1、Classical Greek PhilosophySocrates Simple man Stonemason Shrewish wife Loyal service in the war Incredible concentration Wisest man in Athens (oracle) Gad fly (Dialectics/Socratic method) “The unexamined life is not worth living.”Socrates Convicted of “corrupting the youth” Described as “the best an
2、d wisest” and “most noble” manPlato Student of Socrates The Academy Mathematics What is the real nature of things?What makes this a Chair?ChairnessPlato The Republic Ideal society Rule by the philosophers The Allegory of the CavePlato Superiority of the intellectual life Platonic love Devalued the p
3、hysical Creation by the Demiurge Shaping imperfect matter into the perfect Form Ethics Find the Form in all thingsAristotle Taught by Plato Lyceum Natural sciences Truth is best understood from observation of living things Capable in many areas Forms can be understood from the physical as well as fr
4、om the purely intellectualAristotle Aristotelian Scientific Method Used for 2000 years Basic assumptions based on reasoning Deductive method Observations used to confirm the assumptions Example: Elements of earth (4) and heavens Example: Qualities of things Did not employ experimentation Disturbs na
5、tureAristotle Four Causal Questions (Physics)Material Question (What is it made of?)Efficient Question (What caused it?)Formal Question (What is its Form or essence?)Final Question (What is its final end or purpose?)Aristotle Example: A Mouse Material: molecules Efficient: birth Formal: dna (informa
6、tion) Final: fulfill its purpose as a creature of GodAristotle Motion Bodies move to achieve their stable (natural) position Heavier bodies fall faster Poetics Rhetoric Ethos = power of persuasion created by the character of the speaker (Gettysburg Address) Pathos = power of persuastion created by t
7、he passion of the speaker (I Have a Dream speech) Ethics Act to avoid extremesThank YouZenoEpicurusAverroesAnaximanderPythagorasAnaxagorasHypatiaParmenidesEschinesAlcibiadesXenophonAlexander SocratesHeraclitusPlatoAristotleDiogenesEuclidZoroasterPtolemyRaphaelClassical Greek PhilosophySocrates470-39
8、9 BC Divided philosophy into 2 groups Pre-Socratics After were based upon his ethics and methods Philosophers versus Sophists Believed in a single, all powerful God Used dialectics (Socratic Method) to find ultimate truthSocrates Taken to trial (Apology) Convictedhe did not put on a defense Sentence
9、d to death Drank hemlock(Phaedo)“The unexamined life is not worth living.” SocratesPlato 427-347 BC Student of Socrates Born an aristocrat Founded the AcademyFirst universityPurpose-thinking about deeper meanings Wrote dialogues of Socrates, his own political theory and works of ethicsPlato Forms or
10、 Ideas Continuation of Socrates ultimate nature Essence of something lies in the Form Form has perfection Ideals comes from Idea = Form Immaterial things also had Forms For instance: Our remembrance of the Form of beauty allows us to see beauty in other thingsOne of Platos critics said: “I see parti
11、cular horses, but not horseness.”Plato answered: “That is because you have eyes but no intelligence.”Plato Spiritual is more real than the physical (Timaeus)Physical changes, Form is eternalTruth cannot be perceived by the sensesPerfection is only found in the Forms At death, the soul migrates to th
12、e World of Pure Form What is the concept of a perfect God?Plato The Republic Idea of the perfect society “What is the nature of reality?” Philosophers emerging from the cavePlato MathematicsSupported Pythagorean schoolMath is the organizing rules for the Forms which combine in various geometric shap
13、es to create all things Sign on the door of the Academy“Let no one ignorant of geometry enter here”Aristotle384-322 BC Son of a physician Born in Macedonia Attended the Academy Became Platos foremost student Left the Academy when Plato died Founded the Lyceum in AthensMore focused in natural science
14、Aristotle Forms Some Forms have qualities and quantities that are not fixed (and therefore not perfect) Colors or measurements Forms can be perceived from the object itself by observation and from many others that have similar Forms to develop the nature of the Form of that thing True nature is unde
15、rstood by observation Classification of the sciencesAristotle Wrote on physics Universe is eternal, finite and spherical Earth is center of the universe World composed of 4 elements (earth, fire, water, air) Heavens composed of aether 4 elements affected by qualities (dry, cold, wet, hot) Real objec
16、ts are composites of Form and matter Plato did not value matter Note Aristotles thinkingspirit and bodyAristotle Four Casual Questions (Physics) Material Question Efficient Question Formal Question Final Question Example: A Mouse Is the final cause perfection? Can anything be perfect?Nothing we desi
17、gn or make ever really works. We can always say what more it ought to do, but that it never does. The aircraft falls out of the sky or rams the earth full tilt and kills the people. It has to be tended like a new born babe. Our dinner table ought to be variable in size and height, removable altogeth
18、er, impervious to scratches, self-cleaning, and having no legs. Never do we achieve a satisfactory performance. Petroski, Henry The Evolution of Useful Things, Vintage Books, 1994, pp. 25.Aristotle Developed rules of logic Syllogism All trees need light. An oak is tree. Therefore, oaks need light. I
19、nductive This dog needs lungs, therefore all dogs need lungs Deductive All dogs have lungs, therefore this dog has lungs Aristotle favored deductive reasoningAristotle Wrote on politicsAssembled 158 constitutions to compareThree type of governments existed Rule by one manmonarchy/tyranny Rule by a f
20、ew menaristocracy/oligarchy Rule by manypolity/democracy Individual considered greater than the stateAristotle Wrote on ethicsNicomachean EthicsHappiness sought after naturallyThree levels of happiness Based on pleasure Based on honor Based on contemplation, philosophyAdvocated the Golden Mean Money
21、 is not the means to happinessAristotle Wrote RhetoricBook describing speech to influence othersEthospower of persuasion created by the characterPathospower of persuasion created by passionLogospower of persuasion contained in the speech itselfAristotle Influence Taught Alexander the greatTherefore
22、was mistrusted by Athenians Basis of latter medieval science and religionIdeas had internal consistencyIdeas were adopted by St. Thomas Aquinas and the Catholic ChurchSummary Greek Legacy on Learning The world is rational (i.e., science) The world can be understood by examining the fundamental Truth
23、 is unchanging Science is available to all How to learn systematically Rules of logicThe belief that the universe possesses and is governed according to a comprehensive regulating intelligence, and that this same intelligence is reflected in the human mind, rendering it capable of knowing the cosmic
24、 order, was one of the most characteristic and recurring principles in the central tradition of Hellenic thought. Tarnas, The Passion of the Western Mind, p 47.I cannot but greatly wonder at those who think that we must attend to none but the Greeks as to the most ancient facts, and learn the truth
25、from them only, and that we are not to believe ourselves or other men. Indeed they admit themselves that it is the Egyptians, the Chaldeans and the Phoenicians (for I will not now include ourselves Jews among those) that have preserved the memory of the most ancient and lasting tradition. Josephus,
26、(Quoted in Toulmin and Goodfield, The Discovery of Time, The University of Chicago Press, 1965, p. 25.)“My advice is to get married: if you find a good wife youll be happy; if not youll become a philosopher.”Deep PhilosophyFrom SocratesThank You“The only useful knowledge is that which betters us.”-
27、SocratesPlato vs. Aristotle Particular was less real Substance is transitory Form is static Fear of change Founded academy Mystic Belittler of natural science Mathhighest form of thinking Universe was less real Substance needs matter True nature evolves Change inevitable to progress Founded Lyceum L
28、ogician Observer of natural science Separated math and sciencePlatonic vs. Pre-Socratic World is an ordered cosmos Pervasive intelligence Order transcends physical manifestation Complete knowledge Full understanding satisfies the mind and soul Knowledge acquired through reason Truth is transitory Na
29、tural phenomena are impersonal and physical Theory measured against empirical knowledge No thought is final“Concerning the gods, I have no means of knowing whether they exist or not, nor of what form they are; for there are many obstacles to such knowledge, including the obscurity of the subject and
30、 the shortness of human life.” Protagoras (a Sophist)Socrates Taught a barbarian the Pythagorean Theorem Knowledge is intuitive and is merely revealed by learning “Know thyself.” Socrates+=For Plato knowing is an act of making the observable world intelligible by showing how it is related to an eter
31、nal order of intelligible truths.“ Palmer, Donald, Does the Center Hold?, Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing Company, 1991, p. 58.The essence (or form, as he Aristotle called it, borrowing Platos term.) is the things whatness, and its materiality is its thisness. That is, an oak trees whatness,
32、its essence or form, is the combination of characteristics that make it an oak tree rather than, say, a pussy cat; and its thisness is its individuality what distinguishes this oak tree from all other oak trees. Palmer, Donald, Does the Center Hold?, Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing Company, 1
33、991, p. 162-163.“Aristotles universe was composed of a plurality of real beings that fell into an orderly hierarchy of perfection. Prime matter and substantial form were the principles of every physical body. The simplest bodies occurring in nature were the four elements, earth, air, fire and water.
34、 These combined to produce the various types of inanimate objects. Living things were more complex bodies which were united by a higher type of substantial form, called soul. Aristotle distinguished three types of souls, vegetative, sensitive, and rational, corresponding to the degrees of perfection
35、 found in plants, animals, and human beings.” Langford in Galileo, Science and the ChurchSocrates Socratic MethodPosed questions and then questioned the answersSearched for the ultimate nature of qualities What is Duty? What is Truth? What is Evil?Happiness is the consequence not of physical or exte
36、rnal circumstances, of wealth or power or reputation, but of living a life that is good for the soul. Yet to live a genuinely good life, one must know what is the nature and essence of the good. Richard Tarnas in The Passion of the Western MindSocrates taught:The works of Homer had embodied the aris
37、tocratic values that Plato wished to support, but Homer had offered no defense of those values except an appeal to the emotions through his poetic discourse. If Plato was to defend values rationally, he had to replace the power of poetry (as manifested in Greek myth and drama) with that of philosoph
38、y, the spokeswoman for reason. Palmer, Donald, Does the Center Hold?, Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing Company, 1991, p. 60.From the Pythagorean perspective, the fundamentals of existence are the archetypal Forms or Ideas, which constitute the intangible substrate of all that is tangible. The
39、true structure of the world is revealed not by the senses, but by the intellect, which in its highest state has direct access to the Ideas governing reality. All knowledge presupposes the abstraction or imaginary metaphor for the concrete world, is here considered to be the very basis of reality, th
40、at which determines its order and renders it knowable. To this end, Pythagoras and later Plato declared direct experience of the transcendent Ideas to be the philosophers primary goal and ultimate destination. Tarnas, The Passion of the Western Mind, p 12.For Plato the Creation of the cosmos was the
41、 process by which the eternal mathematical principles were given material embodiment, imposing an order on the formless raw materials of the world, and setting them working according to ideal specifications. When a mathematician worked out the geometrical relations manifested in the motions of the p
42、lanets, or the properties of material substances, he was likewise revealing the Craftsmans rational design.“ Toulmin, Stephen and June Goodfield, The Discovery of Time, The University of Chicago Press, 1965, p.42-43.Aristotle believed that the world we are born into is the real world and is not just
43、 a shadow of a more ultimate world. He brought Platos philosophy down to earth by claiming that the Forms must be imbedded in matter. He believed that the distinction between Form and matter was only an intellectual distinction, a distinction that could be drawn in theory but not in reality. Palmer, Donald, Does the Center Hold?, Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing Company, 1991, p. 448.“Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws.”Plato
