Ancient Greek Philosophy: Socrates, Plato, and the Sophists
Ancient Greek Philosophy
Philosophy was born in Greece as an attempt to explain reality through reason. Later, philosophy focused more on human problems, especially ethics and politics. This reflection occurred alongside changing circumstances affecting the Greek cities, particularly Athens.
The Sophists
In the 5th century BC, at the height of Athenian democracy, teachers called Sophists offered lessons about topics closest to humans: anthropology, law, and politics. According to Protagoras, it makes no sense to talk about what things are, but rather what they seem to be for each individual. Applied to ethics, this meant that justice, good, or other moral values could not be universally defined; instead, what is good or just is what each individual deems so. For the Sophists, a virtuous man is one who can understand the agreements and opinions on what is just or convenient within their community and, through persuasion, convince their fellow citizens that a particular thing is desirable.
Socrates
Socrates shared the cultural environment, time, and ethical and political concerns of the Sophists, but not their relativism and skepticism. Socrates was convinced of the existence of truth and believed it was possible to achieve it. He encouraged everyone to question what is good, confident that reason could lead everyone to knowledge. He believed this quest would lead man to happiness. Socrates maintained that knowledge is the key to concrete moral action, formulating what is known as Ethical Intellectualism: knowledge is virtue, vice is ignorance, and the remedy lies in teaching virtue. According to Socrates, when a man knows what is good, he acts correctly; no one knowingly makes a mistake. The reason human beings act badly is not weakness but an intellectual error: judging as good or desirable what is not. Considering all moral virtues as forms of knowledge, we can only understand justice if we know what justice is.
Plato
Plato, a disciple of Socrates, inherited his teacher’s passion for truth. He situated truth in a world of ideal realities (the World of Ideas), which also includes moral values: justice itself, beauty itself, or the Good itself. Plato established a correspondence between the good of the individual and the good of society. The organization and division of society are analogous to the human soul, which he distinguished into three parts: the rational soul, the spirited soul, and the appetitive soul. The rational soul is the seat of reason and intelligence. The spirited soul refers to the will, and the appetitive soul refers to the instinctual part of the human soul. Society itself must be organized into three groups: rulers, warriors, and workers. Each individual will belong to one group or another depending on the type of soul that prevails within them. Each group and its members are associated with a virtue: prudence for the rulers, courage for the warriors, and moderation for the workers. Both in the soul and in society, conflicts can arise. These should be resolved by putting each element in its proper place: reason should direct, valor should protect, and instincts should be moderate and obedient. The result will be a righteous soul, an organized society with justice, and therefore a happy citizen.