in its strict sense, to count, enumerate. Therefrom it became to count in the sense of telling a story or to speak. Finally the word Lógos separated from the word Légo, meaning word, rational thinking, study of, treaty, speech, etc.

Answer: Knowledge

The translation of the word Gnósis is quite literal: it means knowledge in the sense of "accumulation". This is why nowadays the discipline in philosophy that deals with the study of knowledge itself is called Gnoseology.

Answer: State of welfare and happiness

It is, according to Aristotle, the end to which every human aims by nature, due to the fact that it's an end wanted by itself and not by anything else. He argued that it could be achieved by a combination of virtuous behavior and physical well-being. Stoics would have urged the achievement of eudaimonía by the exercise of responsibility and virtue; Hedonists saw the path to eudaimonía as being the pursuit of pleasure.

Answer: To reveal, to remove the veil, to enlighten

The "a" is a privative alpha, and "letheia" would mean veil, cover, something that obstructs or does not allow to reach what's beneath it. So to remove that veil would be to find the truth. Heidegger has written a lot about this. The word may have originated from words meaning "that which cannot escape notice."

Answer: Justice, just, fair

The justice was good, it was a virtue, it was related to the law, but Díke means specifically Justice, and not the others. It is also the word used for the goddess Díke.

Answer: High knowledge, scientific knowledge

Epistéme VS Dóxa. High knowledge against vulgar knowledge, science opposed to opinion, the knowledge of the forms against the knowledge of the sensible dimension. It is from this word that the modern discipline epistemology comes, which is the study of scientific knowledge, the discipline that "determines" what is science and what isn't, how science should be applied, etc.

Answer: Virtue, nature, excellence

Every man's areté is virtue, because it is his nature, and he has to achieve excellence in it, only then he will really possess eudaimonía (happiness), by practicing virtue with excellence, by fullfilling his areté.

Answer: Ultimate cause of everything, constitutional principle, what things are made of

In the beginning there was no real difference between philosophy and physics, for instance. Philosophers were eager to find out what was that, that formed everything, the substance or material that everything was made of, the arché.

Answer: Nature

Phýsis is nature, that's why physics today is the study of nature. But what does nature mean? The anwer to that question is what brings the differences, and with it, philosophy.

Answer: Idea, form with independent existance

This is the Greek word for what we know as theory of the forms, or theory of the ideas. For Plato these were independent beings, which existed beyond man and nature, and were in a different level of reality, the true level, not in the sensible world. He who reached them had acquired epistéme.

Answer: End, purpose

This was Aristotle's conception. By now you should be able to know that he believed that the telos of every men was happiness, acquired by virtue, which is only achieved by being good.

Answer: Habit, custom

This is one of the reasons why Aristotle considered that being a virtuous man was a habit, not the performance of only one good action, but the habit of always choosing rightly.

Answer: Essence, reality, entity

Philosophical questions regarding ousía include: Is it the soul? Is it what it makes us different from each other? Is there an essence at all?

Answer: A wise man

Sophós is the one who has sophía, wisdom.

Answer: The love of wisdom

I already told you what sophía means. Philos means friends, or love towards something.