Greek philosophy, Ancient

School of Athens, painted in 1509 by painter Raphael (1483-1520)

Ancient Western philosophy designates the philosophy from around the sixth century B.C.E. to the sixth century C.E.. This period became important because of three great thinkers, Socrates (fifth century B.C.E.), his student Plato (fourth century B.C.E.), and Plato's student Aristotle (fourth century B.C.E.). They laid the foundation of Western philosophy by exploring and defining the range, scope, method, terminology, and problematics of philosophical inquiry.

Ancient Western philosophy is generally divided into three periods centering on them: the fist, the period prior to Socrates, all thinkers prior to Socrates are called PreSocratics; second, the period of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle; and the last, the period that covers diverse philosophy after them, which includes Stoics, Epicureans, Skeptics in Hellenistic age, and Neo-Platonists, Aristotelians under Roman Empire. Spread of christianity ushered the end of Ancient Philosophy in the sixth century C.E.

Pre-Socratic philosophers

Greek philosophers prior to Socrates are called Pre-Socratics or pre-Socratic philosophers. They were the earliest Western philosophers, active during the fifth and sixth centuries B.C.E. in ancient Greece. These philosophers tried to discover original principles (arkhế; ἀρχή; the origin or the beginning) that could uniformly, consistently, and comprehensively explain all natural phenomena and the events in human life without resorting to mythology. They initiated a new method of explanation known as philosophy which has continued in use until the present day, and developed their thoughts primarily within the framework of cosmology and cosmogony.

Socrates was a pivotal philosopher who shifted the central focus of philosophy from cosmology to ethics and morality. Although some of these earlier philosophers were contemporary with, or even younger than Socrates, they were considered pre-Socratics (or early Greek Philosophers) according to the classification defined by Aristotle. The term "Pre-Socratics" became standard since H. Diels' (1848 - 1922) publication of Fragmente der Vorsokratiker, the standard collection of fragments of pre-Socratics.

It is assumed that there were rich philosophical components in religious traditions of Judaism and Ancient Egyptian cultures, and some continuity of thought from these earlier traditions to pre-Socratics is also assumed. Although we do not have much information sources about their continuity, Proclus, fifth century Neo-Platonist, for example, noted that the earliest philosophy such as Thales studied geometry in Egypt.

The pre-Socratic style of thought is often called natural philosophy, but their concept of nature was much broader than ours, encompassing spiritual and mythical as well as aesthetic and physical elements. They brought human thought to a new level of abstraction; raised a number of central questions of ontology, which are still relevant today; and cultivated the human spirit so as to open our eyes to the eternal truth. Primary sources for their philosophical discourses have all been lost except in a fragmentary form preserved in the works of various doxographers, and the best source is Aristotle. Although Aristotle’s interpretation of their thought dominated for centuries, modern scholars have gone beyond Aristotle to identify the original and unique contributions of the pre-Socratics.

In Athens, cultural activities such as tragedy flourished around fourth and fifth century B.C.E. Early philosophical activities, however, emerged in Eastern colonies of Asia Minor and Western Italian colonies. In Ionian colonies, the pursuit of material principle was primary and naturalism, holyzoism, and materialism developed. In Italian colonies, however, the pursuit of religious principles, logic, and mathematics developed.

Ionian School

The Ionian School, a type of Greek philosophy centred in Miletus, Ionia in the 6th and 5th centuries B.C.E., is something of a misnomer. Although Ionia was a centre of Western philosophy, the scholars it produced, including Anaximander, Anaximenes, Heraclitus, Anaxagoras, Diogenes Apolloniates, Archelaus, Hippon and Thales, had such diverse viewpoints that it cannot be said to be a specific school of philosophy. Aristotle called them physiologoi meaning 'those who discoursed on nature', but he did not group them together as an "Ionian school." The classification can be traced to the second century historian of philosophy Sotion. They are sometimes referred to as cosmologists, since they were largely physicalists who tried to explain the nature of matter.

While some of these scholars are included in the Milesian school of philosophy, others are more difficult to categorize.

Most cosmologists thought that although matter can change from one form to another, all matter has something in common which does not change. They did not agree what it was that all things had in common, and did not experiment to find out, but used abstract reasoning rather than mythology to explain themselves, thus becoming the first philosophers in the Western tradition.

Later philosophers widened their studies to include other areas of thought. The Eleatic school, for example, also studied epistemology, or how people come to know what exists. But the Ionians were the first group of philosophers that we know of, and so remain historically important.

Thales

Thales (Greek: Θαλης) of Miletus (ca. 624 B.C.E. - 545 B.C.E.) is generally understood as the earliest western philosopher. Before Thales, the Greeks explained the origin and nature of the world through myths of anthropomorphic gods and heroes. Phenomena like lightning or earthquakes were attributed to actions of the gods. By contrast, Thales attempted to find naturalistic explanations of the world, without reference to the supernatural. He explained earthquakes by imagining that the Earth floats on water, and that earthquakes occur when the Earth is rocked by waves.

The first known philosophical activities flourished in Ionia. They inquired into "Arche," the ultimate origin or the first principle of things in nature. Thales of Miletus (about 640 B.C.E.) was known as the first philosopher. He identified "water" as the ultimate origin, and held that all other beings were consisted of this ultimate element. Since no information source is available except short fragments, we do not know much about his reasoning. We can only speculate a number of reasons why he identified water as the universal, original element: water can take three forms (liquid, gas, slid) in natural temperatures; circulation of water is vital to changes in nature; the vital element of life; often used for religious rituals such as "purification."

Anaximander

Anaximander (Greek: Άναξίμανδρος) (611 B.C.E. – ca. 546 B.C.E.) has a reputation which is due mainly to a cosmological work, little of which remains. From the few extant fragments, we learn that he believed the beginning or first principle (arche, a word first found in Anaximander's writings, and which he probably invented) is an endless, unlimited mass (apeiron), subject to neither old age nor decay, which perpetually yields fresh materials from which everything we can perceive is derived.

Anaximenes

Anaximenes (Greek: Άναξιμένης) of Miletus (585 B.C.E. - 525 B.C.E.) held that the air, with its variety of contents, its universal presence, its vague associations in popular fancy with the phenomena of life and growth, is the source of all that exists. Everything is air at different degrees of density, and under the influence of heat, which expands, and of cold, which contracts its volume, it gives rise to the several phases of existence. The process is gradual, and takes place in two directions, as heat or cold predominates. In this way was formed a broad disk of earth, floating on the circumambient air. Similar condensations produced the sun and stars; and the flaming state of these bodies is due to the velocity of their motions.

Heraclitus

Heraclitus (Greek: Ἡράκλειτος) of Ephesus (ca. 535 - 475 B.C.E.) disagreed with Thales, Anaximander, and Pythagoras about the nature of the ultimate substance and claimed instead that everything is derived from the Greek classical element fire, rather than from air, water, or earth. This led to the belief that change is real, and stability illusory. For Heraclitus "Everything flows, nothing stands still." He is also famous for saying: "No man can cross the same river twice, because neither the man nor the river are the same."

Empedocles

Empedocles (ca. 490 B.C.E. – ca. 430 B.C.E.) was a citizen of Agrigentum, a Greek colony in Sicily. Empedocles' philosophy is best known for being the origin of the cosmogenic theory of the four classical elements. He maintained that all matter is made up of four elements: water, earth, air and fire. Empedocles postulated something called Love (philia) to explain the attraction of different forms of matter, and of something called Strife (neikos) to account for their separation. He was also one of the first people to state the theory that light travels at a finite (although very large) speed, a theory that gained acceptance only much later.

Diogenes Apolloniates

Diogenes Apolloniates (ca. 460 B.C.E.) was a native of Apollonia in Crete. Like Anaximenes, he believed air to be the one source of all being, and all other substances to be derived from it by condensation and rarefaction. His chief advance upon the doctrines of Anaximenes is that he asserted air, the primal force, to be possessed of intelligence—"the air which stirred within him not only prompted, but instructed. The air as the origin of all things is necessarily an eternal, imperishable substance, but as soul it is also necessarily endowed with consciousness."

Archelaus

Archelaus was a Greek philosopher of the 5th century B.C.E., born probably in Athens, though Diogenes Laërtius (ii. 16) says in Miletus. He was a pupil of Anaxagoras, and is said by Ion of Chios (Diogenes Laërtius, ii. 23) to have been the teacher of Socrates. Some argue that this is probably only an attempt to connect Socrates with the Ionian School; others (e.g. Gomperz, Greek Thinkers) uphold the story. There is similar difference of opinion as regards the statement that Archelaus formulated certain ethical doctrines. In general, he followed Anaxagoras, but in his cosmology he went back to the earlier Ionians.

Hippon

Hippon of Samos

Anaximander, a student of Thales, pursued the material principle as Thales did, but identified the ultimate being not in particular element of nature but in undifferentiated stuff. He elevated the level of abstraction and found the universal principle in what he called "apeíron" (ἄπειρον; infinite or limitless).

Socrates

The philosopher Socrates (470 B.C.E. - 399 B.C.E.) of Athens.

Socrates, an Athenian philosopher, believed that a person should always try to do well. He believed that one should "know thyself." This is evidenced by the inscription at the Temple of Apollo at Delphi. He claimed that one has an obligation to disobey a bad command. He made his most important contribution to Western thought through his method of inquiry. In addition, he also taught many famous Greek philosophers. His most famous pupil was Plato. However, since Socrates discussed ideas that upset many people (some in high positions), he was sentenced to death by drinking the poison hemlock. The ironic thing about this is that during the reign of the Thirty Tyrants he was often threatened, but survived despite his continued protests for democracy. When democracy came, he was executed for corrupting their young. Most of what we know about Socrates came from Plato as Socrates wrote nothing down.

Plato and Aristotle

Aristotle, known as Aristoteles in most languages other than English (Aristotele in Italian), (384 B.C.E. - March 7, 322 B.C.E.) has, along with Plato, the reputation of one of the two most influential philosophers in Western thought.

Their works, although connected in many fundamental ways, differ considerably in both style and substance. Plato wrote several dozen philosophical dialogues—arguments in the form of conversations, usually with Socrates as a participant—and a few letters. Though the early dialogues deal mainly with methods of acquiring knowledge, and most of the last ones with justice and practical ethics, his most famous works expressed a synoptic view of ethics, metaphysics, reason, knowledge, and human life. Predominant ideas include the notion that knowledge gained through the senses always remains confused and impure, and that the contemplative soul that turns away from the world can acquire "true" knowledge. The soul alone can have knowledge of the Forms, the real essences of things, of which the world we see is but an imperfect copy. Such knowledge has ethical as well as scientific import. One can view Plato, with qualification, as an idealist and a rationalist.

Aristotle was one of Plato's students, but placed much more value on knowledge gained from the senses, and would correspondingly better earn the modern label of empiricist. Thus Aristotle set the stage for what would eventually develop into the scientific method centuries later. The works of Aristotle that still exist today appear in treatise form, mostly unpublished by their author. The most important include Physics, Metaphysics, (Nicomachean) Ethics, Politics, De Anima (On the Soul), Poetics, and many others.

Aristotle was a great thinker and philosopher, and was called 'the master' by Avicenna in the following centuries. His views and approaches dominated early Western science for almost 2000 years. As well as philosophy, Aristotle was a formidable inventor, and is credited with many significant inventions and observations. Robert M. Pirsig, the author of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, makes the observation that Aristotle both helped create the analytic approach which forms the backbone of the scientific method and much of philosophy, but that against this, he also took great pride in categorizing nature into lists and taxonomic schemes, which in some cases led to subjects such as rhetoric evolving over time from rich art forms, into recipe-like rules.

Schools of thought in the Hellenistic period

In the Hellenistic period, many different schools of thought developed in the Greek world and often attracted Romans who were responsible for the development of these Greek philosophies. The most notable schools were:

• Neo-Platonism: Ammonius Saccas, Porphyry, Plotinus (Roman), Iamblichus, Proclus
• Academic Skepticism: Arcesilaus, Carneades
• Pyrrhonian Skepticism: Pyrrho, Sextus Empiricus
• Cynicism: Antisthenes, Diogenes of Sinope, Crates of Thebes (taught Zeno of Citium, founder of Stoicism)
• Stoicism: Zeno of Citium, Crates of Mallus (brought Stoicism to Rome c. 170 B.C.E.), Seneca (Roman), Epictetus (Roman), Marcus Aurelius (Roman)
• Epicureanism: Epicurus and Lucretius (Roman)
• Eclecticism: Cicero (Roman)

The spread of Christianity through the Roman world ushered in the end of the Hellenistic philosophy and the beginnings of Medieval Philosophy.

See also

• Ancient philosophy
• Aristotelianism
• Paideia
• Philosophy
• Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance—a book which inter alia examines the nature of Greek philosophy and its early development.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• John Burnet, Early Greek Philosophy, 1930.
• William Keith Chambers Guthrie, A History of Greek Philosophy: Volume 1, The Earlier Presocratics and the Pythagoreans, 1962.
• Martin Litchfield West, Early Greek Philosophy and the Orient, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1971.
• Martin Litchfield West, The East Face of Helicon: West Asiatic Elements in Greek Poetry and Myth, Oxford [England] ; New York: Clarendon Press, 1997.
• Charles Freeman (1996). Egypt, Greece and Rome. Oxford University Press. 

External links

• The Impact of Greek Culture on Normative Judaism from the Hellenistic Period through the Middle Ages c. 330 B.C.E.- 1250 C.E.
• Greek Philosophy for Kids

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