Greek Philosophy & History
Section Overview
• This section describes Greek contributions
to the study of philosophy and the writing
of history.
Main Idea
Setting a Purpose for Reading Think
about these questions as you read:
• What ideas did Greek philosophers
develop?
• How did Greeks contribute to the history of
Western civilization?
Philosopher
Ideas
Pythagoras
all relationships can be expressed
in numbers; Pythagorean theorem
Socrates
absolute truth exists within everyone;
Socratic method
Plato
government should be divided into three groups,
ruled by philosopher-kings; men and women
should have equal education and employment
Aristotle
“golden mean”; use senses to make observations
like a scientist; analyzed governments and
decided that the best was a mixture of
government by a few and democracy
People To Meet
Herodotus: Greek historian who wrote the
history of the Persian Wars; the “father of
history”
Thucydides: Greek historian who wrote
History of the Peloponnesian War
Terms To Know
philosophy: love or pursuit of wisdom; a system
of thought
philosopher: Greek thinker who believed in the
power of the human mind
Sophist: professional teacher in ancient Greece
Socratic method: a way of teaching that uses
pointed questions to force students to use their
reason
Greek Philosophy and History
Greek Philosophers
• The word philosophy comes from the
Greek word for “love of wisdom.”
• Greek thinkers, called
philosophers,
believed the human
mind could
understand
everything.
Greek Philosophy and History
Greek Philosophers (cont.)
• Pythagoras was a Greek philosopher
who taught that the universe followed
the same laws that governed music and
numbers.
• He developed many ideas about
mathematics. Most people know his name
because of the Pythagorean theorem used
in geometry
• Sophists were professional teachers who
traveled from city to city, teaching others.
• They did not believe that gods and
goddesses influenced people.
Greek Philosophy and History
Greek Philosophers (cont.)
• They also did not believe in absolute
right or wrong.
• Socrates was a philosopher and a critic
of the Sophists who believed that an
absolute truth existed and that all real
knowledge was within each person.
• The Socratic method is a form of
teaching that uses questions to lead
students to discover things for
themselves.*
Greek Philosophy and History
Greek Philosophers (cont.)
• Leaders did not trust Socrates, and
accused him of teaching young
Athenians to rebel.
• Socrates was tried and sentenced to
death.
Greek Philosophy and History
• Plato was on of Socrates’ best students.
• In his book the Republic, Plato described
the ideal government.*
Greek Philosophy and History
Greek Philosophers (cont.)
• At the top were rulers and philosophers,
in the middle were warriors, and at the
bottom were all others.
• Aristotle was one of Plato’s students.
• He opened his own school called the
Lyceum.
• The “golden mean,” one of Aristotle’s
ideas, states that a person should do
nothing to excess.
• Aristotle helped advance science and
government.
Greek Philosophy and History
• Like Plato, Aristotle also wrote about the
government. In his book Politics, he
divided government into three types:
– Government by one person, such as a
monarch (king or queen) or a tyrant
– Government by a few people, which might be
an aristocracy or an oligarchy
– Government by many people, as in a
democracy
Greek Philosophy and History
Greek Philosophers (cont.)
• Many of his ideas shaped the way
European and American founders
thought about government.
Plato and Aristotle
Greek Historians
• In 435 B.C., a Greek named Herodotus wrote the
history of the Persian Wars.
• He asked questions, recorded answers and verified his
sources. Many Western historians consider him to be the
“father of history”.
• Many historians consider Thucydides the greatest
historian of the ancient world. He fought in the
Peloponnesian War and then wrote the History of the
Peloponnesian War while in exile. Unlike Herodotus, he
saw war and politics and acts of humans, not gods,