Ancient Greek Philosophers

Socrates:

Socrates is possibly the most famous Greek philosopher.  He never wrote a single line.  Yet he is one of the philosophers who had the greatest influence on European thought, partly because of the dramatic manner of his death.  He was held to be the founder of any number of different philosophical schools of thought.

Socrates’ means of teaching was asking questions, especially to begin a conversation, as if he knew nothing.  In the course of the discussion he would generally get his opponents to recognize the weakness of their arguments, and, forced into a corner, they would finally be obliged to realize what was right and what was wrong.  He emphasized introspection, and his most famous quote is probably “know thyself”.

Socrates’ mother was a midwife, and he used to say that his art was like that of a midwife.  He himself did not “give birth” to the correct insight, but he was there to help along the way.

Socrates could feign ignorance in order to force people to use their common sense.  We call this Socratic irony.  Socrates was the teacher of Plato.

Plato:

 Plato was Socrates’ prize student.  He was greatly influenced by Socrates’ interest in questions about virtue and the necessity of attempting to cultivate a noble character.  After the death of Socrates, Plato became disillusioned.  Yet Plato always believed that “the good is the beautiful”

Plato can be understood as idealistic and rationalistic.  He divided reality into two: on the one hand we have ontos, idea or ideal.  This is the ultimate reality, permanent, eternal, spiritual.  On the other hand there is phenomena, which is a manifestation of the ideal.  Phenomena are appearances—things as they seem to us—and are associated with matter, time, and space.  Plato also talked about three levels of pleasure.  Plato was the teacher of Aristotle.

Aristotle:

Aristotle was Plato’s prize student.  He was as much of a scientist as a philosopher.  He was endlessly fascinated with nature and went a long way towards classifying the plants and animals of Greece.  He was equally interested in studying the anatomies of animals and their behavior in the wild.

While Plato separated the phenomena from the true and eternal ideal reality, Aristotle suggested that the idea is found “inside” the phenomena, the universals “inside” the particulars.

Aristotle had a theory that there were three kinds of souls.  There was the plant soul, the essence of which was nutrition, and the animal soul, which contained the basic sensations, desire, pain, and pleasure. Last of all was the human soul.  The essence of the human soul was, of course, reason.  He suggested that perhaps the human soul was capable of existence apart from the body.

He ended up teaching the son of an old schoolmate of his, Philip of Macedonia.  The son’s name was Alexander.  This was the same Alexander who would go on to become Alexander the Great.


source: http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/athenians.html