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Socrates was brought to trial on charges of ‘corrupting the youth’ and ‘not believing in the city gods’.
drinking of hemlock
‘The safest characterisation of Western philosophy is that of a series of footnotes to Plato’ A.N. Whitehead
However, much of Plato’s work revolves around his conception of a realm of ideal forms.
The world of experience is illusory, Plato tells us, since only that which is unchanging and eternal is real, an idea he borrowed from Parmenides.
Theory of Forms,
were ideal forms of universal or abstract concepts, such as beauty, justice, truth and mathematical concepts such as number and class.
After his death his works were lost for some 200 years or so but fortunately rediscovered in Crete. Later translated into Latin by Boethius around 500 AD, Aristotle’s influence spread throughout Syria and Islam whilst Christian Europe ignored him in favour of Plato. Not until Thomas Aquinas reconciled Aristotle’s work with Christian doctrine in the 13th century did he become influential in western Europe.
‘the Lyceum’,
More than any other philosopher before him, Aristotle made much of observation and strict classification of data in his studies. For this reason he is often considered as the father of empirical science and scientific method.
In contradistinction to both Plato and the Presocratics, Aristotle rejected the idea that the many diverse branches of human inquiry could, in principle, be subsumed under one discipline based on some universal philosophic principle. Different sciences require different axioms and admit of varying degrees of precision according to their subject.
According to Democritus, the fundamental nature of the universe consists of indivisible atoms in constant motion and travelling in an infinite void.
Democritus’ atomism represents a cogent attempt at unifying the thought of earlier philosophers. With Heraclitus, the atomist philosophy agrees that change and motion are both possible and necessary states of nature.
To account for motion Democritus postulated that the only true non-being is the infinite void, the absolute space in which atoms are eternally in motion.
‘determinism’,
His philosophy represents a creative blend of the metaphysical interests of the Presocratics with the ethical concerns of Socrates.
hedonism,
Although he kept to the idea that the soul was itself nothing but the movement of atoms in the material body, some atoms could freely ‘swerve in the void’.
This mysterious and wholly unaccounted for property allowed Epicurus to maintain a concept of human free will against the critics of earlier atomic theories.
hedonist
Moreover, he professed that no one could be completely happy unless they lived a virtuous life, not because virtue was good in itself, but because it led to pleasurable consequences and the absence of pain and fear.
‘the problem of evil’
Noting the many ills suffered by people in the world, Epicurus complained, ‘Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then how can there be evil?’ Even so, Epicurus was not an atheist, since he believed there were gods, but that these gods had no interest in human affairs, which would only have distracted them from their own pursuit of pleasure in contemplation.
Epicurus’ philosophy represents a curious mix of opposing ideas. He is at once a hedonist who preaches prudence and temperance, a theist who rejects divine intervention and the survival of the soul, an...
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Epicu...
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Epicurean philosophy
Stoicism.
Diogenes was a charismatic and enigmatic character and inspiration for the Cynics, a school of thought that rejected the complications and machinations of civic life.
Whether Diogenes ever actually wrote down his ideas is open to question, but if so they are all lost and it would seem out of keeping with his lifestyle and philosophy for him to have done so.
Diogenes claimed that happiness could only be achieved by living ‘according to nature’.
This meant satisfying only the most basic requirements of the body by the simplest means possible. Nicknamed ‘the dog’ for his vagrant lifestyle, Diogenes was allegedly described by Plato as ‘a Socrates gone mad’.
He made his living by begging, refusing to wear anything but the simplest of cloth and was renowned for outrageous public stunts – once reputedly masturbating in front of a crowd to show ho...
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According to Diogenes, mastery of the self, or ‘self-sufficiency’, leads to both happiness and freedom but requires constant practice ...
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However, critics complain that Diogenes’ lifestyle is self-indulgent, relying on the generosity and productivity of others to support his vagrant lifestyle. There is a philosophical point here, not just a pragmatic one, concerning the universalisability of ethical prescriptions. If everyone were to follow Diogenes’ example society would collapse, making it economically impossible for anyone – including Diogenes – to concentrate on the mastery of the self. Therefore Diogenes’ philosophy is elitist – it cannot be universally followed.
Cynics,
Cynicism
asceticism.
Marcus Tullius Cicero
He maintained friendships with philosophers from all the leading schools but it was not until his retirement, finding himself in the political wilderness, that he devoted his final years to translating large parts of the Greek corpus into Latin.
Much of our knowledge of Greek thought is due to Cicero’s translations and he remains a primary source for students of Hellenistic philosophy.
Academica,
De Finibus
De Off...
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Tusculan Disputations,
On the Nature of Gods and On Divination,
scepticism
This was neither by accident, nor disguised. Cicero felt that the more modern Latin language could resolve and clarify the problems of Greek philosophy, as well as make it more appealing to a modern audience.
despite the invention of modern languages, Latin remained the primary language of philosophy right up until the Renaissance.
Even Descartes’ hugely influential Meditations on First Philosophy, published in 1641, was written first in Latin and only later translated into French.
‘the Cogito’.
