Key Concepts in Ancient and Modern Philosophy

As Aristotle pointed out, happiness is an ambiguous concept about which everyone has different opinions.

Maieutics

Maieutics is a pedagogical method based on the idea that the truth is latent in the mind of every human being due to innate reason but has to be “given birth” by answering intelligently proposed questions.

Callicles

Callicles was an ancient Athenian political philosopher best remembered for his role in Plato’s dialogue Gorgias. Callicles is depicted as a young student of the sophist Gorgias. In the dialogue named for his teacher, he argues the position of an oligarchic amoralism, stating that it is natural and just for the strong to dominate the weak and that it is unfair for the weak to resist such oppression by establishing laws to limit the power of the strong.

Nomos and Physis

  • Nomos: Conventional and anti-natural law.
  • Physis: Natural law, throwing off of all restraints upon self-interest and the desires of the individual; hedonism; the law of the jungle.

Hellenistic Philosophy

Hellenistic philosophy, which focused on the affairs of the polis, concentrated on the individual and his personal welfare.

Common features:

  • Pursuit of happiness through simplicity.
  • Individual salvation through individual’s autonomy, serenity, and self-sufficiency.
  • The ideal of the sage: capable of finding happiness.

Stoicism

Stoicism: The founder of Stoicism was Zeno of Citium. Stoics emphasized that man must learn to deal with whatever happens to him, whether good or bad, by eliminating the passions which disturb his soul, such as fear, greed, grief, and joy.

Epicureanism

Epicureanism: Avoid mental pains, which typically ruin human happiness: anxiety caused by involvement in public affairs, remorse brought about by a guilty conscience, and the fear of the gods and of death. To avoid these pains is to experience pleasure of the mind and thus achieve ataraxia.

Cynicism

Cynicism: Their philosophy was that the purpose of life was to live a life of Virtue in agreement with Nature. This meant rejecting all conventional desires for wealth, power, sex, and fame, and living a simple life free from all possessions.

Fundamental principles of Cynicism:

  • The goal of life is happiness, which is to live in agreement with Nature.
  • Happiness depends on being self-sufficient.
  • Self-sufficiency is achieved by living a life of virtue.

Diogenes of Sinope

Diogenes of Sinope, who lived in a tub on the streets of Athens, took Cynicism to its logical extremes and came to be seen as the archetypal Cynic philosopher.

Utilitarianism

Utilitarianism: It holds that one must always act so as to produce the greatest aggregate happiness among all sentient beings, within reason.

John Stuart Mill

John Stuart Mill was a British philosopher, political economist, and civil servant. He was an influential contributor to social theory, political theory, and political economy.

Antiphon the Sophist

Antiphon the Sophist: He appears to be a precursor to natural rights theory. He attacks class and national distinctions as being based, not on nature, but on convention.

Justice

Justice is a concept of moral rightness based on ethics, rationality, law, natural law, religion, or equity.

John Bordley Rawls

John Bordley Rawls was an American philosopher and a leading figure in moral and political philosophy.