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
16.15 Philosophical Innovations
Until the publication of the Phaedo, Plato had been working in the shadow of Socrates. He was a Socratic, a follower of the idiosyncratic barefoot philosopher—an unlikely one, to be sure: rich, haughty, ambitious, well-educated. He seems to have emerged from the group of Socrates’ supporters in the first place because of his literary genius. He could make Socrates come alive on the page. He could make every inquiry a suspenseful drama in which the self-effacing gadfly demolished the pretensions of sophists and self-appointed wise men. He could turn philosophical
16.14 the Anti-Tragedy
Plato’s Phaedo is a unique work: it is a tale of Socrates’ last day on earth; it is a philosophical treatise arguing for a thesis, namely that the soul is immortal; it is a manifesto for a new philosophical foundation that promises to extend, elaborate, and complete the Socratic project, providing it with a theory of reality, and theory of knowledge, a psychology, a cosmology, and perhaps much else besides; and it is a tragedy—the tale of the downfall and death of a noble man—that refuses to be a tragedy.
16.13 PLato’s Masterpiece
In the Phaedo, Plato gives us a picture of Socrates’ last day. He is on death row, waiting for his execution. His friends and followers have assembled to console and support him through his trial. Plato provides an extended philosophical discussion focusing on the question of immortality of soul. Is the soul immortal? Is there an afterlife? Simmias and Cebes are the skeptics, worried that the soul is mortal and perishable. Socrates bravely takes up the argument against their objections. His objectors provide a series of ever more devastating arguments
16.12 Valediction
At the close of Socrates’ discourse on the afterlife—at which time he recognizes that he has been speculating, but he assures his companions that they should be of good cheer about the afterlife—he turns to face his execution. (Now that the un-Socratic dialogue is over, the remainder of the narration may be a historical report.) He takes a bath to spare his friends the task of washing his body after the execution. He then has his family, consisting of his wife, Xanthippe and his three sons, one older (Lamprocles),
16.11 Cosmology and Eschatology
Plato now turns to a discussion of what happens to souls after death. They have guardian spirits who lead them on the path to Hades, though sinful souls sometimes linger, unwilling to move on. This brings Plato to a brief discussion of the earth. He maintains that it is a spherical body, held in place by a kind of cosmic equipoise, since there is no reason for it to incline in one direction or another. The theory of equipoise or equilibrium is like that of Anaximander who, however, believed
161.10 Essential Properties and the Soul
Now Plato goes a step further in his analysis. Not only is hot the contrary of cold, but there are some things that are necessarily cold, for instance snow. Snow is a form of frozen water; if you warm it up, it melts. Thus, not only does cold not allow the approach of heat, but snow also is incompatible with heat. There are, it turns out, necessary connections between some Forms and others, such as snow and cold. These Forms have necessary or essential connections with other Forms, without which
16.9 Understanding the Forms
How do sensible objects, such as people, interact with Forms? Socrates provides a discussion of a simple (or perhaps, not-so-simple) case. Simmias, with whom Socrates is speaking, is taller than Socrates but shorter than Phaedo. In some sense, then, Simmias is both tall and short. But Tallness itself (the Form) can never be short, nor can Shortness itself ever be tall. The Forms, after all, if they really exist, must be perfect exemplars of the property they represent. So the tallness “in us” will never be short, but when, for
16.8 Digression on Natural Science
Plato has now answered Simmias’ objection about the soul’s being a harmony. He has yet to answer Cebes’ objection about the soul being like a tailor who, after making several suits (bodies) for himself, finally expires nonetheless like one of his suits (bodies). But at this point Socrates offers a digression about natural philosophy—the philosophy of nature, which we now call natural science. Socrates begins with a quasi-autobiographical reminiscence. When he was young, he was enthralled by natural philosophy. Do we think, he wondered, with blood, air, or fire?
16.7 Soul Is Not a Harmony
Socrates now marshals a series of arguments against Simmias’ objection, that soul is a harmony. First, he points out that the claim that soul is a harmony is inconsistent with the Theory of Recollection, according to which knowledge, at least what we today call a priori knowledge, such as an understanding of mathematics, arises from recollecting principles we had learned before this life. If so, then the soul exists prior to and independent of the body. Harmony, however, presupposes a structure of physical components, such that it could not exist
16.6 Objections to Immortality
At the conclusion of the three arguments, Socrates pauses. Simmias and Cebes are whispering to each other. Socrates asks them what the problem is. They admit to being reluctant to bring up further problems as the hour of Socrates’ death is approaching. Socrates mentions the story that swans sing most beautifully when they are about to die, as prophets of Apollo. Socrates will offer his swan song to his friends. Simmias likens the soul to a harmony or attunement of strings of a lyre. While the instrument is intact
16.5 Argument from Simplicity
Cebes is still not fully persuaded. Socrates now offers a third argument.[8] The world is made of simple and complex objects. Complex object are composed of parts and are likely to disintegrate into those parts or components if they fail. Simple objects, on the other hand, are more likely to persist precisely because they are simple. The Forms such as the Equal and the Beautiful are simple or “uniform” (monoeidēs) things, apparently by definition. They seem impervious to change and to decay. The sensible things that have the property,
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