INTRODUCTION
• The Greeks had begun to speculate very early on
such metaphysical questions as the origin and
nature of the universe
– As evidenced by the poems of Homer
• But Homer relied on mythology to provide the
answers
• Others would ultimately discard religious mythology
as a means to answer these questions and develop a
secular methodology based on observation, logic,
and semantics
– With this development came the birth of
philosophy
BIRTH OF PHILOSOPHY
• Philosophy originated in the
Greek city states along the
coast of Asia Minor around 600
BC
– Because they were not as
bound by tradition as citystates on mainland Greece
– Because they were also
constantly in touch with the
ancient science and
speculation of the Middle
East
– They were, in short, more
open to intellectual
innovation and speculation
than counterparts on the
mainland
THALES OF MILETUS
• Born around 625 BC
• Became a well-known
astronomer and
correctly predicted a
solar eclipse
– Also developed
theories about size
and orbits of the sun
and moon
• Learned geometry and
engineering in Egypt
THALES’ THEORY OF THE
UNIVERSE
• Divided all matter in the universe into two
categories
– Material objects
• Which had their origin in water
– Animate spirits
• Had the ability to move on their own
• We all know that his theory was wrong but he
nonetheless did something important
– Saw universe as tangible, finite, and knowable
• Not a mysterious and nebulous entity that
only the gods could understand
OPENING THE DOOR
– Asserted that the universe could be known by
men
• He rejected theological and mythological
interpretations of the universe and instead
sought rational explanations
• Opened the door for a whole new series of
questions once the age-old obstacle of
relying on the gods for all answers had been
overcome
–What is man and what is the best society
for man?
–What is truth and how can one recognize
it?
–What is virtue and how can one acquire it?
THE SOPHISTS
• Greeks quickly commercialized
spirit of intellectual liberation
– Men trained in philosophy set
themselves up as teachers of
various fields
• Their basic premise was that
men were capable of selfimprovement through
education and education
would make men more
successful
• Offered idea of human
progress through one’s own
efforts
– Became very popular and were
concentrated in Athens
RHETORIC
• Most popular sophists taught
rhetoric
– They promised that the most
humble man on the street could
speak in the Assembly and law
courts, confound their
opponents, and reap all the
financial benefits of public life if
they knew rhetoric
– Offered to teach people how to
win any arguments, regardless of
the side they took
– Argued that no truth is
universally valid
• Good and evil, truth and
falsehood were matters of
individual judgment
– Were no universal
standards
MORE SOPHIST ARGUMENTS
• Sophists also attacked the traditional religious and moral
values of Athenian society
– Some argued that religion was useless and others
asserted that religion was a human invention
• Even argued that the law did not come from the gods, nor
were they based on any objective or universal standard of
justice and good
– Argued that the law was something made by the most
powerful citizens for their own benefit
– Dangerous implications
• Law did not need to be obeyed since it rested on no
higher principle than might
– Disruptive of community life because it stressed
the selfish interests of the individual over the
general welfare of the city
STILL MORE SOPHIST
ARGUMENTS
• Some sophists attacked Athenian emphasis
on moderation and self-discipline
– Urged that people should maximize
pleasure and destroy traditions that
restricted them
• Traditions were only invented by the
weak to enslave nobler nations
CRISIS WITHIN ATHENS
• Radical sophists triggered
intellectual and spiritual crisis in
Athens
– Their doctrines encouraged
disrespect and disobedience
to the law, neglect of civic
duty, and selfish
individualism
– Dangerously weakened
community bonds in Athens
during Peloponnesian War
• Worried conservative
Athenians
– Wanted to restore
authority of law and
respect for moral
values by renewing
allegiance to traditions
that sophists attacked
SOCRATES
• Employed intellectual
methodology that sophists
had created to address
questions that they had
either neglected or ignored
• 469-399 BC
– Born into middle class
family and began adult life
as a stone mason
• Soon gave this up to
devote life to finding out
what was the right way
to conduct one’s life
CRITICISM OF THE SOPHISTS
• Felt that sophists had taught
skills but had no insight into
the questions that really
mattered
– What is the purpose of life?
– What are the values by
which man should live?
– How does man perfect his
character?
• Felt sophists had
attacked old system of
beliefs but had not
provided a constructive
replacement
CENTRAL CONCERN
• Central concern was the perfection of
individual human character
– Believed moral values were attained
when the individual regulated his life
according to objective standards
arrived at through rational reflection
– An individual would be able to
ascertain the values necessary to
live a good and just life when reason
became the formative, guiding, and
ruling agency of the soul
– True education meant the shaping of
character according to values
discovered through the active and
critical use of reason
THE POWER OF REASON I
• Wanted to subject all human beliefs and behavior
to the clear light of reason
– And thereby remove ethics from the realm of
authority, tradition, dogma, superstition, and
myth
– Believed reason was the only proper guide to
the most critical problem of human existence
• The question of good and evil
THE POWER OF REASON II
• Socrates taught that rational inquiry was a
priceless took that allowed one to test
opinions, weigh the merit of ideas, and alter
beliefs on the basis of knowledge
• Believed that when people engaged in critical
self-examination and strove to perfect their
characters, they liberated themselves from
accumulated opinions and traditions and
based their conduct instead on convictions
they could rationally defend
SOCRATIC METHOD I
• Believed that knowledge was innate in the
human mind
– To extract it out into the conscious, he
developed a question-and-answer method
• Attracted loyal audience of young men
– Mostly from well-off families
– Encouraged them to debate the most
fundamental concepts of human behavior
in an attempt to define the guidelines of
ethical conduct
SOCRATIC METHOD II
• Would begin debates with
students with searching
questions into traditional
assumptions that everyone
took for granted and then
proceed to show that these
assumptions were rooted
more in custom and
prejudice than they were in
logic
– Would then lead students
(with more questions)
into developing more
precise definitions of
such concepts as piety,
justice, good, and evil
SOCRATIC METHOD III
• Socrates never
formulated rules of
conduct
– Instead he believed
that by giving his
followers the habits
of rigorous
questioning and
logical though
processes, he was
creating a mentality
that could perceive
correct conduct
under all conditions
ATTITUDES TOWARDS
SOCRATES
• Most in Athens dismissed
Socrates as a eccentric
sophist
– But his students
developed a fanatical
loyalty to him
– Political leaders, whose
ability and judgment he
continually questioned,
hated his guts
– It was this conflict that
ultimately did him in
DUMB STUDENTS
• Many of his students
were enchanted by his
criticism of their elders
and the establishment
but they did not follow
him in the more difficult
job of inquiring into
creative alternatives
– They also affected an
ill-disguised
admiration for Sparta
during the
Peloponnesian War
DEATH OF SOCRATES
• After war was over, some
enemies brought Socrates to trial
on charges of “corrupting the
youth of Athens”
– Socrates denied charges but
refused to grovel and beg
forgiveness
• Instead he boldly spelled
out what he stood for
– Was found guilty and ordered
to kill himself by drinking
hemlock
• If he had tried to appeased
jurors, he probably would
have received light sentence
– But he refused to alter
his principles, even
under the threat of death
PLATO
• In 387, Plato founded the
Academy in Athens
– Intended to be a training
ground for young men from
all over Greece
• Where they would learn
the Socratic Method
• Plato had more ambitious
goal than Socrates’ moral
regeneration of the individual
– Also wanted arrange
political life according to
rational rules
• Argued that quest for
personal morality could
not succeed unless the
community was also
transformed on the
basis of reason
THE WORLD OF IDEAS I
• Socrates had taught that universal
standards of right and justice exist and
could be found through the application
of reason
– Plato insisted on the existence of a
higher world of reality
• One that was independent from
the world of things that we
experience everyday
• Called this the “World of Ideas” (or
“Forms”)
– Unchanging, eternal, absolute,
and universal standards of
beauty, justice, and truth
• One had to live according to these
standards in order to live the good
life
– To know these forms was to
know truth
THE WORLD OF IDEAS II
• Truth resides in the World of Ideas
– Not in the world made known through the senses
• People form opinions of beauty or justice from observing
what they think is beautiful or just in the material world
– But since nothing is perfect in the material world, this
opinion is distorted and imperfect
– One who aspires to true knowledge must go beyond
sensory perception and try to grasp with their mind the
Idea of Beauty or Justice in the World of Ideas
• Plato saw the material world as unstable, transitory, and
imperfect while the World of Ideas was eternal and
universally valid
– True wisdom is obtained through knowledge of the
Ideas, not the imperfect reflection of these Ideas that we
perceive with the senses
PLATO: SUMMARY
• Plato was a champion of
reason who aspired to
study and arrange human
life according to
universally valid standards
– Maintained that such
standards did exist
– But his writings also
included a
religious/mystical side
• Appears at times to
be a mystic seeking
escape from this
world to a higher
reality
ARISTOTLE
• Studied in Plato’s
Academy for 20 years
– Left to become tutor to
Alexander the Great
– Returned after
Alexander became ruler
and founded Lyceum
• Ranges of interests and
intellect was extraordinary
– Leading expert of his
time in all subjects
except mathematics
– Wrote large number of
books on various topics
MATERIALISM I
• Renewed confidence in sense
perception
– Which Plato had dismissed
as an erroneous way to
obtain knowledge
– Respected knowledge
obtained through the senses
– Retained stress on universal
principles
• But wanted them to be
derived from human
experience with the
material world
MATERIALISM II
• Thought Plato’s notion of
an independent and
separate World of Ideas
beyond space and time was
contrary to common sense
– To comprehend reality,
one should not try to
escape to another world
– Believed Plato had
undervalued the world of
facts and objects
revealed through the
senses
MATERIALISM III
• Perfect models existed within material things
themselves
– Through human experience with such things as
men, horses, and red objects, the essence of man,
horse, and red could be discovered through
reason
– For Plato, perfect models existed independently
of particular objects
• For Aristotle, universal ideas could not be
determined without examination of particular
things through the senses
ETHICS I
• Believed knowledge of
ethics was possible and
that it had to be based
on reason
– Ethical thought
derived from a
realistic appraisal of
human nature and a
common sense
attitude towards life
• The “good life” meant
making intelligent
decisions when
confronted with specific
problems
ETHICS II
• People could achieve happiness
when they applied knowledge
relevantly to life and when their
behavior was governed by
intelligence
– Not by whim, tradition, or authority
• Realized that passionate element
within the human personality could
not be completely eradicated
– To surrender to one’s passions
was to sink to the level of animals
– But to deny the passions was
foolish and an unreasonable
rejection of human nature
– Argued that people could regulate
their passions through rigorous
training
• Could achieve virtue when they
avoided extremes of behavior
and rationally chose moderation
SUMMARY
• Believed that contemplative life of the philosopher
would yield perfect happiness
– But he did not demand more from a person than
human nature would allow
• Did not set impossible standards but
recognized that all persons cannot pursue life
of contemplation
• But all persons could experience a good life by
applying reason to human affairs
• Philosophy came down to earth with Aristotle and
spoke to needs and concerns of all people
– Not just a highly educated elite
– Set the stage for the individualistic philosophies
of the Hellenistic Age