Greek Philosophy: Greece is noted for its philosophy and the concept of the polis.

Greek philosophy can be separated, more or less, into three distinct types: Pre-Socratic, Classical and Hellenistic philosophy. The earliest group was the Pre-Socratics, or those who came before Socrates. However, some of the Pre-Socratic philosophers were contemporaries of Socrates. The Pre-Socratics were followed by the Sophists, then the Classical philosophers – Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle and finally by the Hellenistic philosophers or those who came after Alexander the Great. The Hellenistic Age begins with the death of Alexander the Great and ended with the Roman Empire.

A. Pre-Socratics:

The Greeks were interested in the nature of the universe. What was it made out of? How did it get there? How does it stay in place? How did it begin? They asked these questions and they tried to answer them.

The Pre-Socratics were the first theoretical philosophers in human history. They emerged in the 6^th century b.c.e. in the Greek cities of Ionia. They were curious about the essential composition of nature and dissatisfied with earlier creation legends. The Ionians sought natural (physical) rather than religio-mythic (metaphysical) explanations for natural occurrences. They maintained that arbitrary and willful gods did not manipulate nature, and it wasn’t governed by blind chance. Even though nature seemed chaotic, it was governed by principles of order – general laws that can be ascertained by the human mind. This marked the beginning of scientific thought.

The Pre-Socratics wanted to find out what the universe was made of. They were looking for the primal or first substance of the universe. They did this by means of observation with the naked eye. They used induction rather than deduction. From observing particular occurrences they postulated general theories. They believed the universe to be simple and subject to nature’s laws. They speculated on the building blocks of the universe.

The following three Pre-Socratics are considered to be "matter philosophers". A "matter philosopher" believed that everything issued from a particular material substance.

Thales (ca. 624-548 b.c.e.) of Miletus was concerned with how nature came to be the way it was. He was a mathematician andastronomer who used Babylonian tables of solar and lunar orbits to predict the years of solar eclipses. He believed the basic or primalsubstance of the universe was water – water gave rise to everything in the universe. Thales revolutionized thought because he omittedthe gods from his account.

Anaximander (ca. 611-547 b.c.e.) was a student of Thales’. He rejected any specific substance as the primal substance of the universe and suggested that an indefinite substance, which he called ‘boundless’, was the source of all things. He believed that the earth floated in a void in the middle of the universe and its stability was caused by the fact that it was equidistant from whatever else was out there. He also developed a theory of evolution long before Darwin. He believed that humans evolved from a lower form of life. He believed that ‘boundless’ contained the power of heat and cold and from this emerged the seed of the world. He said that cold and wet condensed to form the earth and its cloud cover, while hot and dry formed the rings of fire that we see as the moon and sun and the stars. The heat from the fire in the skies dried the earth and shrank the seas and from the warm slime on the earth arose life – the first sea creatures. From the sea creatures land animals evolved including humans.Anaximander also constructed the first sun dial, a map of the known world, and a celestial globe containing a map of the stars.

Anaximenes (d. 525 b.c.e.) maintained that the primary substance of the universe was air. He believed rarefied air became fire, while wind, clouds and water were formed from condensed air.

The following three Pre-Socratics shifted the emphasis from matter to form, from the world of sense perception to the logic of mathematics.

Pythagoras (ca. 580-507 b.c.e.) and his followers (the Pythagoreans) lived in Greek cities in southern Italy. He did not find the nature of things in a particular substance but rather in mathematical relationships. The Pythagoreans discovered that the intervals in the musical scale could be expressed mathematically. They extended the principle of proportion found in sound to the universe and concluded that the cosmos also contained an inherent mathematical order. The first principle or primal substance of the universe was numbers. The Pythagoreans shifted the emphasis from matter to form. The Pythagoreans were also religious mystics who believed in the immortality and transmigration of the souls. They refused to eat animal flesh, fearing that it could contain former human souls.

Parmenides (ca. 515-450 b.c.e.) was from the Greek City of Elea. He too challenged the fundamental view that all things emerged from a single substance. He applied the logic used by Pythagoras for mathematical thinking to the philosophic argument. By putting forth the proposition that an argument must be consistent and contain no contradictions, Parmenides became the founder of formal logic. According to him, reality is one, eternal, and unchanging. It is not made known through the senses, which are misleading but through the mind, not through experience but through reason. Truth can be reached through abstract though alone.

Democritus (ca, 450-370 b.c.e.) was from the Greek mainland. He was concerned with the world of matter and reaffirmed confidence in knowledge derived from sense perception but he also retained Parmenides’ reverence for reason. His model of the universe consisted of two fundament realities – empty space and an infinite number of atoms. He was an atomist. All things consisted of atoms and a combination of atoms accounted for the changes in nature and in a world of colliding atoms; everything behaved according to mechanical principles.

Concepts significant to scientific thought emerged in embryonic form with the early Greek philosophers. They provided natural explanations for physical occurrences (Ionians), the mathematical order of nature (Pythagoreans), logical proof (Parmenides), and the mechanical structure of the universe (Atomists). The new view propounded by the early Greek philosophers (giving nature a rational foundation, rather than a mythical one) stated that theories should be grounded in evidence and that one should be able to defend them logically. This new approach allowed for a critical analysis of theories. The early philosophers made theoretical thinking and the systemization of knowledge distinct from mere observation and the collection of data.

B. Sophists:

The Sophists were philosophical relativists, that is they held that no truth is universally valid. They turned away from the world of nature and attempted a rational investigation of people and society. They were professional teachers who wandered from city to city teaching rhetoric, poetry, gymnastics, mathematics and music. Protogoras, a 5^th century BCE sophists, said, "man is the measure of all things." By this he meant that good and evil, truth and falsehood, are matters of individual judgement – there are no categorical imperatives (universal standards) that apply to all people at all times. In applying reason to human affairs, the Sophists attacked the traditional religion and moral values of Athenian society. Some Sophists taught that speculation about the divine was useless; others went further and asserted that religion was just a human invention to ensure obedience to traditional laws and traditions. They also applied reason to law with the same effect – the undermining of traditional authority. They claimed that the laws of any particular city were not derived from the gods; nor were they based on objective standards, for such standards did not exist.

C. The Classical Philosophers

Socrates (b. ca. 469 BCE and d. 399 BCE) was an ethical philosopher who believed that knowledge of people was more important than the knowledge of nature. He also believed that people needed to regulate their behavior in accordance with universal values. His central concern was with the perfection of individual human character - the achievement of moral excellence. Moral excellence was achieved when humans regulated their lives according to objective standards arrived at through rational reflections. Socrates believed that reason was the only proper guide to the most crucial problem of human existence – the question of good and evil.

Socrates offered no systematic ethical theory but rather a method of inquiry called dialectics or the Socratic method – basically a system of questions and answers. For him the ethical way of life required a conscious choice. The highest form of excellence was the taking control of one’s life.

Plato (ca. 429-347 BCE) was a student of Socrates and founded a school called the Academy. Building on the insights of his teacher Socrates, who said reality is known only through the mind, Plato postulated the existence of a higher world of reality. This realm is the realm of Ideas or forms, which are unchanging, eternal and absolute. They are universal standards of beauty, goodness, justice and truth. To live in accordance with these standards constitutes the good life. To know these forms is to grasp the ultimate truth. Plato was a champion of reason who aspired to study and arrange life according to universally valid standards. Platonism is a two-world philosophy and had an important effect on religious thought. Plato was concerned with the decaying polis. He wrote the Republic to describe his version of the perfect state – a just state. A just state for Plato conformed to universally valid principles and aimed at the moral improvement of its citizens. Such a state required leaders distinguished by their wisdom and virtue rather than by cleverness and eloquence. Fundamental to Plato’s Republic was the criticism of Athenian democracy. Plato believed it was foolish to expect common men to think rationally and intelligently about foreign policy, economics or other matters of state. Plato’s second objection to democracy was that its leaders were chosen and followed for what he considered non-essential reasons such as persuasive speech, good looks, wealth and family background. A third danger of democracy, according to Plato, was that it could degenerate into anarchy. The purpose of Plato’s Republic was to warn Athenians that without respect for the law, wise leadership and proper education, the city would continue to degenerate.

Aristotle (384-32 BCE) was a student of Plato who established a school called the Lyceum. He achieved a creative synthesis of knowledge from the theories of earlier thinkers. Aristotle can be considered the original "Renaissance Man." His interests and intellect were amazing. He was the leading expert in every field of knowledge except mathematics. Some of his works that showed the range of his knowledge are: On the Soul, On the Parts of Animals, Metaphysics, Necomachean Ethics, Politics, Rhetoric, and Poetics. Aristotle shared with the pre-Socrates a desire to understand the universe and he shared with Socrates and Plato the belief that reason was a person’s highest faculty and that the polis was the primary formative institution of Greek life.

He criticized Plato’s Theory of Ideas. Aristotle respected the knowledge obtained through the senses. He did however retain Plato’s stress on universal principals but he wanted these principles to derive from human experience with the material world. He believed Plato’s two world philosophy suffered from too much mystery, and that Plato underrated the world of facts and objects.

Like Socrates and Plato, Aristotle believed that the knowledge of ethics was possible and based on reason. For him the good life was the examined life, it meant making intelligent decisions when confronted by specific problems. People could achieve happiness when they exercised the trait of reasoning and when their behavior was governed by intelligence. The key to Aristotle’s ethics is the statement "nothing in excess".

Aristotle’s politics complemented his ethics. He said in order for a person to live a good life, that person must be a member of a political community. Man is a political animal according to Aristotle. Aristotle believed that political life could be rationally understood and intelligently directed. Aristotle was a realist. He adopted a common-sense, practical attitude. He didn’t want to create a ‘Utopia’ like Plato, but he wanted to find the most effective form of government. In the Politics, he examined different forms of government and emphasized the importance of rule by law. He placed his trust in law rather than in individuals for they are subject to passion. For Aristotle, the best political communities were formed by citizens of the middle class and these states were likely to be well administered. Middle class citizens were less affected by envy than the poor and were more likely than the rich to view their fellow citizens as equals.

4. Hellenistic Thinkers During this period there was an out-pouring of literary and scientific works.