THE ORIGINS OF PHILOSOPHY IN GREECE
1. PRE-SOCRATIC PHILOSOPHERS
6th cent B.C.
Thales of Miletus and other Ionian Greeks on the western shore of Asia Minor
SPECULATION ABOUT THE NATURAL WORLD
Search for a rational and logical order in the universe
WHAT IS THE NATURE? What is the underlying unity of the COSMOS?
METAPHYSICS or what is the underlying unity of nature?
What is the primary substance or basic element in the universe? (water, earth, fire)
They provide a naturalistic explanation without a divine explanation of the nature of the universe.
Heraclitus of Ephesus maintained that everything in the universe was in a constant state of change. He rejected the view that there was a harmony and constancy in the universe. The universe always was and always will be. It was and is eternal and was not divinely-created.
Democritus developed an "atomic theory". The universe was made up of solid, invisibly small particles or atoms. Death is not to be feared since it is only the redistribution of the atoms that make up our body and soul.
Pythagoras, a geometrician who emigrated to southern Italy, developed the mathematical harmonies in the universe, like music.
2. THE SOPHISTS
5th cent B.C.
Athens
For Protagoras, MAN IS THE MEASURE OF ALL THINGS -- this "humanism" represented a shift from nature to man.
The sophists were "experts" or "learned men" who were paid professional teachers, esp of rhetoric or speech-making.
They doubted there were moral absolutes or certain knowledge. They taught moral and intelletual relativism.
3. SOCRATES (469-399 B.C.) - ATHENS
Shift from Nature to Man, esp Ethics and Morality (like Sophists in shift)
What is a GOOD ACTION? (Ethics)
The health of one's soul is the greatest good.
Soocratic Method is Question and Answer.
Socrates wrote nothing. We know about his philosophy from Plato's dialogues.
Plato was Socrates' pupil.
"KNOWLEDGE IS VIRTUE" "TRUTH IS BEATUY"
"THE UNEXAMINED LIFE IS NOT WORTH LIVING"
Socrates claimed to be ignorant. He claimed not to know anything.
ABSOLUTE TRUTH CAN BE DISCOVERED BY HUMAN REASON.
He went around Agora questioning people about the "END" for which they existed or what was the knowledge one had to be a "specialist" or "expert in a field." He wanted to know what knowledge one had to have to be good. He was condemned to death in 399 B.C. by an Athenian popular jury for "worshipping strange gods and corrupting the youth." He drank poison.
4. PLATO (428-347 B.C.) - ATHENS
Plato was a pupil of Socrates and wrote philosophical dialogues using Socrates
He turned against democracy since Athenian democracy condemned Socrates to death. He preferred Sparta, an oligarchy.
There is no certain truth from sense perception.
There is absolute truth. It exists in an other-wordly world of the FORMS or IDEAS (archetypes of objects, i.e., the concept of a horse or what is common to all horses in spite of superficial differences.)
The highest good was the contemplation of the Forms.
The body drags down the soul from pure contemplation of the Forms.
The soul is made up of 3 parts: Reason, Spirit or Courage, and bodily Appetites (sex or hunger, etc.). Plato's view of the body diverting from the its true function is similar to the Christian view.
Transmigration of the soul after death. The soul, which enters the body at birth, yearns to return to the world of the Forms, which it had once inhabited. Thus, we are born with certain innate ideas already in the soul.
KNOWLEDGE = VIRTUE = TRUTH = BEAUTY
Knowledge of the good was accessible only to the few - the philosophers. Plato was an elitist not a democrat.
Only by a long education in philosophy can one learn to perceive the world of Forms, esp. the highest one, the Good. The masses (demos) cannot perceive the Form of the Good so they should not have power.
There is a heirarchy of values with the highest one being KNOWLEDGE OF THE GOOD or morality.
Only those who know the Good (right action) should rule. Either philosophers should become kings or kings philosophers.
He did accept women as part of the ruling elite of GUARDIANS, i.e., philosophers and warriors.
The Guardians should live communaly and not have private property or family.
This was like Sparta and later like Christian monks.
The "good life" is led in the "good polis" (like Aristotle).
THE REPUBLIC IS POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY - invented by the Greeks. It is about JUSTICE IN THE SOUL AS A PRINCIPLE SIMILAR TO JUSTICE IN THE STATE. JUSTICE IS EFFICENCY. JUSTICE IS A DIVISION OF LABOR OR FUNCTION FOR THE COMMON GOOD.
5. ARISTOTLE (384-322 B.C.) - BORN IN NORTHERN GREECE, BUT EDUCATED IN ATHENS
He was a pupil of Plato and the tutor of Alexander the Great of Macedonia.
He studied medicine.
He departed from Plato's view of knowledge being only in the Forms.
Every object has both FORM and MATTER which are inseperable. FORM shapes MATTER. EACH OBJECT HAD A PURPOSE AS PART OF A GRAND DESIGN OF THE UNIVERSE.
He believed that philosophers should study individual objects to discover their purpose. Ultimately, he might discover the Grand Design of the Universe.
He distinguished between 3 forms of constitution: monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy. Each can degenerate into a bad form, e.g., monarchy into tyranny, aristocracy into oligarchy, and democracy into monocracy.
Aristotle, unlike Plato, preferred a moderate democracy with no extremes of wealth or poverty, i.e., a relatively large middle class.
The "good life" is lived in the "good polis."
He was a misogynist. Women were naturally inferior to men. Men were naturally superior to women.
The highest good wass HAPPINESS IN THIS LIFE. It is sought not be contemplation but by education and training in "ethical behavior." Ethics is a matter of moderation, the mean between extremes. Courage is the mean between Cowardice and being foolhardy or rash, etc.
He believed an eternal "Prime Mover" imparted motion to the universe. God is not a good term for the "Prime Mover", but it became God for later Chrisitians.
The Greeks invented Philosophy (Love of Wisdom), Ethical Philosophy, Political Philosophy, and Natural Philosophy.
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