Philosopher Study Guides
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Biography
- Lived
between 470-399 B.C.
- Perhaps
the son of a stonemason and a stonemason himself.
- Married
twice; had three sons.
- Unhappily
married to Xanthippe, called “the most difficult of all women who ever
have been or will be.”
- Held
public conversations or “dialogues” in the Athens marketplace (the
Agora).
- Put
on trial and found guilty of serious crimes against the state in 399 BC.
The Ideas of
Socrates
Sources:
Socrates left behind no writings of his own.
What little we know comes from his followers and students, mostly Plato
and Xenophon.
Key Ideas:
Ironic
Modesty: Socrates
claimed to have no great wisdom himself; he demonstrated the lack of wisdom of
others (especially important people in his society) by questioning them closely
about their ideas. Socrates believed that the wise man knows the limits of his
wisdom.
Questioning
Habit—the “Socratic Method” He followed a process of
intense questioning to expose flaws in the thinking of others, forcing them to
reexamine their ideas. He would closely question people about the definition of
key ideas or virtues (justice, for example)
challenging them to define these ideas, exposing their inability to do so.
Devotion to Truth:
Plato
quotes Socrates as saying "The unexamined life is not worth living."
Socrates refused to be silent or change his teaching or beliefs—even to
save his life.
Arguing both sides of
a question: Socrates inspired a method of teaching in both Greek and Roman schools
which remains popular today: arguing both sides of an issue. Students prepare
both sides of an argument and must be
prepared to argue from both sides of the issue.
Social criticisms:
Socrates called himself the “gadfly” of Athens—an annoying insect
that keeps buzzing and biting, demanding the Athenians keep analyzing and
criticizing their society. A critic of democracy and the decisions of the
assembly, he was especially critical of choosing government officials by lot.
Trial and Death of
Socrates
At the age of
70, Socrates was put on trial in the Assembly.
The Charges:
- Undermining
traditional religion and preaching false gods
- Corrupting
the young people of Athens
Most historians
believe that he had angered too many important Athenians by exposing their
ignorance publicly in the dialogs and questioning the decisions of Athens
political leaders.
His Sentence:
- Socrates
was sentenced to death.
- Urged
to accept ostracism and flee the city, he refused to save himself.
- Plato
tells us his reverence for the law made him accept to verdict of the jury.
- In
399, Socrates drank and cup of poison—hemlock—and died.
Historical
irony:
“The Athens of Socrates’ time has gone down in
history as the very place where democracy and freedom of speech were born. Yet
that city put Socrates, its most famous philosopher, to death.”
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Biography
- Little is known about Plato’s life.
- Probably was from a landed family.
- Probable dates are 427BC-347 BC.
- Family members probably were involved in the “Thirty
Tyrants” attempt to end democracy in 404 BC
- Student and admirer of Socrates, deeply affected by
his trial and death in 399 BC.
The Works of Plato
Among the most influential works of Western philosophy,
Plato’s works were in dialogue form—that is discussions
presented among characters—usually featuring Socrates in a leading role.
In the dialogue, philosophical ideas are presented and debated.
Apology:
In this dialogue, Socrates
appears before the Assembly, charged with serious crimes:
1) turning Athenians away from the traditional gods and 2) corrupting the
youth of Athens. Socrates defends himself against the charges and defends his
life devoted to philosophy and the pursuit of truth.
Crito:
In this dialogue, Socrates
is in prison, waiting for his sentence of death by drinking a poisoned cup of hemlock. A friend (Crito)
comes to see him and to persuade him to escape and save his life. The question
becomes this: should Socrates escape or remain in jail and accept his sentence
of death? Socrates chooses death,
for a life away from Athens and the pursuit of philosophy is not a life worth
living.
The Republic:
Plato imagines an ideal
society—or "utopian"
society, from the Greek word for "no-place.”
Plato sees the ideal state a made up of three classes
(an economic class, a soldier class, and a leadership class), each with a
special role to play and special virtues unique to each class. Each class is
educated from birth to fulfill their roles.
The leaders of society received the fullest education and become the “philosopher-kings” who are educated to make the wisest decisions for
society. Perhaps Plato’s disgust
with the Thirty Tyrants episode and the execution of his friend and teacher
Socrates made him discontented with democracy and inspired his search for an
ideal alternative to democracy, which seemed so flawed.
Platonic Ideas:
Theory of Knowledge:
Plato believed true
knowledge had to be certain and absolute, but most of what people
“knew” was based on their sense experience and was not reality but merely
appearance. Sense experience was an
imperfect route to knowledge. What is truly real, ironically, exists in the
realm of the ideal. Knowledge that comes from actual experience was imperfect
and incomplete. Platonic thinking is the beginning of a strain of Western
philosophy called idealism.
Philosopher Kings.
Plato was disillusioned by the failures of Athenian
democracy and Socrates' execution. He believed that those trusted with the
government of the city had to be specially educated in philosophy. In the
Republic he discussed the idea of rule by “philosopher kings,”specially
educated from birth to make wise and just decisions for the city-state.
The Academy:
A school opened by Plato to educate the future leaders
of Athens. It was named after the grove of trees or “park” were the first
classes were held. It provided a
broad curriculum of study that included the sciences (astronomy, biology),
mathematics, political theory, and of course, philosophy. In the Middle Ages,
the first universities were modeled (to some extent) after Plato’s Academy.
The Academy continued (in various forms) for hundreds of years after
Plato’s death. Probably its most famous student was Aristotle.
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Aristotle: Study Guide
Biography
- Born:
384 BC
- Studied
as a young man at Plato’s Academy in Athens and taught there for 20 years
- While
some historical accounts name Aristotle as tutor to Alexander the Great,
some modern historians doubt this.
- In
335 BC Aristotle founded his own school the Lyceum in Athens.
- Died:
322 BC
Works
Much of what we think of as Aristotle’s works are based
on notes saved by his students after his death and only rediscovered hundreds of
years later during Roman times. Many
of the works are just fragments, and much of what is left is disputed by
scholars.
Ethics
In this work, Aristotle argues that the “goodness” or “virtue” is
found in realizing the specific nature of a thing.
For humans, it’s the realization of the uniquely human potential—the
potential for rationality. Rationality
requires two types virtues, according to Aristotle— moral and intellectual.
Moral virtue is always found by finding the “middle way”
between extremes. The happy man exhibits both moral and intellectual virtues and
follows a course of moderation between extremes.
Politics
For Aristotle, politics is an extension of individual ethics—the same moral
ideals that apply to the individual life apply to the well-ordered society.
Humans naturally seek out community and form political associations, and the
political associations of the state grow from the smaller community of the
village and from the family unit. Deeply
skeptical that citizens had the wisdom to govern themselves, Aristotle favored a
compromise between the “philosopher king” monarchy of Plato and the problems
of democracy. The best practical
government was a kind of limited monarchy, according to Aristotle.
Poetics
Poetics
represents the earliest formal literary criticism, and includes an extensive
analysis of tragedy
as a literary form.
Aristotle’s
Theory of Knowledge
Aristotle believed that knowledge was gained by experience
of the world not by “innate ideas,” as Plato believed. He was critical of
Plato’s separation of essential form from actual physical matter. Aristotle
believed that material things could be analyzed and identified by their
fundamental traits, and a system of classification of things could be worked
out based on those traits. He also that all things that existed were a
combination of what they were at the moment and what they had the potential
to become, recognizing that all things change over time.
Aristotle the
Scientist
Aristotle
emphasized the direct observation of nature as the heart of his
scientific method. Aristotle established the core principles of such sciences as
biology, physics, logic, and psychology. All nature can be organized into
a system arranged into categories or classes of things, based on their common
characteristics or forms. All existence could be organized in a hierarchy of
forms, arranged in order of their complexity: the inanimate, the vegetative, the animal, and the rational.
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