Exercise # 1 A short summary of a Greek tragedy by Aeschylus, Sophocles, or Euripides.

Greek Historiography (History Writing) For generations, the Greeks had relied mostly on Homer’s epics for historical information. Herodotus (484 BCE): his Histories recorded the Persian Wars. Thucydides (d. 401 BCE), History of the Peloponnesian War set a new standard. Fundamental concern with cause and effect, and with the necessity of maintaining objectivity.

Hellenic Philosophy Pre-Socratics Continuation of archaic natural philosophy; concern with basic order and principles. Sophists Emphasis on practical skills and humanistic values; “Man is the measure of all things.” Socrates ( BCE) “Virtue is knowledge”; those who achieve enlightenment will be morally upright; overall concern with the soul; use of “Socratic method.” Plato ( BCE) Expands Socrates’ interest in the soul into an entire system of dualism. Ultimate reality lies in an invisible world of ideas (the soul’s home). Aristotle ( BCE) Reaction against Platonic dualism. The natural world is the only world. Concern with more than the “soul”: “A sound mind in a sound body.”

The Sophists The Sophists were an educative force in Hellas. Rhetoric was the main field of education that they fostered. By questioning the absolute foundations of traditional institutions, beliefs and ways of life, Sophism tended to foster a relativistic attitude. Against this relativism Socrates and Plato reacted, trying to establish the sure foundation of true knowledge and ethical judgment.

The Sophists: Protagoras His best-known statement: “Man is the measure of all things.” He appears in Plato’s Protagoras and Theaetetus. He was a pioneer in the study and science of grammar

The Sophists: Hippias A true polymath, he was acquainted with mathematics, astronomy, grammar and rhetoric, rhythmics and harmony, history, literature, and mythology

The Sophists: Gorgias He regarded rhetorical art as the mastery of the art of persuasion, and this necessarily led him to the study of practical psychology. He practiced the art of suggestion and developed the art of “justifiable deception.”

Plato and Aristotle Plato: Ultimate concern with ideals. Example: when he wrote about politics, Plato imagined the ideal kind of state, in The Republic. (Led by a philosopher-king.) Aristotle: Ultimate concern w/ practicality Example: when he wrote The Politics, Aristotle gathered and analyzed documents from many different states, with an eye to which systems worked best.

Greek Philosophy: Plato He is said to have been originally called Aristocles. He distrusted the Athenian democracy after the death of Socrates. Plato visited Italy and Sicily when he was forty years old to meet the Pythogoreans. He founded the Academy in 388 BC

The Death of Socrates (Jacques-Louis David 1787)

Socrates

Greek Philosophy: Plato’s Theory of Knowledge, I For Plato knowledge is not sense- perception. Knowledge must be the knowledge of eternal values which are not subject to change or subjective impressions, but are the same for all men and all ages. Plato, therefore, believed in objective and universally valid knowledge. Plato argues that if knowledge is perception, then no man can be wiser than any other man, for I am the best judge of my own sense-perception.

Greek Philosophy: Plato’s Theory of Knowledge, II The object of true knowledge must be stable and fixed, capable of being grasped in clear and scientific definition, which is of the universal. Hence true knowledge is the knowledge of the universal.