Greek+Philosophy


 * Greek Philosophy - The Masters of the Classical Era **

Long dead Greek philosophers wearing strange garments and beards are never very interesting – or so you may have been lead to believe. What if I told you that Classical Greek philosophy, especially works by Socrates, Aristotle, and Plato have had “unparalleled influence” (plato.stanford.edu /entries/aristotle) on Western thinking and our history? Or that Classical Greek philosophy inspired the generations of philosophy to come, eventually opening the doors for today’s era of knowledge and understanding? Perhaps that would change your prejudice against those dusty, verbose intellectuals. Classical Greek philosophy explored the natural and subconscious world, creating centuries of thinkers to come.

By 5000 BC, settlers from modern day Turkey colonized the island of Crete. These colonies grew into cities with paved roads, sewers, running water, and stone palaces. Art was commonly used as a decoration and a variety of bronze weapons were equipped by guards. A generally peaceful place, Crete became a center for trade and eventually expanded to the southern coast of Greece. However, the economic and cultural success of the city state was short lived. In around 1500 BC, natural disasters such as volcanic activity and earthquakes ravaged the land. Most of the citizens abandoned the island and emigrated to the “safer” mainland. 300 years later, the mainland was invaded by northern tribes. Many cities were conquered and the south of Greece was weakened. Civil wars began and peasants rebelled against the government. The previously prosperous trade came to an end and the art of writing was lost. The south of Greece was enveloped in a cultural “dark age” that lasted for centuries. Not all hope was lost for the future of the region. By 900 BC, the population that had been depleted by war and famine began to rise. Traders became re-established, traveling to other regions to bring new influences in Greek culture. The Phoenician alphabet was adopted and modified for the Greek language, and writing became re-established as an art form. This mini-renaissance of culture and the arts was further fueled by Homer’s books //The Iliad// and //The Odyssey//, written about a century after the new era of enlightenment began. The books became so popular that they were employed as part of the curriculum of children from wealthy families. Both //The Iliad// and //The Odyssey// encouraged literacy, religion, and a sense of historical identity and patriotism in the people of Greece.
 * 5000 BC - 800 BC **

Athens was becoming the center of the mini-renaissance. The Athenian government standardized the Greek language, thus improving government and written constitutions. While this sounds like a generally positive thing, the Athenian constitution of 620 BC resulted in farmers enslaved by debt and a death penalty for every crime. In 590 BC, a citizen called Solon was brought to power thanks to a peasant rebellion. He was personally commissioned to rewrite the Athenian constitution. His new laws empowered (male) citizens and allowed them to elect government officials, thereby establishing a democracy (as opposed to the oligarchy that called itself a democratic assembly). The new democratic assembly held tens of thousands of (male) citizens who held ultimate power – a slight improvement from the previous form of government, which only allowed the wealthy to hold power.
 * Athens and the Reformation of Democracy **

Early Greek science paved the way for the Classical Greek philosophers. Great thinkers began formulating theories on the nature of the universe; thinkers who favored natural explanations of the workings of the world. These pioneers disregarded all that had been previously established by Greek religion. One of these early “scientists,” Anaxagoras, believed the phenomena of lighting was created by clouds being split by gusts of wind as opposed to magical thunderbolts from Zeus. Some of these thinkers believed the universe to be infinite and eternal while others said it was a seed growing from “boundless chaos” or something more abstract than what humans can perceive. Views on reality ranged from a static reality that appears to change from human perception to nothing ever being certain – laws of space and time, etc. – because everything changes over time. Pythagoras (who is infamous to students of Geometry for his dastardly theorem on triangles) suggested an “ultimate reality” based upon mathematical equations. New thinkers challenged previous thinkers; and one thinker who is still well known today followed this pattern. His name was Socrates.
 * Greek Science and Thinkers **

Socrates was a highly influential philosopher of Ancient Greece. He also never wrote anything down. A firm believer in free thought, he discouraged the general public from blindly accepting religion or what was dictated by the government. Socrates also invented the Socratic method which is, basically, to answer a question with another question. After putting the answers to these questions under academic scrutiny, he believed the “highest standards for human thought and behavior” (evolutionary-metaphysics.net) would be agreed upon. A very large portion of what we know about Socrates, his lifestyle, and his philosophy come from his student Plato. Plato reported that Socrates was infamous for stopping people in the streets of Athens and asking them about their beliefs. As far as what Socrates believed in, he stated “the secret to being wise… [is] to realize what we really do not know much.” (evolutionary-metaphysics.net) Everyone wants to believe what they think is right, said Socrates, and people cling to familiar beliefs that they are familiar with – even when they do not fully understand the issues. Socrates’ life came to a rather depressing but not unexpected end when he was accused by the established government of Athens of “undermining people’s belief in the traditional gods of the city…thereby corrupting the morals of the young.” (evolutionary-metaphysics.net)
 * Socrates **

As a result, Socrates received the death penalty and committed suicide by drinking a numbing poison. His death scene was later painted by Jacques-Louis David in the eighteenth century (the French artist famous for the //Death of Marat//).

Unlike Socrates, Plato wrote nearly everything down. However, his style of writing was a bit strange: he wrote in the style of debates between two people with different opinions – and the main character of these narratives was Plato’s mentor, Socrates. This strange style makes it difficult to tell how many of Plato’s ideas were actually his own. These books of philosophy are some of the earliest and most well preserved examples of Greek moral philosophy. However, based on what he wrote, we believe he tried to explain how absolute truths and values exist. “The best way to justify important human values like justice and goodness…[is] to think of them as being reflections of eternal truths that…[exist] in a heavenly dimension.” (evolutionary-metaphysics.net) Despite living in Athens (which was usually democratic – it shifted in and out of oligarchy in its history) and being influenced by the government, he did not believe in democracy. Instead, he preferred the idea of “philosopher kings” – an idea he dismissed as impossible because philosophers would not wish to rule the people and the people could not compel them to do so. Impossible government aside, he believed the purpose of a good government was to not only govern but to create a foundation for the moral character of citizens. Plato was so dedicated to this belief that he opened a school called “The Academy” in 390 BC with the mission to educate the politicians of Athens and improve the quality of government – this school stayed open for 900 years.
 * Plato **

Aristotle and Plato never saw eye to eye. Despite Aristotle having been Plato’s mentor, the former dismissed Plato’s philosophies as nothing more than “poetic nothings.” Plato did certainly focus on the realm of hypothetical philosophy. Maybe it was a dislike for his teacher or just a disinterest in the immaterial, but Aristotle’s philosophies always focused on experience and common sense. His works summarized the scientific and ethical ideals of his era. In fact, Aristotle’s books of philosophy were so influential, they remained an inspiration to scientific thinkers until the beginning of the modern era. He believed that knowledge of the universe and human nature could be attained through the thorough study of nature and careful organization of facts. Later in his life, Aristotle was employed to teach Alexander the Great – also known as the man who established the Greek Empire. Even during his lifetime, Aristotle had incredible influence on others through his teachings – it was for this reason that he was often accused of corrupting the minds of the young.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Aristotle **

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">It is no doubt that the Classical Greek philosophers and their predecessors had an immeasurable influence on the generations to follow. The record of that influence could fill a tome the size of all of the treatises of the three philosophers mentioned. Merely thinking about how different our society would be without those three men is terrifying. Perhaps we would live in a dark age like the south of Greece millennia ago. One thing is for certain, though – if you believe that reality can ever be certain – educating oneself about the philosophy of Ancient Greece forces one to look at everything in an entirely new light. It is arguable that the age of enlightenment has never ceased to exist, and our society is holding the metaphorical baton. For that honored position, we can thank three men who lived thousands of years ago.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 15.5pt;">Modern Influence **

<span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">"Ancient Greek Philosophy." <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> //Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia//. Wikipedia, 8 Dec. 2011. Web. <span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">12 Dec. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Greek_philosophy>. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">"Ancient Greek Philosophy." //Evolutionary Metaphysics - Science, Philosophy, Politics, Religion//. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">The Academy of Evolutionary Metaphysics, 2005. Web. 15 Dec. 2011. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"><http://www.evolutionary-metaphysics.net/ancient_greek_philosophy.html>. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">"Aristotle." //Crandall University - Course - Aristotle//. Crandall University, 27 Nov. 2011. Web. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">15 Dec. 2011. <http://www.crandallu.ca/courses/grphil/Aristotle.htm>. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">"Aristotle (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)." //Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy//. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Stanford University, 25 Sept. 2008. Web. 15 Dec. 2011. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"><http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle/>. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">"Commentaries on Aristotle." //Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia//. Wikipedia, 6 Dec. 2011. Web. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">16 Dec. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commentaries_on_Aristotle>. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">"Plato." //Crandall University - Course - Plato//. Crandall University, 26 Oct. 2011. Web. 16 Dec. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">2011. <http://www.crandallu.ca/courses/grphil/Plato.htm>. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">"Socrates." //Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia//. Wikipedia, 6 Dec. 2011. Web. 15 Dec. 2011. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"><http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socrates>. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">"Stoicism." //Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy//. Stanford University, 4 Oct. 2011. Web. 16 <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Dec. 2011. <http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/stoicism/>. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">"Syllogism." //Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia//. Wikipedia, 13 Dec. 2011. Web. 16 Dec. 2011. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"><http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syllogism>. <span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Gill, N. S. "Timeline of Greek and Roman Philosophers." <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"> //About.com//. The New York Times <span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Company, 2011. Web. 12 Dec. 2011. <span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;"><http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/greekphilosophy/a/TimeLPhilosophr.htm>. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Cohen, S. M. //Readings in Ancient Greek Philosophy: From Thales to Aristotle//. Indianapolis: <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',serif; font-size: 12pt;">Hackett, 2011. Print.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">Sources **