The Greeks had begun to speculate very early on such metaphysical questions as the origin and nature of the universe

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INTRODUCTION

• The Greeks had begun to speculate very early on
  such metaphysical questions as the origin and
  nature of the universe
• As evidenced by the poems of Homer
• But Homer relied on mythology to provide the
  answers
• Others would ultimately discard religious
  mythology as a means to answer these questions
  and develop a secular methodology based on
  observation, logic, and semantics
• With this development came the birth of philosophy

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BIRTH OF PHILOSOPHY

• Philosophy originated in the Greek city states
  along the coast of Asia Minor around 600 BC
• Because they were not as bound by tradition as
  city-states on mainland Greece
• Because they were also constantly in touch with
  the ancient science and speculation of the Middle
  East
• They were, in short, more open to intellectual
  innovation and speculation than counterparts on
  the mainland

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THALES OF MILETUS

• Born around 625 BC
• Became a well-known astronomer and correctly
  predicted a solar eclipse
• Also developed theories about size and orbits of
  the sun and moon
• Learned geometry and engineering in Egypt

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THALES THEORY OF THE UNIVERSE

• Divided all matter in the universe into two
  categories
• Material objects
• Which had their origin in water
• Animate spirits
• Had the ability to move on their own
• We all know that his theory was wrong but he
  nonetheless did something important
• Saw universe as tangible, finite, and knowable
• Not a mysterious and nebulous entity that only
  the gods could understand

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OPENING THE DOOR

• Asserted that the universe could be known by men
• He rejected theological and mythological
  interpretations of the universe and instead
  sought rational explanations
• Opened the door for a whole new series of
  questions once the age-old obstacle of relying on
  the gods for all answers had been overcome
• What is man and what is the best society for man?
• What is truth and how can one recognize it?
• What is virtue and how can one acquire it?

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THE SOPHISTS

• Greeks quickly commercialized spirit of
  intellectual liberation
• Men trained in philosophy set themselves up as
  teachers of various fields
• Their basic premise was that men were capable of
  self-improvement through education and education
  would make men more successful
• Offered idea of human progress through ones own
  efforts
• Became very popular and were concentrated in
  Athens

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RHETORIC

• Most popular sophists taught rhetoric
• They promised that the most humble man on the
  street could speak in the Assembly and law
  courts, confound their opponents, and reap all
  the financial benefits of public life if they
  knew rhetoric
• Offered to teach people how to win any arguments,
  regardless of the side they took
• Argued that no truth is universally valid
• Good and evil, truth and falsehood were matters
  of individual judgment
• Were no universal standards

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MORE SOPHIST ARGUMENTS

• Sophists also attacked the traditional religious
  and moral values of Athenian society
• Some argued that religion was useless and others
  asserted that religion was a human invention
• Even argued that the law did not come from the
  gods, nor were they based on any objective or
  universal standard of justice and good
• Argued that the law was something made by the
  most powerful citizens for their own benefit
• Dangerous implications
• Law did not need to be obeyed since it rested on
  no higher principle than might
• Disruptive of community life because it stressed
  the selfish interests of the individual over the
  general welfare of the city

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STILL MORE SOPHIST ARGUMENTS

• Some sophists attacked Athenian emphasis on
  moderation and self-discipline
• Urged that people should maximize pleasure and
  destroy traditions that restricted them
• Traditions were only invented by the weak to
  enslave nobler nations

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CRISIS WITHIN ATHENS

• Radical sophists triggered intellectual and
  spiritual crisis in Athens
• Their doctrines encouraged disrespect and
  disobedience to the law, neglect of civic duty,
  and selfish individualism
• Dangerously weakened community bonds in Athens
  during Peloponnesian War
• Worried conservative Athenians
• Wanted to restore authority of law and respect
  for moral values by renewing allegiance to
  traditions that sophists attacked

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SOCRATES

• Employed intellectual methodology that sophists
  had created to address questions that they had
  either neglected or ignored
• 469-399 BC
• Born into middle class family and began adult
  life as a stone mason
• Soon gave this up to devote life to finding out
  what was the right way to conduct ones life

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CRITICISM OF THE SOPHISTS

• Felt that sophists had taught skills but had no
  insight into the questions that really mattered
• What is the purpose of life?
• What are the values by which man should live?
• How does man perfect his character?
• Felt sophists had attacked old system of beliefs
  but had not provided a constructive replacement

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CENTRAL CONCERN

• Central concern was the perfection of individual
  human character
• Believed moral values were attained when the
  individual regulated his life according to
  objective standards arrived at through rational
  reflection
• An individual would be able to ascertain the
  values necessary to live a good and just life
  when reason became the formative, guiding, and
  ruling agency of the soul
• True education meant the shaping of character
  according to values discovered through the active
  and critical use of reason

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THE POWER OF REASON I

• Wanted to subject all human beliefs and behavior
  to the clear light of reason
• And thereby remove ethics from the realm of
  authority, tradition, dogma, superstition, and
  myth
• Believed reason was the only proper guide to the
  most critical problem of human existence
• The question of good and evil

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THE POWER OF REASON II

• Socrates taught that rational inquiry was a
  priceless took that allowed one to test opinions,
  weigh the merit of ideas, and alter beliefs on
  the basis of knowledge
• Believed that when people engaged in critical
  self-examination and strove to perfect their
  characters, they liberated themselves from
  accumulated opinions and traditions and based
  their conduct instead on convictions they could
  rationally defend

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SOCRATIC METHOD I

• Believed that knowledge was innate in the human
  mind
• To extract it out into the conscious, he
  developed a question-and-answer method
• Attracted loyal audience of young men
• Mostly from well-off families
• Encouraged them to debate the most fundamental
  concepts of human behavior in an attempt to
  define the guidelines of ethical conduct

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SOCRATIC METHOD II

• Would begin debates with students with searching
  questions into traditional assumptions that
  everyone took for granted and then proceed to
  show that these assumptions were rooted more in
  custom and prejudice than they were in logic
• Would then lead students (with more questions)
  into developing more precise definitions of such
  concepts as piety, justice, good, and evil

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SOCRATIC METHOD III

• Socrates never formulated rules of conduct
• Instead he believed that by giving his followers
  the habits of rigorous questioning and logical
  though processes, he was creating a mentality
  that could perceive correct conduct under all
  conditions

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ATTITUDES TOWARDS SOCRATES

• Most in Athens dismissed Socrates as a eccentric
  sophist
• But his students developed a fanatical loyalty to
  him
• Political leaders, whose ability and judgment he
  continually questioned, hated his guts
• It was this conflict that ultimately did him in

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DUMB STUDENTS

• Many of his students were enchanted by his
  criticism of their elders and the establishment
  but they did not follow him in the more difficult
  job of inquiring into creative alternatives
• They also affected an ill-disguised admiration
  for Sparta during the Peloponnesian War

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DEATH OF SOCRATES

• After war was over, some enemies brought Socrates
  to trial on charges of corrupting the youth of
  Athens
• Socrates denied charges but refused to grovel and
  beg forgiveness
• Instead he boldly spelled out what he stood for
• Was found guilty and ordered to kill himself by
  drinking hemlock
• If he had tried to appeased jurors, he probably
  would have received light sentence
• But he refused to alter his principles, even
  under the threat of death

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PLATO

• In 387, Plato founded the Academy in Athens
• Intended to be a training ground for young men
  from all over Greece
• Where they would learn the Socratic Method
• Plato had more ambitious goal than Socrates
  moral regeneration of the individual
• Also wanted arrange political life according to
  rational rules
• Argued that quest for personal morality could not
  succeed unless the community was also transformed
  on the basis of reason

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THE WORLD OF IDEAS I

• Socrates had taught that universal standards of
  right and justice exist and could be found
  through the application of reason
• Plato insisted on the existence of a higher world
  of reality
• One that was independent from the world of things
  that we experience everyday
• Called this the World of Ideas (or Forms)
• Unchanging, eternal, absolute, and universal
  standards of beauty, justice, and truth
• One had to live according to these standards in
  order to live the good life
• To know these forms was to know truth

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THE WORLD OF IDEAS II

• Truth resides in the World of Ideas
• Not in the world made known through the senses
• People form opinions of beauty or justice from
  observing what they think is beautiful or just in
  the material world
• But since nothing is perfect in the material
  world, this opinion is distorted and imperfect
• One who aspires to true knowledge must go beyond
  sensory perception and try to grasp with their
  mind the Idea of Beauty or Justice in the World
  of Ideas
• Plato saw the material world as unstable,
  transitory, and imperfect while the World of
  Ideas was eternal and universally valid
• True wisdom is obtained through knowledge of the
  Ideas, not the imperfect reflection of these
  Ideas that we perceive with the senses

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PLATO SUMMARY

• Plato was a champion of reason who aspired to
  study and arrange human life according to
  universally valid standards
• Maintained that such standards did exist
• But his writings also included a
  religious/mystical side
• Appears at times to be a mystic seeking escape
  from this world to a higher reality

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ARISTOTLE

• Studied in Platos Academy for 20 years
• Left to become tutor to Alexander the Great
• Returned after Alexander became ruler and founded
  Lyceum
• Ranges of interests and intellect was
  extraordinary
• Leading expert of his time in all subjects except
  mathematics
• Wrote large number of books on various topics

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MATERIALISM I

• Renewed confidence in sense perception
• Which Plato had dismissed as an erroneous way to
  obtain knowledge
• Respected knowledge obtained through the senses
• Retained stress on universal principles
• But wanted them to be derived from human
  experience with the material world

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MATERIALISM II

• Thought Platos notion of an independent and
  separate World of Ideas beyond space and time was
  contrary to common sense
• To comprehend reality, one should not try to
  escape to another world
• Believed Plato had undervalued the world of facts
  and objects revealed through the senses

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MATERIALISM III

• Perfect models existed within material things
  themselves
• Through human experience with such things as men,
  horses, and red objects, the essence of man,
  horse, and red could be discovered through reason
• For Plato, perfect models existed independently
  of particular objects
• For Aristotle, universal ideas could not be
  determined without examination of particular
  things through the senses

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ETHICS I

• Believed knowledge of ethics was possible and
  that it had to be based on reason
• Ethical thought derived from a realistic
  appraisal of human nature and a common sense
  attitude towards life
• The good life meant making intelligent
  decisions when confronted with specific problems

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ETHICS II

• People could achieve happiness when they applied
  knowledge relevantly to life and when their
  behavior was governed by intelligence
• Not by whim, tradition, or authority
• Realized that passionate element within the human
  personality could not be completely eradicated
• To surrender to ones passions was to sink to the
  level of animals
• But to deny the passions was foolish and an
  unreasonable rejection of human nature
• Argued that people could regulate their passions
  through rigorous training
• Could achieve virtue when they avoided extremes
  of behavior and rationally chose moderation

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SUMMARY

• Believed that contemplative life of the
  philosopher would yield perfect happiness
• But he did not demand more from a person than
  human nature would allow
• Did not set impossible standards but recognized
  that all persons cannot pursue life of
  contemplation
• But all persons could experience a good life by
  applying reason to human affairs
• Philosophy came down to earth with Aristotle and
  spoke to needs and concerns of all people
• Not just a highly educated elite
• Set the stage for the individualistic
  philosophies of the Hellenistic Age