Discussions
Map compliments of the Oxford Classical Dictionary. See https://oxfordre.com/classics/page/maps/maps-of-the-ancient-world.
Studies
The Presocratics
The philosophers before Socrates focused on how the world arose and how it works. They wrote speculatively about nature and the cosmos. Some challenged the possibility of science. And some emphasized practical studies about how people can get along or get ahead in the world. Their speculations led to advances in scientific knowledge.
Socrates
Socrates turned away from cosmology, and while he was fascinated with efforts of the Sophists to pursue on practical subjects, he himself insisted that what we should concern ourselves with was not our own success but what is right and wrong, good an evil. He turned philosophy towards ethics and moral theory.
Plato
A follower of Socrates, Plato wished to put the study of ethics on a firm foundation by developing a science of reality, or metaphysics, a science of knowledge, or epistemology, and studies of political science, education, aesthetics, and, eventually, natural science. He saw the world of experience as subject to an ideal realm.
Aristotle
A student of Plato, Aristotle never accepted his mentor's focus on the ideal realities of another world. He saw the ground of reality as concrete physical objects, from which ideal or universal entities were but abstractions. He developed a powerful account of science, and divided knowledge into most of the departmental studies that make up the modern curriculum.
Early Science
Early Greek science was deeply influenced by most of the early thinkers. The Presocratics believed in making and testing hypotheses. They invented concepts such as those of sources, principles, elements, compounds, atoms and empty space. Aristotle formalized logic and also took over the concept of a logic of scientific discovery and proof from Plato.
Recent Discussions
8.4 What Is Courage?
One way of distinguishing between courage and other virtues is to note that the possessor of the virtue must overcome fear. Those who have other virtues may yet fall victim to fear when placed in positions of great danger. Here Socrates offers a model for consideration. It is said that people act viciously in many cases when they are overcome by pleasure. Let us grant for the sake of argument that pleasure is the good, a value theory known as Hedonism.[8] Even then we need to recognize, Socrates points out,
8.3 Is Virtue Teachable?
When the preliminaries are over, Socrates raises a fundamental question: can virtue be taught? Socrates has his doubts. In areas of technical expertise such as architecture, the government sends for experts. But they do not seek experts for advice on how to govern—any citizen is welcome to put in his two-cents’ worth. Look at how children of virtuous persons are brought up, he continues. The sons of Pericles, for instance—who happen to be present at the gathering of sophists—are put out to graze like cattle, without any sure way of
8.2 The Sophist’s Pitch
“Young man,” Protagoras says to his prospective student Hippocrates, “if you come to me, your gain will be this. On the same day you join me, you will go home having improved yourself, and the same the next day. Each day you will make progress toward a better state.”[3] Very good, Socrates replies, but that is not what we are asking. What exactly do you propose to teach, and how will that make Hippocrates a better man? Protagoras replies that he does not teach his students technical subjects such
8.1 Socrates among the Sophists
In Socrates’ lifetime the big new thing intellectually was the Sophistic Movement. The sophists were self-proclaimed experts who offered to share their knowledge in return for payment. What was immediately striking, perhaps revolutionary about this was the fact that before the sophists, there was no adult education. There were schools in most cities where children—well, boys—could learn to read and write, do arithmetic, sing and dance, and get physical training—in short, elementary or primary schools. There were no advanced schools for older boys, no middle or high schools. And nothing
7.5 Plato’s Socrates at Large
Socrates’ life is an enigma; the views that he on occasion advances as his own are paradoxical. His method, if he has one, seems totally inadequate to produce the virtuous life that seems to be his goal. He pursues truth and virtue with the passion of a street evangelist. Yet he claims to have no special knowledge and to depend on the opinions of whoever he is talking to in order to gain enlightenment. Is Socrates then merely playing mind games with his interlocutors? Is he intent on embarrassing them
74. The Magnet
So what made Socrates so special? We can identify a few salient traits from Plato’s Socratic dialogues. Humility Humility was not a Greek virtue. Later the Stoics would make a virtue of humility, and certainly the Christians would do so. But in Socrates’ time, pride and self-satisfaction were regarded as essential for every free man (not so much for women). Yet Socrates went about seeking wisdom from his associates—wisdom he did not have. What is piety? What is justice? What is courage? What do you think? You must know a
7.3 The Enigma
We see here many of the traits of a Socratic dialogue: Socrates, professing to have no special knowledge, seeks it from a companion, often a self-proclaimed expert. He extracts a definition. He extracts other statements from the companion, and then shows how those other statements are incompatible with the definition. He extracts yet another definition and examines that one in turn. Socrates appears to be deeply committed to attaining virtue but lacking in the means to arrive at it. Yet we see also that Socrates is a master of logic
7.2 What All the Gods Love
If piety is what all the gods love and impiety is what all the gods hate, we have removed the potential for conflict in our account of this virtue. (Of course it remains to be seen if there is anything that satisfies the definition; perhaps the gods do not agree on anything.) But Socrates has a different worry. He asks, “Consider the following: is what is holy loved by the gods because it is holy, or holy because it is loved by the gods?” He seems to want a definition
7.1 How to Prosecute Your Father
At some point perhaps soon after Socrates’ death and after the retreat to Megara, Plato seems to have put pen to papyrus and begun crafting dialogues starring Socrates as the questioner and assorted other figures as answerers. Plato provided a historical setting for each conversation and peopled them with characters often representing real people whom Socrates knew or might have known. Indeed, Plato provides a verisimilitude for his dialogues that seems to have surpassed that of other Socratics who began writing at about the same time. The dialogues seem to
6.4 Recovering Socrates
How could Socratic schools arise? In some ways it was perhaps inevitable, given the enigmatic character and charismatic personality of Socrates. He seems to have modeled his approach to the virtues without explaining it, even to his closest disciples. To some extent they found what they wanted to find in him and his activities. The case is not unlike a modern phenomenon. Ludwig Wittgenstein, a brilliant but idiosyncratic thinker from Vienna made his way into the center of the philosophical life at the University of Cambridge in England, where he
6.3 Centrifugal Forces
The Socratic movement had immediate repercussions, as we shall see, resurrecting Socrates and keeping him at the center of intellectual debates for the succeeding century. Whereas Socrates was well known as a wise man prowling the streets of Athens, few Athenians actually had the pleasure, or displeasure, of answering his questions and interacting with him. Now everyone had a front-row seat, virtually, to his conversations, and people could judge for themselves whether he was a good or bad influence. But while the many dialogues showed Socrates in a favorable
6.2 The Socratic Movement
Socrates’ disciples were young, gifted, intelligent, and some of them at least were well-connected. They were deeply hurt by recent events in Athens, but they were also dedicated to the memory of the most remarkable man Athens had ever known. Thus was born the Socratic movement.[4] The Socratics were armed with a new medium, the Socratic dialogue, and the medium was the message. Armed with questions rather than answers, and questions directed at the soul, the Socratics would challenge the people of Athens to search themselves. Whatever the answers