U N D E R S T A N D I N G
PHILOSOPHY
A NCIEN T A ND
HELLENISTIC T HOUGHT
UNDERSTANDING PHILOSOPHY
Ancient and Hellenistic Thought
Medieval and Modern Philosophy
Contemporary Thought
U N D E R S T A N D I N G
PHILOSOPHY
A NCIEN T A ND
HELLENISTIC T HOUGHT
Joan A. Price
To Ann, A Plato in the making.
鵻鵼
Ancient and Hellenistic hought
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Price, Joan A.
Ancient and Hellenistic thought / Joan Price.
p. cm. — (Understanding philosophy)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
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1. Philosophy, Ancient. I. Title. II. Series.
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CONTENTS
1
The Pre-Socratics:
Early Greek Philosophers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
7
The Classical Period:
The Sophists and Socrates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
33
3
The Classical Period: Plato . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
51
4
The Classical Period: Aristotle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
69
5
The Hellenistic Period . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
83
2
Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Further Reading . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Picture Credits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
About the Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
1
THE PRE-SOCRATICS:
EARLY GREEK
PHILOSOPHERS
Philosophy has its origin in our sense of wonder.
—Aristotle
he earliest philosophers in the Western world were the preSocratic philosophers, or those who lived before Socrates
(469–399 b.c.). hese pioneering thinkers offer us insight into
the first philosophical questions asked and the first answers
given about the nature of the world and we who live in it.
In about 600 b.c., these philosophers asked questions such
as, “How did the world come into being?” and, “What is the
world made of?” hey wanted to know what holds everything
together so that Earth and everything in it does not fly apart.
BEFORE THE PRESOCRATICS
Before 600 b.c., people found answers to all of their questions
about life and the world in which they lived in various religious
myths handed down from generation to generation by word of
mouth. Often, gods or superhuman beings served as the explanation. Greeks saw gods and superhuman beings as the ones
who held power over nature and humans. Today, we take for
granted that we can forecast weather. We know what causes
7
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ANCIENT AND HELLENISTIC THOUGHT
rain, floods, and droughts. he early Greeks, however, believed
that the gods were responsible for these natural occurrences
and that the gods determined the success or failure of their
crops and the health and sickness in their families.
In approximately 700 b.c., 100 years before the first philosophers, the famous Greek poet Homer, author of the Iliad
and the Odyssey, put many myths into writing. He described
the scene of Mount Olympus where gods such as Zeus, Apollo,
Hero, Athena, and Dionysius lived very similar lives to humans
on Earth. hese superhuman gods, known as the Homeric
gods, ate, drank, and amused themselves. As egoistic and devious as mortals, they were also open to bribery. Because the
gods were powerful and even spiteful when angry, the Greeks
feared them. he Greeks believed these gods would punish
people for their greed, their pride, and their immoral actions.
Homer’s gods were not always moral themselves, but they were
more powerful than humans and demanded obedience from
humans. hus, if a farmer’s crops failed, the farmer believed
that he had displeased the gods. If there was an illness in the
family, the family believed that the gods were getting revenge
for their lack of obedience.
Hesiod, a Greek poet who lived about 700 b.c., uses Homer
in his writings Works and Days to praise the power of Zeus:
hrough him mortal men are famed or unfamed, sung
or unsung alike, as great Zeus wills.
For easily he makes strong, and easily he brings the
strong man low; easily he humbles the proud and raises
the obscure, and easily he straightens the crooked and
blasts the proud. . . .
For those who practice violence and cruel deeds
far-seeing Zeus . . . ordains a punishment. Often even
a whole city suffers for a bad man who sins . . . and lays
he Pre-Socratics: Early Greek Philosophers
great trouble upon the people, famine and plague together, so that the men perish away, and their women
do not bear children, and houses become few. 1
he pre-Socratics questioned Homer’s poetic accounts of
the gods. hey also questioned Hesiod’s contention that heaven
and Earth consisted of a god and goddess locked in an embrace
until their son forced them apart.
THE FIRST PHILOSOPHERS
he aim of the first philosophers was to find natural, or scientific,
explanations instead of supernatural, or divine, explanations for
the world and its processes. he original Western philosophers
lived in Miletus, a Greek town in Ionia located across the Aegean
Sea from Athens, Greece, in 600 b.c.
he Milesian philosophers were known as natural philosophers because their aim was to find natural instead of supernatural explanations for the world and the way it works. hey
were also known as the first materialists. hey asked questions
such as, “What is the world made of?” and, “How can we explain
that everything in nature is always changing?” hey wanted to
find out if there was a source from which all things came and to
which all things returned. he Milesians wanted to understand
the laws of nature.
hese pre-Socratic philosophers discovered that change is
possible only if there is some permanent source or substance
that causes the world to exist. Without this permanent substance, each change would completely replace another, and
nothing could be held together. For example, you are the same
person now as you were when you were born. Yet your body,
your emotions, your mind, your needs, and your interests have
changed. Why is it, then, that you can look at your baby photograph and say, “here I am at six months old?” Everything about
9
10
ANCIENT AND HELLENISTIC THOUGHT
you has changed, yet you are the same person you were at six
months. Is there something about you that is permanent? What
is this “I” or “you” that does not change?
hese natural philosophers wanted to understand change
and permanence by studying nature itself, not by reading or listening to stories about the gods. hey speculated that all things
arise from the same substance, take different forms at different times, and then return again to the same substance. his
pre-Socratic reasoning shows a major shift from the mythical
explanation for the origins of the cosmos.
Only fragments of what these natural philosophers said and
wrote have survived. In fact, most of our information about the
pre-Socratics comes from the writings of Aristotle, who lived
two centuries later. According to him, the first philosopher in
the Western world was hales.
Miletus was the ancient Greek home of the earliest Western philosophers.
The city lies in present-day Turkey. The Miletus theater (above), built by the
Greeks in about 300 B.C., was later used by the Romans after their conquest
of the Greek empire.
he Pre-Socratics: Early Greek Philosophers
hales
hales (c. 624–546 b.c.) is known as the Father of Western Philosophy. He was from Miletus. hales was the first to ask the
questions, “Out of what substance is the world made?” and, “Is
there anything permanent that underlies all change?” His answer to both questions was water. Water, he said, is the basic
substance of everything in nature. All things have moisture, so
water also must be the permanent substance that holds everything together. hales may have meant that life originated from
water and life returned to water again, just as water turns to ice
or vapor and then turns back into water again.
Olive Presses
Aristotle relates a story about hales’s scheme for making
money. Although known as one of the wisest men in Greece,
people mocked hales for living in poverty, saying, “If you’re
so smart, why aren’t you rich?” and, “What good is philosophy
if you can’t use it to make money?” hales explained to these
people that money was of little interest to him, but he was sure
he could be wealthy if he put his mind to it. hey challenged
him to become rich, and he accepted their challenge.
From his knowledge of meteorology, hales observed there
would be an excellent crop of olives during the autumn season. In the middle of summer, he rented all the olive presses
in Miletus for a small sum of money. When the people saw
stacks and stacks of olive presses around his small house during the summer when there were no olives, they made fun at
his craziness. However, when autumn came, the olive growers
needed presses to make olive oil. Few could be found because
hales had bought them all. hales then rented the presses to
the growers for a huge profit. he farmers grumbled because of
his high prices, but he made a lot of money, proving that philosophers could become rich if they chose. hen, he reminded
11
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ANCIENT AND HELLENISTIC THOUGHT
the people that wealth is not the business in which philosophers are interested.
he Sun and the Pyramids
A scientist and mathematician as well as a philosopher, hales
was the first Greek to predict the eclipse of the Sun on May 28,
585 b.c. He was also the first to introduce Egyptian geometry to
Greece. Before hales, the height of the Egyptian pyramids was
unknown. Aware of hales’s reputation in mathematics, the Egyptian pharaoh asked hales if he could conceive a way to measure
the height of the pyramids. In those days, mathematicians and
scientists did not have the sophisticated tools that we have today.
Some had tried to measure the pyramids, but no one had found
an accurate way to measure the huge structures. hales agreed
to try, and he thought carefully about a solution. One day, while
standing in the Sun looking at a pyramid, he realized that at a certain time of day his own shadow was the exact length of his body.
He had his answer. hales measured a pyramid’s shadow at that
same time of day to determine the true height of the pyramids.
Anaximander
A student of hales, Anaximander (c. 612–c. 545 b.c.), also from
Miletus, agreed with his teacher that there is some permanent
substance that underlies all change, but he disagreed that this
substance was water. Water, he said, is within all things, but it
is only one among many other elements such as earth, air, and
fire. All limited elements—water, earth, air, and fire—must have
their origin in something unlimited—something “boundless.”
he Boundless
For Anaximander, the unlimited boundless is defined as eternal
motion. his motion is not created by anything, not sustained
by anything, nor will it ever end. Because of its eternal motion,
he Pre-Socratics: Early Greek Philosophers
water and other elements in the boundless separate and come
into existence. For example, hot and cold separated and became
moisture. From moisture came air and then earth. he boundless, Anaximander argued, produces everything.
Evolution
Anaximander was the first Western philosopher to propose the
idea of evolution. Although the word evolution had yet to be
invented, he reasoned that humans developed from fish:
While other animals quickly find food by themselves,
man alone requires a lengthy period of suckling. Hence,
had he been originally as he is now, he would never have
survived. . . .
At first human beings arose in the inside of fishes,
and after having been reared like sharks, and become
capable of protecting themselves, they were finally cast
ashore and took to land.2
Anaximenes
Anaximenes (c. 585–c. 525 b.c.) is the third and last well-known
philosopher from the Milesian school. Anaximenes thought
the substance that holds everything together was not water or
the boundless, but air. Air, he said, is everywhere, but unlike
Anaximander’s boundless, air is a tangible material substance.
He believed that hales’s water actually came from condensed
air. Air is breath, wind, mind, and soul. As a mathematician, he
reasoned that water is condensed air, earth is condensed water,
and fire is rarefied air. hus, air is the origin of earth, water, and
fire, and air holds everything together.
Just as our soul, being air, holds us together, so do breath
and air encompass the whole world.
13
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ANCIENT AND HELLENISTIC THOUGHT
When it [air] is dilated so as to be rarer, it becomes
fire; while winds, on the other hand, are condensed Air.
Cloud is formed from Air by felting [pressing together];
and this, still further condensed, becomes water. Water condensed still more, turns to earth and when condensed as much as it can be to stones. 3
NEW WAYS OF LOOKING AT THE WORLD
he Milesian philosophers were the first to raise the question
about the ultimate nature of things. Considered the first scientists as well as the first philosophers, they believed that a single
basic substance is the source of all things. Because they identified this single substance as water, the boundless, and air, we
call their philosophy monistic materialism, or theories about
the universe based on one material.
As natural philosophers, the Milesians were interested in
the physical world. hey did not inquire into the nature of human knowledge, nor did they ask about the relation between
spirit and body. Now, however, a philosopher named Pythagoras
entered the scene. hough he did not follow traditional Greek
religious rituals, he did create a spiritual community based on
mathematics and spirituality.
Pythagoras
Pythagoras (c. 570–c. 490 b.c.) was the first pre-Socratic to call
attention to the mathematical structure of the universe rather
than to its substance. Born on the island of Samos in the Aegean
Sea just off the coast of Miletus, he felt discontented with the tyrannical rulers and moved to Crotona in southern Italy. here,
he founded a society that combined science, religion, music,
and mathematics into a philosophy that went beyond the naturalistic outlook of the Milesians. Pythagoras was the first to call
himself a philosopher, literally meaning a “lover of wisdom.”
he Pre-Socratics: Early Greek Philosophers
Number
Pythagoras was the first to distinguish triangular numbers,
square numbers, rectangular numbers, and spherical numbers as odd and even. By saying all things have odd or even
numbers, Pythagoras could explain opposites such as one and
many, straight and curved, rest and motion, and light and dark.
As a result of his mathematical figuring, he also discovered
a critical geometrical formula that we still use today. Called
the Pythagorean theorem, it states that, in a right triangle, the
square of the hypotenuse is equal to the squares of the other
two sides.
Pythagoras said, “All things are number.” To illustrate this
argument, he compared the human body to a musical instrument. When the body is “in tune,” he said, it is healthy. Disease
is the result of tension, the “improper tuning” of the strings. By
using numbers, he put together a concept of form. he term
form meant “limit” or “structure,” and numbers represented the
use of form to the “unlimited” (Anaximander’s boundless). As
a result, Pythagoras argued the universe is made up of figures,
relationships, and forms.
he Harmonic Mean
hrough his studies in mathematics and music, Pythagoras discovered what he called the “harmonic mean.” He found that the
musical intervals between notes could be expressed in numerical terms of ratios of the numbers one through four. he lengths
of the strings of a musical instrument are in direct proportion
to the interval of sounds they produce. In other words, a string
that makes a sound one octave lower than another string is twice
as long as the other string. In this way, he combined mathematics and music. Pythagoras also believed that music is food for
the soul. Music is the best medicine to help the diseased person
regain harmony, he said.
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ANCIENT AND HELLENISTIC THOUGHT
hree Classes of People
According to Pythagoras, people tend to fall into three classes:
(1) lovers of gain; (2) lovers of honor; and (3) lovers of knowledge or wisdom. Pythagoras compared these types of people
with those who attended the ancient Olympic Games:
1. he lovers of gain are people who set up booths to sell
souvenirs and make money.
2. he lovers of honor are the athletes who compete in the
games for honor and fame.
3. he lovers of knowledge are the spectators who show
little interest in either money or fame.
he third class of people consists of philosophers who seek
knowledge through music and mathematics to help purify and
develop harmony of the soul.
This illustration of Pythagoras at work while being observed by a
young child was painted by the famous Italian artist Rafaello Sanzio,
or Rafael, who was known for the delicacy and grace of his work. The
painting was created in about 1510–1512.
he Pre-Socratics: Early Greek Philosophers
Rebirth
Pythagoras viewed the universe with the eye of a mystic, or
one who believes that everything in the universe is interrelated and divine. Like the Eastern philosophers, he believed
in reincarnation, or the rebirth of a soul in a new human body.
he soul, he said, is immortal and passes through many cycles
of birth, death, and rebirth. Each human life depends on the
kind of life the soul leads in its present life. For example, if
one cheats in this life and gets away with it, in the next life,
people may cheat on that person. Alternatively, if one is considerate of people in this life, in the next life, people will be
considerate of that person. he end goal for all humans is to
reach liberation from the birth, death, and rebirth cycle by
attaining wisdom.
Rules of Purification
Pythagoras devised rules of purification that people should follow to help purify the mind and body. Among the rules of purification were:
1. Abstain from eating beans.
2. Do not pick up what has fallen.
3. Do not break bread.
4. Do not step over a crossbar.
5. Do not stir the fire with iron.
6. Do not eat from a whole loaf.
7. Do not eat the heart.
8. Do not walk on highways.
9. Do not let swallows share one’s roof.
10. When you rise from the bedclothes, roll them together
and Smooth[e] out the impress of the body. 4
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ANCIENT AND HELLENISTIC THOUGHT
Aesara of Lucania
Although Greece was predominately male oriented, a few of
Pythagoras’s students were female. One outstanding woman
philosopher was Aesara of Lucania who thought that, by understanding the soul, we could better understand morality. In her
book, On Human Nature, she wrote that the orderly soul is just
and moral. With this knowledge, we can create a just society.
Being threefold, [the soul] is organized in accordance
with triple functions: that which effects judgment and
thoughtfulness is [the mind] . . . that which effects strength
and ability is [spirited] . . . and that which effects love and
kindliness is desire. hese are all so disposed relatively to
one another that the best part is in command, the most
inferior part is governed, and the one in between holds a
middle place, it both governs and is governed. 5
Heraclitus
Heraclitus (c. 540–c. 480 b.c.) was another pre-Socratic philosopher who attempted to answer the questions, “Out of what
substance is the world made?” and, “Does something permanent
underlie this world of change?” Additionally, Heraclitus wanted
to solve the problem of change itself. He came up with the idea
that change is constant. Everything is always changing.
Not much is known of Heraclitus’s life. Legend has it that
he was born into a noble family and gave up his kingship to his
younger brother. his legend could be based on the traditional
belief of philosophers’ disinterest in worldly affairs, or it could
be based on Heraclitus’s statement, “he kingdom is a child’s.”
Divine Fire
Unlike hales, who said the underlying substance of everything
in nature is water, and Anaximenes, who believed it was air,
he Pre-Socratics: Early Greek Philosophers
Heraclitus claimed that the substance that holds everything together is fire. He believed that “this world, which is the same for
all, no one of gods or men has made; but it was ever, is now, and
ever shall be an ever-living Fire, with measures of it kindling,
and measures going out.” 6
Heraclitus was not speaking of physical fire such as the fire
that causes a log to burn in a campfire. He viewed fire as the
substance that keeps the world unified, instead of flying apart
in all directions. Fire, for Heraclitus, was divine fire in the sense
that it was everywhere, and it affects the world at all times.
State of Flux
Heraclitus believed everything in our world is always changing. In fact, nothing in the world is permanent except for the
process of change. Change is the most basic characteristic of
nature, and one of Heraclitus’s most famous statements is, “All
things are in a state of flux.” To him, we “cannot step twice into
the same river.” When we step into the river for the second time,
we are not the same and neither is the river, “for new waters
ever flow in upon us.”
he Play of Opposites
Nature relies on the relationship of opposites. For example, we
have day and night, winter and summer, war and peace, pleasure and pain. If we never experienced hunger, we would take
no pleasure in being full. If there were no war, we would not appreciate peace. If there were only night, we could not appreciate
day. Without winter, we would not experience summer.
Heraclitus looked at the opposites that exist in nature and
made a comparison to an archer’s bow. he bent bow, said Heraclitus, seems at rest, but only because the string and bow pull
equally against each other. Likewise, in nature, rest is the appearance of equal and opposite forces. his relationship of opposites
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ANCIENT AND HELLENISTIC THOUGHT
brings balance to the universe. For example, if the strings of a
guitar are too tight or too loose, there can be no harmony. he
strings must have the correct tension for a harmonious sound
to come from the guitar.
God Is Reason
For Heraclitus, fire is God’s universal Logos. Logos can be defined as reason, or the structure and the order of the universe.
God, as the source of Logos, guides everything that happens in
nature and holds everything together. “God [universal reason]
is day and night, winter and summer, war and peace, hunger
and satiety,” Heraclitus said. God is in everything. Because God
is Logos, and Logos is reason, or the ability to think clearly and
logically, and the human soul is part of God, we humans have
the capacity to think. Although we do not always think alike
or have the same abilities to reason, Heraclitus believed that
God’s “universal reason” guides everything that happens in nature. Just as nature obeys natural laws, human beings should
live according to rational rules, such as moral principles—by
telling the truth, keeping promises, showing loyalty to friends,
and, of course, striving for philosophical wisdom. Only through
such morality can we find happiness. Heraclitus showed his
contempt for people who would rather follow pleasures of the
physical senses than follow reason, when he said, “Asses would
rather have straw than gold,” and, “Fools when they do hear are
like the deaf: Of them does the saying bear witness that they are
absent when present.”
THE ELEATICS
One of the most interesting aspects of philosophy is the different
ways philosophers have of approaching the same problem. Following Pythagoras and Heraclitus were two philosophers from
the Greek colony of Elea in southern Italy. hese “Eleatics,” as
he Pre-Socratics: Early Greek Philosophers
they were called, were interested in the question of change, just
as the previous pre-Socratic philosophers were. Yet, the Eleatics
came to far different conclusions than the pre-Socratics. Two of
the most important Eleatics were Parmenides, who founded the
Eleatic School of philosophy, and his student, Zeno.
Parmenides
In contrast to Pythagoras, Heraclitus, and the Milesian philosophers, Parmenides (c. 540–c. 480 b.c.) said there is no such
thing as change. Parmenides set forth his philosophy in his
poem “On Nature.” He considered the physical senses as deceptive and argued that sensible things were mere illusion, giving
us false information. he question he asked was, “How does the
One, or substance, change into the many (sensible things) that
we experience in everyday experience?”
For Parmenides, the only true being is the One, which is
infinite and indivisible. he One is not, as Heraclitus believed, a
union of opposites, because there are no opposites, according to
Parmenides. What now exists, Parmenides said, always existed.
Nothing can come from nothing, and nothing that exists can
become nothing. “What is, is. What is not, is not,” he posited.
What is, is everlasting ‘Being’, the true reality. herefore, Being
cannot change into what is not (non-Being), and what is not
cannot change into what is. herefore, Parmenides reasoned,
there can be no such thing as change.
Parmenides argued that whatever is, is 1) uncreated; 2) indestructible; 3) eternal; and 4) unchangeable. His arguments to
support that nothing changes are reconstructed as follows:
(1) What is, is uncreated. In order to prove this let us assume its opposite, namely, that what is[,] was created. If
what is, was created it must have been created either (a)
out of nothing[,] or (b) out of something. But (a) it could
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ANCIENT AND HELLENISTIC THOUGHT
not be created out of nothing, for there is no nothing; and
(b) we cannot say that it was created out of something,
for, on the assumption of monism, there is no “something
else”—there is only what is. his exhausts the possibilities; Since something is neither created (a) out of nothing[,] nor (b) out of something, it is uncreated.
Again (2) what is, is indestructible. Destruction of
anything would involve its disappearance (change into
nothing), and there is no nothing.
It follows that (3) what is, is eternal, for what is uncreated and indestructible is obviously eternal.
(4) What is, is unchangeable. his follows in the first
place, from the argument about indestructibility. What
we mean by change is a transformation into something
else. When a thing is transformed into something else,
it becomes what it was not (the old thing disappears;
the new thing appears). But there is no nothing for the
old thing to disappear into. 7
Briefly, then, Parmenides holds:
(1) here is no change because change is the coming into
being of what was not.
(2) herefore, the senses are an illusion.
You may object to Parmenides’s theory by saying, “I can see
with my naked eye that things around me are always changing.”
Yet, Parmenides would answer, “You think reality is based on
sense experience. Our senses do not give us an accurate picture
of the world. Even though our senses tell us that things change,
our reason tells us that reality must be permanent; thus, there
is no change.”
Many Eastern and Western philosophers agree with Parmenides that true reality is permanent, and the world of our
he Pre-Socratics: Early Greek Philosophers
senses is only partially accurate. For instance, would the principle of Truth or the principle of Goodness ever change? Our
understanding of Truth and Goodness may change, but does
Truth change? Does Goodness change? If we hold a stick in the
water, the stick appears bent to our eyes, but our reason tells us
it is not really bent. Which is correct, our reason or our senses?
Are both correct?
At age 65, Parmenides traveled to Athens, Greece, accompanied by his student Zeno. On this visit, Parmenides discussed
philosophy with the young Socrates. Years later, Plato, an admirer
of Parmenides’s thinking, wrote a dialogue called Parmenides,
which provides us with an account of the conversation between
Parmenides and Socrates. Some Greek philosophers, however,
criticized Parmenides’s argument that nothing changes, so Zeno
took it upon himself to defend his teacher’s position.
Zeno
As a member of the Eleatic school, Zeno (c. 490–c. 430 b.c.)
tried to prove Parmenides’s concept that there is no change
with mathematics. He pointed out that contradiction results if
we think that change is possible. His famous argument is that
of Achilles and the tortoise. he argument intends to prove that
contrary to what the senses see—and no matter how fast Achilles runs—he never overtakes the slow, crawling tortoise.
he Racecourse
Achilles, the fastest of all runners in Greek mythology, is about
to race with a tortoise. A good sport, Achilles gives the tortoise a head start. Once that is done, said Zeno, Achilles can
never overtake the tortoise because he must always reach the
point the tortoise has passed. Because the distance between
Achilles and the tortoise will always be divisible, no point on
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ANCIENT AND HELLENISTIC THOUGHT
the racecourse can be reached before the previous point has
been reached.
You cannot cross a race-course. You cannot traverse an
infinite number of points in a finite time. You must traverse the half of any given distance before you traverse
the whole, and the half of that again before you can traverse the whole, and the half of that again before you
can traverse it. his goes on ad infinitum [forever], so
that there are an infinite number of points in any given
space, and you cannot touch an infinite number one by
one in a finite time. 8
Zeno’s conclusion was that there could be no motion at all.
Because there is no motion, Achilles could never overtake the
tortoise. herefore, Being is the one true reality, and change and
motion are only illusions. As Zeno writes, “Achilles will never
overtake the tortoise. He must first reach the place from which
the tortoise started. By that time the tortoise will have got some
way ahead. Achilles must then make up that, and again the tortoise will be ahead. He is always coming nearer, but he never
makes up to it.” 9
Zeno wanted us to give up the belief that any kind of division or change is possible, which also forces us to give up the
belief that our senses provide us with knowledge. Zeno’s argument remains one of the most famous but also remains one of
the most difficult paradoxes in philosophy.
THE PLURALISTS
Heraclitus and Parmenides had perceived the world in opposite ways. Heraclitus argued that nature is in a constant state of
change; everything flows, and our sensory perceptions are reliable. Parmenides, taking the opposite view, believed that there is
he Pre-Socratics: Early Greek Philosophers
no change; our sensory perceptions are unreliable. he pluralists
agreed with Heraclitus that change is a fact. Yet, they also agreed
with Parmenides that Being is, and Being does not change.
he pluralists believed that Heraclitus, Parmenides, and
the Milesians were wrong for assuming the presence of only
one element or substance—fire for Heraclitus, Being for Parmenides, water for hales, the boundless for Anaximander, and
air for Anaximenes.
he pluralists contended that, if we accepted these conclusions, we would have no bridge between what we see with our
senses and what our reason tells us. he source of nature, the
pluralists concluded, cannot possibly be one single element. Instead, the source should consist of many elements, hence the
name, pluralists. hese thinkers set out to find the bridge between the mind and the senses by finding the many elements
that are the source of nature.
Empedocles
Empedocles (c. 490–c. 430 b.c.), a poet and doctor as well as a
philosopher, was from Agrigentum, Sicily. His interests ranged
from medicine and philosophy to religion and politics. A colorful figure and a believer in rebirth, Empedocles believed all
souls could not die.
In fact, he introduced himself to his fellow citizens as “an
immortal god, no longer subject to death.” His desire to be remembered as godlike gave rise to the belief that he ended his life
by leaping into the crater of the volcano on Mount Etna, hoping
to leave no trace of his body so that people would think he had
gone up to heaven. In the humorous words of a poet:
Great Empedocles that ardent soul leapt
Into Etna, and was roasted whole.
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ANCIENT AND HELLENISTIC THOUGHT
he Four Elements
Reality is not just one substance or element, said Empedocles.
Reality is a plurality of elements: earth, air, fire, and water. When
these four elements combine, they form everything in the world,
including human beings, animals, flowers, rocks, mountains,
and the ocean. he four elements are “the roots of all” that exists, claimed Empedocles. When a tree or an animal dies, the
four elements separate. We can see these changes with the naked
eye, but the four true elements are eternal and unchanging. hey
continually combine and separate in different proportions, yet
they always remain earth, air, fire, and water. hus, something
about these elements changes, yet something remains the same.
Love and Strife
Empedocles struggled with the question, “What causes the
four elements to combine and to separate?” He concluded that
two processes caused the combination and separation of the
elements—love and strife. Love brings the elements together,
and strife separates them. Without love, everything falls apart.
I shall tell thee a twofold tale. At one time it grew to
be one only out of many; at another, it divided up to
be many instead of one. here is a double becoming of
perishable things and a double passing away. he coming together of all things brings one generation into being and destroys it; the other grows up and is scattered
as things become divided. And these things never cease
continually changing places, at one time all uniting in
one through Love, at another each borne in different
directions by the repulsion of strife. hus, as far as it is
their nature to grow into one out of many, and to become many once more when the one is parted asunder,
so far they come into being and their life abides not.
he Pre-Socratics: Early Greek Philosophers
But, inasmuch as they never cease changing their places
continually, so far they are ever immovable as they go
round the circle of existence. 10
Anaxagoras
Anaxagoras (c. 500–c. 428 b.c.) was born in Clazomenae, Ionia, on the coast of Asia Minor. In about 480 b.c., he moved to
Athens, where he was later tried and condemned on a charge
of atheism. Saved by his friend, the great Athenian statesman
Pericles, Anaxagoras went into exile at Lampsacus, a Milesian
colony. He was the first philosopher to make a distinction between Mind, or nous, and matter.
Anaxagoras agreed with Empedocles that everything is a mixture of earth, air, fire, and water, but he rejected love and strife as
the forces that combine and separate things. Furthermore, he did
not agree with the Milesians that one single substance could be
the basic substance made into everything we see in nature.
Seeds
Anaxagoras believed there are an infinite number of tiny, invisible particles that are the building blocks of nature. He called
these minuscule particles that carry the blueprint of everything
else “seeds.”
Mind, or Nous
For Anaxagoras, the mind, or intelligence, produces the orderly
structure of the world. Love and strife do not combine or separate things in an orderly pattern; it is the nous that allows for the
structure of the world.
And Nous had power over the whole revolution, so
that it began to revolve in the beginning. . . . And all the
things that are mingled together and separated off and
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ANCIENT AND HELLENISTIC THOUGHT
distinguished are all known by Nous. And Nous set in
order all things that were to be, and all things that were
and are not now and that are, and this revolution in
which now revolve not now and that are, and this revolution in which now revolve the stars and the sun and
the moon, and the air and the aether that are separated
off. And this revolution caused the separating off, and
the rare is separated off from the dense, the warm from
the cold, the light from the dark, and the dry from the
moist. And there are many portions in many things. 11
Anaxagoras, shown in this eighteenth-century engraving, used his
observations about celestial bodies to develop new theories about the
order of the universe.
he Pre-Socratics: Early Greek Philosophers
Mind animates everything in nature and is present in all
living things—the Sun, stars, Earth, plants, and humans. Mind
does not create matter because matter is eternal. Yet, Mind does
bring order to matter, because Mind has all knowledge about
everything. Mind is the “finest of all things and the purest,”
Anaxagoras claimed. By distinguishing Mind from matter, but
not necessarily separating Mind from matter, Anaxagoras was to
influence philosophers for generations to come.
he Sun
he Sun, said Anaxagoras, is not a god, but a red-hot stone, bigger than Greece’s Peloponnesian peninsula. From his studies in
astronomy, he found that all heavenly bodies are made of the
same materials as Earth and that the Moon produces no light of
its own; its light comes from Earth. hese statements so upset
the Athenians that they accused him of being an atheist and
forced him to leave the city. He sailed across the Aegean Sea to
the city of Lampsacus where he became a schoolteacher. For
centuries after his death, Lampsacus celebrated his birthday as
a school holiday.
THE ATOMISTS
he last of the pre-Socratics who gave their answers to hales’s
question, “Out of what substance is everything made?” are
the atomists Leucippus and Democritus. hese philosophers
formulated a theory about the nature of things that bears a
surprising similarity to some of today’s scientific views. he
atomists agreed with their predecessors that there must be
something permanent in nature, something that underlies all
change and holds everything together. Yet, the atomists held
different ideas about what this permanent something is. hey
reasoned that everything in nature was made of tiny, invisible
particles, or units, called “atoms.”
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ANCIENT AND HELLENISTIC THOUGHT
Leucippus
Scholars consider Leucippus the founder of the atomistic school
and a speculative thinker of the highest degree. Yet, scholars give
Democritus the credit for working out the detailed application
of the theory. We have very little biographical data for Leucippus. Some scholars doubt that he ever existed, but Aristotle and
others refute this notion. In fact, in his work entitled Of Generation and Corruption, Aristotle discussed many of Leucippus’s
atomistic ideas. Leucippus was probably born in Miletus, a
younger contemporary of Anaxagoras, and his main philosophical teaching probably occurred between 450–420 b.c.
Democritus
One of the most important atomists, Democritus (c. 460–c. 370
b.c.) lived in Abdera, a city in hrace in northern Greece. He
wrote as many as 52 books, of which over 200 fragments have
been preserved.
Atoms
he word atom means “uncuttable.” he atomists thought atoms
could not be divided into smaller parts because if they were,
nature would eventually dissolve and disappear. Leucippus and
Democritus described atoms as hard and indivisible, with different shapes and sizes, yet invisible to the naked eye. he different shapes of the atoms allow them to join together into all
kinds of different bodies. When a human body, a flower, or an
animal dies, the atoms scatter and later come together again to
form new bodies.
While Pythagoras posited that all things are numbers, the atomists believed everything is a combination of atoms. Parmenides,
by saying there is only Being and no nonbeing, concluded that
there could be no empty space because space would be nothing,
and there is no nothing. Democritus opposed Parmenides’s idea
he Pre-Socratics: Early Greek Philosophers
that there is no empty space. For Democritus, there is infinite
empty space. He said the universe is made up of:
atoms and empty space; everything else is merely thought
to exist. he worlds are unlimited; they come into being
and perish. Nothing can come into being from that which
is not nor pass away into that which is not. Further the atoms are unlimited in size and number, and they are borne
along in the whole universe in a vortex, and thereby generate all composite things—it is because of their solidity
that these atoms are impassive and unalterable. he sun
and the moon have been composed of such smooth and
spherical masses, and so also the soul, which is identical
with reason. We see by virtue of the impact of images
upon our eyes. All things happen by virtue of necessity,
the vortex being the cause of the creation of all things. 12
he atomists reasoned that everything in nature results from
the collision of atoms moving in space. hey did not believe that a
god designed or moved these atoms from place to place. Instead,
they thought atoms inherently obeyed the mechanical laws of nature. Because the only things that exist are atoms and empty space,
which are material things, we call the atomists “materialists.”
Soul Atoms
Democritus believed that our thoughts also result from atoms.
In other words, when you see a monkey, it is because “monkey
atoms” enter your eyes. Monkey atoms make an impact upon
your “soul atoms,” and a thought is born. For Democritus, the
soul is made up of round, smooth soul atoms. At death, the soul
atoms will scatter and could, like body atoms, become part of
a new soul formation. his idea suggests there is no personal,
immortal soul. For Democritus, the soul, including thought,
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ANCIENT AND HELLENISTIC THOUGHT
connects to the brain. Once the brain dies, we cannot have any
form of consciousness.
Morality
Although Democritus believed that everything has natural
causes and follows the mechanical laws of nature, he believed
that we have some control over our thoughts. He developed a
set of moral rules that we should use to achieve happiness.
Not from fear but from a sense of duty refrain from your sins.
He who does wrong is more unhappy than he who suffers wrong.
Strength of body is nobility in beasts of burden, strength of
character is nobility in men.
hose who have a well-ordered character lead also a wellordered life. 13
LINKS TO THE CLASSICAL PERIOD
In the years after the pre-Socratics, philosophers turned their
concentration from the physical world to questions about how
we should behave morally. he next great development in philosophy is the classical period. With the exception of Pythagoras
and Heraclitus, a group of paid teachers called “Sophists” and
the unpaid philosopher Socrates were the first Western philosophers to ask questions about the nature of human beings, their
moral problems, and the meaning of life. hey struggled with
the problems that confront every human being and asked the
questions, “Who am I?” “What do I want out of life?” and, “How
should I live?” heir findings gave them an important place in
the history of science as well as philosophy.
2
THE CLASSICAL PERIOD:
THE SOPHISTS
AND SOCRATES
he unexamined life is not worth living.
—Socrates
he Sophists were skeptical of the pre-Socratics’ efforts to find a
universal substance. hey questioned any human’s ability to know
the truth about things such as substance, permanence, and change.
To prove their point, the Sophists showed how each of the preSocratic philosophers disagreed about the universe: hales said the
basic substance was water, Anaximander said it was the boundless, Anaximenes said air, Pythagoras said number, Heraclitus said
fire, Parmenides and Zeno said Being, Empedocles said the four
root elements, Anaxagoras said Mind, and the atomists said atoms. Consequently, the Sophists turned their attention away from
physical elements of nature to the human side of life. hey focused
on practical, day-to-day problems of people and their societies.
For a while, Socrates was a student of the Sophists, but he
disagreed with their skepticism. Socrates believed the human
soul has the capacity to know eternal, unchanging elements
such as Truth, Beauty, and Goodness. Socrates believed that to
gain knowledge of these things is the most important goal of our
lives. For Socrates, “he unexamined life is not worth living.”
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ANCIENT AND HELLENISTIC THOUGHT
THE SOPHISTS
In approximately 450 b.c., Athens was the cultural center of
Greece, in the early stages of Greece’s young democracy. For democracy to work, people needed to be educated about the democratic process of government. Before democracy developed in
Athens, only males from powerful aristocratic families had the
advantage of an education. But after the Persian Wars (449–448
b.c.), Greek businessmen and politicians challenged the privileges of the aristocracy. As the government changed in Athens,
any young man who was smart enough and could afford tuition
could receive an education. Athenian democracy was perhaps
the only real democracy that has ever existed. It had no political
parties, nor were there any professional politicians. Any male
citizen could address the assembly of the people, and all decisions were made by popular vote. Women and slaves were not
considered citizens and therefore could not vote. Slavery was
accepted by all ancient societies, but to its credit, Athens was
well known for its liberal attitude toward slaves. Women were
not educated but expected to live sheltered lives as wives and
mothers instead.
With democracy on the rise, a need for lawyers also grew.
For the Athenians to speak convincingly in a court of law, it was
necessary to master the art of public speaking. Recognizing the
need for educators to train lawyers and politicians, a group of
teachers and philosophers from neighboring colonies gathered
in Athens. hey called themselves “Sophists,” from a Greek
word that means “wise” or “learned,” and they made their living charging fees for teaching. he most outstanding Sophists
in Athens were Protagoras, Gorgias, and hrasymachus. hese
men believed that absolutes such as Truth, Beauty, and Goodness do not exist in this world. Because right and wrong are
relative to a culture, the “good life” depends on the particular
he Classical Period: he Sophists and Socrates
situation. In philosophy, this viewpoint is known as relativism.
Relativists believe each society should make its own rules.
he Sophists taught young lawyers how to argue court
cases regardless of their clients’ guilt or innocence. Young
politicians learned the art of using fallacies, or misleading arguments, and emotional language to benefit their cause. he
Sophists taught their students to present clear, forceful arguments and to attack the logical fallacies in their opponents’
arguments. his same type of training has lasted in legal and
political circles for more than 2,000 years.
he following story about the Sophist Protagoras and one of
his students demonstrates the Sophistic art of persuasion:
A young man who did not have enough money to pay for
lessons asked Protagoras to accept him as a law student anyway. Protagoras agreed on the condition that the student would
pay when he won his first case. he student agreed, but after
he completed the course, the student took no cases. Annoyed,
Protagoras took the student to court for payment. he student
argued, “If I win this case, I won’t have to pay Protagoras according to the judgment of the court. If I lose this case, then I have
yet to win my first case, so according to our agreement, win or
lose I don’t have to pay him.” At that point, Protagoras stepped
forward to argue his case, claiming, “If he loses this case, then
by the judgment of the court, he will have to pay. If he wins this
case, he will have won his first case and will have to pay me. In
either case he must pay.”
Unfortunately, we do not know the outcome of this case,
or even if this story is true. Yet, true or false, the story illustrates the art of rhetoric, or the art of speaking persuasively. Because of circumstances such as these, and because the Sophists
charged extravagant fees, Socrates called the Sophists “prostitutes of wisdom.”
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ANCIENT AND HELLENISTIC THOUGHT
Protagoras
Protagoras (c. 481–c. 411 b.c.), the most famous Sophist in Athens, stated, “Man is the measure of all things.” In this statement,
he rejected everything the pre-Socratic philosophers thought
was true. He denied any ultimate principle or truth that we can
know. For Protagoras, truth is relative. For example, if you and I
The wars between Greece and Persia were a series of conflicts referring
to the two Persian invasions of Greece in 490 and 480 B.C. Each
invasion was successfully turned back by the Greeks. This Greek wine
jug from the mid-fifth century is decorated with a Greek and a Persian
warrior locked in combat.
he Classical Period: he Sophists and Socrates
disagree, we may both be right depending upon what we believe
or what we learned from our culture. “Man is the measure of
all things” suggests that our knowledge is dependent upon our
sensations, feelings, and perceptions, as well as our reason. In
Plato’s dialogue heaetetus, Socrates and heaetetus have the
following conversation about Protagoras’s statement that “man
is the measure of all things.”
Socrates: [Protagoras] says . . . that “man is the measure
of all things” . . . . He puts it in this sort of way . . . that
any given thing “is to me such as it appears to me, and is
to you such as it appears to you . . . ?”
heaetetus: Yes, that is how he puts it.
Socrates: Let us follow up his meaning. Sometimes,
when the same wind is blowing, one of us feels chilly,
the other does not, or one may feel slightly chilly, the
other quite cold.
heaetetus: Certainly.
Socrates: Well, in that case are we to say that the wind
in itself is cold or not cold? Or shall we agree with Protagoras that it is cold to the one who feels chilly, and not
to the other? 14
For the Sophists, there is no ultimate knowledge of absolute
truth but only knowledge of how things affect us. he wind may
feel cold to me and warm to you, but we cannot say the wind is
cold or warm itself. herefore, each of us is correct in our judgment of how the wind seems.
Relativism
Relativism encompasses all walks of life, including religion and
morality. Relativism is the belief that what is true and good depends upon the situation. Morality is good when it produces
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ANCIENT AND HELLENISTIC THOUGHT
useful results in our life. Each society creates its own moral
rules. hus, there is no ultimate standard of morality for everyone in the world. hese relative moral rules also exist in religion. For example, some religions consider drinking alcohol
immoral, and other religions say it is permissible to drink alcohol in moderation. Some religions ban certain books and music,
and other religions suggest we use discrimination in what we
read and listen to. Protagoras believed that the society we live in
should make the laws that everyone accepts because those laws
are best suited to that particular society.
Gorgias
Gorgias (c. 483–c. 375 b.c.) arrived in Athens as the ambassador of his native city of Leontini, Sicily. Protagoras had said,
“Man is the measure of all things.” herefore, because we see
things differently, almost anything could be true. Gorgias took
the opposite view, arguing that nothing is true. Gorgias held
that, even if truth exists, we could never prove it, nor could we
communicate it to others.
Gorgias also disagreed with Protagoras’s argument that
we should follow conventional moral rules. Gorgias asked, “if
moral rules are merely convention, why should we follow them
if they are not to our advantage?”
Because Gorgias was such a firm skeptic, or someone who
questions our ability to have knowledge of reality, he gave up
the philosophical search for truth and turned to rhetoric, a
field in which he was considered a master. In Plato’s dialogue
Gorgias, Gorgias boasts of his skills:
[Rhetoric gives you the power] to convince by your
words the judges in court, the senators in Council, the
people in the Assembly, or in any other gathering of a
he Classical Period: he Sophists and Socrates
citizen body. And yet possessed of such power you will
make the doctor, you will make the trainer your slave,
and your businessman will prove to be making money,
not for himself, but for another, for you who can speak
and persuade multitudes.
I have often, along with my brother and with other
physicians, visited one of their patients who refused to
drink his medicine or submit to the surgeon’s knife or
cautery [to deaden pain by burning the skin], and when
the doctor was unable to persuade them, I did so, by no
other art but rhetoric. 15
hrasymachus
As we have seen, Protagoras thought citizens should follow the
moral rules of their society. Gorgias asked why we would want
to follow society’s moral rules if they are not going to benefit us.
In about 450 b.c., hrasymachus (c. 459–c. 400 b.c.) advocated
the idea of might makes right. hrasymachus believed that to
speak of moral right and wrong makes no sense at all. “Right,”
said hrasymachus, “means serving the interest of the stronger
who rules, at the cost of the subject who obeys.” So, if the unjust
person is intelligent, he will be more successful than the just
person. hus, might becomes right when it is to the benefit of
the party or person in power.
Take a private business: When a partnership is wound
up, you will never find that the more honest of two partners comes off with the larger share; and in their relations to the state, when there are taxes to be paid, the
honest man will pay more than the other on the same
amount of property; or if there is money to be distributed, the dishonest will get it all. 16
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ANCIENT AND HELLENISTIC THOUGHT
One influential contemporary of hrasymachus objected to
the idea that the unjust person can be superior. For this thinker,
the reason we are here on Earth is to make our souls as good
as possible. Everyone wants to be happy, and happiness comes
from attaining knowledge of the good and leading a good life.
Happiness does not come from power or worldly success, he
argued. his is the philosophy of Socrates.
Socrates
Socrates grew up when Athens was at its peak, when the city
was the cultural center in the ancient world. Athens had won
victories over the Persians and had become a naval power, controlling much of the Mediterranean Sea. he Athenian Navy
soon freed the Mediterranean of pirates, thus opening the waterways for commerce to flourish. he Athenian government
also had vast wealth, erecting the Parthenon, a monumental
temple dedicated to Athena, the goddess of intelligence and patroness of Athens. Never before in history was there a period of
such high quality works in architecture, sculpture, and drama,
nor had so many great playwrights, poets, artists, and historians
lived in the same city. Socrates loved his city and fought bravely
in many of Athens’s wars with Sparta, another Greek city-state.
Socrates spent his days walking the city streets discussing many
subjects with anyone willing to converse with him. He was regarded as the wisest man in Athens. However, his challenging
questions got him into trouble.
Just as hales is known as the Father of Western Philosophy,
Socrates is considered the Father of Moral Philosophy. he reason for this title has to do with the courage he showed in living
an examined life as well as in facing death. Like the Buddha and
Jesus, Socrates wrote nothing, yet he is one of the most influential
philosophers in history. Socrates said, “he unexamined life is not
worth living,” and true to his word, he lived a fully examined life.
he Classical Period: he Sophists and Socrates
Because Socrates wrote nothing, most of what we know
about him and his philosophy comes from the writings of Xenophon and Plato. Xenophon, a soldier and Greek historian, characterized Socrates as a loyal warrior who could go without food
longer than any other soldier. During winter campaigns, while
others wore coats and fleece-lined boots, Socrates wore only a
light tunic and sandals. Each morning before sunrise, he would
meditate. After the Sun rose, he would give thanks to God and
go about his daily duties. One time, Socrates stood for 24 hours
in a meditative trance. He did not eat or drink, nor did he move
from the spot of his meditation. During this 24-hour period, he
discovered his mission in life:
The Parthenon was built in the fifth century B.C. on the hill of the
Acropolis, or “high city” of Athens. Adorned with dozens of sculptures,
many now gone, the Parthenon is a lasting symbol of ancient Greece,
and is often regarded as the highest achievement in Greek art.
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ANCIENT AND HELLENISTIC THOUGHT
Like the Prophets, he was certain of his calling; unlike
them, he had nothing to proclaim. No God had chosen
him to tell men what He commanded. His mission was
only to search in the company of men, himself a man
among men. To question unrelentingly, to expose every
hiding place. To demand no faith in anything or in himself, but to demand thought, questioning, testing, and so
refer man to his own self. But since man’s self resides
solely in the knowledge of the true and the good, only
the man who takes such thinking seriously, who is determined to be guided by the truth, is truly himself. 17
Most of what we know about Socrates’s teachings comes to
us through the dialogues of Plato. In these dialogues, Plato used
Socrates as his main character and mouthpiece. Plato portrayed
Socrates as a man with great courage and moral purity.
Socrates’s Life
Socrates (469–399 b.c.) was born in Athens, Greece, and lived
there all of his life. His mother was a midwife, and his father
was a sculptor or a stonemason. Little is known of Socrates’s life
before his service in the military. Physically, Socrates was quite
ugly. He had a potbelly, bulging eyes, a snub nose, and a squat
build. Yet, he was a delightful man. Socrates used to laugh at his
own appearance, and more than once, he announced plans to
“dance off ” his belly. His interests, however, had nothing to do
with his physical characteristics. Virtue, he said, is inner goodness, and real beauty is that of the soul, not the body.
Socrates’s Inner Voice
Even as a youngster, Socrates had listened to an “inner voice”
that he called his “daimon.” “I have had this from my childhood; it is a sort of voice that comes to me, and when it comes
he Classical Period: he Sophists and Socrates
it always holds me back from what I am thinking of doing, but
never urges me forward.” When he thought of going into politics, the voice said no. His daimon gave Socrates no instructions about what he should do, but always forbade him to do
anything that would have evil consequences. Socrates always
obeyed the voice, even if he did not understand why it said no.
he Oracle at Delphi
he ancient Greeks consulted the Oracle at Delphi, a town in
Greece, about important problems. Pythia, the priestess presiding over the Oracle, would go into a trance to allow Apollo, the
god of the Oracle, to channel messages though her.
One day, Chaerophon, a friend of Socrates, asked the Oracle
at Delphi, “Who is the wisest of men?” he Oracle answered,
“Socrates.” When Chaerophon told Socrates what the Oracle had
said, Socrates was astonished. He knew the Oracle never lied, but
he also felt that he was not wise. So he decided to question people
in Athens who were considered knowledgeable. He questioned
priests, poets, politicians, businessmen, and craftsmen, hoping to
discover why the Oracle had called him the wisest of men.
Finally, the true meaning of the Oracle dawned on him. he
people he had questioned were ignorant of what is most important to know: how to make their souls as good as possible.
Only Socrates realized the importance of this knowledge, but he
was also aware of his ignorance of it. he people he questioned
thought they knew when they really did not know. Socrates
concluded that he was at least the “one-eyed” in a “kingdom of
the blind.” He was the wisest because he was the only one who
knew he did not know.
he Socratic Method
Socrates always insisted that he was not a teacher but instead
acted as a “kind of midwife.” Just as a midwife aids a pregnant
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ANCIENT AND HELLENISTIC THOUGHT
mother in giving birth, Socrates helped “pregnant souls” give
birth to the knowledge hidden within them. Instead of lecturing, he asked questions and questioned answers. He allowed no
one to sidestep an answer. Socrates did not believe we are born
with blank minds that our teachers, parents, and peers fill with
information. He believed souls have the hidden knowledge of
Truth, Beauty, and Goodness. Yet, when we get caught up in
worldly affairs, as most people do, this wisdom is forgotten. So
Socrates asked questions to help individuals realize what they
already knew. With this procedure, Socrates invented the dialectic method of finding truth through conversation, also known
as the Socratic method.
Plato’s dialogue Euthyphro is a good example of the dialectic
method. Socrates meets the young man Euthyphro on the courthouse steps. Euthyphro asks why Socrates is there. Socrates tells
Euthyphro he has been charged with impiety, or lacking respect
or reverence, or being impious. Euthyphro then explains that
he is suing his own father for impiety. “Really,” says Socrates,
“then perhaps you can tell me what impiety is.” Euthyphro tries
to explain, but through Socrates’s questioning, Euthyphro realizes that he does not have a clear idea of the meaning of piety
or impiety.
Socrates: Well then Euthyphro, what do we say about
piety? Is it not loved by all the gods, according to
your definition?
Euthyphro: Yes.
Socrates: Because it is pious, or for some other reason?
Euthyphro: No, because it is pious.
Socrates: hen it is loved by the gods because it is pious; it is not pious because it is loved by them?
Euthyphro: It seems so.
he Classical Period: he Sophists and Socrates
Socrates: But, then, what is pleasing to the gods is pleasing to them, and is in a state of being loved by them,
because they love it?
Euthyphro: Of course.
Socrates: hen piety is not what is pleasing to the gods,
and what is pleasing to the gods is not pious, as you say,
Euthyphro. hey are different things.
Euthyphro: And why, Socrates?
Socrates: Because we are agreed that the gods love piety
because it is pious, and that it is not pious because they
love it. Is not this so?
Euthyphro: Yes.
Socrates: And that what is pleasing to the gods because
they love it is pleasing to them by reason of this same
love, and that they do not love it because it is pleasing
to them.
Euthyphro: True.
Socrates: hen, my dear Euthyphro, piety and what is
pleasing to the gods are different things. If the gods
had loved piety because it is pious, they would also
have loved what is pleasing to them because it is pleasing to them; but if what is pleasing to them had been
pleasing to them because they loved it, then piety, too,
would have been piety because they loved it. But now
you see that they are opposite things, and wholly different from each other. For the one is of a sort to be
loved because it is loved, while the other is loved because it is of a sort to be loved. My question, Euthyphro, was, What is piety? But it turns out that you have
not explained to me the essential character of piety;
you have been content to mention an effect which belongs to it—namely, that all the gods love it. You have
not yet told me what its essential character is. Do not,
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ANCIENT AND HELLENISTIC THOUGHT
if you please, keep me from what piety is; begin again
and tell me that. Never mind whether the gods love it,
or whether it has other effects; we shall not differ on
that point. Do your best to make clear to me what is
piety and what is impiety.
Euthyphro: But, Socrates, I really don’t know how to
explain to you what is in my mind. Whatever statement
we put forward always somehow moves round in a circle, and will not stay where we put it. 18
Before Socrates had finished the questioning, Euthyphro
said, “Another time, then, Socrates. I am in a hurry now, and
it is time for me to be off.” Euthyphro’s response tells us that
Socrates’s dialectical method was not always welcome. In some
cases, pregnant souls were not ready to give birth.
Socrates continually urged people to discover the difficulties in concepts that seemed to be self-evident. For instance, in
the Declaration of Independence, America’s Founding Fathers
wrote that “all men are created equal” was a truth that was selfevident. Socrates would want to know how we were created and
what exactly the Founding Fathers meant by “equal.”
Moral Philosophy
Socrates said that our most important goal in life is “to make
the soul as good as possible.” Only knowledge of the soul will
lead us to living the good life. Unlike the Sophists, he did not
believe that any of us would consciously choose evil over good
because we always seek our own well-being. For example, have
you ever lied to protect yourself? Have you ever cheated on a
test? Socrates would say we do these things because we think
the results of these actions will benefit us. Yet, could lying and
cheating ever benefit us? No, said Socrates. We do bad things
because we are ignorant of what is truly good. He warns us that
he Classical Period: he Sophists and Socrates
the guilt of our soul is harder on us than any supposed gains.
hus, moral virtue is identical with knowledge, and moral evil
is identical with our ignorance of moral knowledge.
he Trial of Socrates
Because Socrates examined his own life and urged others
to examine theirs, many Athenians considered him dangerous. Young men from influential Athenian families were using
Socrates’s dialectic method to question traditional customs in
politics and religion. So it was not surprising when the politicians Anytus and Meletus, who feared Socrates’s questions,
brought him to trial. hey charged Socrates with failing to worship the gods of the state and corrupting the youth. Socrates’s
prosecutor, Meletus, demanded the death penalty. Usually, anyone charged with such crimes would voluntarily accept exile as
punishment, but Socrates refused to leave his beloved Athens.
Instead, he defended himself in front of a court with a jury of
501 male citizens.
Socrates refused to play on the jury’s emotions by pleading
for mercy or insisting that his wife and children needed him. Instead, he lectured the jury members on their own ignorance. He
told the Athenians how lucky they were that the gods made him
serve “as a sort of gadfly” to the people, arousing them to examine their lives, just as a pesky fly bothers the livestock it annoys.
he following is an excerpt of Socrates’s tongue-in-cheek
defense from Plato’s dialogue Apology.
And now, Athenians[,] I am not arguing in my own defense at all, as you might expect me to do, but rather in
yours in order you may not make a mistake about the
gift of the god to you by condemning me. For if you put
me to death, you will not easily find another who, if I
may use a ludicrous comparison, clings to the state as a
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ANCIENT AND HELLENISTIC THOUGHT
sort of gadfly to a horse that is large and well-bred but
rather sluggish because of its size, so that it needs to be
aroused. It seems to me that the god has attached me like
that to the state, for I am constantly alighting upon you
at every point to arouse, persuade, and reproach each
of you all day long. You will not easily find anyone else,
my friends, to fill my place; and if you are persuaded by
me, you will spare my life. You are indignant, as drowsy
persons are when they are awakened, and, of course, if
you are persuaded by Anytus, you could easily kill me
with a single blow, and then sleep on undisturbed for
the rest of your lives, unless the god in his care for you
sends another to arouse you. 19
Annoyed by Socrates’s defense, the jury found him guilty.
Meletus and Anytus once again asked for the death penalty. Yet,
first, as was the custom, the jury asked Socrates to suggest an alternative punishment. Perhaps they hoped he would choose to
leave Athens or promise never to philosophize again. Socrates,
however, disappointed the jurists. In response to his question,
“What do I deserve?” Socrates replied:
Something good, Athenians. . . . here is no reward,
Athenians, so suitable . . . as receiving free meals in
the prytaneum [a public hall in which the community’s hospitality was extended to distinguished guests].
It is a much more suitable reward . . . than for any
of you who has won a victory at the Olympic games,
with his horse or his chariots. Such a man only makes
you seem happy, but I make you really happy; he is not
in want, and I am. So if I am to propose the penalty
which I really deserve, I propose this—free meals in
the prytaneum. 20
he Classical Period: he Sophists and Socrates
Furious, the jury sentenced Socrates to death. Undaunted,
Socrates said that his death would do those who accused him
unjustly more harm than it would him, for “no harm can come
to a good man.”
he Death of Socrates
While Socrates was in prison, his friends offered to help him
escape, but he refused. He loved Athens and her laws. If he escaped, he would be defying his beloved city. he laws, insisted
Socrates, were not responsible for his death—his accusers were.
The death of Socrates, shown in this painting by Giambettino Cignaroli
from about 1760, has for centuries inspired writers, artists, and
philosophers to tell the story of the progressive Athenian thinker who
was considered by many to be a danger to their society.
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ANCIENT AND HELLENISTIC THOUGHT
On the day of his execution, Socrates conversed with his
family and friends. At sunset, the jailer gave Socrates hemlock,
a poisonous herb. After taking the poison, Socrates continued
to talk with his friends. Gradually, his body grew cold and his
eyes became fixed. With great sadness, his friends covered him
after he died. In his dialogue Phaedo, Plato wrote, “Such was the
end . . . of our comrade, who was, we may fairly say, of all those
whom we knew in our time, the bravest and also the wisest and
most upright man.” 21
Links to Plato
Socrates’s life, his method of teaching, his wisdom in living, and
his courage in dying inspired Plato to become a philosopher. In
his youth, Plato had been active in politics, but after witnessing the democracy that put Socrates to his death, he withdrew
from the political scene to concentrate on educating people
through philosophy. Based on Socrates’s ideas and way of life,
Plato’s own brilliant philosophy has become the foundation of
all Western thought. Harvard philosopher Alfred North Whitehead once said, “All Western philosophy consists of a series of
footnotes to Plato.”
3
THE CLASSICAL PERIOD:
PLATO
Plato is philosophy, and philosophy is Plato.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson
Plato considered Socrates his mentor. To show his admiration,
he made Socrates the main character in his dialogues, a series
of writing that included Socrates and other people engaged
in philosophical conversations. In the dialogues, Socrates displayed the qualities of goodness and wisdom that Plato felt were
the highest goals of human aspiration. Although Plato modeled
his early philosophy after Socrates’s teachings, his own philosophical thought has influenced thinkers around the world for
more than 2,000 years.
CARING FOR THE SOUL
Before Plato, the pre-Socratics had asked questions about permanence and change in the universe. hey wanted to know if
there was a permanent substance that held together all that is
changing. Deciding that we could never know the answer to
those questions, the Sophists turned to rhetoric. Discouraged
with the Sophists’ beliefs that truth was unimportant, Socrates
concentrated on living the good life by caring for the soul.
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ANCIENT AND HELLENISTIC THOUGHT
Plato’s Life
Plato (427–347 b.c.) was born in Athens, Greece, when Socrates
was about 42 years old. Athenian culture dominated the Western world, and Plato’s family was one of the most distinguished
families in Athens. His mother, Perictione, was a relative of the
great Athenian lawmaker Solon. Plato’s father, Ariston, who
Originally named Aristocles, Plato was a mathematician and Socrates’s
most renowned student. He established the Academy in Athens, the first
institution of higher learning in the Western world, where he tutored
another famous philosopher, the young Aristotle.
he Classical Period: Plato
died when Plato was a child, traced his lineage to the old kings
of Athens and to the god Poseidon. Plato’s uncle Charmides and
his cousin Critias were prominent aristocratic leaders. After his
father’s death, Plato’s mother married her uncle Pyrilampes,
who was one of the designers of Athenian democracy.
When Plato was a young man, Athens was fighting Sparta in
the Peloponnesian Wars (431–404 b.c.). When Athens surrendered to Sparta, a group of powerful aristocrats known as “the
hirty” overthrew democracy and ruled Athens for three years.
Plato’s family was part of this group, and they asked Plato to join
them, but Plato, disgusted by their unethical practices, refused the
offer. Yet, the hirty could not restore aristocratic rule, and soon
democracy was reinstated. Plato again thought of going into politics but was repelled when two politicians, Anytus and Meletus,
brought Socrates to trial on false charges, and a jury condemned
Socrates to death. his injustice made such a deep impression on
Plato that he left Athens. A just government, he said, would never
have murdered a man such as the godlike Socrates.
After 12 years of travel and intense study, Plato returned to
Athens where he established the Academy, the first university in
the Western world. he school stood in a grove of trees that was
once owned by a Greek hero named Academus. Plato headed
the Academy and continued to write until he died at the age of
80. His most distinguished student at the Academy was Aristotle, who also became a famous philosopher.
Socrates’s Method at Work
he Sophists believed that our minds are blank at birth and that
our ideas of right or wrong come from the societies we live in.
herefore, these ideas will vary from one society to another.
here is, they said, no such thing as eternal or universal principles for living the good life. Socrates and Plato strongly disagreed,
arguing that true knowledge lies hidden within our souls, and
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ANCIENT AND HELLENISTIC THOUGHT
through the dialectic method, the truth could be drawn out of a
person. he dialectic method is important because it leads the
mind beyond the changing physical world to unchanging eternal
principles. Socrates and Plato argued that the mind knew the
principles of Truth, Beauty, and Goodness in its preexistence,
before its earthly existence.
he Soul
In his dialogue he Republic, Plato described the soul as having three parts (Figure 1). hey are 1) the reason and intuition,
or the rational; 2) the spirited, or nonrational; and 3) the appetites, or irrational. He arrived at this conclusion by analyzing
the three kinds of activities going on in human beings. First, he
analyzed the motivation for Goodness and Truth, controlled
by the reason and intuition. hen, he analyzed the drive toward action, controlled by the spirited. hird, he analyzed the
desire for pleasures of the body, controlled by the appetites.
Reason/Intuition
Seeks knowledge
Spirited
Seeks action
Appetites
Seeks Pleasure
THE HUMAN SOUL
© Infobase Publishing
Figure 1. Plato’s interpretation of the three parts of the human soul and
the activities each controls.
he Classical Period: Plato
he spirited is neutral and inclined to follow the rational intuition and reason, but because it is neutral, it can also be pulled
toward the appetites.
Reason and intuition seek the true goal of human life by
seeing things according to their true nature. he spirited and
the appetites, however, desire worldly pleasures that can fool
the reason and intuition into believing that pleasures of the
senses (taste, touch, sight, hearing, and smell) will bring us
happiness. he opposite is true, however. Unhappiness results
when we think that physical pleasures are more important than
the soul.
Immortality of the Soul
Plato believed that the soul preexists before it enters the body
and that it will continue to exist after the body dies. His dialogue Phaedo records a conversation that Socrates had with his
friend Cebes and others on the day of his death. hey discuss
the immortality of the soul.
Socrates: And now, . . . if we are agreed that the immortal is imperishable, then the soul will be not immortal
only, but also imperishable; otherwise we shall require
another argument.
Cebes: Nay, . . . there is no need of that, as far as this
point goes; for if the immortal, which is eternal, will admit of destruction, what will not?
Socrates: And all men would admit, . . . that God, and
the essential form of life, and all else that is immortal,
never perishes.
Cebes: All men, indeed, . . . and, what is more, I think,
all gods would admit that.
Socrates: hen if the immortal is indestructible, must
not the soul, if it be immortal, be imperishable?
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ANCIENT AND HELLENISTIC THOUGHT
Cebes: Certainly, it must.
Socrates: hen, it seems when death attacks a man, his
mortal part dies, but his immortal part retreats before
death, and goes away sage and indestructible.
Cebes: It seems so.
Socrates: hen, Cebes, beyond all question the soul is
immortal and imperishable, and our souls will indeed exist in the other world. 22
According to Plato, at the end of life the body dies, but the
soul does not die because it is immortal. Each soul will pass
through many lifetimes, and while in a body, it may seek knowledge or it may indulge in sensuous physical pleasures.
As a believer in reincarnation, Plato said that each soul is reborn according to what it deserves. If I am selfish, mean, and resentful in this life, then my soul must come into another life to learn
how to overcome such negativity. If I am loyal, virtuous, and strive
for knowledge in this life, my soul will reap the rewards of these
positive characteristics in a next life. Our present life is based on
our past thoughts and actions, and our future life will be a result
of our present thoughts and actions. hus, each soul chooses its
future character and destiny according to what it needs to learn.
Moral Philosophy
Because our souls preexist in the eternal realm of Truth, Beauty,
and Goodness, Plato believed that all people are basically good.
Yet, soon after we are born, we become enticed by the world of
pleasure. Such ignorance, however, is weaker than truth, and
after several lifetimes our souls begin to awaken to the truth.
his awakening stirs the soul with a yearning to return to its
true home. Plato called this yearning “eros,” or love. From the
point of awakening, the material world becomes less important
than striving for truth and the progress of the soul.
he Classical Period: Plato
heory of Knowledge
Plato contended there are two ways we can awaken out of ignorance into knowledge: through our own insight and awareness
or with the help of a teacher or guide. In his famous “Allegory
of the Cave,” Plato relates a story illustrating the journey of the
soul from ignorance to knowledge.
Allegory of the Cave
Plato asks us to imagine a group of people living in an underground cave. hey sit with their backs to the opening of the
cave, their arms and legs bound so they can see only what is
in front of them—the shadows on the wall of the cave. Behind
these people is a walkway on which humanlike creatures carry
various animals, plants, and other objects. Behind the walkway
is a fire that casts flickering shadows of the creatures and the
objects on the wall of the cave. Surprisingly, the cave dwellers
think the shadows on the wall are real objects because they have
been looking only at the wall since they were born.
Someone then comes and unchains one of the cave dwellers,
taking him back to the figures and fire. At first, the cave dweller
would be shocked to see that the figures on the wall are more
than just shadows. He would be frightened of this new discovery and want to turn back to his seat in the cave. Yet, said Plato,
he cannot return to his seat because he continues to be led past
the fire to the outside of the dark cave. he natural light would
almost blind the cave dweller, but once he got accustomed to
the beauty of seeing color and clear shapes, he would hesitate
about going back to his old life in the dark cave. hen, he would
see the Sun in the sky, and realize that the Sun, symbolizing
God as the source of all things, is what gives life to these animals
and flowers and everything else in the world.
he cave dweller, now free from the ignorance of the cave,
rejoices in this newfound knowledge. Realizing the joy of
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ANCIENT AND HELLENISTIC THOUGHT
discovering Truth, Beauty, and Goodness, he returns to the cave
to set the other prisoners free. Once he returns to the darkness
of the cave, however, he is unable to convince the others that
the shadows on the wall are merely reflections of reality. In fact,
when he tries to release them from their chains and help them
out of the cave, they try to kill him.
Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” shows us the journey we must
all make from the physical world that is ignorance, to the realm
of eternal Truth, Beauty, and Goodness that is reality. Because
they are ignorant, the people inside the cave are satisfied to live
among the shadows, and they do not give much thought to what
is causing the shadows. As the cave dweller had to turn completely around to see the light, the entire soul must turn away
This sixteenth-century colored engraving presents an unknown French
artist’s interpretation of Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave.” The allegory, which
explains Plato’s concept of the Forms as an answer to the problem of
universals, appears in Plato’s Republic, written in about 360 B.C.
he Classical Period: Plato
from believing that the physical world of the senses is as important as the knowledge of Truth, Beauty, and Goodness. Plato
knew that turning the soul around would not be easy. Even the
“noblest natures,” he said, do not want to look away from their
routine lifestyles.
he Divided Line
Plato thought the physical world of change is a world of appearances, making it less real than the eternal truths. In his simile “he Divided Line” (Figure 2), he used a more systematic
method to explain the stages we go through on our journey to
knowledge. Plato thought that, to reach knowledge, the mind
moves through four stages of development: 1) imaging, 2) belief, 3) thinking, and 4) reason/intuition. Each stage represents
a different way of looking at the world and provides a basis
for distinguishing between objects perceptible to our physical
senses and objects in the intelligible world reached by thought.
Reasoning/intuition gives us the broadest view of the world.
Imaging gives us the most limited view of the world. In the simile, presented in his work he Republic, Plato uses Socrates to
describe “he Divided Line” to Plato’s brother Glaucon:
“Well, take a line divided into two unequal parts, corresponding to the visible and intelligible worlds, and
then divide the two parts again in the same ratio, to
represent degrees of clarity and obscurity. In the visible world, one section stands for images: by ‘images’
I mean first shadows, then reflections in the water and
other close grained polished surfaces, and all that sort
of thing if you understand me.”
“I understand.”
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ANCIENT AND HELLENISTIC THOUGHT
“Let the other section stand for the objects which are
the originals of the images—animals, plants and manufactured objects of all kinds.”
“Very good.”
“Would you be prepared to admit that these sections
differ in their degree of truth, and that the relation of
image to the original is the same as that of opinion
and knowledge?”
“I would.”
“hen consider next how the intelligible part of the line
is to be divided. In one section the mind uses the originals of the visible world in their turn as images, and has
to base its inquiries on assumptions and proceed from
them to its conclusions instead of going back to first
principles: in the other it proceeds from assumption
A
(Images)
B
(Visible
Things)
C
(Mathematical
Objects)
© Infobase Publishing
Figure 2. A visual representation of Plato’s Divided Line.
D
(Forms)
61
he Classical Period: Plato
Objects
D
World
of Ideas
Physical
World
y
The Good
(Forms)
States
of Mind
Intelligence
Reason/Intuition
Knowledge
C
Mathematical
Objects
Thinking/
Reason
B
Physical
(Visible Things)
Belief
(Opinion)
Opinion
A
Images
Imaging
(Illusion)
x
© Infobase Publishing
Figure 3. This table corresponds to Figure 2. Here, the vertical line
from x to y suggests that there is some degree of knowledge at each
stage, from the lowest to the highest. The horizontal line that separates
A and B from C and D separates the physical world from the world of
ideas. The right side of the graph represents the mind, and the left side
represents the objects that correspond to the mind on that level.
back to self-sufficient first principles, making no use of
the images employed by the other section, but pursuing
its inquiry solely by means of Forms. . . .
“It treats assumptions not as principles, but as assumptions in the true sense, that is, as starting points
and steps in the ascent to the universal, self-sufficient
first principle; when it has reached that principle it can
again descend, by keeping to the consequences that
follow from it, to a final conclusion. he whole procedure involves nothing in the sensible world, but deals
throughout with Forms and finishes with Forms.” 23
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ANCIENT AND HELLENISTIC THOUGHT
Toward the end of the discussion between Glaucon and
Socrates, Glaucon remarks that the process of climbing out of
the shadows to enlightenment sounds like a long and tedious
job. Socrates agrees, adding:
And you may assume that there are, corresponding
to the four sections of the line, four states of mind:
to the top section Intelligence, to the second Reason
[hinking], to the third Opinion [Belief ], and to the
fourth Illusion [Imaging]. And you may arrange them
in a scale, and assume that they have degrees of clarity
corresponding to the degree of truth and reality possessed by their subject-matter. 24
Imaging Stage
At the imaging stage, people look to others for answers because
they have not learned to think for themselves. As the cave dwellers in “he Allegory of the Cave” believed that the shadows are
real, those who are at the imaging stage believe that most of
what they hear on TV and read in the newspaper is true. Advertisers address their audience at the imaging level. hey want
to convince us that buying a particular product will change our
lives, make us happier, better looking, or more popular.
he imaging stage correlates to the shadows on the wall in
Plato’s allegory. Our shadow is no more the truth of our body
than a postcard of Niagara Falls is of seeing it in person. Actually
seeing physical objects raises us to the next level of knowledge—
the belief stage.
Belief Stage
Plato used the words belief and opinion rather than knowledge
to describe the physical world. Our senses tell us the physical
he Classical Period: Plato
world is real because we can see it and touch it. Experiencing
objects directly with our eyes gives us more information than
seeing shadows or pictures of them. For example, we often
hear the statement, “Seeing is believing.” Yet, seeing physical
objects only tells us what the object looks like on the outside.
Viewing Niagara Falls gives us a sense of its physical splendor but no information about its age, the origin of its formation, or the water that runs over it. Belief, just as imaging, is a
matter of opinion. I can believe that Niagara Falls is the most
beautiful sight in America, but you can argue that the Grand
Canyon is the most beautiful. Our judgments are a matter of
opinion. If, however, we decide to explore the scientific evidence that explains the cause and formation of Niagara Falls
and the Grand Canyon, then we move from the belief stage to
the thinking stage.
hinking Stage
When we advance from belief to thinking, we proceed from
the visible world of the senses to the invisible world of ideas.
We now enter the world of knowledge. Plato believed that
scientists were the bridge builders between the two worlds—
opinion and knowledge—because science forces us to think
about the principles and laws behind physical objects. When
geologists study Niagara Falls, they think about the water
source and origin of the rock formations, not about a picture
postcard of the falls.
In the thinking stage, we think of the “idea human,” whether
we see short, tall, dark, light, young, or old people. hinking
gives us more knowledge than belief or imaging because it takes
us beyond the physical body to human characteristics, such as
moral values. Although thinking gives us some knowledge, it
has limitations. hinking knows that two plus two always equals
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ANCIENT AND HELLENISTIC THOUGHT
four, but it does not know why. Likewise, thinking knows people
are good or bad, but it does not know why. Plato said that thinking alone cannot take us to the highest level of knowledge because thinking cannot answer the why questions in life.
Intelligence (Reason/Intuition) Stage
At the highest stage of knowledge, the mind deals directly with
the Forms. For Plato, Forms are eternal ideas beyond the physical world. Forms do not apply to the physical world because
they are in a realm beyond time and space. We cannot experience Forms with our five senses because Forms have no size,
shape, color, or weight. Because objects in the physical world
will erode over time, Plato said the physical world is not the true
reality. It is only a world of appearance. Forms, however, are
the true reality: hey are the eternal patterns, or blueprints, of
everything in the world.
Plato said there are many Forms, such as Human, Dog, or
Tree. For example, examine the Form Dog. All dog species look
different. Some are poodles, others dalmatians, and still others collies or mutts. hey may be spotted, tall or short, fat or
thin. Yet, despite their many differences, dogs share one thing
in common: the eternal Form Dog. he Form Dog that makes it
possible for us to recognize all of them as dogs.
Plato said there are three ways to know the Forms. hey
are through remembering, by using the dialectic method, and
through love. To Plato, developing the proper kind of love is as
difficult as cultivating our intelligence.
he Ladder of Love
For Plato, love merges with beauty, and in his dialogue the Symposium, he guides us through the stages of love to the soul’s immortality. At the first and lowest stage of the Ladder of Love, we
he Classical Period: Plato
fall in love with the beauty of a physical body. In short, this is a
chemical attraction. Second, we love the beauty of art, nature,
and the physical world. hird, we move to the love of a friend,
called “Platonic love,” and fourth, to the love of institutions,
such as schools and other institutions that better the world.
Fifth, we discover our love of learning about the universe. From
this love of learning we move to the sixth and final stage, Plato’s
“wondrous vision” of the Form Beauty itself and its everlasting
loveliness for which the soul has always yearned. At this point in
our awareness, we will understand that every lovely thing in the
physical world and in the soul shares in the Form Beauty, and
this joyful experience makes life worth living.
Plato’s Symposium, painted by Anselm Feuerbach in 1869, depicts one
of Plato’s most celebrated philosophical dialogues. Plato’s work is a
discussion on the nature of love, presented in a series of satiric and
serious speeches given by a group of characters, including Socrates,
the central figure in Plato’s numerous dialogues.
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ANCIENT AND HELLENISTIC THOUGHT
In Plato’s Symposium, Socrates recalls to his friends the
words of his teacher, Diotima, whom Plato calls his “instructress in the art of love”:
Starting from individual beauties, the quest for the universal beauty must find him ever mounting the heavenly
ladder, stepping from rung to rung—that is, from one
to two, and from two to every lovely body, from bodily
beauty to the beauty of institutions, from institutions to
learning, and from learning in general to the special lore
that pertains to nothing but the beautiful itself—until at
last he comes to know what beauty is.
And now, Socrates, there bursts upon him that
wondrous vision which is the very soul of the beauty
he has toiled so long for. It is an everlasting loveliness
which neither comes nor goes. . . .
And if, my dear Socrates, Diotima went on, man’s
life is ever worth the living, it is when he has attained
this vision of the very soul of beauty. 25
Political Philosophy and the Ideal State
In Republic, we find the first examples of utopian literature in
the Western world. he dialogue begins with Socrates and some
friends gathered to discuss the meaning of justice. hey decide
to find the meaning of justice by constructing the “ideal state,”
or the best possible form of government (Figure 4). hey agree
to base the ideal state on the human soul’s three parts: reason
and intuition, the spirited, and the appetites.
hey first decide that a society must have people who can
produce food, shelter, and clothing, such as farmers, builders, and
weavers. hese craftsmen belong to the artisan class. he artisans
supply the material goods of the state and are lovers of pleasure,
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he Classical Period: Plato
Rulers
Protectors
Producers
Philosopher King
and Queen Class
Auxiliary, or
Warrior Class
Artisan
Class
© Infobase Publishing
Figure 4. Plato’s Ideal State.
represented by the appetites. To control the internal state of affairs and the defense of the state, an auxiliary, or warrior class, is
necessary. hese men and women defend the state and are ruled
by the spirited aspect of the soul. Finally, the state needs rulers—a
philosopher king and queen class. Ruled by the rational part of
the soul, these individuals will make laws and govern the state
wisely. Because they strive for Truth, Beauty, and Goodness, the
philosopher kings and queens want what is good for the state.
Each class has particular duties, and like the soul, each class
has certain limitations. As seekers of worldly pleasures, the artisan class is the only one to have money and own private property. hese people may marry and have families. Because most
people enjoy worldly pleasures, this will be the largest class. Yet,
they have no voice about the laws of the land or its defense. he
warrior class defends the state. hey live in communities, and
they may not marry, handle money, or own private property.
Plato argued that, the warriors should be free from the bonds of
material possessions, and, therefore, would hold property and
families collectively rather than individually. Plato argued that,
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ANCIENT AND HELLENISTIC THOUGHT
if the entire warrior class was a single family, its members would
have fewer temptations to acquire money and possessions. Sexual relations would occur at special festivals. At birth, children
would be given into the care of nurses, so each warrior would
treat each child with love and respect. he warrior class must
obey the rules of the philosopher king and queen class.
he philosopher king and queen class is at the highest level in
the ideal state. As wise rulers, they will show kindness and justice
to all. hey may own nothing and would live a simple life supported
by the state. hrough a special breeding program, the philosopher
kings and queens will bear children who hopefully will be future
rulers of the ideal state. Anyone reaching the philosopher king and
queen class will have had at least 30 years of education. herefore,
not all citizens would be eligible to be part of this class.
Plato believed that only philosophers should rule. He considered democracy a lower form of government because in a
democracy people vote for the most popular candidate who
promises the most to the appetites of the masses. Also, this
kind of candidate would not be the best ruler because he or she
would make the rational part of the soul a slave to the appetites
and spirited parts. Finally, it was a democracy that put Socrates,
Plato’s inspiration, to death. Justice in the ideal state, therefore,
reflects the good individual and the reason and intuition that
rules the spirited and appetites.
Links to Aristotle
Plato’s notions of the Forms, the ideal state, and justice had a
profound impact on his students. Aristotle, Plato’s student at
the Academy, was deeply influenced by his teacher. Although
Aristotle departed from some of Plato’s ideas, he praised Plato
as a wise philosopher and noble man. Despite his devotion to
his teacher, Aristotle went on to establish his own philosophical
teachings, very unique from Plato’s.
4
THE CLASSICAL PERIOD:
ARISTOTLE
All men by nature desire knowledge.
—Aristotle
Aristotle’s influence in the Western world was so profound that,
for hundreds of years after his death, he was known simply as
he Philosopher. Aristotle came to Plato’s Academy when he
was 17 years old and was considered Plato’s most gifted student.
Many of today’s philosophers consider Aristotle the greatest
philosopher who ever lived.
While Plato focused on the timeless and spaceless world of
eternal Forms to find reality, Aristotle got down on his hands and
knees to study the natural world of plants and animals as well as
human beings. Plato, the metaphysician, someone who speculates
on things beyond the physical world, loved the abstract world of
Truth, Beauty, and Goodness. Aristotle, the scientist and logician,
loved to study nature and our role in it. Both philosophers wanted
to discover what is real. Both agreed that there are Forms, but
they disagreed on their meaning. As we have seen, Plato found
reality in the eternal world of Forms and considered the physical
world of change an appearance or reflection of reality but not reality itself. Aristotle, however, placed greater value on the physical
world by suggesting that the Forms were united with it.
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ANCIENT AND HELLENISTIC THOUGHT
Although Aristotle turned much of his attention to the physical world of nature, he thought the pre-Socratic answers for the
substances that constitute reality—water, air, the boundless,
seeds, and atoms—were limited. Aristotle believed that those
thinkers had not provided significant accounts of human qualities, especially morality. Like Plato, Aristotle asked the question,
“What is the good life?” he answer he developed gave birth to a
completely new view of morality.
Aristotle’s Life
Aristotle (384–322 b.c.) was born in Stagira, a Greek town on
the northeast coast of hrace. His mother came from a family
of physicians, and his father was the doctor to the king of Macedonia, a region in northern Greece. When Aristotle was 17, his
parents sent him to Plato’s Academy where he remained for 20
years, first as a student and later as a lecturer. At the Academy,
Aristotle was known as he Mind of the School.
Plato’s genius and noble character had a deep influence on
Aristotle, and no matter what their differences were philosophically, Aristotle admired Plato all of his life. After Plato’s death,
Aristotle left the Academy to write and teach. He married, but
his wife died giving birth to their daughter. Later, Aristotle met
Herpyllis with whom he had a long and happy relationship. He
dedicated his book on moral philosophy, Nicomachean Ethics,
to their son, Nicomachus.
When Aristotle was 40, King Philip of Macedonia asked him
to tutor his 13-year-old son, Alexander, who would later be known
as Alexander the Great. As Alexander grew up, he and Aristotle
became good friends, but they disagreed on what was the best
type of government. Aristotle thought that a government should
be no larger than the city-state, but Alexander envisioned a world
empire. Also, Aristotle thought that Greeks were superior to all
other races, while Alexander believed that all races were equal
he Classical Period: Aristotle
Aristotle was a student of Plato and later taught Alexander the Great.
He wrote on many subjects, such as poetry, theater, biology, zoology,
politics, government, rhetoric, ethics, and logic.
and should be integrated. heir friendship survived such differences, however, and Alexander, while away in foreign lands, often
sent Aristotle samples of rare flora and fauna for scientific study.
In 336 b.c., when Alexander was 20 years old, his father
was murdered. Alexander became king. A year later, Aristotle
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ANCIENT AND HELLENISTIC THOUGHT
founded a school in Athens, the Lyceum. here, Aristotle and
his students strolled under tree-covered walks discussing science and philosophy. he specimens that Alexander had sent,
along with his collection of maps and manuscripts, helped Aristotle form the first important library in the Western world.
A master of many subjects, Aristotle invented logic, or laws of
thought, and wrote treatises on physics, biology, ethics, meteorology, metaphysics, political science, and poetics.
While Aristotle was teaching science and philosophy at the
Lyceum, Alexander was changing the world. By the time he was
30 years old, Alexander ruled Greece, Persia, Egypt, and Asia.
When Alexander died in 323 b.c., a wave of anti-Macedonian
feeling swept Athens, and many Athenians expressed hostility
toward Aristotle for having been Alexander’s friend. Recalling
Socrates’s fate, Aristotle left Athens and the Lyceum, “lest the
Athenians should sin twice against philosophy.” He settled on
the island of Euboea, his mother’s birthplace, where he died a
year later of a stomach illness.
Form and Matter
Like Plato and the philosophers before him, Aristotle also
wanted to know what is real. he pre-Socratics had searched
for reality in the material universe. Plato, the metaphysician,
had found reality in the Forms, the eternal and perfect ideas. As
a scientist, Aristotle took a different view. He agreed with Plato
that the form (not capitalized for Aristotle) horse is eternal,
but he said we could not know the form horse if it existed in a
realm beyond the physical world because we cannot know that
realm. To know the form horse, we must see an actual physical
horse, because the form, or characteristics, of a horse are in
the horse itself. he same is true of matter. To know the substance matter, we must see an actual physical object, such as
the horse. For Aristotle, form and matter must come together
he Classical Period: Aristotle
in the same object before we can know them. “here is no form
without matter and no matter without form,” he said. We can
only know the forms by studying the physical objects in the
world because all things, including humans, are a combination
of matter and form.
Potentiality and Actuality
Matter is the substance out of which everything in the world
is made, and form is the thing’s essence, or its characteristics.
Matter contains the potentiality to realize a specific form, which
is its actuality. For example, the newborn human has the potentiality to become an adult human being, its actuality. he acorn
has the potentiality to become an oak tree. Everything in nature
has a built-in potentiality to realize its purpose or actuality. Aristotle argued that nature’s built-in form assures that humans
will always be humans and never fish, that oak trees will always
be oak trees and never turnips, and that horses will always be
horses and never kangaroos.
he Four Causes
Aristotle discovered four causes that govern change in everything from art to nature as they develop from their potentiality
to their actuality. he four causes are: 1) the formal cause; or
form; 2) the material cause, or matter; 3) the efficient cause, or
motion; and 4) the final cause, or end.
In carving a marble statue, the formal cause is the plan the
sculptor has in mind, the material cause is the marble, the efficient cause is the sculptor shaping the statue, and the final cause
is the end, or purpose of the statue, which would be as a decoration. For Aristotle, everything in nature contains these four
causes and the potential to grow into its actuality. Everything
in nature is always in motion, eternally moving and changing.
What keeps everything in motion is the Unmoved Mover.
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ANCIENT AND HELLENISTIC THOUGHT
he Unmoved Mover
Just as everything in nature has the potential to strive for its actuality, or end, there is something beyond nature, something that
is pure actuality—the final cause. Pure actuality, said Aristotle, is
eternal, immaterial, and perfect because it has no potentiality.
He called pure actuality the “Unmoved Mover,” another term for
God or the principle of eternal motion.
Because motion is eternal, there never was a time when the
world did not exist. herefore, the Unmoved Mover is not a
creator god. Being pure actuality, it has no physical body, and,
lacking nothing, it has no emotional desires. he activity of the
Unmoved Mover consists of pure thought. As pure thought, the
Unmoved Mover thinks only perfection, which is itself.
Recall that for Aristotle, all creatures in nature, including human beings, strive to realize their actuality. Because the highest
human faculty is reason, we find our perfection in contemplating
the Unmoved Mover. Being perfect in everything, including love,
the Unmoved Mover’s perfect love attracts our thoughts to it.
he . . . [Unmoved Mover] then moves things because it
is loved, whereas all other things move because they are
themselves moved. . . . But since there is something that
moves things, while being itself immovable and existing
in actuality, it is not possible in any way for that thing
to be in any state other than that in which it is. . . . he
first mover, then, must exist, and insofar as he exists of
necessity, his existence must be good; and thus he must
be a first principle. . . .
It is upon a principle of this kind, then, that the
heavens and nature depend. 26
Love is motion, even as Empedocles and Plato claimed, and
the Unmoved Mover is the “Form of the world” moving it toward
he Classical Period: Aristotle
its divine end, its actuality. he highest activity of human reason is not unlike the activity of the Unmoved Mover, except the
Unmoved Mover thinks only perfection, and we can only think
about perfection. Being imperfect, we do not have the ability to
think perfection itself, yet the happiest life for us is thinking about
the Unmoved Mover.
he Soul
Plato believed that the soul was separate from the body, but
for Aristotle, the soul could not function without the body, nor
could the body exist without the soul. He argued there could
be no soul without the body any more than there could be vision without an eye. he soul is the form, or the actuality, of the
body, claims Aristotle:
What is soul? . . .
Among substances are by general consent reckoned bodies and especially natural bodies; for they are
the principles of all other bodies. Of natural bodies
some have life in them, others not; by life we mean
self-nutrition and growth (with its correlative decay).
It follows that every natural body which has life in it is
a substance in the sense of a composite.
But since it is also a body of such and such a kind,
viz. having life, the body cannot be soul, the body is the
subject or matter, not what is attributed to. Hence the
soul must be a substance in the sense of the form of a
natural body having life potentially within it. But substance is actuality, and thus soul is the actuality [form]
of a body. 27
By separating the soul and body, Plato spoke of the soul’s
preexistence and immortality. Furthermore, Plato argued that
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ANCIENT AND HELLENISTIC THOUGHT
gaining knowledge was the process of remembering what the
soul knew in its preexistent state. Aristotle disagreed. Aristotle
argued that, without the body, the soul cannot exist, and without the soul, the body can’t exist. When a human baby is born
into the world, its mind is like a blank sheet of paper. he soul
comes into existence with the body, and with the death of the
body, the soul also perishes.
Mind is in a sense potentially whatever is thinkable,
though actually it is nothing until it has thought. What it
thinks must be in it just as characters may be said to be on
a writing-tablet on which as yet nothing actually stands
written: this is exactly what happens with mind. 28
Aristotle was born in the ancient Greek city of Stagira, Thrace, at the
northern end of the Aegean Sea in 384 B.C. These pure gold objects
were found by three factory workers in Thrace in 1949 and date back
to the turn of the fourth and third centuries B.C.
he Classical Period: Aristotle
For Aristotle, there are three types of souls that make up the
human body. hey are:
1) the nutritive; 2) the sensitive; and 3) the rational. he nutritive part of the soul has life; it is present in plants, as well as in
the human body. he sensitive part of the soul has both nutritive
and the sensitive (our five senses), and is also present in animals.
he human soul, however, contains all three types of souls because the rational, our ability to reason, is unique to the human
being. hat is why Aristotle called humans “rational animals.”
he Senses
Sense experience is more important to Aristotle than to Plato.
Plato said our highest type of reasoning and intuition goes beyond sense experience. Aristotle believed that reason and the
senses work together. he eye, for example, sees a yellow rose,
and with reason, we can analyze and understand the contents of
the yellow rose. Without seeing the yellow rose, the mind would
have no concept of it.
Human reason, said Aristotle, is both passive and active.
he passive mind, our sense mind, is a blank tablet on which
our senses write. Because the passive mind depends on our
senses to function, this aspect of the soul is not eternal. he
active mind, our reason, is eternal because it is similar to the
mind of the Unmoved Mover. At the death of the body, the passive mind, the senses, and the nutritive part of the soul all die.
Yet, because the active mind exists eternally whether we exist or
not, there is no personal immortality.
Moral Philosophy
Aristotle’s moral philosophy was the outcome of his metaphysics. He believed that everything in nature aims at some “end”:
its actuality. Because the end is the fulfillment of each thing’s
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ANCIENT AND HELLENISTIC THOUGHT
function, Aristotle called it “good.” he end of the acorn is the
oak tree. he end of making money is wealth:
Every art and every inquiry, and similarly every action
and choice, is thought to aim at some good; and for this
reason the good has rightly been declared to be that at
which all things aim. . . . Now, as there are many actions,
arts, and sciences, their ends also are many; the end of
the medical art is health, that of shipbuilding a vessel,
that of strategy victory, that of economics wealth. 29
To find the purpose of human morality, Aristotle asked, “What
is the ‘good’ at which humans aim?” Plato had thought that the
highest human good was to soar beyond the senses to the world
of ideas, to know the Form of the Good. If we knew the Good,
then we would do the good. Yet, Aristotle argued that the good is
for everything to realize its own true nature. he good is within
things. So, what is the good at which all humans aim? Aristotle’s
answer is “happiness.”
he good we are seeking . . . [is] surely that for whose
sake everything else is done. In medicine this is health,
in strategy victory, in architecture a house. . . .
Since there are evidently more than one end, and we
choose some of these (e.g. wealth, flutes, and in general
instruments) for the sake of something else, clearly not
all ends are complete ends: but the chief good is evidently
something complete. herefore, if there is only one complete end, this will be what we are seeking. . . . Now we
call that which is in itself worthy of pursuit more complete than that which is worthy of pursuit for the sake of
something else, and that which is never desirable for the
sake of something else more complete than the things
he Classical Period: Aristotle
that are desirable both in themselves and for the sake of
that other thing, and therefore we call complete without
qualification that which is always desirable in itself and
never for the sake of something else.
This 1665 painting by noted French artist Charles LeBrun shows
Alexander the Great riding in a chariot as he enters the city of Babylon
after its fall to the young conqueror in 331 B.C.
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ANCIENT AND HELLENISTIC THOUGHT
Now such a thing happiness, above all else, is held
to be; for this we choose always for itself and never for
the sake of something else, but honour, pleasure, reason,
and every excellence we choose indeed for themselves
. . . but we choose them also for the sake of happiness,
judging that through them we shall be happy. Happiness, on the other hand, no one chooses for the sake of
these, nor, in general, for anything other than itself. . . .
Happiness, then, is something complete and selfsufficient, and is the end of action. 30
If happiness is the good at which all people aim, then why
are people often unhappy? If we were only rational, said Aristotle, we would be virtuous and, thus, happy. Yet, the irrational
nutritive and sensitive parts of the soul often conflict with the
reason. his conflict raises the problem of morality. Suppose
you are in a department store looking for a present for your
mother. You see a pair of earrings that she would like. here is
no salesperson to help you and no shoppers in the jewelry department. he irrational part of you wants to slip the earrings
into your pocket. he rational part of you warns that stealing is
wrong. his kind of conflict raises the problem of morality. In
this scenario, what is the right, or moral, choice to make? Aristotle said it takes practice to be moral. he happy person is not
one who does a good deed now and then but the person whose
whole life is good.
he Golden Mean
For Aristotle, virtue, or moral goodness, is a mean between two
extremes, which he called “vices” (Figure 5). For example, Aristotle advised that we must not have too much fear or too little
fear. Instead, we must have courage—the mean between two
extremes. If we fear everything, we are cowardly. If we rush to
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he Classical Period: Aristotle
meet every danger, we are rash. Likewise, we must have neither
too much pride nor poor self-esteem. Instead, we must have
self-respect, a mean between the vices of too much pride and
poor self-esteem. Balance, or finding our mean, said Aristotle,
is the key to happiness.
Because our individual characters and circumstances vary,
the mean is different for each person. he mean of generosity is
far different for a wealthy person than for a struggling factory
worker. here will be a contrast in the mean of modesty between
the naturally shy introvert and the naturally outgoing extrovert.
Each of us must find our mean between two extremes. However, Aristotle said some actions such as spite, envy, jealousy,
adultery, murder, and theft have no mean at all. To do them
under any conditions is simply wrong.
Excess (Vice)
Mean (Virtue)
Defect (Vice)
Foolhardy
Courageous
Cowardly
Gluttony
Moderation
Starvation
Wasteful
Generosity
Stingy
Vanity
Buffoonery
Too shy
Pride
Humor
Modesty
Too humble
Boorish
Shows off
© Infobase Publishing
Figure 5. Examples of Aristotle’s Virtue of the Golden Mean. Good
judgment requires that we find the mean, or virtue, between the vices
of excess and defect.
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ANCIENT AND HELLENISTIC THOUGHT
Political Philosophy
“Man is by nature a political animal,” said Aristotle. He meant
that living in a community and developing a form of government
is a natural function of human beings. Aristotle thought there
were three good forms of government. he best government is
monarchy, or one with a king as the sole ruler; the second-best
form of government is aristocracy with a few rulers; and the
most practical government is polity with many rulers.
For a monarchy to be effective, the king must govern for the
good of the people rather than being a selfish tyrant. For an aristocracy to work well, it, too, must be careful not to degenerate
into a government that is run by a few tyrants. Polity, the third
form of government, must not degenerate into a democracy,
which could develop into mob rule, according to Aristotle. For
any form of government to succeed, the state must be sure that
no class of people has too much money or too little money, for
in politics, as in daily life, extremes breed immorality.
Links to Hellenistic Philosophy
Since the time of Aristotle, philosophy of the Western world
has generally been divided into two camps—the Platonic and
the Aristotelian. Although most Westerners throughout history
have turned to Aristotle’s scientific view of the world as real and
knowable, the writings of Plato also deeply influenced all subsequent philosophy. hinkers in the next great age of philosophy,
the Hellenistic period, took the philosophies of Plato and Aristotle and combined them with those of Socrates to fashion a
new wave of Western thought.
5
THE HELLENISTIC PERIOD
here is nothing to fear but fear itself.
—Epictetus
After Aristotle’s death in 322 b.c., and the death of his student
Alexander the Great in 323 b.c., a new era in philosophical
thought began—the Hellenistic period. Hellenistic philosophy
covers approximately a 300-year period in Greek history, extending from the conquests of Alexander the Great to the conquering of his kingdoms by the Romans. he term Hellenism
refers to both the time period and the Greek culture that flourished in the kingdoms of Macedonia, Syria, and Egypt.
Alexander’s armies had marched across Greece, Egypt,
Persia (present-day Iran), Afghanistan, and Pakistan, all the
way to the Indus River. His victories linked Egypt and the Orient to the Greek civilization for the first time in history. In
approximately a.d. 50, however, Rome declared war on the
Hellenistic kingdoms, defeated the Greeks, and became the
West’s new superpower. Soon after conquering the Hellenistic
regions, Roman politics and the Latin language spread from
Spain to Asia.
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ANCIENT AND HELLENISTIC THOUGHT
As countries and cultures merged, religious beliefs and philosophy began to change. Asian religion mingled with Greek
beliefs, giving birth to new religious ideas. When cultures and
city-states broke down, people experienced doubt and anxiety
about their religions and philosophies of life. hese uncertainties
brought with them a wave of pessimism that spread throughout
many lands.
Generally, people were less interested in the universe and
theories of human nature than they were with their own individual lives. hus, Hellenistic philosophers tended to concentrate on practical everyday concerns about life and death.
hey looked to giants such as Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle
as the source of their inspiration. Scientific ideas also shifted
from one culture to another. Although Athens remained the
center of philosophy, Alexandria, a city on the Nile River
Delta in Egypt, became the new center for science. Intellectuals flocked to Alexandria because it had the best library in
the ancient Western world and a fine museum dedicated to
scientific studies.
he upheavals in the Hellenistic world were similar to the
challenges we face today. Toward the end of the twentieth century, new ways of looking at philosophy, religion, and science
spread throughout the Western world. A holistic view of our
relationship to the planet and its creatures marked the beginning of a new epoch in these fields. In fact, much of our new
thinking can actually be traced back to Hellenistic schools of
thought. he ancients labored with the moral problems raised
by Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, asking, “How should we best
live and die, and how do we achieve true happiness?” In the
twenty-first century, we continue to ask similar questions, such
as, “What is the meaning of life?” “How is everything interrelated?” “How should I live?” “Is there a God?” and, “What happens after we die?”
he Hellenistic Period
HELLENISTIC PHILOSOPHY
Five schools of philosophy shaped the ideas of the Hellenistic
world: the Cynics, the Epicureans, the Stoics, the Skeptics, and
the Neoplatonists. hese groups of philosophers believed that
only by understanding the nature of things could we find satisfactory answers to moral questions. hey believed that our conduct depends on the kind of universe in which we live.
Most of these schools of philosophy based their theories
on the metaphysical and ethical systems of Socrates, Plato, and
Aristotle. he Cynics agreed with Socrates that material wealth
and possessions are unimportant. he Epicureans, sometimes
called “hedonists,” believed that pleasure is good and pain is
evil. hey added, however, that overindulgence of any pleasure
leads to pain. herefore, true pleasure is living a calm, serene life.
he Stoics, inspired by Socrates’s courage in death, said the only
way to achieve happiness is to control our emotional responses
to events we could not change. he Skeptics doubted anything
without proof. hey followed Socrates’s method of defining their
terms and examining ideas. Plotinus, who founded Neoplatonism, looked to Plato for many of his metaphysical and moral
ideas. He agreed with Plato that individual freedom depends on
returning to our source through a mystical union with God.
he Cynic School
Once a student of Socrates, Antisthenes (c. 444–c. 365 b.c.)
founded the Cynic school of philosophy in Athens. He agreed
with Socrates that happiness has nothing to do with wealth,
fame, or worldly success. Antisthenes said if we try to find happiness in worldly possessions, we will always be disappointed
because no matter how much we have, we always want more.
Not everyone can afford physical luxuries, he said, but everyone
can find happiness, and once we find it, we never lose it.
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ANCIENT AND HELLENISTIC THOUGHT
he most famous of the Cynics, Diogenes (c. 404–323 b.c.),
supposedly lived in a barrel. His only possessions were a tunic,
a stick, and a little leather bag that he used to beg for food. he
Diogenes is considered one of the principal founders of the Cynic
school of philosophy. A beggar living in the streets of Athens, he
avoided earthly pleasure and believed that morality was shown by a
return to the simplicities of nature.
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description of Diogenes as a cynic is where the use of the word
originates. Cynic is a Greek word meaning “dog.” It was used to
describe Diogenes because in rejecting all conventions of dress,
food, and housing, he lived like a dog.
here is a story that tells of Diogenes sitting next to his
barrel enjoying the warmth of the shining Sun. Alexander the
Great rode up to Diogenes on his magnificent white horse.
Impressed with Diogenes’s reputation as a philosopher, Alexander asked if there was anything he could do for him. “Yes,”
said Diogenes. “Stand to one side, you are blocking the Sun.”
Another story tells that Diogenes was seen begging for food
from a marble statue. When asked why, he answered, “So I’ll
get used to being refused.”
Diogenes and the Cynic philosophers believed we should
not become too emotionally involved in our health, our suffering, or even the thought of dying. Diogenes said there is nothing
after death, so we have no reason to be afraid.
he Epicurean School
Epicurus (341–270 b.c.) founded the Epicurean school of philosophy in Athens, where he and his students would meet in a
garden. Above the entrance to the school hung a sign that read,
“Stranger, here you will live well. Here pleasure is the highest
good.” Greatly admired as a teacher, Epicurus was modest and
friendly to everyone, including rich and poor, men and women,
and even slaves.
Pleasure
Epicurus believed that pleasure is the highest good. hough
the term hedonism has been attributed to his school, Epicurus
himself ate plain foods and lived simply. Before taking a trip, a
friend once asked Epicurus, “My revered teacher, what may I
send you?” Epicurus replied, “Send me a cheese that I may fare
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sumptuously.” He did not promote a hedonistic pleasure of
gourmet foods or living a wild social life. True pleasure comes
from living a simple life marked by a healthy body and soul.
Gourmet foods upset the stomach, and too much social activity causes stress. Such sensuous pleasures, Epicurus argued,
are shallow and unsatisfying.
We consider that of desires some are natural, others vain,
and of the natural some are necessary and others merely
natural; and of the necessary some are necessary for happiness, others for the repose of the body, and others for
choice and avoidance to the health of the body and freedom from disturbance, since this is the aim of the life of
blessedness. For it is to obtain this end that we always act,
namely, to avoid pain and fear. . . .
And for this cause we call pleasure the beginning
and end of the blessed life. For we recognize pleasure as
the first good innate in us, and from pleasure we begin
every act of choice and avoidance, and to pleasure we
return again, using the feeling as the standard by which
we judge every good. 31
For Epicurus, some pleasures are intense and last for only a
short time, such as going on a shopping spree. Other pleasures,
such as acting morally, give us a sense of well-being. Because he
insisted on living honorably and justly, Epicurus avoided politics and involvement in social affairs.
Afterlife
When asked about God and the afterlife, Epicurus said, “We
must overcome the fear of the gods and the fear of death.”
Epicurus believed there is no life after death. For Epicurus,
when we die, the body and soul disperse in all directions, and
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our personalities simply cease to be. Because “death is nothing to us,” he claims, we should make life enjoyable. Wishing
for immortality is foolish.
he Good Life
What makes life pleasurable? For Epicurus, happiness does not
involve service to other people, helping suffering animals, or
protecting the environment. he good life is the company of
pleasant companions and studying philosophy. He believed that
intellectual pleasures are always superior to bodily pleasures
because they last longer and are free of pain.
he Stoic School
Like the Cynics and Epicureans, the Stoics recommended moderation of desires. he Cynics emphasized that we cannot find
true happiness in material possessions. he Epicureans lived
a life of simple intellectual and physical pleasures. he Stoics
wanted a serene and controlled life through self-discipline.
Zeno
Zeno (334–262 b.c.) was the founder of the Stoic school of
philosophy. He and his followers discussed and studied on
the porch of his home. he name Stoic comes from the Greek
word stoa, meaning “porch.” hus, Zeno and his followers were
called “porch sitters.” Stoicism has had a lasting influence on
the Western world. We find Stoicism in Christianity and in
the work of William Shakespeare. Today, we see elements of
Stoicism in Jungian psychology and in therapy groups. Reinhold Niebuhr’s “Serenity Prayer,” used in Alcoholics Anonymous, was a prayer probably influenced by Stoic philosophy. It
reads, “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot
change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom
to know the difference.”
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ANCIENT AND HELLENISTIC THOUGHT
God
Like the pre-Socratic Heraclitus, the Stoics viewed God as divine
fire or Logos, the intelligence in all things. God is the divine fire
that provides the universe with beauty, life, and order. Because
everything has its source in God, God’s reason governs the universe. his view is known as pantheism, the belief that God is in
all and all is in God. Everything in the universe has the divine
spark. God or Logos is natural law, and the same divine laws that
govern nature determine human fate. In other words, whatever
happens, happens for a reason. Nothing happens by chance.
Human Nature
For the Stoics, we humans are like microcosms reflecting the
universal macrocosm. In other words, we are each a miniature
universe. Each of us has the divine reason and a spark of the divine will. As God is the soul of the world, the human soul is part
of God, and that is what gives us the ability to reason. Reason
gives us the ability to understand the structure of the universe.
In an orderly universe, nothing happens by chance. herefore,
we can only be happy by accepting our destiny. Some people are
destined to play big parts, such as president of the United States,
and others are destined to play minor parts. Nevertheless, whatever part we are destined to play is necessary in the overall
scheme of things, and we must learn to play our part well.
Unlike the Epicureans, the Stoics did not look for the good
in pleasure. Instead, they agreed with Socrates who identified the good with knowledge. he way to knowledge of the
good is by controlling our emotions so they do not confuse
the reason. We must learn to accept, with serenity, the things
we cannot change. Freedom lies in our ability to change our
attitude. Although we cannot change events that happen to us,
we can change our attitude toward those events. he attitude
we choose can make us happy or miserable. Wisdom, said the
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Stoics, consists in our ability to recognize what is in our power
and what is not in our power. External things such as the lives
of our friends and growing old are not in our power. Our intentions, desires, and choices, however, are in our power.
Epictetus
Epictetus (c. a.d. 50–130) was born a slave in Phrygia, Asia
Minor (present-day Turkey), but studied with a Stoic philosopher at Emperor Nero’s court in Rome. While Epictetus was a
slave, Nero had him tied to the stretching rack and tortured
for teaching Stoic philosophy. In a story about his punishment, Epictetus says to the person in charge of the stretching
rack, “If you turn the rack one more time both of my legs will
break.” When the rack was turned again and his legs snapped,
Epictetus said calmly, “You see.” Epictetus’s calm acceptance
of the things he could not change is the hallmark of the Stoic
philosophy. For the rest of his life, Epictetus was lame.
After Nero’s death in a.d. 68, Epictetus gained his freedom and began to teach. In a.d. 93, however, the new Roman
emperor, Domitian, banished all philosophers from Rome.
Epictetus went to northwestern Greece to establish a school
of Stoicism and remained there for the rest of his life. He lived
simply with only a mat, a pallet, and a clay lamp. Known for
his kindness and humility, he married late in life to raise a baby
whose parents were going to kill it by exposing the newborn to
the elements.
he Right Attitude
Like Socrates, Epictetus wrote nothing,
but one of his students, Flavius Arrianus, compiled notes that
became the famous Encheiridion, or Manual of Epictetus. hese
notes illustrate the Stoic conviction that we cannot change
events that happen to us. We can only change our attitude
toward those events.
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ANCIENT AND HELLENISTIC THOUGHT
1. Some things are under our control, while others are
not under our control. Under our control are conception, choice, desire, aversion, and in a word, everything
that is our own doing; not under our control are our
The Greek Stoic philosopher Epictetus believed that our ability to be
happy is dependent wholly on our own characters, how we relate to
ourselves, to others, and to the events in our lives. The ills we suffer,
says Epictetus, come from our mistaken beliefs about what is truly good.
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body, our property, reputation, office and, in a word,
everything that is not our own doing. Furthermore,
the things under our control are by nature free, unhindered, and unimpeded; while the things not under our
control are weak, servile, subject to hindrance, and not
our own. Remember, therefore, that if what is naturally
slavish you think to be free, and what is not your own
to be your own, you will be hampered, will grieve, will
be in turmoil, and will blame both gods and men; while
if you think only what is your own to be your own, and
what is not your own to be, as it really is, not your own,
then no one will ever be able to exert compulsion upon
you, no one will hinder you, you will blame no one,
will find fault with no one, will do absolutely nothing
against your will, you will have no personal enemy, no
one will harm you, for neither is there any harm that
can touch you. . . .
8. Do not seek to have everything that happens happen as
you wish, but wish for everything to happen as it actually does happen, and your life will be serene. 32
Fear
To live a meaningful life, we must overcome fear. “here
is nothing to fear but fear itself,” said Epictetus. If we learn to
control our fears and our desires, serenity will follow. Epictetus
reminded us that there is no need to fear the future or even
death because they are going to happen in any case.
Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius (a.d. 121–180) was an emperor of Rome, revered by the people for his virtue, kindness, and wisdom. He
showed concern for slaves and the poor and worked to correct
the abuses in the jurisprudence system through legal reforms.
Although he was a peace-loving man who enjoyed philosophy
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and literature, his role as emperor and general of the Roman
Army cast him into politics and war. He and his wife had five
sons, but only one of the five lived. On an expedition to the
East, Aurelius’s wife died. While on numerous military campaigns, he wrote privately, in a diary. hese writings, which
became known as he Meditations, were written for himself,
not for teaching others. His words reflect his doubts and indecisions as well as his faith and his philosophy. In them, we
can feel his pain and exhaustion along with his Stoic attitude
toward his fate as emperor. After long and lonely years fighting
one campaign after another, this Stoic warrior and saint died of
smallpox at age 59.
View of the Universe In he Meditations, Aurelius also wrote
about his view of the universe. Like Heraclitus, he saw the
world and everything in it in a state of flux. he universe, he
said, is rational, and is made up of the divine soul. Humans
share in the life and divinity of the universe, and each of
us contains the divine spark. Life, Aurelius argued, is both
beautiful and ugly, yet if we understand human nature, we can
never be harmed.
Say to yourself in the morning: I shall meet people who
are interfering, ungracious, insolent, full of guile, deceitful and antisocial; they have all become like that because
they have no understanding of good and evil. But I who
have contemplated the essential beauty of good and the
essential ugliness of evil, who know that the nature of
the wrongdoer is of one kin with mine—not indeed of
the same blood or seed but sharing the same mind, the
same portion of the divine—I cannot be harmed by any
one of them, and no one can involve me in shame. I cannot feel anger against him who is of my kin, nor hate
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him. We were born to labor together, like the feet, the
hands, the eyes, and the rows of upper and lower teeth.
To work against one another is therefore contrary to nature, and to be angry against a man or turn one’s back
on him is to work against him. 33
Citizens of the World
As all Stoics, Aurelius believed that
people are not just citizens of a state or a nation but also citizens
of the world. here is a kinship of all life, and all humans are
brothers and sisters. he Stoics may have been the first school
of philosophy to advance the notion of universal brotherhood.
Unlike the Cynics, the Stoics considered that involvement in
politics was often necessary to promote a kinder, gentler, more
rational world.
If the power of thought is universal among mankind, so
likewise is the possession of reason, making us rational
creatures. It follows, therefore, that this reason speaks
no less universally to us all with its “thou shalt” or “thou
shalt not.” So then there is a world-law, which in turn
means that we are all fellow citizens and share a common citizenship and that the world is a single city. 34
he Skeptic School
he word skeptic comes from the Greek skeptikoi, which means
“doubter.” he Sophists believed that, even if there were an absolute truth, we could not know it. he Skeptics agreed. hey
questioned the Stoic notion that we can know God or the way
the universe operates. hey also questioned Plato, Aristotle,
and the Epicureans because they each held a different conception of truth. Like the Sophists, the Skeptics questioned any
philosopher or philosophy that claimed to know the truth.
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Skeptics did not deny the existence of truth, but they doubted
that anyone had found it, or would ever find it.
Sextus Empiricus
A physician and philosopher, Sextus Empiricus (third century
a.d.) thought that everything we experience has many explanations, and one explanation is as valid as the next. hus, if we
suspend judgment by not denying or affirming anything, we
could live a balanced and calm life.
he Senses Our five senses, said Sextus Empiricus, give
us different impressions about the same object. For instance,
imagine that you and a friend are walking down the street
and you see two people coming toward you. “Look,” you say
to your friend, “here come John and Judy.” As they get closer,
however, you realize they are not John and Judy; they are Mike
and Michelle. It is true that you had the sense impression, but
the people looked different to you from a distance than they
did up close. hat is why Empiricus said we could never be
certain that what we “see” with our senses is accurate. In the
same way, we cannot be sure that our knowledge about the
world or anything else is true or not true. hat is why it is wise
to suspend judgment.
Morality
According to Sextus Empiricus, moral ideas are as
subject to doubt as trusting our senses. Cultures have different
ideas about what is good and what is bad. Because we cannot
know truth even if there is truth, one moral opinion is about as
good as another according to Skepticism. For that reason, we
should withhold moral judgment. If we take a stand on moral
questions, our emotions flare. By suspending judgment, we
remain serene and have peace of mind, claims Empiricus.
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he man who opines that anything is by nature good or
bad is forever being disquieted: when he is without the
things which he deems good he believes himself to be
tormented by things naturally bad and he pursues after
the things which are, as he thinks, good; which when he
has obtained he keeps falling into still more perturbations
because of his irrational and immoderate elation, and in
his dread of a change of fortune he uses every endeavour
to avoid losing the things which he deems good. On the
other hand, the man who determines nothing as to what
is naturally good or bad neither shuns nor pursues anything eagerly; and, in consequence, he is unperturbed. 35
he Neoplatonism School
We find the roots of Cynicism, Epicureanism, and Stoicism in
both the pre-Socratic philosophers Heraclitus and Democritus
and in the way Socrates lived and died. he Skeptic school of
thought dates back to the Sophists. In the late Hellenistic period,
Neoplatonism became the dominant philosophy. he founder of
Neoplatonism was the great mystic Plotinus, who was inspired
by Plato. Although Plotinus did not mention Christianity in his
writings, his philosophy had a major influence on St. Augustine,
one of the most famous Christian philosophers of the Middle
Ages. Philosophers agree that Plotinus built the bridge between
classical Greek philosophy and the medieval philosophers.
Plotinus
Plotinus (a.d. 204–270), a native of Lycopolis, Egypt, came to
Alexandria when he was about 28 years old and studied under
the philosopher Ammonius Saccas. When Plotinus was 39, he
started his own school of philosophy in Rome that attracted
many influential people, including the Emperor Gallenius. Plotinus was a popular lecturer with high spiritual ideals. One of
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his goals was to develop a city based on Plato’s Republic, called
“Platonopolis,” but the city was never constructed.
Plotinus wrote 54 treatises, which he never put in particular order, and his weak eyesight prevented him from rereading
them. After Plotinus died, his student Porphyry arranged the
treatises into six sets of nine volumes called the Enneads. As
a mystic, a person who experiences merging with God or the
cosmic spirit, Plotinus realized a union with God six times in
his life. Porphyry was with him four of those times. He wrote of
his experience that, “[Plotinus’s] end goal was to be united to, to
approach the God who is over all things. Four times while I was
with him, he attained that goal, in an unspeakable actuality and
not in potency only.” 36
At age 64, almost blind and suffering ill health, Plotinus retired to a friend’s estate where he died two years later.
God, or the One Plotinus called God “the One.” he One is
the source of everything and the source that we must return. he
One overflows eternally, and in doing so, forms the universe.
Plotinus looked to Plato and Aristotle for many of his ideas,
but he objected to Aristotle’s beliefs that the soul is the form of
the body and cannot exist without a body. Like Plato, Plotinus
thought the soul did not depend on the body for its existence. he
universe, he said, is a living structure that goes on eternally from
its source in the One. he One first overflows, or emanates, from
itself to form nous, which is pure thought, or divine mind. Nous
overflows into heavenly materials, forming the world soul. From
the world soul, nous emanates various levels of activity to shape
matter, or the physical world, and everything in it. Plotinus explained that humans could ascend upward toward the source by
self-purification. he aim of the human soul, according to Plotinus, is to experience union with God, “which alone can satisfy it.”
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Emanation Plotinus’s theory of emanation is similar to the
idea of water flowing from a spring that has no source outside
itself. Plotinus also used the Sun as an analogy. he One
emanates in the same way that light flows from the Sun. he
Sun never exhausts itself; instead, it generates light rays that
are not the Sun itself. In a similar manner, the One is the source
of all things but is not all things.
Nous, or the divine mind, is universal intelligence and the
rational order of the world. Nous contains the ideas or blueprints of all things, much like Plato’s Forms. As nous overflows,
it generates the world soul, which has two aspects. First, it looks
This sarcophagus, a stone container for a coffin or body, is from the
late third century or early fourth century A.D. It is said to have contained
the body of Plotinus (shown in center), the Father of Neoplatonism.
Plotinus believed there is a supreme One, the source of everything,
beyond all description of being and nonbeing.
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upward to the divine mind and contemplates eternal ideas, and
second, it emanates downward, generating the life-principle in
all nature.
he human soul emanates from the world soul and also has
two aspects. First, gazing up, it shares in the world soul and the
divine mind. Second, looking down, the human soul connects
with the physical body. Plotinus agreed with Plato that the human soul preexists in the world soul and is the result of a “fall”
when it joins with the body. he soul gives the body life, the five
senses, and reason.
When the physical body dies, the soul leaves the body and
eventually takes birth again in another body. When the soul
reaches the highest state of knowledge and love after many rebirths, it joins all other souls again in the world soul. Unlike
Aristotle, Plotinus believed souls are immortal.
Ascent of the Soul When the One descends into the lower
realms, it shares as much of its perfection as possible with
them. However, the process is not only of descent; it is a double
movement of descent and ascent. Although the journey is a
difficult and painful process that includes many lifetimes, all
things ascend, seeking to reunite with their source. As we ascend,
we develop moral values, the love of beauty, and disciplined
thinking. he goal, for all humans, according to Plotinus, is to
attain likeness to God by “becoming just and holy, and living
by wisdom,” through ascent. In his treatise on beauty, Plotinus
described the way of the soul’s return:
Withdraw into yourself, and look. And if you do not
find yourself beautiful yet, act as does the creator of a
statue that is to be made beautiful. He cuts away here,
he smoothes there, he makes this line lighter, this other
purer, until a lovely face has grown upon his work. So
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do you also: cut away all that is excessive, straighten
all that is crooked, bring light to all that is overcast,
labour to make all one glow of beauty and never cease
chiseling your statue, until there shall shine out on
you from it the godlike splendour of virtue, until you
shall see the perfect goodness surely established in the
stainless shrine.
When you know that you have become this perfect
work . . . when you find yourself wholly true to your essential nature . . . you are now become very vision; now
call up all your confidence, strike forward yet a step—
you need a guide no longer–strain, and see. 37
he philosophy of Plotinus, especially his idea of liberating the soul to a mystical union with God, strongly influenced
Christian mystics in the Catholic Church and was the source
and inspiration for most Western mystics in the years to come.
Hypatia of Alexandria
Hypatia (c. a.d. 370–415), a woman of Egyptian and Greek descent, was a philosopher, mathematician, and astronomer. She
was appointed to the position of philosopher at the museum
of Alexandria, Egypt. he appointment was an unusual type of
honor for a woman. She brilliantly taught the philosophies of
Plato, Aristotle, and Neoplatonism. Like Plotinus, she believed
in a divine source, the One. Like Plotinus, her goal was to unite
with the One, and she shared her methods with a select circle
of students, teaching them to seek the divine part of human nature, or the soul. She called it, “the eye buried within us.”
Many intellects considered Hypatia the greatest philosopher of her day, and the Roman governor often asked her advice on city affairs. However, as a pagan woman in a Christian
world, she paid for her talents with her life. One day, a group of
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Christian monks pulled her out of her chariot, ripped off her
clothes, and cut her body to pieces with sharp shells until she
died. hen, they mutilated her body and burned it to ashes.
SUMMARY AND LINKS TO THE
MEDIEVAL WORLD
he first philosophers in the Western world, known as preSocratics, were hales, Anaxamander, Anaximenes, Pythagoras,
Heraclitus, Parmenides, Zeno, Empedocles, Anaxagoras, and the
atomists. Each philosopher probed the nature of the universe by
moving away from religious mythology to scientific investigation.
hey discovered the importance of change and permanence,
numbers and atoms.
Next to arrive on the philosophical scene were the Sophists, Protagoras, Gorgias, and hrasymachus. As Sophists, they
thought that, even if there were ultimate truths, the human
mind is not capable of knowing them. For them, knowledge is
limited to the situation at hand.
Socrates did not agree with the Sophists that we could
not know ultimate truth. He thought that knowledge of ultimate truth is possible and it is the highest good. We can gain
knowledge of the truth by caring for the soul and through
self-examination. For him, without such knowledge, moral
virtue is impossible. Only by attaining knowledge of the Good
can we be happy.
Plato agreed with Socrates that we can know the soul and the
eternal Forms: Truth, Beauty, and Goodness. He explained how
we can achieve this goal in his “Allegory of the Cave” and “he
Divided Line.” We can also achieve knowledge through love as
described in the Symposium. In his ideal state, Plato said the
highest part of the soul (reason/intuition) must rule.
With the coming of Christianity, we find a rejection of the
naturalistic ideas of the Hellenistic philosophers in favor of a
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personal and transcendent God. Christians would not accept
the Stoic view that “God is in all and all is in God,” nor would
they accept the Cynic, Epicurean, and Skeptic view of God, the
world, or the afterlife. Christians looked to separate God from
science, so that they could concentrate on God alone. he
philosophies that grew from the medieval Christian thinkers
would have a profound impact throughout the world that lasts
to this day.
103
NOTES
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
1. Hesiod, Works and Days, in
Hesiod: he Homeric Hymns
and Homerica, trans. by
H.G. Eyelyn-White. Cambridge: Harvard University
Press, 1926, pp. 3, 9, 19.
2. John Burnet, Early Greek
Philosophy, 4th ed. New York:
World Publishing, 1967,
pp.70–71.
3. Ibid., p 73.
4. Ibid., p. 96.
5. Holger hesleff, “Pythagorean
Texts of the Hellenistic Period,
‘Acta Academiae Aboensis—
Humaniora,’” in A History of
Women Philosophers, ed. by
Mary Ellen Waithe, trans. by
Vicki Lynn Harper. Vol. 1,
600 B.V.–500 A.S. Dordrecht,
Netherlands: Martinus Nijhoff
Publishers, 1987, p. 32.
6. Burnet, p. 134.
7. W.T. Jones, he Classical Mind:
A History of Ancient Philosophy. New York: Harcourt Brace
Jovanovich, 1970, p. 22.
8. Burnet, p. 318.
9. Ibid.
10. Ibid., pp. 207–208.
11. Ibid., p. 260.
12. Diogenes Laertius, Lives and
Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, trans. by R.D. Hicks.
Vol. 11. Cambridge: Loeb
Classical Library, Harvard
University Press, 1925, p. 453.
13. Source Book in Ancient
Philosophy, trans. by
C.M. Bakewell. New York:
Scribner, 1907, pp. 63–64.
14. Plato, “heaetetus,” in Plato:
he Collected Dialogues, ed.
by Edith Hamilton and Huntington Cairns, trans. by F.M.
Cornford. New York: Random
House, 1966, pp. 856–857.
15. Plato, “Gorgias,” in Plato: he
Collected Dialogues, Sections
452e and 456b, ed. by Edith
Hamilton and Huntington
Cairns, trans. by W.D. Woodhead. New York: Random
House, 1966, pp. 236, 237.
16. Plato, he Republic of Plato,
trans. by F.M Cornford. London: Oxford University Press,
1974, p. 26.
17. Karl Jaspers, “Socrates,
Confucius, Buddha, Jesus,” in
he Great Philosophers. Vol. I.
New York: Harcourt, Brace &
World, 1962, p. 6.
18. Plato, “Euthyphro,” in
Euthyphro, Apology, Crito,
trans. byF.J. Church. New York:
Bobbs-Merrill, 1956, pp. 12, 13.
19. Plato, “Apology,” XVIII, 31 in
Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, p. 37.
20. Ibid., XXVI, 36, p. 44.
21. Plato, “Phaedo,” in Plato:
he Collected Dialogues, ed.
by Edith Hamilton and
Huntington Cairns, trans.
by Hugh Tredennick. New
York: Bollingen Foundation,
Random House, 1966, p. 98.
CHAPTER 3
22. Plato, “Phaedo,” in Philosophic
Classics. Vol. I: Ancient Philosophy, 2nd ed, Sections 106d
104
105
Notes
and 106e, ed. by F.E. Baird and
Walter Kaufman, trans. by
F.J. Church. New Jersey:
Prentice Hall, 1994, p. 106.
23. Plato, he Republic, trans.
by H.D.P. Lee. Baltimore:
Penguin Books, 1967, pp.
276–277, 510–511.
24. Ibid., pp. 278, 511.
25. Plato, “he Symposium,”
210c–212c, in he Collected
Dialogues of Plato, ed. by
Edith Hamilton and Huntington Cairns, trans. by Michael
Joyce. New York: Random
House, 1963, copyright 1989
by Princeton University Press,
pp. 556–563.
CHAPTER 4
26. Aristotle, “Metaphysica,”
Bk. 12.6, 1072A, and 12.7,
1072b, 15, in he Basic Works
of Aristotle, ed. by Richard
McKeon, trans. by W.D. Ross.
New York: Random House,
1941, pp. 878–879.
27. Aristotle, “De Anima,” in he
Basic Works, Bk. II, Ch. 1,
412a 5–15, ed. by Richard
McKeon, trans. by J.A. Smith.
New York: Random House,
1941, pp. 554–555.
28. Ibid., Bk. III, Ch. 4. 3.
429b–430, p. 591.
29. Aristotle, “he Nichomachean
Ethics,” in he Basic Works,
Bk. 1, 1094a, ed. by Richard
McKeon, trans. by W.D. Ross.
New York: Random House,
1941, p. 935.
30. Ibid., Bk..1, 1097 a & b,
pp. 941–942.
CHAPTER 5
31. Epicurus, “Letter to Menoeceus,” in Epicurus: he Extant
Remains, trans. by C. Bailey.
Oxford: New Oxford University Press, 1926, 127 ff., p. 87.
32. Epictetus, Encheiridion,
trans. by W.A. Oldfather.
Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1928, Sections 1, 8.
33. Marcus Aurelius, he Meditations, trans. by G.M.A. Grube.
New York: Library of Liberal
Arts, 1963, Bk. II, 1a, p. 11.
34. Marcus Aurelius, he Meditations, trans. by Maxwell
Staniforth. New York: Penguin
Books, 1964, 6. 41.
35. Sextus Empiricus, Outlines
of Pyrrhonism, trans. by
R.G. Bury. Vol I. Cambridge:
Harvard University Press,
1933, Bk. 1, pp. 26–27.
36. Porphyry, “he Life of Plotinus,” in Plotinus, trans. by
A.H. Armstrong. Vol. I. Cambridge: Harvard University
Press, 1966, p. 71.
37. Plotinus, he Enneads, trans.
by Stephen MacKenna.
London: Faber & Faber,
1917–1930, Book I, 6. 9.
GLOSSARY
allegory he expression by means of fictional figures and
actions of truths or generalizations about human existence.
appearance
he way things present themselves to our five
senses in contrast to their true reality.
aristocracy A government or state ruled by an elite or privileged upper class.
Being
A general term in metaphysics referring to ulti-
mate reality.
cause
hat which has the power to produce a change in
another thing.
city-state
An autonomous state consisting of a city and sur-
rounding territory.
cynic An individual who lives an austere, unconventional life
based on Cynic doctrine.
dialectic method A question-and-answer technique used by
Socrates that leads one from mere opinion to knowledge.
dialogue
A written composition in which two or more
characters are conversing.
element
One of a class of substances such as earth, air, fire,
and water.
emanate
To flow out of or overflow.
Epicurean he school of philosophy that believed pleasure
is the highest good.
essence
he main characteristic or quality that makes a
thing uniquely itself.
ethics he field of philosophy that studies value judgments
of good and evil, right and wrong.
fallacy A misleading or false argument; an unsound reasoning.
106
Glossary
Forms
In Plato’s view, Forms are the ideal patterns be-
yond space/time. Forms are the true reality, immaterial,
and eternal.
hedonism
he pursuit of pleasure.
holistic Relating to wholes or complete systems rather than
a dissection of their parts.
illusion A false or misleading impression of reality.
immoral
Morally wrong; bad or not right.
immortality
indivisible
Everlasting soul or spirit.
Not separated into parts.
logic he laws of reason; thinking correctly.
macrocosm
he universe as a whole.
materialism
he belief that everything is composed of mat-
ter and can be explained by physical laws.
mean
For Aristotle, a mean is the midpoint between
two extremes.
metaphysics
he field of philosophy concerned with the
ultimate nature of reality; speculation of things beyond the
physical world.
meteorology
he science that deals with the atmosphere,
weather, and climate.
microcosm
A miniature world or individual as compared to
the macrocosm.
monism
he view that everything consists of only one ulti-
mate substance such as matter or spirit.
mystic One who experiences an intimate union of the soul
with God; one who understands the mysteries of life.
natural philosopher
One who believes that matter is the
ultimate substance.
nous
oracle
he Greek word for mind or intelligence.
A shrine in which a god reveals hidden knowledge;
the person through whom the god is believed to speak.
107
108
ANCIENT AND HELLENISTIC THOUGHT
pantheism he view that God is in the world and the world
is in God.
paradox A seemingly contradictory statement that expresses a possible truth.
philosopher A term first coined by Pythagoras meaning
“lover of wisdom.”
philosophy
he rational investigation of the truths and
principles in ethics, metaphysics, logic, knowledge, and
other related fields.
quantitative mathematician
A mathematician who mea-
sures everything by amount or quantity.
reincarnation he passing of the immortal soul through
many cycles of birth, death, and rebirth.
relativism
he view that there is no absolute knowledge and
that truth is different for each individual and society.
simile
A figure of speech in which two different things are
compared to one another.
skeptic
A person who questions our ability to have knowl-
edge of reality.
Sophists
Teachers in ancient Greece who taught rhetoric to
young men preparing for the law or political careers.
Stoicism
he school of philosophy that views self-control
and acceptance of one’s fate as important factors in
gaining happiness.
substance
hat which exists in its own right and depends
on nothing else; the essence of all things.
universal Logos
he rational ordering principle of the
world, according to Heraclitus and the Stoics.
utopia A perfect or ideal society.
virtue
A morally excellent quality of character.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Aristotle. “De Anima,” in he Basic Works of Aristotle, Vol. III, ed. by
Richard McKeon, trans. by J.A. Smith. New York: Random House,
1941.
————. “Metaphysica,” in he Basic Works of Aristotle, ed. by Richard
McKeon, trans. by W.D.Ross. New York: Random House, 1941.
———— . “he Nichomachean Ethics,” in he Basic Works of Aristotle,
ed. by Richard McKeon, trans. by W.D. Ross. New York: Random
House, 1941.
Aurelius, Marcus. he Meditations, trans. by Maxwell Staniforth. New
York: Penguin Books, 1964.
————. he Meditations, trans. by G.M.A. Grube. New York: Library
of Liberal Arts, 1963.
Burnet, John. Early Greek Philosophy, 4th ed. New York: World Publishing, 1967.
Empiricus, Sextus. Outlines of Pyrrhonism, Vol I, trans. by R.G. Bury.
Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1933.
Epictetus. Encheiridion, trans. by W.A. Oldfather. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1928.
Epicurus. “Letter to Menoeceus,” in Epicurus: he Extant Remains,
trans. by C. Bailey. Oxford: New Oxford University Press, 1926.
Hesiod. Works and Days, in Hesiod: he Homeric Hymns and Homerica, trans. by H.G. Eyelyn-White. Cambridge: Harvard University
Press, 1926.
Jaspers, Karl. “Socrates, Confucius, Buddha, Jesus,” in he Great Philosophers, Vol. I. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1962.
Jones, W.T. he Classical Mind: A History of Ancient Philosophy. New
York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Publishers, 1970.
Laertius, Diogenes. Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, Vol.
11, trans. by R.D. Hicks. Cambridge: Loeb Classical Library, Harvard University Press, 1925.
Plato. “Apology,” XVIII. 31, in Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, trans. by F.J.
Church. New York: Bobbs-Merrill, 1956.
————. “Euthyphro,” in Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, trans. by F.J.
Church. New York: Bobbs-Merrill, 1956.
109
110
ANCIENT AND HELLENISTIC THOUGHT
————. “Gorgias,” in Plato: he Collected Dialogues, ed. by Edith
Hamilton and Huntington Cairns, trans. by W.D. Woodhead.
New York: Random House, 1966.
————. “Phaedo,” in Plato: he Collected Dialogues, ed. by Edith
Hamilton and Huntington Cairns, trans. by Hugh Tredennick.
New York: Bollingen Foundation, Random House, 1966.
————. “Phaedo,” in Philosophic Classics, Vol. I: Ancient Philosophy, 2nd ed., ed. by F.E. Baird and Walter Kaufman, trans. by F.J.
Church. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1994.
————. he Republic, trans. by H.D.P. Lee. Baltimore: Penguin Books,
1967.
————. he Republic of Plato, trans. by F.M Cornford. London: Oxford University Press, 1974.
————. “he Symposium,” in he Collected Dialogues of Plato, ed. by
Edith Hamilton and Huntington Cairns, trans. by Michael Joyce.
New York: Random House, 1963, copyright 1989 by Princeton
University Press.
————. “heaetetus,” in Plato: he Collected Dialogues, ed. by Edith
Hamilton and Huntington Cairns, trans. by F.M. Cornford. New
York: Random House, 1966.
Plotinus. he Enneads, trans. by Stephen Mac Kenna. London: Faber
& Faber, 1917–1930.
Porphyry. “he Life of Plotinus,” Vol. I, in Plotinus, trans. by A.H.
Armstrong. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1966.
Source Book in Ancient Philosophy, trans. by C.M. Bakewell. New
York: Scribner, 1907.
hesleff, Holger. “Pythagorean Texts of the Hellenistic Period, ‘Acta
Academiae Aboensis—Humaniora’ ” in A History of Women Philosophers, Vol. 1, 600 B.V.–500 A.S., ed. by Mary Ellen Waithe,
trans. by Vicki Lynn Harper. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Martinus
Nijhoff Publishers, 1987.
FURTHER READING
BOOKS
Branham, R. Bracht, and Marie-Odile Goulet-Cazé, eds. he Cynics:
he Cynic Movement in Antiquity and Its Legacy. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000.
Cooper, Sharon Katz. Aristotle: Philosopher, Teacher, and Scientist.
Mankato, Minn: Compass Point Books, 2006.
Curd, Patricia. he Legacy of Parmenides: Eleatic Monism and Later
Presocratic hought. Las Vegas: Parmenides Publishing, 2004.
Guthrie, W.K.C. Socrates. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
Long, A.A. Epictetus: A Stoic and Socratic Guide to Life. New York:
Oxford University Press, 2004.
Magee, Bryan. he Great Philosophers: An Introduction to Western
Philosophy. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.
Taylor, A.E. Plato: he Man and His Work. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, 2001.
Taylor, C.C.W., trans. he Atomists: Leucippus and Democritus: Fragments. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1999.
WEB SITES
Andrew Irvine’s lecture on Hellenistic Philosophy
(Sep. 24, 1998)
http://people.bu.edu/wwildman/WeirdWildWeb/courses/wphil/
lectures/wphil_theme04.htm
The Big View’s Information on Greek Philosophy
www.thebigview.com/greeks/
Dictionary of Philosophical Terms and Names
www.philosophypages.com/dy/
Drury University’s Information on the Pre-Socratic
Philosophers
www.drury.edu/ess/History/Ancient/PreSocOV.html
The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
http://www.iep.utm.edu/
111
112
ANCIENT AND HELLENISTIC THOUGHT
John Burnet’s Early Greek Philosophy
http://faculty.evansville.edu/tb2/courses/phil211/burnet/
Radical Academy’s Page on the Sophists
www.radicalacademy.com/philsophists.htm
University of Florida Ancient Philosophy Page
web.uflib.ufl.edu/cm/classics/Ancient%20Philosophy.htm
PICTURE CREDITS
65: © Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris,
France/Archives Charmet/he
Bridgeman Art Library
71: Alinari/Art Resource, NY
76: © AAAC/Topham/he Image
Works
79: Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY
86: © Alinari Archives/he Image
Works
92: © Mary Evans Picture Library/
he Image Works
99: Scala/Art Resource, NY
page:
10: Vanni/Art Resource, NY
16: Scala/Art Resource, NY
28: Giraudon/Art Resource, NY
36: Erich Lessing/Art Resource, NY
41: Foto Marburg/Art Resource,
NY
49: Foto Marburg/Art Resource,
NY
52: Scala/Art Resource, NY
58: Bildarchiv Preussischer
Kulturbesitz/Art Resource, NY
cover:
he Granger Collection, New York
113
INDEX
A
belief stage, 62–63
the boundless, 12–13
Academy, 53, 69, 70
Achilles and the tortoise, 23–24
actuality, 73, 74
Aesara of Lucania, 18
afterlife, 88–89. See also death
air, 13–14. See also elements
Alexander the Great, 70–71, 72, 79, 87
“Allegory of the Cave” (Plato), 57–59,
58, 62
Anaxagoras, 27–29, 28
Anaximander, 12–13
Anaximenes, 13–14
Antisthenes, 85
Anytus, 47, 48, 53
Apology (Plato), 47–48
the appetites, 54–55
aristocracy, 53, 82
Ariston, 52–53
Aristotle
overview, 69–70
Form and matter, 72–73
Golden Mean, 80–81, 81
Hellenistic philosophy and, 82
on Leucippus, 30
life of, 70–72
Plato and, 53, 68, 69, 70
Plotinus and, 98
political philosophy, 82
potentiality and actuality, 73, 74
on pre-Socratics, 10
on hales, 11
the Unmoved Mover, 74–75
Aristotle, works of
Of Generation and Corruption, 30
Nicomachean Ethics, 70
Arrianus, Flavius, 91–93
artisan class, 66–67
astronomy, 12, 29
Athens, 34, 47–49, 53
atomists, 29–32
atoms, 30–31
Augustine, 97
Aurelius, Marcus, 93–95
auxiliary class, 67–68
C
causes, four, 73
Cebes, 55–56
Chaerophon, 43
change
Heraclitus on, 18, 19
Milesian philosophers on, 9–10
Parmenides on, 21–23
Zeno on, 23–24
Charmides, 53
Christianity, 97, 101
citizens of the world, 95
classes of people, 16, 66–68
classical period, 32, 33. See also
Socrates; Sophists
control, 92–93
Critias, 53
Cynic school of philosophy, 85–87
D
daimon (inner voice) of Socrates, 42–43
death. See also reincarnation; soul
Aristotle on, 76
Democritus on, 31–32
Empedocles on, 25
Epicurus on, 88–89
Plato on, 55–56
Plotinus on, 100
of Socrates, 49–50
Declaration of Independence, 46
Delphi, Oracle at, 43
democracy, Athenian, 34, 53
Democritus, 29, 30–32
dialectic method, 44–46, 53–54
Diogenes, 86–87
Diotima, 66
“he Divided Line,” 59–64
divine fi re, 18–19
Domitian, 91
E
earth. See elements
eclipse of the sun, 12
efficient cause, 73
Egyptian geometry, 12
Eleatics, 20–24
B
Beauty, 34–35, 65
Being, 21
114
Index
elements, 12, 25, 26. See also substance
emanation, 99–100
Empedocles, 25–27
Empiricus, Sextus, 96–97
empty space, 30–31
Encheiridion (Manual of Epictetus)
(Arrianus), 91–93
end, 73, 77–78
Enneads (Plotinus), 98
Epictetus, 91–93
Epicurean school of philosophy, 87–89
Epicurus, 87–89
eros (love), 56
eternal reality, 22
Euthyphro (Plato), 44–46
evil and good. See morality and moral
philosophy
evolution, 13
F
fallacies, 35
fear, 93
fi nal cause, 73
fi re, 18–19. See also elements
flux, state of, 19
formal cause, 73
Forms
Aristotle on, 69, 72–73
Plato on, 61, 64
Pythagoras and, 15
G
geometry, Egyptian, 12
Glaucon, 59–62
God, 20, 90, 98
gods and superhuman beings, 7–9
Golden Mean, 80–81
good, 78, 90
good and evil. See morality and moral
philosophy
Goodness, 23, 34–35
Gorgias, 38–39
Gorgias (Plato), 38–39
government. See democracy, Athenian;
political philosophy
H
happiness, 40, 78–80, 85, 89
harmonic mean, 15
harmony, 20
Hediod, 8–9
hedonism, 87–88
Hellenism, 83
Hellenistic philosophy
overview, 83–85
Aristotle and, 82
Cynic school, 85–87
Epicurean school, 87–89
Neoplatonism school, 97–102
Skeptic school, 95–97
Stoic school, 89–95
Heraclitus, 18–20, 24–25
Herpyllis, 70
Homer, 8–9
human nature, 90–91
Hypatia of Alexandria, 101–102
I
ideal state, 66–68
images, 59
imaging stage, 62
immortality
Aristotle on, 77
Democritus on, 31–32
Empedocles on, 25
Plato on, 55–56
indestructible reality, 22
inner voice (daimon) of Socrates, 42–43
intelligence stage, 64
intuition, 54–55, 64
the irrational, 54–55
K
knowledge, 43, 57–59, 62–64, 90
L
Ladder of Love, 64–66
lawyers, 34
Leucippus, 29, 30
Logos, 20, 90
love, 26–27, 56, 64–66
Lyceum, 72
M
“Man is the measure of all things,”
36–37, 38
material cause, 73
materialism, 14–15, 31
mathematics, 12, 15
matter, 72–73. See also substance
Mean, Golden, 80–81
medieval world, 102–103
he Meditations (Aurelius), 94
Meletus, 47, 48, 53
“might makes right,” 39
Milesian philosophers, 9–14
Miletus, 9
mind, 76. See also nous (mind or divine
mind)
monarchy, 82
monistic materialism, 14
Moon, 12
115
116
ANCIENT AND HELLENISTIC THOUGHT
morality and moral philosophy
Aesara of Lucania on, 18
Aristotle on, 77–81
Democritus on, 32
Empiricus on, 96–97
Plato on, 56
Protagoras on, 37–38
Socrates on, 46–47
h rasymachus on, 39
motion, 12–13, 24, 74
music, 15
mysticism, 17
myth, 7–9
N
natural law, 90
natural philosophy, 9–10, 14
Neoplatonism school of philosophy,
97–102
Nero, 91
Nicomachean Ethics (Aristotle), 70
Niebuhr, Reinhold, 89
the nonrational, 54–55
nous (mind or divine mind), 27–29, 98,
99–100
number, 15. See also mathematics
nutritive soul, 77
O
Of Generation and Corruption
(Aristotle), 30
olive presses story about hales, 11–12
Olympic Games, 16
On Human Nature (Aesara of Lucania),
18
“the One,” 98, 99, 100, 101
opposites, 19–20
Oracle at Delphi, 43
order, 27–28
P
pantheism, 90
Parmenides, 21–23, 24–25, 30
Parmenides (Plato), 23
Parthenon, 40
Peloponnesian Wars, 53
perfection, 75
Pericles, 27
Perictione, 52–53
Persian Wars, 34
persuasion, 35
Phaedo (Plato), 50, 55–56
Philip of Macedonia, 70
philosopher king or queen class,
67–68
piety, 44–46
Plato
“Allegory of the Cave,” 57–59, 62
Aristotle and, 53, 68, 69, 70
“he Divided Line,” 59–64, 61
on Gorgias, 38–39
on human soul, 54–56
life of, 52–53
on Parmenides, 23
Plotinus and, 98
political philosophy and ideal state,
66–68
on Protagoras, 37
Socrates and, 42, 50, 51
on Socrates’s death, 50
on Socrates’s defense, 47–48
Socratic method and, 44–46, 53–54
Plato, works of
Apology, 47–48
Euthyphro, 44–46
Gorgias, 38–39
Parmenides, 23
Phaedo, 50, 55–56
Republic, 59–62, 66, 98
Symposium, 64–66
heaetetus, 37
pleasure, 87–88
Plotinus, 97–101
pluralists, 24–29
political philosophy, 66–68, 82
polity, 82
Porphyry, 98
potentiality, 73, 74
pre-Socratics
Aesara of Lucania, 18
atomists, 29–32
Eleatics, 20–24
Heraclitus, 18–20
Milesian philosophers, 9–14
mythological beliefs preceding,
7–9
pluralists, 24–29
Pythagoras, 14–17
Protagoras, 35, 36–38
purification, 17
Pyrilampes, 53
Pythagoras, 14–17, 30
Pythagorean theorem, 15
Pythia, 43
Q
questions. See Socratic method
R
racecourse argument (Achilles and the
tortoise), 23–24
rational soul, 77
Index
reason
Aristotle on, 74–75, 77
Heraclitus on God as, 20
Plato on, 54–55, 64
Stoics on, 95
rebirth, 17
reincarnation, 17, 56
relativism, 34–35, 37–38
religious myths, 7–8
Republic (Plato), 59–62, 66, 98
revolution, 27–28
rhetoric, 38–39
right, 39
right and wrong. See morality and
moral philosophy
rules of purification, 17
S
seeds, 27
senses, 77, 96
sensitive soul, 77
“Serenity Prayer,” 89
shadows, 57–58, 62
Skeptic school of philosophy, 95–97
slavery, 34
Socrates
overview, 40–42
daimon (inner voice) of, 42–43
death of, 49–50
dialectic method, 43–46, 53–54
on “he Divided Line,” 59–62
on immortality, 55–56
life of, 42
on love, 66
Parmenides and, 23
Plato and, 50, 51
on Protagoras, 37
on Sophists, 35
Sophists and, 33
trial of, 47–49
Socratic method, 43–46, 53–54
Sophists
overview, 33, 34–35
Gorgias, 38–39
Plato and, 53
Protagoras, 35, 36–38
h rasymachus, 39–40
soul
Aesara of Lucania on, 18
Aristotle on, 75–77
Democritus’s soul atoms, 31–32
Empedocles on, 25–26
Plato on, 54–56
Plotinus on, 98, 100–101
Pythagoras on, 17
Stoics on, 90
h rasymachus on, 40
space, empty, 30–31
Sparta, 53
the spirited, 54–55
Stoic school of philosophy, 89–95
strife and love, 26–27
substance
Heraclitus on, 18
Milesian philosophers on, 9–10, 11,
12–14
pluralists and, 25
Sophists on, 33
sun, 12, 29, 99
Symposium (Plato), 64–66
T
hales, 11–12
heaetetus (Plato), 37
thinking stage, 63–64
the h irty, 53
thought, 31
h rasymachus, 39–40
tortoise and Achilles, 23–24
truth
change and, 23
Gorgias on, 38
Plato on, 56
Protagoras on, 36–37
Sophists on, 34–35
U
unchangeable reality, 22
uncreated reality, 21–22
universe, Aurelius’s view of, 94–95
the Unmoved Mover, 74–75
V
virtue and vices, 80–81
voice, inner, (daimon) of Socrates, 42–43
W
warrior class, 67–68
wars, 34, 53
water, 11, 12. See also elements
Whitehead, Alfred North, 50
wisdom, 43, 90–91
women, 18, 34, 101–102
Works and Days (Hesiod), 8–9
world soul, 98, 100
X
Xenophon, 41
Z
Zeno, 23–24, 89
Zeus, 8–9
117
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
JOAN A. PRICE has a Ph.D. in philosophy from Arizona State
University. She was a philosophy professor at Mesa Community College for 30 years and cofounder of the Department of
Religious Studies. She was chairperson of the Department of
Philosophy and Religious Studies for five years and at present is
professor emeritus of philosophy at Mesa Community College.
Price has written dozens of magazine and journal articles
and is the author of Truth is a Bright Star: A Hopi Adventure,
translated into Japanese and Korean; Hawk in the Wind; Medicine Man; J.K. Rowling: A Biography; Understanding Philosophy;
and Great Religious Leaders for middle-grade and young adult
readers. Her adult books include Introduction to Sri Aurobindo’s
Philosophy; Philosophy hrough the Ages, a textbook for college
students; and Climbing the Spiritual Ladder.
She is an animal lover with three dogs and several flocks
of wild geese and ducks that camp on the lake by her house for
daily handouts. She lives in Scottsdale, Arizona.
118