Greek Culture
Philosophers, Drama
Greek Culture
 Philosophy = the search for wisdom and knowledge

Greek word meaning “the love of wisdom”
 Socrates – 1st of the great Athenian philosophers
 Everything known about Socrates comes from the writings of
his students
 Interested in broad concepts of human life
 Best way to learn is to ask questions – Socratic method
 Use question-and-answer format to acquire knowledge
 Socrates was charged with disrespect for religion and
corrupting the city’s children
 Thought he caused children to question the actions of the
gods
 Believed the displeasure of the gods caused Athens to lose
the war
 Sentenced to death by drinking a cup of hemlock, a poison
 Plato
 Student of Socrates
 His most famous work was the Republic
 Gov’t should be led by the people most qualified
to make good decisions – philosophers
 Plato founded the Academy, a school where
respected philosophers could teach their students
and hold debates
 Questioned reality and believed in ideal Forms
 Every material object in the world was only the
reflection of a perfect ideal
 Aristotle
 Student of Plato
 Emphasis on reason and logic to study the natural
world
 Reason = clear and ordered thinking
 Logic = the process of making inferences –
a conclusion reached on the basis of evidence and reason
 Aristotle believed in analyzing through observation
and investigation
 People should use reason to learn about the
world by making careful observations
 Influenced the development of science in Europe
 History
 A systematic analysis of past events, created by the
Greeks
 The Greeks were one of the first people to write
about and analyze the past
 Herodotus – First historian, wrote about the Persian
Wars
 Thucydides – considered to be the greatest historian
of the ancient world
 Included many primary speeches and looked at his
sources critically
 Greek Drama
 Used for entertainment, two distinct forms of
drama
 Tragedies – usually focused on hardships faced by
Greek heroes
 Comedies – satires, written to expose the flaws
of society
 Several well-known Greek playwrights
 Sophocles – concentrated on the suffering people
brought upon themselves
 Many of his characters had fatal flaws
 Famous play = Oedipus Rex, the story of a king who
accidentally kills his father and marries his mother
 Aeschylus – wrote plays based on ancient Greek myths
 Famous play = Oresteia, the tragedies faced by the
leader of the Greek army on his way home from the
Trojan War
 Euripides – wrote about characters whose tragedy was
brought about by irrational behavior