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Greek Philosophy

Greek Philosophy. What Is Philosophy? The Cosmologists The Sophists Socrates Plato. 1. What Is Philosophy?. philia + sophia = love of wisdom Crucial addition: a method for pursuing wisdom. What’s the method? Logic Difference with religious revelation and mythopoesis.

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Greek Philosophy

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  1. Greek Philosophy What Is Philosophy? The Cosmologists The Sophists Socrates Plato

  2. 1. What Is Philosophy? • philia + sophia = love of wisdom • Crucial addition: a method for pursuing wisdom. What’s the method? • Logic • Difference with religious revelation and mythopoesis

  3. 2. The Cosmologists • The earliest Greek philosophers were from Ionia, not from the Greek peninsula • Cosmopolitanism

  4. 2. CosmologistsThales (c. 624-548 BCE) • The Four Elements: an idea found throughout the ancient world • Earth • Water • Air • Fire • Thales asked whether one of these elements was primary, existing before the others. His answer? • WATER

  5. 2. CosmologistsAnaximander (c. 611-547 BCE) • His answer to the primary element question posed by Thales? • “The Boundless” Insert picture of “The Boundless” here . . . and good luck with that.

  6. 2. CosmologistsPythagoras (c. 580-507 BCE) The search for universal relationships in nature “There is geometry in the humming of the strings, there is music in the spacing of the spheres.” Pythagorean Theorem: a2 + b2 = c2

  7. 2. CosmologistsDemocritus (c. 460-370 BCE) • His answer to the question of “primary matter” posed by the Cosmologists? • atomos And how could a Greek of the 5th century BC develop the basis of atomic theory? Could it be . . .

  8. 3. The Sophists • Who were they? • Travelling teachers who emphasized . . . • Political arête • What was their curriculum? • Rhetoric • Grammar • Poetry • Gymnastics • Mathematics • Music

  9. 3. The Sophists • C. Positive aspects of their philosophy? • Focus on human psychology • Gives individuals ability to better themselves • Provides educated, healthier citizens . . . • which improves the society • D. Negatives? • Moral Relativism • Critique of sophrosyne • Can produce unrest, social instability • No education for lower classes • Sophistry

  10. 4. Socrates (c. 469 – 399 BC) • A. Background • B. Main Ideas • Ethical arête • The daimon • Socratic Method • Universals

  11. 4. Socrates (c. 469 – 399 BC) • C. Trial and execution The charges? • Denying the gods • Corrupting the youth of Athens The verdict? • Guilty

  12. Greek Philosophy Plato (c. 429-347 BCE) • Deductive Logic • Reasoning from the general to the specific • Plato’s Theory of Ideas: The World of “Forms”

  13. Greek Philosophy Plato (c. 429-347 BCE) • Critique of Democracy • Citizens uneducated (incapable of being educated?) • Therefore, they choose leaders for wrong reasons • Incompetence leads to chaos • Tyrant promises order, and you end up with tyranny

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