Ancient & Medieval Philosophy: Thinkers & Concepts
Ancient Philosophy
The first philosophers, who appeared in Greece in the sixth century BC, tried to establish a principle (archē) from which all reality originates. The archē is singular for monists and multiple for pluralists.
Philosophy from the colonies moved to Athens in the mid-fifth century BC. Here, the Sophists and Socrates focused on humanity and the city (polis), including concepts like liberty, political equality, and law.
The Sophists believed that both moral and legal standards of the state are arbitrary and conventional, relative to each community and epoch. They also advocated skepticism, which involves refraining from making definitive claims on any issue.
Socrates advocated abandoning questions about the cosmos to focus on moral and political anthropology and its relationship with language. He criticized the Sophists. For Socrates, the wise person is one who acknowledges their own ignorance (“I know that I know nothing”). He believed those who consider themselves wise despite their ignorance cannot truly investigate and thus move away from the truth. He also defended moral intellectualism, linking virtue to knowledge, arguing that one who is not virtuous is simply ignorant.
Finally, with Plato and Aristotle, Athenian philosophy reached its zenith.
Plato initially followed his teacher Socrates but soon introduced new topics. The center of his philosophy is the Theory of Forms (or Ideas): a differentiation between the sensible world (composed of material things perceived by the senses) and the intelligible world (composed of absolute, universal, and eternal Forms, accessed through reason). Platonic thought emphasizes that knowledge of the Forms of Good, Beauty, and Justice enables a virtuous life, both privately and publicly, fostering a just and organized polis with harmony among its citizens. For this, education is fundamental.
Aristotle, a student at Plato’s Academy, did not accept the separation between Forms and the physical world. He approached ethics and politics with a more realistic position. In ethics, he emphasized achieving reason and virtue. In politics, his work is based on the thesis that humans are by nature social animals (zoon politikon). He believed the state could be governed by various forms of leadership, all aiming for the common good.
Medieval Philosophy
Philosophy in the Middle Ages primarily focused on the relationship between faith and reason.
Early Christian philosophers, such as St. Augustine, developed Patristic philosophy. St. Augustine did not make a strict demarcation between reason and faith, considering there to be only one truth, ultimately found in the Scriptures.
Thomas Aquinas belonged to another Christian philosophical stream called Scholasticism (derived from the Latin ‘schola,’ meaning school). These schools were the primary cultural centers of the Middle Ages. Later, the term ‘Scholasticism’ was used more broadly to refer to philosophy developed in alignment with Christian dogma.
The main themes of this philosophy included:
- The relationship between philosophy and theology
- The relations between Church and State
St. Thomas Aquinas established clearer boundaries between reason (the power of knowing) and faith (the capacity to believe). Regarding Church-State relations, he argued that the Church is a society superior to the State, and the State should be subordinate to the Church in matters concerning supernatural life.
After several attempts by Scholasticism to reconcile faith and reason, William of Ockham declared such a union impossible, arguing they have different contents and sources. Ockham’s political thought was based on opposition to the absolute power of the Pope. He also rejected the idea of imperial power being derived from papal authority.