Department of Philosophy and Psyhology
Lecturer: PhD, docent
Elena Shevchenko
Classic period (V-IV centuries BC.) of antique Philosophy
For all specialities
Lection’s plan
Classic period of antique Philosophy (V-IV centuries BC.)
 Sophists (sophists – sage, master, an expert) are the first
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professional philosophers.
Socratic method
The philosophy of Plato (Aristocles)
The philosophy of Aristotle
Features of the classical period
Requirements for knowledge and skills
Knowledge
 Issues of the philosophy of classical period
 Philosophical tendencies in classical period
 Authors and terminology of antique philosophy
 Specificity of the philosophical schools of antiquity
Skills
 To be able to orient in a huge variety of opinions, beliefs and
values
 Be able to identify the similarities and differences of
philosophical concepts of antiquity
 Be able to identify tendencies in the cultural dialogue
between East and West
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Themes for knowledge recovery
To prepare for the theme “Classic period (V-IV centuries BC)
ancient philosophy” must be repeated themes:
■ Philosophy and its role in human life and society.
■ The origin of philosophical thought (ancient India and
ancient Chinese philosophy)
■ The problem of being in early ancient philosophy.
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Contents
Classic period of ancient philosophy
1. Main concepts
2. Academic material
3. Questions for self-examination
4. Recommended books
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Main concepts
Classic period of ancient philosophy
 The school of Athens
 Sophists
 Maieutic
 Triad
 Ideas
 Peripatetic school
 Matter
 Form
 Metaphysics
 Logic
 Mind
 God
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Academic material
Features of the classical period
Socrates, Plato, Aristotle are the greatest ancient Greek
philosophers.
Athens is the center of classical philosophy.
The School of Athens is the sum of the theories of the classics
The peculiarity of the classical period that offset the problems
of natural philosophical issues to issues of anthropological
and epistemological nature.
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Academic material
Sophistry
Sophists:
 Enlightenment is the
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ancient Greek Sophists,
who taught for money
“wisdom and oratory”.
Protagoras, Hippias and
others are members of
sophistry.
Features sophistry:
 A critical attitude to reality.
 The rejection of the experience of
past civilizations.
 The rejection of the old norms, laws
and customs.
 Subjectivity in assessments and
judgments
 Following the logic of practice and in
the process of knowledge
Academic material
Comparative characteristics of the philosophy of Socrates and the sophists
Expressions of sophists
«There are two diametrically opposed views about everything» - sophists were
taught.
“Of the views you can select one that will require, the criterion of truth is in the man”.
«Human is the measure of all things» (Protagoras)
Socrates (469-399 years BC)
Socrates led talks and discussions with students and opponents.
Socrates first made the subject of analysis of the concept, not reality itself.
The Socratic method (“maieutic”) is a skilful guidance of questions in order to
achieve the responses which help the truth is born
One of the main philosophical problems of Socrates is self-knowledge (“Know
yourself”)
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Academic material
Plato (Aristocles) ( 427-347 years BC)
Philosophical school– Academy in Athens.
The main genre is dialogue (“Sophist”, “Parmenides”,
“Theaetetus”, “State” (Socrates is the main person in the
dialogue).
The doctrine of the Triad. Everything that exists is
composed of three substances – “single”, “mind” and “soul”.
Plato is a founder of idealistic philosophy. He said that
there are eternal values of life and principles of morality,
comprehensible (understandable) by mind.
There is a world of “being” objectively. It is the “world of
ideas”. It is eternal. It can not be created.
The real world is the world of consciousness, the world of
ideas. The idea is kind of sample, the thought.
Ideas have prototypes of all things. They have a primary.
They are independent of human and things.
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Academic material
Plato’s theory of knowledge
Epistemology
Рисунок
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Explore the world of ideas is possible
not through sensation, but through a
system of concepts that are tested
by logic.
We know “the beauty in itself”, “justice
in itself” by mind, by means of
dialectics, by building the system of
concepts according to the principle
of logic.
We can justify the essence of being,
the rules of morality not by intuition,
but by means of the mind.
Academic material
Aristotle (384-322 years BC)
Рисунок
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Aristotle founded the Lyceum in Athens.
Methods of teaching Aristotle called
Peripatetic. Greek world
“Peripateticos” means “walk about”,
“promenade” because teaching was
often conducted during walks.
Books of Aristotle : «Organon»,
«Metaphysics», «Physics»,
«Politics», «Nicomachean Ethics»
and so on.
Ideas are the cause of things, but the
ideas have to be in the things
themselves, and not in another
“world of ideas” («Plato is my friend,
but the truth is more valuable»)
Academic material
Aristotle (384-322 years BC)
Theory
All things are composed of two
elements – the “Form” and
“Matter”.«Matter» - is a passive
possibility. “Form” is the active
principle, the reality.
Рисунок
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Aristotle created a philosophical
system of scientific disciplines.
Theoretical disciplines:
(mathematics, physics,
psychology. Practical disciplines:
ethics. Creative disciplines:
technics, esthetics)
Academic material
Main ideas in theory of Aristotle.
«Metaphysics» - is the science of the intelligible. It’s
about what is beyond our experience, what is “after
physics”. Metaphysics is “first philosophy”. Total
known through inductive generalization of the
sensible world.
The doctrine of the categories. The concepts can be
summarized in one common way. The main
categories are: «essence» (being), «quality»,
«quantity», «ratio», «site», «time», «act», «suffering»,
«possession», «condition».
The science of the principles of thought (Logic). Logic
associated with the theory of being, with the theory of
truth. There are forms of being in the logical truths.
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Academic material
Main ideas of Aristotle's theory
•Theory about matter and form.
•Theory about soul. Human, plant and
animal have a soul. The ability of growth,
nutrition and reproduction is at the soul of
plant. Animal soul has a feeling. The soul of
human is the rational soul. People can live in
a group. The human is a “social animal”.
•The mind does not depend on the body. It is
eternal and unchanging, active mind. God is
a moral model. God is “thinking himself
thinking”.
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Academic material
The Aristotle's heritage
He systemized and generalized philosophical
knowledge, accumulated by IV centuries BC.
He developed the basic structure of philosophical
knowledge, rut into circulation many categories.
He began of the existence of formal logic and physics
as a separate subjects.
He developed the theoretical foundations of ethics,
aesthetics, social philosophy.
He developed a Geocentric system.
Together with the theory of Plato Aristotle was the
legacy of the philosophy of Christianity.
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Acquired knowledge
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Features of the classical period of ancient philosophy.
Schools, tendencies, famous philosophers of this period.
The essence of sophistry.
The philosophy of Socrates and feature of his method.
The main genre of the Plato’s books. The essence of objective
idealism of Plato’s theory. Plato’s theory of knowledge.
 Plato’s theory of State.
 Aristotle. Peripatetic school. Theory of four causes. Theory of
matter and form.
 Classification of the sciences in Aristotle’s theory. Aristotle’s
theory of State.
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Questions for self-examination
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What are the main features of the classical ancient philosophy?
What are the main philosophical schools of classical period?
What was the purpose of philosophical reasoning of Socrates?
What is the objective idealist theory of Plato?
What is the essence of things, according Aristotle’s theory?
What is the conceptual difference between the early period and
classical period of ancient philosophy?
Recommended books
1.Philosophy: Textbook for higher education/edited by V.N. Lavrinenko. –
М., 2001
2.Anthology of philosophical thought. – М., 1993.
3.Asmus V.F. Antique Philosophy. – М., 1976.
4.Ilyin V. The history of philosophy: Textbook for higher education. – St.
Petersburg, 2003.
5.Karatiny R. Introduction to Philosophy. – М., 2003.
6.Kirilenko G.G., Shevtsov Е.V., Short philosophical dictionary. – М., 2003.
7.Losev А.F. The history of ancient philosophy in a synoptic presentation. –
М., 1998.
8.The fragments of the early Greek Philosophers. – М., 1969. – P.1
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