Ancient Greek Philosophy: Socrates, Plato, Aristotle
The Anthropological Period of Greek Philosophy
The anthropological period is named for the shift in focus of Greek thinkers to man and his problems. This marked a transition from cosmological inquiries. The Sophists and Socrates are key figures of this period.
Key Ideas and Philosophers
- Charicles: Democracy is not for the weak; when the strong man rules, the law is shattered.
- Gorgias: Disadvantage is desirable and depends on the individual.
- Pythagoras: Man is the measure of all things that are and are not.
Plato’s Tripartite Soul
Plato proposed that the soul has three parts: rational, irascible, and lustful. He believed the rational part should govern our lives, as it understands what is good and bad.
Pragmatism
Pragmatism is a way of thinking that suggests if something solves a problem or helps us, particularly in contrast to perceived dishonesty (as in the provided example of a test), it is correct.
The Greek Sophist Movement
The Sophists were an intellectual movement of scholars and teachers in 5th century BC Greece. They were motivated by a crisis of the Greek spirit, shifting focus from the cosmos to man. The Sophists moved attention from nature to human-centric problems.
Pre-Socratic Philosophers
- Thales: Believed water was the arche (fundamental principle) because everything needs water to live. He observed that one can endure months without food but only days without water, and that a water bag breaks before birth.
- Pythagoras: Rejected a material arche and explained the rationality of the cosmos with mathematics. He believed numbers imposed order on a chaotic world and provided the basic explanation of reality.
- Anaximenes: Another philosopher, thought infinity was too vague a concept. He believed that no material substance could lack features. He proposed that the arche was air, as it sustains human life and the world like wind. He observed that warm air was like fire and gradually cooled into wind, water, and rocks.
- Democritus: Stated that reality was composed of atoms and the void. He believed atoms were indivisible particles of matter that could not be created or destroyed.
Socrates’ Concept of Virtue
Socrates identified virtue with knowledge and vice as a result of ignorance: Socratic intellectualism. He believed no one sins willingly, but those who do evil do so out of ignorance of good. By identifying virtue with knowledge, he combatted Sophist relativism. He upheld the foundations of Athenian democracy, moral virtue, equality before the law, and freedom of expression. Ultimately, he saw virtue as an end in itself, not as a means to an external reward.
Aristotle’s Golden Mean
For Aristotle, happiness lies in virtue, in the perfection of the proper function of man: reason. Because man also has an irrational part, virtues can be divided into two classes: dianoetic virtues and ethical virtues. Ethical virtue is a habit of choosing a balance between two vicious extremes (the “golden mean”). It’s a habit because one must have chosen well consistently to be considered virtuous. Reason determines the golden mean in each case; it cannot be established in advance by a rule. Prudence is the virtue acquired by the person who has consistently chosen the golden mean. The supreme ethical virtue is justice.
The Concept of Moral Truth
Moral truth is the matching of thought and the exposition of thought. It opposes the lie. It is not to be confused with verbal truth. There is always moral truth when the speaker expresses what’s on their mind, even if they are wrong, provided that they believe it to be true. A better definition of moral truth is “the correspondence of the outward expression of thought with the thing as it is conceived by the speaker.” Moral truth, therefore, does not imply true knowledge.