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
18.6 Organic Unity
Plato’s Socrates goes through a review of a string of handbooks of oratory written by sophists and rhetoricians of his time, textbooks which offer advice on how to craft and deliver a rousing speech.[16] In the end, he delivers his scathing judgment on the whole genre: Is it possible for an expert who doesn’t know what each entity is to lead an audience step by stepfrom one position to the opposite one through similarities, or to escape being led by another in the same way? (Not at all.) Then the
18.5 Plato on Writing
Amid the discussion of the art of speaking, Plato has Socrates relate a story about the origins of writing. Once upon a time in Egypt, the god Theuth (or Thoth), who was a great inventor, invented a writing system. He explained his invention to the pharaoh, Thamus, who expressed his concern that the practice of reading and writing would have unfortunate effects. Once people have learned to read and write, they will no longer have to rely on memory. They will simply write things down without fully understanding them. Writing
18.4 Soul as a Grounding Principle
Embedded in Socrates’ second speech is a powerful revelation about soul, one that goes beyond anything that Plato had said previously about that important topic. Here are his words: Here Plato seems to hit on a new feature of soul that he has not considered before. He has already argued at length (in the Phaedo) that the soul is immortal. Now he asserts that it is self-moving. Because of this, it is self-existing and self-governing, and, yes, immortal. By contrast, the body is inert. It cannot move itself,
18.3 How to Compose a Sublime Speech
Now Socrates announces that the divine sign that warns him what not to do has come to him telling him to atone for his lying speech. He needs to offer a palinode, a retractation of his false speech disparaging love, as a tribute to Love. He uncovers his head and begins his delivery. Socrates begins by changing his thesis. Instead of defending the non-lover on the grounds that the lover is mad, Socrates argues that there is a kind of divine madness that confers great benefits on those who
18.2 How to Compose a Competent Speech
Socrates now offers a speech to compete with that of Lysias. Before he does so, he covers his head with his cloak, ostensibly to avoid being distracted, but in fact because he is ashamed to utter the speech.[2] Socrates describes a good-looking youth who has many suitors. The speaker is in love with him no less than the other suitors, but he tries to persuade him by pretending that he does not love him. He points out that people have two competing motivations, an innate desire for pleasure and
18.1 How Not to Compose a Speech
The one major dialogue of Plato’s that is clearly a sequel to the Republic is the Phaedrus. At 53 Stephanus pages it is a considerable discussion, as it builds upon the teachings of the Republic, focusing on art of public speaking a second time, after the Gorgias, and dealing at length also with the art and practice of love, a theme of the Symposium. So what, if anything, does the later dialogue add to what Plato has said already, and why revisit the same topics? Typically Plato sets his
17.12 Plato’s Progress
In the Phaedo, Plato gave his readers a taste of what a comprehensive philosophy would look like. There had never been such a creation in the Greek intellectual tradition. Democritus the atomist, a contemporary of Socrates, had put together a large number of treatises on atomistic philosophy which approached the notion of a comprehensive philosophy.[57] His works are lost, so we cannot judge conclusively, but from what fragments and reports we have, his attempt to construct the cosmos from its component atoms was heroic but not convincing. Plato, on
17.11 The Rewards of Justice
Plato turns finally to discuss the rewards of justice.[52] He begins with a new argument for immortality of soul. The Phaedo had been largely devoted to a series of arguments for immortality. But the topic had not been pursued in the Republic. Here Plato’s Socrates points out that each thing has a corresponding evil that damages it. For instance, the body is damaged and ultimately destroyed by sickness, if one is not healed. The evil that affects the soul is vice and corruption. While vice may damage a soul, it
17.10 Archetyes and Imitations
In Books VIII and IX, Plato explores different constitutions or types of government and how they correspond to different types of soul, or psychological tendencies, including how one government tends to decline into another, more chaotic kind of government over time. In the process he makes clear his contempt for democracy and its attempt to share power with the rabble. As always, he favors a top-down government employing the best and brightest to ensure order and efficiency for the welfare of the state, never mind if things turn out badly
17.9 The Cave
Book VII of the Republic begins with a parable of sorts.[42] Plato tells the story of a group of prisoners chained in a cave next to one another so that they can only look forward to see shadows cast on the wall in front of them by a fire behind them. Various puppets are carried in front of the fire, casting shadows that the prisoners take to be real. They can talk with each other, and take the shadows of other prisoners as the persons they are talking with, and
17.8 The Sun and the Line
At the end of Book VI and the beginning of Book VII, Plato offers several striking analogies to explain the structure of reality, the knowledge of it, and how people can acquire that knowledge. Plato begins his discussion by having Socrates offer a critique of other theories. “I think you have often heard,” he says, “that the Form of the good is the greatest object to grasp, since by it just acts and other undertakings become useful and beneficial.” For if your objective is wrong, you will misuse the
17.7 A Royal Education
Plato repeatedly speaks of the need to provide a first-class education for the young guardians. The education process goes along with a selection process, in which the young guardians are tested both for their intellectual ability and for their commitment to promote the good of the city. They are to be under constant observation and “deprived” of false beliefs. If they fail in any significant way, they are eliminated from their cohort, perhaps to be relegated to the auxiliary class.[30] If, on the other hand, they pass all their tests,