Greek Philosophy
Philosophy:
•love of wisdom —
•a search for underlying causes and principles of reality —
•
•a quest for truth through logical reasoning rather than
factual observation —
•a study of the principles of human nature and conduct
Greek Philosophy
Greek Philosophy
Greek
Philosophy
Plato
Aristotle
Socrates
Euclid
Diogenes
Pythagoras
Epicurus
Ptolemy
Zeno
Empedocles
Xenophon
Heraclitus
Greek Philosophy
Philosophy:
mathematics
physical science
medicine
biology
history
Greek Philosophy
Philosophy:
Zeno and Stocism
Epicurus and Epicureanism
Sophists
Socrates
Plato
Aristotle
Greek Philosophy
Herodotus:
“Father of History”
Greek Philosophy
Herodotus:
The Histories:
1. Divided into 9 books
2. Rise of Persia, conflict
between Greece and
Persia and battles of
Marathon, Thermopylae
and Salamis
3. War was epic struggle
between East and West
Greek Philosophy
Herodotus:
The Histories:
4. Blend of history and myth
5. Zeus gave victory to the
Greeks against a mighty
host of barbarians
6. Travels around
Mediterranean (Egypt,
Persia, Italy, Greece)
Greek Philosophy
Greek Philosophy
Thucydides:
“Father of Scientific
History”
Greek Philosophy
Thucydides:
•lived during the
Peloponnesian War between
Sparta and Athens
•evidence
•rejected legends and rumors
•causes for the war
•accurate account of war that
could be studied by generals
and statesmen
Greek Philosophy
Greek Philosophy
From where does everything come?
From what is everything created?
How do we explain the plurality of things found in
nature?
How might we describe nature mathematically?
Greek Philosophy
Influence of
Babylonian
math and
science
Growing prosperity and
freedom of expression
in Greek city-states by
600 BC
Influence of
Egyptian
math and
science
Greeks the first people to give non-myth
explanations of the universe
Greek Philosophy
Milesian philosophers debate what is the element at
the root of change:
Thales: Water
since it exists in all
3 states of matter
Anaximander: a
vague element he
calls the
“boundless”
Anaximenes: Air or
vapor since rain is
pressed from air
Greek Philosophy
Debate on the nature of change and if we can trust
our senses:
Parmenides:
•matter cannot come from
nothing
•matter is eternal and
unchangeable
•change is an illusion
•we cannot trust our senses
Heraclitus:
•universe consists of
opposites
•opposites interact
•change in constant
•we can trust our senses
Greek Philosophy
Theories of unchangeable elements which combine
with each other to produce change:
Empedocles:
•4 elements
•earth, water, air, fire
•combine in fixed ratios to
form all substances
Democritus:
•unlimited variety of tiny
indivisible atoms
•combine to form all
substances
Greek Philosophy
Golden Age Athens:
•rise in power of all citizens
•growth of individual potential
•not interested in study of the universe, atoms, etc.
•interested in things related to them
Greek Philosophy
Sophists:
•“those who are wise”
•traveling teachers
•taught practical subjects: speech, grammar, mathematics,
music
•“man is the measure of all things”
•shift focus from natural world to moral, ethics, politics
•claimed there was no absolute right and wrong
•situation determined what was right or wrong
Greek Philosophy
Socrates:
•believed in a universally valid knowledge
•universal knowledge could be gained by the “right method:
1. exchange and analysis of opinions
2. setting up and testing of definitions would lead to truths
3. truths lead to an unfailing guide to living
•can determine absolute right from wrong
•Socratic method: questioning style of teaching
Greek Philosophy
Debate on which is more trustworthy: our senses or reason
Plato:
Aristotle:
•have innate power to reason
•have innate power to
•our imperfect world flows from reason
and is based on a higher world •no innate ideas exist in our
of unchanging and eternal
minds which do not first
ideas
exist in the sensory world
•need abstract thinking,
•must rely on our senses to
especially mathematics to find find the truth
truth
)
Greek Philosophy
Essential part of the scientific method that would emerge
in Western Europe in the 1600’s
Define thequestion
question
define
experiment/
Define the question
collect data
gather information
Define the question
and resources
form
Define the question
hypothesis
Define
the question
analyze
data
interpret data/
Define the question
draw conclusion
new
Define the question
hypothesis
Greek Philosophy
Thales of Miletus:
first philosopher of the
West
Greek Philosophy
That:
1. from which everything exists
2. from which it first became
3. into which it returns at last
4. its substance remaining in it, but transforming in
qualities
that they say is the element and principle of things
that are
discovered the origin of all things:
water
Greek Philosophy
Significance:
•not in reducing all things to water but in reducing all
things to one
•attempt to explain nature:
1. simplification of phenomena
2. search for causes within nature
3. denies the whims of the gods
Greek Philosophy
Significance:
Results:
1. bridge between myth and reason
2. turned from mythology to reason
3. answers sought within nature, not outside
Greek Philosophy
Pythagoreans:
•led by Pythagoras
•changed focus from study of
nature to:
1. nature of man
2. meaning of truth
3. position of the divine in
the order of things
Greek Philosophy
Pythagoreans:
•shared all possessions
•no meat or fish-vegetarians
•never ate beans
•never touched white roosters
•reincarnation
Greek Philosophy
Pythagoreans:
•sound:
1. vibration in string
2. varied with string’s length
3. musical ratios
•numbers:
1. building blocks for
everything
2. discovered square root of 2
3. irrational numbers
Greek Philosophy
Pythagoreans:
Pythagorean theorem for
right triangle:
Greek Philosophy
Pythagoreans:
Pythagorean theorem for
right triangle:
Greek Philosophy
a=3
b=4
c=5
5
3
4
9 + 16 = 25
C =
9 + 16
Greek Philosophy
Greek Philosophy
Democritus:
Theory of Atoms:
•atom – uncuttable
•small, hard invisible
particles of the same
substance
•different: sizes,
shapes, arrangements,
positions
•group together to form
mass
Greek Philosophy
Euclid:
•“Father of Geometry”
•perhaps a collector of ideas
rather than his own
•Elements:
1. plane geometry
2. proportion in general
3. properties of numbers
4. solid geometry
Greek Philosophy
Eratosthenes:
•nickname: “beta”
•system of latitude and longitude
•calculated the circumference of the
earth
•map of the known world
•Father of scientific chronology
Greek Philosophy
Aristarchus:
•heliocentric theory of planetary
orbit
•On the Sizes and Distances of
the Sun and Moon:
1. calculated the distance to and
size of the sun and the moon
Greek Philosophy
Greek Philosophy
Hippocrates —
"Father of Medicine”
Greek Philosophy
Hippocrates — "Father of Medicine”
•Hippocratic Oath: I swear by Apollo, …to keep
according to my ability and my judgement, the
following Oath.
•I will prescribe regimen for the good of my patients
according to my ability and my judgment and never
do harm to anyone
•To please no one will I prescribe a deadly drug nor
give advice which may cause his death
•Nor will I give a woman a pessary to procure
abortion
Greek Philosophy
Hippocrates — "Father of Medicine”
Hippocratic Collection-70 works, collection probably
from the medical library of the school of medicine
1. Airs, Waters, and Places: instead of ascribing
diseases to divine origin, discusses their
environmental causes—weather, drinking water
2. Pronostic, Coan, Prognosis, and Aphorisms:
advanced idea that a physician can predict the
course of a disease
3. Regiman and Regimen in Acute Diseases: first
idea of preventive medicine
Greek Philosophy
Hippocrates — "Father of Medicine”
•Hippocratic Collection4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Sacred Disease: an analysis on epilepsy
Joints: treatment of dislocations
Wounds in the Head
Women’s Diseases
Dismembering of the Fetus in the Womb
Greek Philosophy
Archimedes:
•beginnings of integral
calculus
•principles of the lever-”Give
me a place to stand on, and I
will move the earth!”
•discovered the principle of
specific gravity-ship
displacement
•Archimedian screw
•war machines- Archimedes
claw
Greek Philosophy
Greek Philosophy
Greek Philosophy
Zeno: Stocism
•What is proper living (the good
life)?
1. Everything was part of the
perfection of Nature
2. Man’s duty: accept cheerfully
whatever came
3. Whatever came was all for
the best
•Stoic: strong, calm, unmoved
by good or bad fortune
Greek Philosophy
Zeno: Stocism
•Was a life event in his own
power to influence?
1. Yes- shape it as wished
2. No- accept it as the will of
god
•Understanding and accepting
god’s will made a man:
1. free and wise
2. beyond fear and hope
Greek Philosophy
Epicurus: Epicureanism
•“live unobtrusively” (not
demanding attention)
•guide people in their search for
happiness
1. understanding was greatest
virtue and happiness
2. controls human appetites
Greek Philosophy
Epicurus: Epicureanism
3. lives without falseness
4. puts aside all fears
5. rewarded with the greatest
of all goods = peace
•absence of pain = happiness
Greek Philosophy
Socrates:
•believed in a universally
valid knowledge
•universal knowledge could
be gained by the “right
method:
1. exchange and
analysis of opinions
2. setting up and testing
of definitions would
lead to truths
Greek Philosophy
Socrates:
3. truths lead to an
unfailing guide to
living
•can determine absolute
right from wrong
•Socratic method:
questioning style of teaching
Greek Philosophy
Plato:
•best of Socrates’ students
•universe is spiritual and has purpose
•refutes ideas of the Sophists
Doctrine of Ideas:
1. relativity and change not complete
universe
2. higher spiritual world with eternal
ideas that only the mind could
understand
Greek Philosophy
Plato:
3. Spiritual things not mind inventions
4. Most important is the Idea of Good
5. Active, guiding purpose of the
universe
Greek Philosophy
Plato:
•True virtue:
1. rational understanding of ideas of
goodness and justice
2. rational man is noble and good
3. appetites and emotions should be
controlled by reason
Greek Philosophy
Greek Philosophy
Greek Philosophy
World inside the cave = the physical world
Fire = the sun
Objects that cast the shadows = specific objects
Shadows on the wall = images
World outside the cave = the intelligible world
Sun = form of the Good
Objects in the outside world (trees, ducks, etc.) = the forms
Shadows and reflections in the outside world = concepts
Greek Philosophy
There are four steps described:
1 Prisoners who think that shadows are reality
2 Prisoners who are freed and forced to look at the things
that are used to cast shadows on the wall and do not
recognized these as sources for shadows.
Greek Philosophy
There are four steps described:
3 Prisoners who are freed and dragged along to the outside
of the cave:
•Shadows
•Things that cast shadows
•Heavenly bodies
•Sun as the source and guarantee of all the things
outside the cave
4 Free men returning to the cave to former fellow prisoners
Greek Philosophy
Greek Philosophy
Greek Philosophy
Greek Philosophy
Plato: Political philosophy
•Ideal government:
Free from strife and self seeking
The Republic:
•3 classes of citizens
1. lowest-”appetite”: farmers,
artisans, merchants
•function: production/distribution of
goods to whole community
Greek Philosophy
Plato: Political philosophy
2. second-”spirited will”: soldiers
•function: defense of whole
community
3. highest-”reason”: intellectual
nobility
•function: political power, wise,
unselfish philosopher kings with
years of education and experience
•disliked democracy why?
Greek Philosophy
Aristotle:
•Plato’s most brilliant student
•Alexander the Great’s tutor
•Father of modern biology
•different from Socrates and Plato:
1. scientist interested in biology,
physics, astronomy
2. less spiritual outlook
•form and matter equal importance:
1. eternal
2. cannot exist without the other
Greek Philosophy
Aristotle:
3. change exists because of the
interaction between matter and
form
•First Cause = source of forms and
matter
•highest good was golden mean =
balance between indulgence and
denial
Greek Philosophy
Aristotle:
•Political philosophy:
1. government = promotion of good
life
2. man = political animal with instincts
3. best government:
•commonwealth between oligarchy
and democracy
•controlled by the middle class
•prevention of the concentration of
wealth
Greek Philosophy
Greek Philosophy