Philosophy

Greek Thought

Classical Period

Outline

I. History

Social State

II. Arts

Playwrights Thespis 560BC

Aeschylus 525-456BC

Sophocles 496-405BC

Euripides 485-406BC

Aristophanes 450-385BC

III. Technology & Gadgets

IV. Paideia (Culture)

Education

Poetry > Morality > cynicism

Mimesis >

V. Speculative Thought

From MYTH to PHILOSOPHY

VI. Science

VII. Pre-Socratic Philosophers

 

VIII. Socrates 470-399BC

IX. Plato 428-348BC

X. Platonism

Academy

Plotinus

Augustine

XI. Aristotle

Thomas Aquinas

Greek Terms

moira fate, destiny, fated place

chaos disorder-unintelligible

cosmos order intelligible

autotocthonous- native, indigenous , original

physis stuff of the universe

moira ordering process

lachesis process of ordering as if by lots

lachos lot

geras allotted province, position or place

nomos law

nemesis divine force for restoring order

returning those who have moved out of position to their

proper place

daimon deamon

tyche chance

hubris pride sinful wrongful

themis female deity restoring order Justice

arete excellence of one's nature moral perfection

realization of full potential within assigned place

theriomorhic- gods appearing in natural forces or animals

anthropomorphic- appearing as human

diaspora scattered people

polis people collected in a place: city- state, a community,

self contained social unit, collectivity

VII. The Pre-Socratics

from

Science to Philosophy

Search for the ARCHE 1st principles or causes

immanent and lasting ground for existence

critical of the cosmogony-looking for a cosmology

belief reason

Ionians

Milesians

Thales 7th cent BC WATER

Anaximander 6th cent BC BOUNDLESS

Anaximenes AIR

Empedocles 4 elts + 2 substances love/strife

Pythagoras 6th cent BC NUMBER shapes forms

mystery religions reason >way of life

orphic society- mysticism

LOGOS reveals God as hidden measure-NUMBER

Heraclitus 564-501 BC FIRE

all is BECOMING in flux change

Anaxagoras 5th cent BC matter + NOUS

source of motion

Milesians

Leukippus atomist materialist

Democritus 5th cent BC atomist materialist

Eleactic

Parmenides 5th cent BC BEING not becoming

REAL is changeless

REAL is ONE

trust in REASON over the senses

liberate reason from the senses

recognition of the autonomy of thought

independent criteria for judging thought

coherency & consistency over probability

Philosophy is born in the recognition of the importance of abstract general principles.

Philosophy develops as a rigorous process of inquiry involving insights and deductive reasoning. In Philosophy the human mind comes to recognize its own creation.

VIII. SOCRATES

Key events in Socrates Lifetime

480bc Anaxagoras arrives in Athens-invited to set up a "school"

479bc Xerxes , king of Persia, defeated at Plataea

  1. Aeschylus’ drama the Persians performed at pericles request

  1. SOCRATES is born of Antiochid tribe, ward of Alopece

  1. Aeschylus ‘ Orestes trilogy performed

  1. Anaxagoras leaves Athens, fearing punishment, Archelaus succeeds him

  1. Athens enjoys a "30 years peace" with Sparta

  1. Chaerephon consults the Oracle on Delphos-

He asks "who is the wisest" is told: "There is no one wiser than Socrates"

  1. peloponesian war breaks out again

  1. Pericles Funeral oration given in Thucydides History

431-430Battle of Potidaea- Socrates and Alcibiades participate

  1. Socrates serves as a "hoplite" at Delium

  1. Aristophanes play the Clouds is performed

  1. Socrates serves as a hoplite at the battle of Amphipolis

  1. nominal peace of Nicias which lasts for 2 to 3 years

416-415? Agathon wins firdt drama proze and feast is held afterwards- the SYMPOSIUM

Alcibiades is disgraced in a "religious scandal"

Alcibiades flees Athens and works for the Spartans

Euripedes play the Trojan Woman is performed

  1. Athens enters into warfare in Sicily against Syracuse

Coupd’etat in Athens- "Oligarchy of the 400" takes control

Aristophanes play Lysistrata is performed

  1. Alcibiades is recalled to Athens only to leave shortly thereafter in disgrace again

  1. Trial of the ten Athenian generals en bloc for negligence at the battle of Arginisai

Socrates is head of the panel of Judges and is sole dissenter – grants separate trials

Sophocles and Euripedes die

404/3 Athens capitulates to Sparta

The brutal Spartan commander, Lysander, appoints a Commission of Thirty

To rule Athens. They become the Terror, the "Tyranny of the Thirty"

There is a violent oligarchical revolution. Socrates dissents in the arrest of Leon of Salamis by the order of Critias and the Thirty. Meletus is in the group that carries out the arrest order.

  1. Order is restored by a group that institutes a Democracy

Anytus, Meletus and Lycon lead the party and movement.

Amnesty is declared. The laws are revised and codified.

Meletus prosecutes the poet Andocides for "impiety" –Anytus defends him.

  1. Meletus accuses Socrates of "impiety" and "corrupting the young"

Socrates appears for trial and makes his Apology

Socrates is found guilty, sentenced to die, and is executed by drinking hemlock.

Chronological Listing

of

Plato’s Dialogues

Plato’s basic problems and periods of philosophical development together with dialogues indicative of such.

  1. The defense of Socrates from the charges of iumpiety and corruption of youth.

    2. Lysis, Charmides, Laches Euthyphro Apology Crito

    (Phaedo envisaged or begun but completed later.)

  2. The defense of Socrates from the charge of being a Sophist and having an Amoral character.

Ion, HippiasMinor, Gorgias, Menexenus, Protagoras, Euthydemus, Cratylus

(Republic, Book I, probably called Thrasymachus)

 

III. The need to synthesize a comprehensive view of reality and to deal with the problem of contradictory speculative theories circulating at the time.

Phaedo, Symposium, Phaedrus, Republic

 

  1. The need to develop in a critical fashion such a conceptual framework that would be capable of enunciating all the distinctions one must make in describing reality and yet capable of eliciting the meanings one must have.

    2. Parmenides, Thaetetus, Sophist, Statesman, Timaeus, Critias(incomplete)

    Hermocrates(projected but never written)

  2. The need to give a detailed elaboration of practical proposals as tests for theories.

 

Letters VII, VIII, Philebus, Laws

Note: There exist a number of spurious dialogues and dialogues whose autneticity is questioned by many serious scholars.

 

 

 

The above is based on Robert S. Brumbaugh, Plato and the Modern Age

New York: Crowell Collier Press, 1962