Ancient+Greek+Philosophy

PRESOCRATICS

Our western philosophy was born in Greece in 6th century BCE by the group of philophers called "presocratics". They were concentrated in Ionia, Italy and other areas of Greece; philosophy wasn't common in Athens yet. The first philosophers were interested in natural sciences, and the most important theme of their discussion was the unity of everything and the principle of things. They cast off old mythological explanations of the world around them, and seeked out reasonable explanations for the origin and disappearance of things. Some worked to find the "first principle", or the basis of eveything that was and is.

Thales of Miletus is known as the father of Greek philosophy, who believed that water is the basis of all things. Next, Anaximander of Miletus, first writer of Greek philosophy, argued that the first principle was an unlimited substance without any qualities. He explained that opposites such as hot and cold, wet and dry, arose out of this nothingness. Other candidates for the original substance were air and fire.

Leucippus and his pupil Democritus were the first philosophers to adopt a system of thinking which was exclusively materialistic. They developed the theory of atoms, which literally means "uncuttables". They described an infinite number of extremely small bodies with some universal qualities but with varying shapes, which could combine and separate.

BUST OF DEMOCRITUS

This early philosophy was different than Athenian philosophy in the sense that they were more or less trying to find the universal basis of the natural world and the origins of love and hate instead of pondering more complex aspects of the human mind and the human experience. Due to the schools created and the emphasis on the natural world, these pre-Socratic thinkers might be better described as educators rather than philosophers.

SOCRATES (469-399 BCE)

A new form of philosophy took shape in Athens, led by Socrates. He struggled to define virtues and beliefs by questioning people who claimed to know about them. For the most part the rapid interragation proved their ignorance rather than bringing Socrates closer to understanding the true meaning of virtues. The realization of his own ignorance gave birth to much of his philosophy. This system of attempting to understand the human mind and conscience became known as the Socratic Method.

Many young Athenians accepted Socrates' ideas and he gained many followers, but their works added nothing to his philosophy. He incorporated dialectical reasoning and ethics into his thought process. Dialectical reasoning involves examining opposing ideas and perspectives in the search for truth, and ethics probes various questions of morality. Disciples of Socrates didn't develop both aspects of his philosophy, and it remained almost the same until Plato synthesized his work into a new system.

DEATH OF SOCRATES by JAQUE LOUIS DAVID

Socrates had plenty of enemies as well as friends, unfortunately. He was executed for disbelieving the gods and corrupting the youth in Athens, but he remained calm until his last breath. The event made him more heroic and iconic than he already was, earning him reverence from future schools of philosophy.

PLATO (428-348 BCE)

The most influential thinker to succeed Socrates was Plato of Athens, who combined the Eleatic doctrine of One, the idea of perpetual flux and the Socratic Method into a comprehensive new form of philosophy. It was broken into dialectic, ethics and physics, but the focal point was the theory of forms. Plato's teachings were complex and intellectual, the main ideas being:


 * God is an eternal single entitiy who occupies all of the universe and governs it by his thought. (Eleatic doctrine of One)
 * Objects of sense are in a state of constant change, so they are denied genuine existence. (perpetual flux)
 * Objects' true being lies in the forms.
 * Forms are unchangeable and undying types.
 * Due to perpetual flux, all objects of sense are only distorted copies of the forms.
 * The number of major concepts derived from objects of sense defines the number of forms.
 * The highest form is that of Good, the original cause of being and knowledge.
 * Virtue is knowledge, the cognition of pure Good.
 * The three major virtues are Wisdom, Courage, and Temperance, united by the virtue of Justice.

Plato founded a school in Athens called the Academy, which remained long after his death. Philosophy would be dominated by his work until one of his pupils, Aristotle, developed a new perspective.

THE SCHOOL OF ATHENS by RAFFAELLO SANZIO

ARISTOTLE (384-322 BCE)

Aristotle's teachings from Plato consisted mainly of the discussion of forms, which humans cannot perceive. The smart young pupil, who believed that philosophy is a science, developed a new philosophy. Instead of discussing things from a sort of surreal perspective, he wanted to explain the purpose of things by focusing on experience-based knowledge. He combined his written works into the Organon to declare and explain the laws of how human understanding went from knowledge of particulars to universal truths.

Some of Aristotle's ideas include:
 * Matter is the basis of everything but is nothing in itself. It only has potential.
 * Form is the realization of matter's potential. It is the only true object of knowledge.
 * Motion takes place in space and time.
 * Space is the potentiality of movement, and time is the measurement of it.
 * The form of the human soul is not connected to the physical body of man in any way so it can't die.
 * Humans convert the perceptions of our senses into knowledge.
 * Humans are drawn impulsively toward Good. (foundation of virtues)
 * Knowledge is not pure; it is affected by nature, habit and reason.

STOICISM // SKEPTICISM

Stoic philosophers did not add much to the ideas of their predecessors, but attempted to put them to practical use. They believed in unassailable truths and theories about existence and morality.

Skeptics criticized the stoics for their beliefs and theories. They argued that truth cannot come from external senses and reason, so people should not judge anything. When we are free from theories, he believed, we will be truly happy.

CONTINUATION OF THEIR WORK

Ancient Greek philosophers laid the groundwork for the beliefs our western world holds today. Their ideas can be traced through Romans, medieval Muslims, Enlightenment and Renaissance philosophers, and finally the founders of civilization in the western world. Our understanding of philosophy is defined by the works of these wise men.