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
16.4 Argument from Recollection
Now Cebes helps Socrates out by “reminding” him of a theory he sometimes appeals to. “According to this theory, we have learned in an earlier age things that we now recollect. This would be impossible unless we had a soul that existed before we were born in human form.”[4] Simmias asks what the evidence is, and Cebes points out that you can show someone a geometrical diagram and extract knowledge from the person. This aside seems designed to remind the reader of the slave boy example in the Meno, where
16.3 The Argument from Opposites
Now Socrates launches into the first of five arguments for the immortality of soul. First, consider the relationship between opposites. When something changes, it progresses from one opposite state to another. For instance, something becomes larger from having been smaller. Something becomes stronger from having been weaker, and faster from having been slower. So is there an opposite to living? Yes, being dead. What happens to living things? They die. And what, by parity of reasoning, happens to dead things? They must come to life. Socrates adds a
16.2 Transcendent Forms
Now Socrates starts a new phase of the discussion. “Do we say that Justice itself exists, or not?” he asks Simmas. “We do indeed, by Zeus.” “And the Beautiful and the Good?” “Of course.” “Have you ever seen any such things with your eyes?” “Not at all.” Socrates adds to the list of examples: Magnitude, Health, Strength. To know these we must not employ eyes, ears, or sense experience in general. We must cognize them by pure thought (eilikrinēs dianoia). Only so will
16.1 The Fateful Day
On the sixth of Thargelion in the year that Laches was the archon of record, Socrates’ friends and followers gathered at the state prison to support the master on the day of his execution. Plato’s dialogue Phaedo provides a riveting account of the day that is part history, part philosophical dialogue, part memorial, part Socrates, part Plato, part fact, part fiction. The dramatis personae constitute an honor role of the Socratic movement. Phaedo, the narrator, is one of the main speakers in the dialogue. Of Athenians, he tells us,
15.5 After the Party: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
In one of Plato’s most brilliant works, we are invited to an exclusive party for the best and brightest of Athenian society. We meet an award-winning tragedian, an award-winning comedian, the golden boy of Athens: Alcibiades, at his most vulnerable, and several leading citizens. We are regaled with speeches in praise of the god of Love, revealing Greek erotic practices and vices, as well as a sneak peek into the love life of Alcibiades. During the speech contest, Socrates introduces a tantalizing new philosophical theory, which he attributes
15.4 True Confessions
At this point an entourage from an all-night revel crashes Agathon’s party. It is led by a distinguished figure: Alcibiades, the golden boy of Athens, famous for his good looks and personality, and infamous for his profligacy. Already quite drunk, he pushes his way into the dining room and takes a seat on Agathon’s couch. Suddenly he discovers that he is also sitting next to Socrates, and he recoils. He accuses Socrates of ambushing him again when he is trying to keep Socrates away from him. Meanwhile, Socrates feigns to
15.3 The Ascent of Love
At this point, Diotima gives Socrates instruction on how to progress in the pursuit of beauty. She concludes with a kind of challenge: Well what, [Diotima] said, do we think, if someone should happen to glimpse Beauty, immaculate, pure, undiluted, untainted by human flesh, colors, or any mortal corruption, but be able to observe the divine beauty in its simpicity? Do you think, she said, that a person would have a bad life gazing on that on which he ought to behold and with which he ought to live? Or
15.2 Socrates’ Encomium of Love
Last but not least, we hear from Socrates.[1] He complains that he had thought the rules of the contest would involve ascribing true qualities to Love in an appropriate speech. But, it turns out, the speakers felt free to say whatever sounded most favorable, whether true or not. But Socrates will not play that game, but will try to give a true account of Love. Socrates begins by asking whether love is a love of nothing or of something. Of something, surely. And love is a desire of something
15.0 Celebrating Agathon’s Victory
The Symposium, like the Meno, is a transitional dialogue which takes us from the Socratic Dialogues, with a consistent picture of Socrates as a philosopher who seeks wisdom about virtues from others, to the Middle Dialogues, in which Socrates constructs theories about a broad range of topics. The dramatic date of the dialogue is early in 416 BC, and the place is the home of Agathon the poet. Agathon has just won first prize for his tragedy in the Lenaean festival, and he is hosting a celebration. Socrates is invited,
14.6 Plato’s Message in the Meno
The present dialogue appears at first to be another in a long line of failures by Socrates and his acquaintances to define virtue in general or some particular virtue. Socrates typically insists, in the Socratic dialogues of Plato, that we define a virtue before trying to understand its characteristics. When the inquiry departs from the project of definition, Socrates despairs of arriving at any other reliable knowledge about the virtue in question. This leads some modern critics to identify the “Socratic Fallacy” of claiming we cannot know anything about a
14.5 true Opinion as a Guide
As the discussion with Meno draws to an end, Socrates suggests one option they have not considered. Perhaps true opinion would be no less valuable as a guide for doing the right thing than knowledge. As an example, Socrates points out that having the right opinion of how to arrive at Larisa (a city in Meno’s land of Thessaly) will be no less helpful in arriving there than having first-hand knowledge. He concedes that opinion is less reliable, because true opinion can be called into doubt if it is not
14.4.2 The Moral of the Anytus Episode
Why did Plato bring Anytus in for a dialogue-within-a-dialogue? The topic under discussion is, Are there any teachers of virtue? The further issue is: Can virtuous individuals pass on their virtue (teach it) to others, and in particular, their children? Anytus is the offspring of a self-made man, a successful businessman and a good citizen. We meet his son, who happens to be one of the leading citizens of Athens at the time of the restoration of the democracy. We find that he has strong but ungrounded prejudices against sophists