Greek Philosophers

[Chad Manning]

Another aspect that may come into play are the philosophers from the neighboring country of Greece. Here is some basic info on some of the most well known ones.

Socrates

The philosopher Socrates (470 B.C. - 399 B.C.) of AthensSocrates (470 B.C. - 399 B.C.), an Athenian philosopher, became one of the most important icons of the Western philosophical tradition. He made his most important contribution to Western thought through his method of enquiry. In addition, he also taught many famous Greek philosophers. His most famous pupil was Plato. However, since Socrates discussed ideas that upset many people (some in high positions), he was sentenced to death by drinking the poison hemlock. Most of what we know about Socrates came from Plato as Socrates wrote nothing down. See the article on Socrates for more information on this topic.


Plato and Aristotle

Aristotle, known as Aristoteles in most languages other than English (Aristotele in Italian), (384 BC - March 7, 322 BC) has, along with Plato, the reputation of one of the two most influential philosophers in Western thought.

Their works, although connected in many fundamental ways, differ considerably in both style and substance. Plato wrote several dozen philosophical dialogues—arguments in the form of conversations, usually with Socrates as a participant—and a few letters. Though the early dialogues deal mainly with methods of acquiring knowledge, and most of the last ones with justice and practical ethics, his most famous works expressed a synoptic view of ethics, metaphysics, reason, knowledge, and human life. Predominant ideas include the notion that knowledge gained through the senses always remains confused and impure, and that the contemplative soul that turns away from the world can acquire "true" knowledge. The soul alone can have knowledge of the Forms, the real essences of things, of which the world we see is but an imperfect copy. Such knowledge has ethical as well as scientific import. One can view Plato, with qualification, as an idealist and a rationalist.

Aristotle was one of Plato's students, but placed much more value on knowledge gained from the senses, and would correspondingly better earn the modern label of empiricist. Thus Aristotle set the stage for what would eventually develop into the scientific method centuries later. The works of Aristotle that still exist today appear in treatise form, mostly unpublished by their author. The most important include Physics, Metaphysics, (Nicomachean) Ethics, Politics, De Anima (On the Soul), Poetics, and many others.

[Rabbit]

Thought I'd add a couple to the mix:


The Sophists- ~~B.C. 600 to ~~650 A.D

The Sophists were professional teachers who, for a fee, would undertake to teach their students how to get ahead in the world. Socrates was often allied with them by his contemporaries, but his purposes were, in some respects, different. The Sophist equipped one to be a leading citizen, and supplied answers to help people live in a world whose reality had been somewhat undermined by the Pre-Socratics.
A big question that concerned the Sophists and their critics was: how is virtue acquired? Can it be taught? These aren't ivory tower questions, but were vital in a society where power was shifting from the "well-bred" aristocrats to the less educated masses. Answers involved two different principles which are essential for understanding Greek thought: physis , "the unchanging," "fundamental existence," or "nature.”


Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans- born B.C. 582. Died ~~B.C. 492

Pythagoras broke with the rationalism of the east-Greek tradition and founded a cult marked by secrecy, asceticism, and mysticism. The cult, Pythagoreanism, forbade, for instance, the poking of fire with an iron poker, and the eating of beans. It also taught the doctrine of the transmigration of souls. There is a story, for instance, that Pythagoras ordered a man to stop beating a dog, claiming he recognized the voice of a dead friend of his. This may merely have been a humane impulse on Pythagoras' part -- or it may have been invented by the cult's many enemies to cast ridicule upon it.
In many ways Pythagoreanism was like the mystery cults prevalent in Greece then and afterward, but it differed from them in the interest the followers of Pythagoras had in mathematics and astronomy. Pythagoras is most famous, perhaps, for having been the first to work out the proposition (by strict mathematical deduction) that the square of the length of the hypotenuse of a right triangle is equal to the sum of the squares of the lengths of its sides. This is still known as the Pythagorean theorem.


Heraclitus of Ephesus- born B.C. 540. died B.C. 480

Heraclitus saw change as the unity of all things; he took movement or the contrary tension of things (such as a taut bow, which is potential movement because of the opposing forces at work) as forms of the mutual resolution of opposites. The unity underlying all change and opposition, but not existing outside of change and opposition, Heraclitus alternatively called the Logos or God.


Parmenides of Elea- born B.C. 515. Died B.C. 450

Parmenides founded the Eleatic School and taught that Being (or Existence) must be unchanging and unmoving, and so the changing world registered by our senses has no reality whatsoever and cannot be known at all (how can you "know" an illusion?). Only reason, without the senses, can lead us to the truth about existence, which neither moves nor changes nor has any parts. The Parmenidean idea of the nature of reality would become the basis of Plato's thinking and would later become the foundation of the Christian theology of God.


Zeno of Elea- born B.C. 490. Died B.C. 425

A pupil of Parmenides, Zeno produced famous paradoxes which were essentially arguments supporting Parmenides's views. Zeno attempted to show that those people who believed that things move, change, and have discrete parts are the ones subscribing to kooky theories by demonstrating that motion and divisibility were logically impossible. Zeno's Paradox is as follows: A runner wants to run a certain distance - let us say 100 meters - in a finite time. But to reach the 100-meter mark, the runner must first reach the 50-meter mark, and to reach that, the runner must first run 25 meters. But to do that, he or she must first run 12.5 meters. Since space is infinitely divisible, we can repeat these 'requirements' forever. Thus the runner has to reach an infinite number of 'midpoints' in a finite time. This is impossible, so the runner can never reach his goal. In general, anyone who wants to move from one point to another must meet these requirements, and so motion is impossible, and what we perceive as motion is merely an illusion.


Stoicism- ~~ B.C. 400 to A.D 600

Stoicism was one of the new philosophical movements of the Hellenistic period. The Stoics held that emotions like fear or envy (or impassioned sexual attachments, or passionate love of anything whatsoever) either were or arose from false judgments and that the sage--a person who had attained moral and intellectual perfection--would not undergo them. The later Stoics of Roman Imperial times, like Epictetus, emphasized the doctrines that the sage is utterly immune to misfortune and that virtue is sufficient for happiness. Though it seems clear that some Stoics took a kind of perverse joy in advocating views which seem so at odds with common sense, they did not do so simply to shock. It seems that they were well aware of the mutually interdependent nature of their philosophical views, likening philosophy itself to a living animal in which logic is bones and sinews; ethics and physics, the flesh and the soul respectively (another version reverses this assignment, making ethics the soul).


Epicurus- born B.C. 341. died B.C. 271

Epicurs claimed to be self-taught, although tradition states that he was schooled in the systems of Plato and Democritus by his father and various philosophers. Epicurus defined philosophy as the art of making life happy and strictly subordinated metaphysics to ethics, naming pleasure as the highest and only good. However, for Epicurus pleasure was not heedless indulgence but the opposite, ataraxia [serenity], manifesting itself in the avoidance of pain. His placed on ataraxia and on the superiority of intellectual pleasures over bodily pleasures. He also prescribed a code of social conduct, which advocated honesty, prudence, and justice in dealing with others, not because these virtues were good in themselves, but because they saved the individual from society's retribution. He held blind destiny to be more dangerous to one's ataraxia than belief in fables about the gods; people could hope to propitiate the gods, but mechanical determinism was inexorable. He denied that the gods had supernatural powers that allowed them to interfere with humanity or nature. The system of Epicurus deemphasized the traditional power of religious and physical forces on human life and emphasized our freedom of action.

Epictetus- born 55 A.D. died 135 A.D.

Epictetus was an eminent Stoic philosopher. Born as a slave Epictetus led a life of exemplary contentment, simplicity, and virtue, practicing the morality which he taught. He was the most dominant teacher of Stoicism during the period of the Roman Empire. His lessons were principally, if not solely, directed to practical morality. The role of the Stoic teacher was to encourage his students to live the philosophic life, whose end was 'happiness' or 'flourishing', to be secured by living the life of reason, which – for Stoics – meant living virtuously and living 'according to nature'. The 'happiness' of those who attain this ideal consists of imperturbability, freedom from passion, and good feelings, and the capacity to attain what counts as living as a rational being should. The key to transforming oneself into the Stoic sophos (wise person) is to learn what is 'in one's power', and this is 'the correct use of impressions which involves not judging as good or bad anything that appears to one. For the only thing that is good is acting virtuously (that is, motivated by virtue), and the only thing that is bad is the opposite, acting viciously (that is, motivated by vice). The task is therefore, to 'live according to nature', which means (a) pursuing a course through life intelligently responding to one's own needs and duties as a sociable human being, but also (b) wholly accepting one's fate and the fate of the world as coming directly from the divine intelligence which makes the world the best that is possible.

[Adonna]

OMG Garrett has too much time too.

[Rabbit]

No..no, am being controlled by a cyborg alien, who has bestowed upon me certain physical abilities that allow me to type very fast...very fast...like speed racer fast...now that's fast!

[Chad Manning]

Really fast.

Thanks Garrett. I was hoping you would flesh this section out.

[Vable]

I'm excited now after reading all that.. Can't wait. Just gotta find time to squeeze out the preperations to play a role