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Socrates. The First Moralist Socrates believed in absolute morality, that there is right and wrong, rather than relative morality, that everything can be argued and falls in a gray area. Socrates in a nutshell. all I know is that I know nothing
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Socrates The First Moralist Socrates believed in absolute morality, that there is right and wrong, rather than relative morality, that everything can be argued and falls in a gray area
Socrates in a nutshell • all I know is that I know nothing • A system of morality which is based on relative emotional values is a mere illusion • The soul is what give’s human’s life and that all human’s souls are immortal, but the souls of the righteous are immortal and divine • Knowledge is virtue • The unexamined idea is not worth having, anymore than the unexamined life is not worth living • - Prior to being born our souls all ready know the universal truths, we spend our lives trying to remember what we already know • - Death is either a dreamless sleep or our souls are relocated to a different place • Humans have eternal goodness from within and must bring the moral potential of their soul to life • Wealth does not make one happy but living a moral life does
Socrates The first philosopher to denounce democracy because it created a society based on relative morality. Socrates believed in an absolute morality that is based on “universal truths”. He believed that all humans knew what is right and wrong and that the best form of government is one that creates moral people
The Moral Martyr Socrates was charged with corrupting the youth and sentenced to die. When he was told his life would be spared if he admitted that he was wrong he decided to die for his cause and take his own life. The man with his head down at the end of the bed is Socrates favorite student………..
Student of Socrates • Founded the Academy in Athens, school that taught philosophy, mathematics and gymnastics • all accounts of Socrates come from him • most famous work was “the Republic”
Physical forms and events are “shadows” of there ideal form • This world is represented by the shadows and there is an ideal world where the true forms exists • - Dualism - the belief in dual realities • The soul is immortal and once existed in the ideal world • Death is the transition into the ideal world • Only those who have seen the “light” should rule – “the philosopher king” • Mysticism – the belief that one is able to connect with the “world of ideas” while in the “world if forms” – connecting with the supreme being – an atheist believes that there is nothing to connect to • knowledge is justified true belief • Sensible knowledge is changing and unstable – opinions • Non – sensible knowledge is true knowledge – justified belief • - Platonism – denying the reality of the material world
Plato Shadows Ideals Reality Reality
Plato considered first political scientist, in his book the Republic he viewed democracy as horrible form of government because people were too often swayed by emotions and deception so democracy would always evolve into tyranny. Plato favored a government run by “philosopher kings” who would create what he called the “ideal state”
Plato’s Perfect City • People would be divided up into three classes, gold, silver and bronze • Your class would determine what type of work you would do and the government would decide your job based on your skills • The leaders would be philosophers whose main goal would be to make sure the citizens live a moral life • There would be no families or marriage and children would be educated by the state • men and woman would be equal • The state would censor all music and literature so it would not cause moral decay • The government would tell a “big lie” so that the people would believe that this is the best way to live
Not everyone agreed with Plato, in fact some people thought he was completely wrong, one of those people was his own student………..
Born in Macedonia • student of Plato • only one-third of his works are believed to have survived • study at Plato’s Academy in Athens from the age of 18 to 38 and then left because he wasn’t happy that Plato’s nephew was chosen to run it after Plato’s death • his writings cover many subjects that included physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, ethics, biology and zoology
The Law of Identity Everything is the same within itself and different from another
The Law of Non-Contradiction one cannot say of something that it is and that it is not in the same respect and at the same time
Aristotelian Logic Used to determine the validity of a conclusion If a statement is true then it is true A statement is either true or it is false No statement can be both true and false at the same time
The Law of Causality The relation between two events where the first event is the cause and the second is the effect, the effect is a consequence of the cause
Cause Why something happened
Effect What happened?
Cause Why something happened
Effect What happened?
Aristotelian Philosophy • The material world exists and it does matter because there is no immortal soul or afterlife – this is our only chance • the way to understand nature is through numbers – “nature is “God” and “God” speaks to us in numbers • there must be a “prime mover” that set things in motion but they do not control our day to day lives, that is left to man and the numbers (chance and random occurrences)
Aristotle Ideals Reality Man is connected to reality through our senses
The potential of man All humans have potential, they must act on it in order to realize that potential, when humans realize their potential they are…………
Happy So life is all about…………
The pursuit of happiness Joy Happy Happy Joy ......
Competition brings the best out in man But humans do not like to lose so competition can cause conflict (Humans hate people who are too good at competing)
So we should not be too extreme because it will cause conflict and pain But we can’t just sit around and do nothing So……….
We should restrain ourselves from over indulging our senses and live by The “Golden Mean” the desirable middle between two extremes
Recklessness Courage Cowardness Pursuit of Happiness
Aristotle Agreed with Plato that democracy was bad, believed that there are two types of people, leaders and followers, and that the best type of government is one that allows the leaders to lead and the followers to follow. The best type of government allows the most people to be happy, therefor there cannot be social happiness without individual happiness. Also, those who are leaders will have wealth and therefore more to lose if society should fail. This form of government is known as an aristocracy
Aristotle did make a few mistakes, he concluded that the Earth was at the center of the universe and that everything revolves around the Earth and he believed that men were the “givers of live” and that woman only incubated the child
The Split Plato Aristotle Single Reality Science Rationalism Left Brain Reason Logic Duel Reality Religion Mysticism Right Brain Emotions Faith
Socrates Aristotle I See the Light Plato
In 343BC the King of Macedonia, Phillip II brought Aristotle back to Macedonia to teach his son………
Alexander the Great Student of Aristotle who conquers most of the known world and spreads Greek philosophy throughout the known world
The Hellenistic Empire Currency – system of money used in a specific geographical area Exchange Rate – the value of one currency in relation to another currency
Ptolemy I Successor to Alexander the Great in Egypt, also a student of Aristotle, founder of the Library of Alexandria, great, great, great grandfather of Cleopatra
Cynicism Their philosophy was that the purpose of life was to live a life of Virtue in agreement with Nature. This meant rejecting all conventional desires for wealth, power, health, and fame, and by living a simple life free from all possessions. As reasoning creatures, people could gain happiness by rigorous training and by living in a way which was natural for humans. They believed that the world belonged equally to everyone, and that suffering was caused by false judgments of what was valuable and by the worthless customs and conventions which surrounded society Off the grid
Cyrenaicism The only good true good is physical pleasure and the absence of pain
