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Unit 2: Ancient Greek Philosophy
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Introduction
Ancient Greece marks the beginnings of western
philosophy although it is important to note that while
philosophy was being developed in Ancient Greece,
philosophies of their own had developed in other
parts of the world, most notably Asia and the Middle
East. However, these philosophies tend to be quite
different from Ancient Greek philosophy in the sense
that the philosophies themselves were usually tied to
religious or spiritual beliefs. Ancient Greek
philosophy is generally divided into two segments,
pre-Socratic and academic.
Pre-Socratic Philosophy
Socrates is said to be the father of logic and
reasoning. Really logic and reasoning are a natural human process, but Socrates was the first person to
formalize logic. This means that the philosophers of the pre-Socratic period did not need to justify their beliefs
beyond making them sound right. However, certain pre-Socratic philosophers still held very rational beliefs.
The two we will be looking at in this class, Pythagoras of Samos and Zeno of Elea, have both put forward beliefs
that, in spite of the lack or requirement for logic were, in fact logically sound.
Academic
The reason that the philosophers who follow Socrates (and most scholars include Socrates himself) are
considered Academics is because Plato, who was a student of Socrates, founded a school. He called the school
“The Academy”. Plato used this name because before he built his school, sight contained a sacred grove of olive
trees dedicated to Athena, the goddess of wisdom, outside the city walls of ancient Athens. The archaic name
for the site was Hekademia, which by classical times evolved into Akademia. It was said to be linked to an
Athenian hero, a legendary "Akademos". As a result of this the philosophers who followed generally taught in
schools or founded their own and thus we have the beginning of academics.
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Unit 2: Ancient Greek Philosophy
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Pythagoras of Samos
Pythagoras is probably best known for his Pythagorean Theorem relating to the
mathematics of triangles. Pythagoras was also a well-known philosopher who even had a
cult of followers relating to his beliefs. Pythagoras was a somewhat shadowy figure and
never wrote anything down. What we know of his philosophy comes from students of his
who documented his thoughts and ideas. Pythagoras taught many things to his
followers, including the veneration for and non-consumption of beans.
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Metaphysics
Pythagoras believed in reincarnation and the transmigration of the human soul.
Pythagoras believed that the world was made up of numbers and equations at the root of it all, which
lead to the modern belief of numerology (a belief that numbers guide our fate and that we each have a
value that is special to us).
Pythagoras believed that music had special power of the soul and was woven into the fabric of the
universe itself. Of course, Pythagoras also noted the mathematic value of music, which is why it is held
in such great esteem.
Pythagoras believed that the number 10 is the perfect number because it is made up of the sum of the
first four integers.
Pythagoras believed that there were 10 celestial bodies, (5 planets, the sun, the moon, the earth and the
counter-earth)
The counter-earth is mysterious and invisible.
All of these bodies orbit a central fire.
Epistemology
- Pythagoras believed that through knowing the relationships between numbers, we could come to know
all things.
- This lead to many mathematical discoveries such as Pythagorean Theorem and irrational numbers.
Ethics
Little is known of Pythagoras’ ethics because his followers were quite fragmented following his death and he
himself did not write on ethics.
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Unit 2: Ancient Greek Philosophy
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Zeno of Elea
Zeno of Elea was a student of Parmenides. Most people consider Zeno to be the
father of the logical argument known as “Reductio ad Absurdum” in which an
opponent’s view is demonstrably false by showing that it leads to a contradiction.
Zeno’s teacher, Parmenides, held the belief that change is impossible and that
reality is singular, undivided and harmonious. Parmenides said that to think of
something is to give it some semblance of existence, therefore one cannot think of
something that is not, only something that is. This meant for Parmenides that if you
consider that something is, something else must not be (if the car is red, it is not
green) thus we have thought of something that is not. This means that one cannot
discriminate between two things in this world. This means things are not divisible
and movement is impossible. Zeno defended this idea with the following three
paradoxes.
Zeno’s Paradoxes
1. Achilles Cannot Cross the Stadium – Space is infinitely divisible. Before Achilles can cross the stadium he
must cross the halfway point. Before he can cross the half way point, he must cross the half way point to
the half way point i.e.
(A-1/16--1/8----1/4--------1/2---------------------------End)
Therefore, since there are an infinite number of half way points (because space is infinitely
divisible) and Achilles must first cross the half way point before arriving at his destination, he
cannot cross the stadium.
2. An Arrow Cannot Reach It’s Target – For motion to be occurring, an object must change the position which
it occupies, such as an arrow in flite. In any one instant of time, for the arrow to be moving it must either
move to where it is, or it must move to where it is not. It cannot move to where it is not, because this is a
single instant, and it cannot move to where it is because it is already there. In other words, in any instant of
time there is no motion occurring, because an instant is a snapshot. Therefore, if it cannot move in a single
instant it cannot move in any instant, making any motion impossible.
3. Achilles Cannot Overtake the Tortoise – Space is infinitely divisible. Achilles is very fast and the tortoise is
very slow so Achilles gives the tortoise a head start. If we assume that both objects are in constant motion
after the head start (the tortoise slow and Achilles fast), then Achilles will eventually reach the point the
tortoise started from. During this time, the tortoise has run a much shorter distance, say, 10 feet. It will
then take Achilles some further time to run that distance, by which time the tortoise will have advanced
farther; and then more time still to reach this third point, while the tortoise moves ahead. Thus, whenever
Achilles reaches somewhere the tortoise has been, he still has farther to go. Therefore, because there are
an infinite number of points Achilles must reach where the tortoise has already been, he can never
overtake the tortoise.
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Unit 2: Ancient Greek Philosophy
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Socrates
Socrates did not write anything down himself, nor did he teach anything directly. Socrates
taught solely by means of public discussions. What we know of Socrates’ ideas comes
from Plato, who was a pupil of his and recorded these public discussions. Unlike many of
the sophists of his time, Socrates did not accept payment for this work. Many of the
Socratic dialogues lead to confrontations with elders and statesmen. Socrates was
eventually put on trial under charges of ‘not believing in the city gods’ and ‘corrupting the
youth’. Socrates was executed for these crimes.
Ethics
- Socrates believed that “the unexamined life is not worth living.”
- He generally held that people were simply going through the motions of their lives and that they ought
to apply a more logical approach to their existence.
- Socrates believed that one must abide by laws because by living in a city, you agree to a social contract
by which you accept the laws of that city.
- Socrates believed that virtue is ultimately unreachable (Socrates refers to the doctrine of recollection to
explain why people are virtuous).
- Socrates believed that knowledge and virtue are so closely related that no human agent knowing does
evil. Rather, we all do whatever we believe is best.
- Evil or wrong-doing are therefore the result of ignorance rather than lack of willpower.
Epistemology
- Socrates believed that “the only true knowledge is in knowing that we know nothing.”
- Socrates rallied against the uncritical acceptance of orthodoxy of any kind.
- Socrates seemed dedicated to destroying the notion that we understand the world perfectly without
deep reflection.
- He often challenged people by asking them to define terms such as ‘ beauty’, ‘good’ or ‘piety’. Through
logical argumentation, he then showed that all of the proposed definitions of these common ideas lead
to some kind of contradiction of absurdity.
- Socrates believed that we cannot learn anything we do not already know. Either we already know what
we are looking for, in which case we don't need to look, or we don't know what we're looking for, in
which case we wouldn't recognize it if we found it.
- The only way to escape this is the ‘doctrine of recollection’ where we are not learning things that are
unknown but rather realizing something of which we were already aware.
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Plato
Plato was a student of Socrates who founded his own academy, which is
reportedly the first institution of higher education. Plato’s real name was
Aristocles, the name Plato is a nicknamed he received during his career as a
wrestler. It means, “rock”. Much of Plato’s philosophy relates to the “Allegory
of the Cave”, which I have included here for your reference.
Image from Great Dialogues of Plato (Warmington and
Rouse, eds.) New York, Signet Classics: 1999. p. 316.
Imagine a group of people who have lived chained to the wall of a cave all of their lives, facing a blank wall. The people
watch shadows projected on the wall by things passing in front of a fire behind them, and begin to ascribe forms to these
shadows. The shadows are as close as the prisoners get to viewing reality. The philosopher is like a prisoner who is freed
from the cave and comes to understand that the shadows on the wall do not make up reality at all, as he can perceive the
true form of reality rather than the mere shadows seen by the prisoners.
(Summarized from Plato’s Republic, Book VII(514a–520a))
Metaphysics
- Plato believed that the world we experience is illusionary and that the real world was made up of ideal
forms.
- What we see and experience are imperfect representations of ideal and perfect forms.
- There are many men, all of whom are made in the image of the universal form of man. Likewise with
women and all other creatures and things.
- He also believed that there were ideas forms of universal or abstract concepts such as beauty, justice
truth and even mathematics.
- He believed that the world we experience includes imperfect reflections of perfect forms.
- Plato believed that there were grades of existence/truth as outlined in the chart below.
Truest
Invisible, Immutable, Eternal, Ideal
Least True
Visible, Changing, Ephemeral, Real
Ethical Forms
(the good)
Physical
Objects
Mathematical
Forms
Fleeting
Shadows
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Unit 2: Ancient Greek Philosophy
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Epistemology
- Plato believed that the world we experience through our senses is the least true representation of
reality. He believed that Logic and Ethics were more true than objects we perceived.
- Plato believed in grades of knowing that reflect his metaphysical grades of existence or truth
- Grades of knowing:
Intelligence =
Intelligence =
Intunitive Reason
Understanding
(Dialectical)
(Deductive)
Knowledge
Belief =
Imaging =
Faith or Conviction
Appearing
(True Opinion)
(Everyday Reality)
Opinion
Ethics
- Plato agreed with the Socratic idea that ignorance leads to wrongdoing.
- Plato therefore asserted that the more one knew or understood, the more ethically good that person
would be.
- Therefore those who have knowledge ought to be free, whereas, those who lack knowledge ought to be
tightly controlled.
Socio-Political Philosophy
- Plato believed that because the philosophers were the ones who escaped the cave and had true
knowledge, they were also ethically better people.
- This means that philosophers and only philosophers were qualified to rule society. (This ideas was later
termed “Philosopher Kings”)
- He proposes that these Philosopher Kings are an elite class of guardians trained from birth for the task
of ruling society (which is ultimately simply a great deal of education and understanding).
- The rest of society is divided into soldiers and common people.
- He believed that the ideal citizen is someone who knows how to best use his or her talents for the
betterment of society.
- In this society everything is very tightly controlled by the Philosopher Kings for the good of the state as a
whole.
- Plato called this proposed society “The Republic”
Aesthetics
- Plato believed that nature is the true art and art therefore ought to mimic nature to the best of its
ability. Good art is realistic
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Aristotle
Aristotle was a philosopher who studied under Plato at the Academy until Plato’s death when
Aristotle founded his own school called the Lyceum. As well as a philosopher, Aristotle was a
scientist, astronomer, political theorists, dramaturge and the founder of what is now called
symbolic or formal logic. After the discovery of Aristotle’s works in 500 CE, Saint Thomas Aquinas
reconciled the writings of Aristotle with Christian doctrine in the 13th century.
Epistemology
- Aristotle focused on identification and classification of things in his work.
- He believed that in order to know things, you needed to know the four causes of that thing.
- Aristotle’s four causes are:
o Material Cause - The stuff out of which something is made
o Formal Cause - The form (shape, arrangement or functional organization) of it
o Moving Cause - The action or process that brings that thing into existence
o Final Cause - The reason something exists (it's purpose)
Metaphysics
- Aristotle strongly held to a belief in teleology or purpose for all things.
- He believed that all things behaved as they did because they were directed towards some form of telos
(final purpose). He used this to explain the behaviour of people, institutions, animals and plants alike.
- He believed that all things ought to try to best serve their natural telos
- Aristotle concluded that because all things had a cause independent of themselves, that there must be
some kind of unmoved mover or self-caused thing that is the origin of all things.
Ethics
- Aristotle believed that the purpose of human beings is to be the ideal person. This means that one must
be a virtuous person.
- Aristotle believed that the only way to become a virtuous person is to practice virtuous actions and that
the laws of state and government ought to strive to make people practice virtue.
- Aristotle observed that inevitably the virtuous action is the action lies in the ‘golden mean’, which is
described as the mid-point between extremes of behaviour as outlined in the chart below:
Vice of Deficiency
Cowardice
Insensitivity
Low Self-Esteem
Shamelessness
Self-Deprecation
Surliness
Virtue
Courage
Confidence
Moderation
Desire for Bodily Pleasure
Magnamity
Desire for Pleasure
Modesty
Shame
Truthfulness
Self-Presentation
Friendliness
Desire to Please Others
Vice of Excess
Rashness
Over Indulgence
Vanity
Bashfulness
Boastfulness
Obsequiousness
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Unit 2: Ancient Greek Philosophy
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Marcus Aurelius
Although Marcus Aurelius is technically a roman philosopher, much of his writings and ideas
are classified as Stoic, which is a branch of philosophy that began in ancient Greece with Zeno
of Citium around 300 BCE. Marcus Aurelius was Roman Emperor from 161 CE until his death
in 180 CE. In his book Meditations, Marcus Aurelius does a good job of summarizing the
ideas of the stoic philosophers of ancient Greece. Stoicism began with Zeno teaching in
public spaces. As a result of this, Stoicism grew into something akin to a cult.
Metaphysics
- Stoics believe that some form of divine providence has placed the capacity of reason in man it was in the
power of man to be one with the rational purpose of the universe.
- Stoics believe that reasoning and logic are the rout of understanding and through understanding we can
become happier and better people because we will be in touch with our true purpose.
Ethics
- Stoics believe that emotions are a destructive force in our lives.
- Therefore we must develop self-control as a means of overcoming our emotions.
- By becoming a clear, unbiased thinker uninhibited by our emotions we can understand universal reason
(logos—later to become the etymological root of logic)
- By being free of anger, jealousy, envy or sadness we can reason things and be truly ethical
- Stoics believed in equality among all men (including slaves) because we are all alike as sons of God.
- Stoics believed a wicked man is a victim of his emotions, like a dog tied to a cart, it is compelled to go
wherever it goes.
- A stoic virtue is sick, yet happy, in peril, yet happy, dying, yet happy, in exile, yet happy, in disgrace, yet
happy.
- Stoicism espouses a life of contentment with one’s own lot and simple living.
- A good life according to Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Annaeus Senica before him was a simple life
devoted to virtue and reason.
Epistemology
- Stoics believed that knowledge can be attained through reason.
- It is through reason that a Stoic can distinguish truth from fallacy and through this one can come to truly
know and hold truth. In this sense stoics are often classified as rationalists.
- Stoics believe that the mind has the ability to judge, approve or reject an impression, enabling it to
distinguish a true representation of reality from one that is false.
- According to stoicism, some impressions can be assented to immediately, but others can only achieve
varying degrees of hesitant approval, which can be labeled belief or opinion.
- Stoics believe that it is only through reason that we achieve clear comprehension and conviction.
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Lao Tzu
Lao Tzu is loosely translated to “Old Sage” and the name is used as the authorship of a very
important work of eastern philosophy known as the Tao Te Ching (or Dao De Jing). This
work was likely written by multiple authors or is possibly a collection or oral sayings. The
title of the book translates as follows; Tao means “the way or path”, Ching means “power or
law” and Te means “virtue of goodness”. Thus the title is loosely translated to “The way
and law of natural goodness.”
Metaphysics
- Taoism espouses a natural balance to all things. Things are in balance between two forces, the yin,
which represents being, receiving, night and rest and the yang, which represents doing, giving, day,
activity and growth. Put simply, the Yin is a passive force and the yang is the active force
- The Tao is considered to be the fundamental principle of the universe from which all things come and all
particular things are made possible, but the Tao itself is not a thing or particular form.
- Taoism views the world as constantly changing and always in flux, but the change is not random and
flows in cycles of growth and decay.
- Taoists believe the nothing is permanent.
Ethics
- Taoists believe that one cannot attempt to force nature. According to a Taoist, the ultimate good is
being flexible and adaptable and not willing things to be or not be but accepting what is.
- Taoism asks us to live lives that are simple and tranquil and in line with nature.
- To this end Taoism teaches its followers to avoid traps such as; luxury, competition, anxiety,
dissatisfaction and the desires of our bodies.
Epistemology
- Taoists believed that we can never have a true understanding of the universe because life is limited and
the amount of things to know is unlimited.
- To use limited human knowledge to pursue unlimited understanding is foolish.
- The first line of the Tao is often translated as, “The way that can be spoken of is not the real way; the
name that can be named is not the eternal name.” Meaning that we cannot really understand anything.
- Each person has a unique past (called path) which informs them in all cognitive ways.
- Thus our most carefully considered opinions may seem misguided had we experienced a different past.
- Natural dispositions to behavior combine with acquired ones.
o Names of things
o Approval or disapproval based on names
o Acting in accordance with bodily standards
- Thinking about and choosing our next step down our Tao or path is conditioned by this unique set of
natural acquisitions.
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Unit 2: Ancient Greek Philosophy
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Buddhism
The term Buddha means “enlightened one” and often refers to Siddhārtha Gautama Buddha who was a
spiritual teacher who lived from about 563 BCE until approximately 483 BCE, although there is still some
academic debate about this.
Ethics
- Buddhist ethics focus on keeping “the middle way”, cultivating a life of contemplation and
enlightenment. The “middle way” is similar to Aristotle’s mean virtues, but is applied in a much broader
context.
- Buddhism emphasises avoidance and moderation rather than striving for any purpose, whether
desirable or not.
- Buddhist ethics can be summed up with
5 basic ethical precepts:
o To undertake training to avoid taking the life of beings.
o To undertake training to avoid taking things not given.
o To undertake training to avoid sensual misconduct.
o To undertake training to refrain from false speech.
o To undertake training to abstain from substances which cause intoxication or heedlessness.
Metaphysics
- In Buddhism, the material world is thought to be an illusion.
- They see the world as going through a constant cycle of birth and death. This means that rebirth is part
of this cycle.
- Rebirth refers to a process whereby beings go through a succession of lifetimes as one of many possible
forms of sentient life, each running from conception to death.
- Buddhism rejects the concepts of a permanent self or an unchanging, eternal soul. According to
Buddhism there ultimately is no such thing as a self that is independent from the rest of the universe.
- Buddhists also believe in a force referred to as Karma, in which an action, which is the result of intention
plants a seed in the mind and will have consequences in this life or the next. Good deeds have good
consequences and bad deeds have bad consequences.
- Buddhists believe that suffering (or dukkha) can be avoided through enlightenment and knowing the
four noble truths (dukkha, the cause of dukkha, the cessation of dukkha and the path to the cessation of
dukkha)
- The path consists of eight interconnected factors, namely: Right View (or Right Understanding), Right
Intention (or Right Thought), Right Speech, Right Action, Right Livelihood, Right Effort, Right
Mindfulness, and Right Concentration.
- Buddhists see the world as marked by impermanence, suffering and non-self
NOTE: Buddhism is a complex religion with great variation in interpretation, these notes represent basic philosophical
tenants and do not cover all interpretations of Buddhism, nor do they fully cover any specific interpretation. If you
wish to know more, I encourage you to speak with an actual Bhuddist.