Ancient Greek Philosophers and their Influence on Western Thought
Influences:
Presocratics
- Heraclitus: Everything changes; the sensible world is in flux.
- Parmenides: Importance of reason, identification between thinking and being, distrust of the senses to grasp the truth, being is unchanging and one.
- Zeno: Dialectical importance of rational discussion.
- Pythagoreans: Interest in mathematical knowledge, immortality of the soul.
- Anaxagoras: Nous (Demiurge) as an ordering intelligence.
Sophists
- Emphasis on human interests, politics, ethics, and the importance of education.
- Use of language as a critical and persuasive weapon.
- Relativistic and skeptical stance.
Socrates
- Highly influential; focused on universal concepts (morals).
- Pursuit of knowledge definition.
- Importance of dialogue; the Socratic method (Irony, Maieutics, and universal concepts).
Impact:
- Academia: Plato and his doctrine.
- Aristotle: Criticizes his teacher, focuses on explaining the world through reality.
- Neoplatonists: Emanationist heirs of Plato’s mystical ideas, hierarchical structure of being, the Good as “The One”.
- St. Augustine: Synthesis of Plato’s theory (through Neoplatonism) and Christianity.
- St. Thomas Aquinas: Derivation from St. Augustine, influenced by Neoplatonic thought, incorporating ethical and political conceptions.
- Renaissance Utopias (Thomas More): Ideal political state, regulating justice and injustice.
- Rationalists (Descartes): Mathematical universe, division between res extensa and res cogitans.
- Transcendental Idealism (Kant): Noumena (transcendental ideas), classification of ideas influenced by Plato, Kantian ethics.
- Marx and Nietzsche (in opposition): Accused Plato and Socrates of betraying life to create a sensible world, criticized body-soul dualism.
- Ortega y Gasset: Society should be directed by the intellectually prepared, echoing Plato’s republic.
- Existentialism (Sartre): Criticizes the notion of essential human nature; humans are not born with a predetermined essence.
- Karl Popper: Revived interest in a Platonic world of ideas and its ontology.
This brings us to the current situation, where the emphasis is on a Platonic conception of reason based on the search for universal values.
Plato
Plato emphasized the importance of knowledge; only those who know justice can apply the law fairly. Philosophy must have a political objective: to achieve a just state. He criticized the Sophists for leading to relativism and decadence. His famous allegory is the Myth of the Cave.
Plato’s theory emphasizes ascent through love and friendship. The world of Ideas is immaterial, eternal, unchanging, independent, and accessible through human thinking. The Good is the highest idea, hierarchically ordered. The sun symbolizes the Good. The Demiurge shapes the sensible world according to the Forms.
Theory of Knowledge
- Sensitive types (doxa or opinion):
- Eikasia (imagination): Shadows, images, and reflections.
- Pistis (belief): Direct perception of sensible things.
- Science or episteme (knowledge):
- Dianoia (discursive thought): Mathematical knowledge, supported by reason but not directly related to the Forms.
- Noesis (intelligence or science): Understanding of the Forms, up to the idea of the Good, achieved through reason and dialectic.
Dialectical Method
A process of questions and dialogue to seek answers and arrive at truth. Its goal is to ascend to the highest idea, the Good. It involves memory or reminiscence, as the soul has prior knowledge of the Forms.
Reminiscence
Learning is a process of remembering what the soul already knows. The soul exists before birth and after death, returning to the world of Forms or being reincarnated.
Eros
Love is dialectical and related to reminiscence. We love what we lack and desire to know.
Anthropology
Radical dualism between body and soul:
- Body: A prison for the soul, part of the sensible world, born and dies, constantly changing.
- Soul: Belongs to the world of Forms, precedes the body, independent, immortal. Death separates the soul from the body. It is essentially rational and has a tripartite nature:
- Rational (immortal): Located in the head; associated with prudence; represented by gold; governs the soul (rulers).
- Irascible (mortal): Located in the chest; associated with strength and courage; represented by silver; embodies the warriors.
- Concupiscible (corruptible): Located in the abdomen; associated with temperance and desires; represented by bronze; embodies the producers.
Education (Paideia)
Essential for both philosophy and politics. A 10-year period of basic education for all, followed by testing to determine whether individuals will become rulers, warriors, or producers. From ages 10 to 20: music, gymnastics, arithmetic, and astronomy. Selected individuals continue with geometry and dialectics from ages 20 to 30. The best are chosen for further dialectical training (noesis) for 5 years. Rulers are selected from this group. A just state is achieved only when each class fulfills its proper function, guided by the rational soul.