Ancient Greek Philosophies and Their Evolution
Sophist Intellectual Movement
The intellectual movement known as the Enlightenment emerged in Athens, Greece, in the 5th century BC. Sophists (sophistes), mostly foreigners (metics), were skilled speakers and masters of eristic. They educated many politicians and members of the Athenian nobility in exchange for fees. They did not form a formal school but shared a sharp critique of traditional institutions and advocated for Panhellenism, the unity of all Greeks under a common language. They held a relativistic, subjective, and skeptical view of human knowledge, and believed in the conventional origin of society, laws, and morals. Notable figures include Gorgias, with his extreme skepticism, Protagoras, and Critias.
Platonism
Platonism is the philosophical doctrine developed by Plato (4th century BC) and his school. It posits that reality is divided into two levels: the eidetic world (world of Forms) and the sensible world. These are opposing realms: the real world of reason and the apparent world of the senses. Platonism influenced religious thought, with certain rituals, thoughts, and doctrines based on it. St. Augustine used Platonism to articulate Christian faith, as Philo of Alexandria had done with Judaism.
Stoicism
Stoicism is a philosophical doctrine established by the end of the 4th century BC. It developed a materialist theory of knowledge and an empirical nuance of logical semiotics. Its main contributions are in cosmology and physical philosophy. Stoics see the universe as a living being composed of passive matter and an active soul or logos (influenced by Heraclitus). They developed a pantheistic physics, identifying God with the Universe, which informs their ethical principles. Stoic logic is concerned with the structure of language and propositions. Ethics is based on accepting natural order and the virtue of self-control and detachment, taken to the extreme in the ideal of ataraxia (tranquility). For the Stoic, freedom from passion and desire, or apatheia, is the ideal of wisdom.
Epicureanism
Epicureanism (4th to 2nd centuries BC), founded by Epicurus of Samos, has an essentially practical function; for Epicurus, philosophy is the art of living happily. It is structured in three parts: The Canonical (theory of knowledge) provides standards for achieving happiness. Physics explains the universe’s changes spontaneously, excluding fate or predetermination and defending human freedom. In Epicurean ethics, the criterion of truth is the feeling of pleasure; the pursuit of pleasure and avoidance of pain are the ultimate goals. Epicurus advocated a balanced appreciation of natural and spiritual needs through self-reliance and self-government. Reaching ataraxia, a state free from pain and disturbance, is the highest form of happiness.
Scholasticism
Scholasticism refers to education in the Middle Ages practiced in schools. Although thinkers in these schools followed various trends (Platonism, Neoplatonism, Aristotelianism, etc.), the term often denotes medieval Christian philosophy. Chronologically, there are three stages: the formative period from the 9th to the end of the 12th century (St. Anselm, Peter Abelard), the apogee in the 13th century (Thomas Aquinas), and the crisis or decline in the 14th century (William of Ockham). Key issues for Christian philosophers of this period included God, the distinction between being and beings, humanity, the nature of understanding, and the problem of universals. Inspired by Aristotle and Augustinian Neoplatonism, they sought to reconcile faith and reason. Some, like St. Thomas, contributed to the autonomy of reason by distinguishing between theological and philosophical truth, recognizing the legitimacy of both sciences.
Rationalism
Rationalism is a modern philosophical movement (17th century) inaugurated by Descartes. It argues that valid and true knowledge about reality comes not from the senses but from reason and understanding. Two key claims are: knowledge about reality can be deductively constructed from self-evident ideas and principles, independent of experience (which only provides confused materials); and ideas and principles are innate to understanding (nativism). Rationalism opposes empiricism, which emerged in the 17th and 18th centuries, represented mainly by Locke, Berkeley, and Hume, who maintained that all knowledge comes from sensory experience.
Empiricism
Empiricists deny innate ideas or principles. All knowledge comes from experience, and understanding is like a blank slate before experience provides knowledge. Philosophical reflection cannot transcend the limits imposed by experience; this has no importance in the empirical problem of God’s existence.