Plato, Socrates, and Aristotle: Ancient Greek Philosophy
Plato: Life and Works
Plato was born in Athens in 427 BC. He was a disciple of Socrates. Disappointed by Athenian political practices during his political career, he dedicated his intellectual efforts to building a model of an ideal society, believing that rulers should be philosophers. He founded his Academy in Athens.
He wrote numerous works in dialogue form, using reason and featuring Socrates as the central character. His works can be categorized into three periods: youth (e.g., The Symposium), maturity (e.g., The Republic), and old age (e.g., Timaeus).
He died at the age of 80 in 347 BC. Plato’s life coincided with the Classical Age (480-323 BC), a period marked by the Greco-Persian Wars, where the Greeks ultimately defeated the Persians. Athens and Sparta were strengthened, representing two different forms of government: democracy and aristocracy/military, respectively.
The Classical Age: Art, Politics, and War
This era is represented by the statesman Pericles and the monument, the Parthenon. This period also saw a revolution in sculpture and painting, moving away from abstract Egyptian figures towards more realistic representations, such as The Discus Thrower by Myron. The theater flourished with playwrights like Aristophanes.
The Peloponnesian War, a conflict between Athens and Sparta, also marked this period. Athens was the cultural center for 30 years, a status challenged by this war. The war ended with Sparta’s victory and the imposition of an oligarchic government known as “The Thirty Tyrants.” The dispute between the city-states hindered the unification of Greece, a feat eventually achieved by Philip II and Alexander the Great.
Pre-Socratic Philosophers
Pre-Socratic philosophers focused their theories on the analysis of the origin and rational constitution of nature.
Pythagoras
Pythagoras founded a religious community in southern Italy with a vital concern for the care of the soul. They believed the soul would transmigrate depending on the behavior it had exhibited, an idea that came from the religious group called the Orphics. The Pythagoreans believed that mathematics applied to nature could elevate us above the material world.
Parmenides
Parmenides‘ theories revolve around a goddess who accompanies him on a journey and teaches him to distinguish between the path of truth and the path of opinion. The path of opinion leads to confusion, while the path of truth is based on two principles:
- Being is, and not-being is not. Not-being refers to what does not exist, while being is eternal.
- Not-being is unthinkable.
According to Parmenides, knowledge comes through reason; true knowledge is unchanging and eternal.
The Sophists
The Sophists were concerned with human affairs. They believed that laws were conventional and depended on time and place, and that natural law was the law of the strongest. They were masters of rhetoric, believing that the highest virtue was to rule over others. They held that knowledge comes through the senses and is strictly subjective.
Socrates
Socrates attempted to reach universal definitions. He used maieutics, a method of helping others find their own ideas by guiding them through examples to arrive at universal definitions. Ironically, he claimed to have no knowledge himself, famously saying, “I know that I know nothing.” Socrates accepted the laws of the city as correct. He believed the most important thing in life was caring for the soul.
Aristotle
Aristotle argued that the existence of a world of ideas cannot be proven. He believed that the world of ideas is beyond physical reality, and humans can only know visible entities. The sensible world is in continuous movement, while the world of ideas is static. Natural things are simple bodies, animals, plants, and their parts. Nature, according to Aristotle, has a characteristic of final unionism. There is an engine or reality, God, that moves without being moved. Aristotle assumed an idea similar to the Platonic one. He also believed that humans have a purpose in life: happiness.
The Christian Religion
The Christian religion marked a radical change in history. It is a religion based on faith and belief. Its basic principles are:
- Monotheism
- God’s providence
- God is omnipotent
- God created the world out of nothing
- Christianity claims to possess the truth
- Christianity argues that the soul is immortal
- The center of the Christian religion is original sin