The Socratic or Classical period

The Socratic or Classical period of the Ancient era of philosophy denotes the Greek contemporaries
and near contemporaries of the influential philosopher Socrates.

It includes the following major philosophers:

Socrates (464 - 399 B.C.) Greek Diogenes of Sinope (c. 412 - 323 B.C.) Greek
Plato (c. 428 - 348 B.C.) Greek Aristotle (384 - 322 B.C.) Greek

Socrates developed a system of critical reasoning in order to work out how to live properly and to tell
the difference between right and wrong. He and his followers, Plato and Aristotle maintained an
unwavering commitment to the truth, and between them they organized and systematized most of the
problems of philosophy.

Important philosophical movements of the period include Cynicism, Hedonism, Platonism and
Aristotelianism.
Socrates (c. 469 - 399 B.C.)

Introduction
Socrates (c. 469 - 399 B.C.) was a hugely important Greek philosopher from the Classical period (often
known as the Socratic period in his honour). Unlike most of the Pre-Socratic philosophers who came
before him, who were much more interested in establishing how the world works, Socrates was more
concerned with how people should behave, and so was perhaps the first major philosopher of Ethics.

An enigmatic figure known to us only through other people's accounts (principally the dialogues of his
student Plato), he is credited as one of the founders of Western Philosophy. He is considered by some
as the very antithesis of the Sophists of his day, who claimed to have knowledge which they could
transmit to others (often for payment), arguing instead that knowledge should be pursued for its own
sake, even if one could never fully possess it.

He made important and lasting contributions in the fields of Ethics, Epistemology and Logic, and
particularly in the methodology of philosophy (his Socratic Method or "elenchus"). His views were
instrumental in the development of many of the major philosophical movements and schools which
came after him, including Platonism (and the Neo-Platonism and Aristotelianism it gave rise to), Cynicism,
Stoicism and Hedonism.

Life
Socrates was born, as far as we know, in Athens around 469 B.C. Our knowledge of his life is sketchy
and derives mainly from three contemporary sources, the dialogues of Plato and Xenophon (c. 431 -
355 B.C.), and the plays of Aristophanes (c. 456 - 386 B.C.). According to Plato, Socrates' father was
Sophroniscus (a sculptor and stonemason) and his mother was Phaenarete (a midwife). His family was
respectable in descent, but humble in means. He appears to have had no more than an ordinary Greek
education (reading, writing, gymnastics and music, and, later, geometry and astronomy) before devoting
his time almost completely to intellectual interests.

He is usually described as unattractive in appearance and short in stature, and he apparently rarely
washed or changed his clothes. But he did nevertheless marry Xanthippe, a woman much younger than
he and renowned for her shrewishness (Socrates justified his marriage on the grounds that a horse-
trainer needs to hone his skills on the most spirited animals). She bore for him three sons, Lamprocles,
Sophroniscus and Menexenus, who were all were quite young children at the time of their father's trial
and death and, according to Aristotle, they turned out unremarkable, silly and dull.

It is not known for sure who his teachers were, but he seems to have been acquainted with the doctrines
of Parmenides, Heraclitus and Anaxagoras. Plato recorded the fact that Socrates met Zeno of Elea and
Parmenides on their trip to Athens, probably in about 450 B.C. Other influences which have been
mentioned include a rhetorician named Prodicus, a student of Anaxagoras called Archelaus, and two
women (besides his mother): Diotima (a witch and priestess from Mantinea who taught him all about
"eros" or love), and Aspasia (the mistress of the Greek statesman Pericles, who taught him the art of
funeral orations).

It is not clear how Socrates earned a living. Some sources suggest that he continued the profession of
stonemasonry from his father. He apparently served for a time as a member of the senate of Athens,
and he served (and reportedly distinguished himself) in the Athenian army during three campaigns at
Potidaea, Amphipolis and Delium. However, most texts seem to indicate that Socrates did not work,
devoting himself solely to discussing philosophy in the squares of Athens. Using a method now known as
the Socratic Method (or Socratic dialogue or dialectic), he grew famous for drawing forth knowledge
from his students by pursuing a series of questions and examining the implications of their answers.
Often he would question people's unwarranted confidence in the truth of popular opinions, but usually
without offering them any clear alternative teaching. Aristophanes portrayed Socrates as running a
Sophist school and accepting payment for teaching, but other sources explicitly deny this.

The best known part of Socrates' life is his trial and execution. Despite claiming complete loyalty to his
city, Socrates' pursuit of virtue and his strict adherence to truth clashed with the course of Athenian
politics and society (particularly in the aftermath of Athens' embarrassing defeats in the Peloponnesian
War with Sparta). Socrates raised questions about Athenian religion, but also about Athenian
democracy and, in particular, he praised Athens' arch-rival Sparta, causing some scholars to interpret
his trial as an expression of political infighting. However, it more likely resulted from his self-appointed
position as Athens' social and moral critic, and his insistence on trying to improve the Athenians' sense
of justice (rather than upholding the status quo and accepting the development of immorality). His
"crime" was probably merely that his paradoxical wisdom made several prominent Athenians look
foolish in public.

Whatever the motivation, he was found guilty (by a narrow margin of 30 votes out of the 501 jurors) of
impiety and corrupting the minds of the youth of Athens, and he was sentenced to death by drinking a
mixture containing poison hemlock in 399 B.C., at the age of 70. Although he apparently had an
opportunity to escape, he chose not to, believing that a true philosopher should have no fear of death,
that it would be against his principles to break his social contract with the state by evading its justice,
and that he would probably fare no better elsewhere even if he were to escape into exile.

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As has been mentioned, Socrates himself did not write any philosophical texts, and our knowledge of
the man and his philosophy is based on writings by his students and contemporaries, particularly
Plato's dialogues, but also the writings of Aristotle, Xenophon and Aristophanes. As these are either the
partisan philosophical texts of his supporters, or works of dramatic rather than historically accurate
intent, it is difficult to find the “real” Socrates (often referred to as the "Socratic problem"). In Plato's
Socratic Dialogues in particular, it is well nigh impossible to tell which of the views attributed to Socrates
are actually his and which Plato's own.

Perhaps Socrates' most important and enduring single contribution to Western thought is his
dialectical method of inquiry, which he referred to as "elenchus" (roughly, "cross-examination") but
which has become known as the Socratic Method or Socratic Debate (although some commentators
have argued that Protagoras actually invented the “Socratic” method). It has been called a negative
method of hypothesis elimination, in that better hypotheses are found by steadily identifying and
eliminating those which lead to contradictions. Even today, the Socratic Method is still used in
classrooms and law schools as a way of discussing complex topics in order to expose the underlying
issues in both the subject and the speaker. Its influence is perhaps most strongly felt today in the use of
the Scientific Method, in which the hypothesis is just the first stage towards a proof.

At its simplest, the Socratic Method is used to solve a problem by breaking the problem down into a
series of questions, the answers to which gradually distill better and better solutions. Both the
questioner and the questioned explore the implications of the other's positions, in order to stimulate
rational thinking and illuminate ideas. Thus, Socrates would counter any assertion with a
counterexample which disproves the assertion (or at least shows it to be inadequate). This would lead to
a modified assertion, which Socrates would then test again with another counterexample. Through
several iterations of this kind, the original assertion is continually adjusted and becomes more and more
difficult to refute, which Socrates held meant that it was closer and closer to the truth.

Socrates believed fervently in the immortality of the soul, and he was convinced that the gods had
singled him out as a kind of divine emissary to persuade the people of Athens that their moral values
were wrong-headed, and that, instead of being so concerned with their families, careers, and political
responsibilities, they ought to be worried about the "welfare of their souls". However, he also
questioned whether "arete" (or "virtue") can actually be taught as the Sophists believed. He observed
that many successful fathers (such as the prominent military general Pericles, for example) did not
produce sons of their own quality, which suggested to him that moral excellence was more a matter of
divine bequest than parental nurture.

He often claimed that his wisdom was limited to an awareness of his own ignorance, (although he did
claim to have knowledge of "the art of love"). Thus, he never actually claimed to be wise, only to
understand the path a lover of wisdom must take in pursuing it. His claim that he knew one and only
one thing, that he knew nothing, may have influenced the later school of Skepticism. He saw his role, not
as a teacher or a theorist, but as analogous to a midwife who could bring the theories of others to life,
although to do so he would of course need to have experience and knowledge of that of which he
talked. He believed that anyone could be a philosopher, not just those who were highly trained and
educated, and indeed that everyone had a duty to ask philosophical questions (he is famously quoted as
claiming that "the unexamined life is not worth living").

Many of the beliefs traditionally attributed to the historical Socrates have been characterized as
"paradoxical" because they seem to conflict with common sense, such as: no-one desires evil, no-
one errs or does wrong willingly or knowingly; all virtue is knowledge; virtue is sufficient for happiness. He
believed that wrongdoing was a consequence of ignorance and those who did wrong knew no better
(sometimes referred to as Ethical Intellectualism). He believed the best way for people to live was to focus
on self-development rather than the pursuit of material wealth, and he always invited others to try to
concentrate more on friendships and a sense of true community. He was convinced that humans
possessed certain virtues (particularly the important philosophical or intellectual virtues), and that virtue
was the most valuable of all possessions, and the ideal life should be spent in search of the Good (an
early statement of Eudaimonism or Virtue Ethics).

Socrates' political views, as represented in Plato's dialogue "The Republic", were strongly against the
democracy that had so recently been restored in the Athens of his day, and indeed against any form of
government that did not conform to his ideal of a perfect republic led by philosophers, who he claimed
were the only type of person suitable to govern others. He believed that the will of the majority was
not necessarily a good method of decision-making, but that it was much more important that decisions be
logical and defensible. However, these may be more Plato's own views than those of Socrates, "The
Republic" being a "middle period" work often considered to be not representative of the views of the
historical Socrates.

In Plato's "early" dialogue, "Apology of Socrates", Socrates refused to pursue conventional politics, on
the grounds that he could not look into the matters of others (or tell people how to live their lives) when
he did not yet understand how to live his own. Some have argued that he considered the rule of the
"Thirty Tyrants" (who came to power briefly during his life, led by Critias, a relative of Plato and a one-
time student of Socrates himself) even less legitimate than the democratic senate that sentenced him to
death.

Likewise, in the dialogues of Plato, Socrates often appears to support a mystical side, discussing
reincarnation and the mystery religions (popular religious cults of the time, such as the Eleusinian
Mysteries, restricted to those who had gone through certain secret initiation rites), but how much of this
is attributable to Socrates or to Plato himself is not (and never will be) clear. Socrates often referred to
what the Greeks called a "daemonic sign", a kind of inner voice he heard only when he was about to
make a mistake (such as the sign that he claimed prevented him from entering into politics). Although
we would consider this to be intuition today, Socrates thought of it as a form of "divine madness", the
sort of insanity that is a gift from the gods and gives us poetry, mysticism, love and even philosophy
itself.
Socrates' views were instrumental in the development of many of the major philosophical movements
and schools which came after him, particularly the Platonism of his principle student Plato, (and the Neo-
Platonism and Aristotelianism it gave rise to). His idea of a life of austerity combined with piety and
morality (largely ignored by Plato and Aristotle) was essential to the core beliefs of later schools like
Cynicism and Stoicism. Socrates' stature in Western Philosophy returned in full force with the
Renaissance and the Age of Reason in Europe when political theory began to resurface under such
philosophers as John Locke and Thomas Hobbes. Aristippus of Cyrene (c. 435 - 360 B.C.), the founder
of the school of Hedonism was also a pupil of Socrates, although he rather skewed Socrates' teaching.
Sophism
Sophism is an early Pre-Socratic school of philosophy in ancient Greece. It is the name often given to
the so-called Seven Sages of 7th and 6th Century B.C. Greece (see below), but also to many other early
Greek philosophers who were more concerned with Man himself and how he should behave than with
big questions about the Universe. Rather than a well-defined school or movement, however, it is more of
a loose grouping of like-minded individuals.

The term "sophism" comes from the Greek "sophos" or "sophia" (meaning "wise" or "wisdom"), and
originally referred to any expertise in a specific domain of knowledge or craft. After a period where it
mainly referred to poets, the word came to describe general wisdom and, especially, wisdom about
human affairs. Over time, it came to denote a class of itinerant intellectuals who taught courses in
"excellence" or "virtue", (often charging high fees for it), who speculated about the nature of language
and culture, and who employed rhetoric to achieve their purposes (which was generally to persuade or
convince others).

Sophists held relativistic views on cognition and knowledge (that there is no absolute truth, or that two
points of view can be acceptable at the same time), skeptical views on truth and morality, and their
philosophy often contained criticisms of religion, law and ethics. Many Sophists were just as religious
as most of their contemporaries, but some held atheistic or agnostic views. Typical Sophist quotations
include "Man is the measure of all things" (Protagoras) and "Justice is nothing other than the advantage
of the stronger" (Thrasymachus, c. 459 - 400 B.C.).

Sophists had considerable influence in their time, and were largely well-regarded. They were generally
itinerant teachers who accepted fees in return for instruction in oratory and rhetoric, and they
emphasized the practical application of rhetoric toward civic and political life. Their cultural and
psychological contributions played an important role in the growth of democracy in Athens, not least
through their rhetorical teaching, their adoption of Relativism and their liberal and pluralistic acceptance
of other viewpoints. Sophists were also some of the world's first lawyers, making full use of their highly-
developed argumentation skill.

The early Sophists claimed that they could find the answers to all questions, which, along with their
practice of taking fees and their questioning of the existence and roles of traditional deities, led to
popular resentment against Sophist practitioners, ideas and writings. Some writers have included
Socrates as a Sophist, although he was scrupulous in accepting no fees and making no claims of
superior wisdom, and his most illustrious student, Plato, depicts Socrates as refuting the Sophists in
several of his "Dialogues".

It is Plato who is largely responsible for the modern view of the Sophist as a greedy and power-seeking
instructor who uses rhetorical sleight-of-hand and ambiguities of language in order to deceive, or to
support fallacious reasoning. Plato was especially dismissive of Gorgias, one of the most famous and
successful of the early Sophists. Sophism was thought capable of perverting the truth because it
emphasized practical rhetoric rather than virtue, and taught students to argue any side of an issue. In
most cases, our knowledge of Sophist thought comes down to us from fragmentary quotations that lack
context, many of these from Aristotle, who, like his teacher Plato, held the Sophists in slight regard.

Owing largely to the influence of Plato and Aristotle, philosophy came to be regarded as distinct from
Sophism, which was gradually became synonymous with the practical discipline of rhetoric, so that, by
the time of the Roman Empire, a Sophist was simply a teacher of rhetoric or a popular public speaker.
Indeed, for a time, Sophists started to suffer persecution, threats and even assassination. In its largely
derogatory modern usage, "sophism" (or "sophistry") has come to mean a confusing or illogical
argument used to deceive someone, or merely philosophy or argument for its own sake, empty of real
content or value.
The Seven Sages of ancient Greece were seven wise men (philosophers, statesmen and law-givers):

 Thales of Miletus, famous for his maxim "To bring surety brings ruin".
 Solon of Athens (c. 638 - 558 B.C.), famous for his maxim "Know thyself".
 Chilon of Sparta (6th Century B.C.), famous for his maxim "Do not let one's tongue outrun one's
sense".
 Pittacus of Mytilene (c. 640 - 568 B.C.), famous for his maxim "Know thine opportunity".
 Bias of Priene (6th Century B.C.), famous for his maxim "All men are wicked".
 Cleobulus of Lindos (died c. 560 B.C.), famous for his maxim "Moderation is impeccable".
 Periander of Corinth (7th Century B.C.), famous for his maxim "Forethought in all things".

Other well-known Sophists include Protagoras, Gorgias, Prodicus (c. 465 415 B.C.), Hippias (c. 460 - 399
B.C.), Thrasymachus (c. 459 - 400 B.C.), Lycophron (3rd Century B.C.), Callicles (5th Century B.C.),
Antiphon (c. 480 - 411 B.C.) and Cratylus (5th Century B.C.).
Plato (c. 428 - 348 B.C.)

Introduction
Plato (c. 428 - 348 B.C.) was a hugely important Greek philosopher and mathematician from the Socratic
(or Classical) period.

He is perhaps the best known, most widely studied and most influential philosopher of all time.
Together with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, he provided the main opposition to the
Materialist view of the world represented by Democritus and Epicurus, and he helped to lay the
foundations of the whole of Western Philosophy.

In his works, especially his many dialogues, he blended Ethics, Political Philosophy, Epistemology,
Metaphysics and moral psychology into an interconnected and systematic philosophy. In addition to
the ideas they contained (such as his doctrine of Platonic Realism, Essentialism, Idealism, his famous
theory of Forms and the ideal of "Platonic love"), many of his writings are also considered superb
pieces of literature.

Plato was the founder of the famous Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the
western world. The philosophical school which he developed at the Academy was known as Platonism
(and its later off-shoot, Neo-Platonism).

Life
Plato was born in Athens (or possibly in Aegina, according to some sources) some time between 429
and 423 B.C. (most modern scholars use estimate of 428 or 427 B.C.) He was possibly originally named
Aristocles after his grandfather, and only later dubbed "Plato" or "Platon" (meaning "broad") on
account of the breadth of his eloquence, or of his wide forehead, or possibly on account of his generally
robust figure.

His father was Ariston (who may have traced his descent from Codrus, the last of the legendary kings
of Athens); his mother was Perictione (who was descended from the famous Athenian lawmaker and
poet Solon, and whose family also boasted prominent figures of the oligarchic regime of Athens known
as the Thirty Tyrants). He had two brothers, Adeimantus and Glaucon, and a sister, Potone. Plato later
introduced several of his distinguished relatives into his dialogues, indicating considerable family pride.

When Ariston died early in Plato's childhood, his mother married her own uncle, Pyrilampes, who was
also a friend of Pericles (the leader of the democratic faction in Athens), and who had served many times
as an ambassador to the Persian court. Together, they had another son, Antiphon, who was therefore
Plato's half-brother.

Coming as he did from one of the wealthiest and most politically active families in Athens, Plato must
have been instructed in grammar, music and gymnastics by the most distinguished teachers of his
time, and certainly his quickness of mind and modesty were widely praised. He had also attended
courses of philosophy and was acquainted with Cratylus, a disciple of Heraclitus, before meeting
Socrates. This life-changing event occurred when Plato was about twenty years old, and the
intercourse between master and pupil probably lasted eight or ten years. As a youth he had loved to
write poetry and tragedies, but burnt them all after he became a student of Socrates and turned to
philosophy in earnest. It is plain that no influence on Plato was greater than that of Socrates.
Plato was in military service from 409 to 404 B.C. and, for a time, he imagined a life in public affairs for
himself. He was even invited to join the administration of the regime of the Thirty Tyrants (through the
connection with his uncle, Charmides, who was himself a member), but he was soon repelled by their
violent acts and backed out. In 403 B.C., democracy was restored to Athens, and Plato had renewed
hopes of entering politics again, although the excesses of Athenian political life in general persuaded
him to hold back. The execution of Socrates in 399 B.C. had a profound effect on him, and he decided to
have nothing further to do with politics in Athens.

After Socrates' death, he joined a group of Socratic disciples who had gathered in the Greek city of
Megara under the leadership of Euclid of Megara, before leaving and travelling quite widely in Italy,
Sicily, Egypt and Cyrene. During his time in Italy, he also studied with students of Pythagoras and came
to appreciate the value of mathematics.

When he returned to Athens in about 385 or 387 B.C., Plato founded the Academy (or Akademia), one
of the earliest and most famous organized schools in western civilization and the protoype for later
universities, on a plot of land containing a sacred grove just outside the city walls of ancient Athens,
which had once belonged to the Athenian hero Akademos. Plato had been bitterly disappointed with the
standards displayed by those in public office, and his intention was to train young men in philosophy
and the sciences in order to create better statesmen, as well as to continue the work of his former
teacher, Socrates. Among Plato's more noteworthy students at the Academy were Aristotle,
Xenocrates (396 - 314 B.C.), Speusippus (407 - 339 B.C.) and Theophrastus (c. 371 - 287 B.C.).

Except for two more rather ill-advised and ill-fated trips to Syracuse in Sicily in 367 B.C. and 361 B.C. to
tutor the young ruler Dionysius II, Plato presided over his Academy from 387 B.C. until his death in 347
B.C., aged about 80. He was supposedly buried in the school grounds, although his grave has never
been discovered.

On Plato's death, his nephew Speusippus succeeded him as head of the school (perhaps because his
star pupil Aristotle's ideas had by that time diverged too far from Plato's). The school continued to
operate for almost 900 years, until A.D. 529, when it was closed by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian I,
who saw it as a threat to the propagation of Christianity.

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Plato is perhaps the first philosopher whose complete works are still available to us. He wrote no
systematic treatises giving his views, but rather he wrote a number (about 35, although the authenticity
of at least some of these remains in doubt) of superb dialogues, written in the form of conversations, a
form which permitted him to develop the Socratic method of question and answer. In his dialogues,
Plato discussed every kind of philosophical idea, including Ethics (with discussion of the nature of virtue),
Metaphysics (where topics include immortality, man, mind, and Realism), Political Philosophy (where
topics such as censorship and the ideal state are discussed), Philosophy of Religion (considering topics
such as Atheism, Dualism and Pantheism), Epistemology (where he looked at ideas such as a priori
knowledge and Rationalism), the Philosophy of Mathematics and the Theory of Art (especially dance,
music, poetry, architecture and drama).

We have no material evidence about exactly when Plato wrote each of his dialogues, nor the extent to
which some might have been later revised or rewritten, nor even whether all or part of them were ever
"published" or made widely available. In addition to the ideas they contained, though, his writings are
also considered superb pieces of literature in their own right, in terms of the mastery of language, the
power of indicating character, the sense of situation, and the keen eye for both tragic and comic
aspects.

None of the dialogues contain Plato himself as a character, and so he does not actually declare that
anything asserted in them are specifically his own views. The characters in the dialogues are generally
historical, with Socrates usually as the protagonist (particularly in the early dialogues). It is generally
thought that the views expressed by the character of Socrates in Plato's dialogues were views that
Socrates himself actually held, and the works had the effect of gradually rehabilitating Socrates's rather
tarnished image among Athenians in the wake of his death. As time went on, though, the dialogues
began to deal more with subjects that interested Plato himself, rather than merely providing a vehicle for
the ideas of Socrates. It seems likely that Plato's main intention in his dialogues was more to teach his
students to think for themselves and to find their own answers to the big questions, rather than to
blindly follow his own opinions (or those of Socrates).

Among the (likely earlier) Socratic dialogues are: "Apology", "Charmides", "Crito", "Euthyphro",
"Ion", "Laches", "Lesser Hippias", "Lysis", "Menexenus" and "Protagoras". The following are often
considered "transitional" dialogues: "Gorgias", "Meno" and "Euthydemus". The middle dialogues
are generally seen as the first appearances of Plato's own views: "Cratylus", "Phaedo", "Phaedrus",
"Symposium", "Republic", "Theaetetus" and "Parmenides". The late dialogues probably indicate
Plato's more mature thought, including criticisms of his own theories: "Sophist", "Statesman",
"Philebus", "Timaeus", "Critias" and "Laws". The huge "Republic" in particular is considered one of
the single most influential works in the whole of Western Philosophy, although his account of Socrates'
trial in the "Apology" may be the most read.

Central to Plato's Metaphysics is his theory of Platonic Realism, which inverts the common sense intuition
about what is knowable and what is real. Confusingly, this is also known as Platonic Idealism, and
indeed Idealism may be a better description. Plato believed that universals (those properties of an
object which can exist in more than one place at the same time e.g. the quality of "redness") do in fact
exist and are real. However, they exist in a different way than ordinary physical objects exist, in a sort of
ghostly mode of existence, unseen and unfelt, outside of space and time, but not at any spatial or
temporal distance from people's bodies (a type of Dualism).

Part and parcel of Plato's Platonic Realism is his theory of Forms or Ideas, which refers to his belief that
the material world as it seems to us is not the real world, but only a shadow or a poor copy of the real
world. This is based on Plato's concept (or Socrates' through Plato) of hylomorphism, the idea that
substances are forms inhering in matter. He held that substance is composed of matter and form,
although not as any kind of a mixture or amalgam, but composed homogeneously together such that no
matter can exist without form (or form without matter). Thus, pure matter and pure form can never be
perceived, only comprehended abstractly by the intellect.

Forms, roughly speaking, are the pure and unchanging archetypes or abstract representations of
universals and of all the things we see around us, and they are in fact the true basis of reality. These
ideal Forms are instantiated by one or many different particulars, which are essentially material copies
of the Forms, and make up the world we perceive around us. Plato was therefore one of the first
Essentialists in that he believed that all things have essences or attributes that make an object or
substance what it fundamentally is. According to Plato, true knowledge or intelligence is the ability to
grasp the world of Forms with one's mind, even though his evidence for the existence of Forms is
intuitive only.

This idea was most famously captured and illustrated in Plato's Allegory of the Cave, from his best-
known work, "The Republic". He represented man's condition as being chained in the darkness of a
cave, with only the false light of a fire behind him. He can perceive the outside world solely by watching
the shadows on the wall in front of him, not realizing that this view of existence is limited, wrong or in any
way lacking (after all, it is all he knows). Plato imagined what would occur if some of the chained men
were suddenly released from this bondage and let out into the world, to encounter the divine light of the
sun and perceive “true” reality. He described how some people would immediately be frightened and
want to return to the familiar dark existence of the cave, while the more enlightened would look at the
sun and finally see the world as it truly is. If they were then to return to the cave and try to explain what
they had seen, they would be mocked mercilessly and called fanciful, even mad. In the allegory, Plato
saw the outside world, which the cave's inhabitants glimpsed only in a second-hand way, as the timeless
realm of Forms, where genuine reality resides. The shadows on the wall represent the world we see
around us, which we assume to be real, but which in fact is a mere imitation of the real thing.

Plato's theory of Forms was essentially an attempt to solve the dichotomy between Parmenides' view
(that there is no real change or multiplicity in the world, and that reality is one) and that of Heraclitus (that
motion and multiplicity are real, and that permanence is only apparent) by means of a metaphysical
compromise. Plato himself, though, was well aware of the limitations of his theory, and in particular he
later concocted the "Third Man Argument" against his own theory: if a Form and a particular are alike,
then there must be another (third) thing by possession of which they are alike, leading to an infinite
regression. In a later (rather unsatisfactory) version of the theory, he tried to circumvent this objection
by positing that particulars do not actually exist as such: rather, they "mime" the Forms, merely
appearing to be particulars.

In the "Timaeus", Plato gave his account of the natural sciences (physics, astronomy, chemistry and
biology) and the creation of the universe by the Demiurge. Unlike the creation by the God of medieval
theologians, Plato's Demiurge did not create out of nothing, but rather ordered the cosmos out of
already-existing chaotic elemental matter, imitating the eternal Forms. Plato took the four elements
(fire, air, water and earth), which he proclaimed to be composed of various aggregates of triangles, and
made various compounds of these into what he called the Body of the Universe.

In recent years, more emphasis has been placed on Plato's unwritten teachings, which were passed on
orally to his students and not included in the dialogues (on several occasions, Plato stressed that the
written transmission of knowledge was faulty and inferior to the spoken logos). We have at least some
idea of this from reports by his students, Aristotle and others, and from the continuity between his
teachings and the interpretations of Plotinus and the Neo-Platonists. One recurring theme is that the first
principle of everything, including the causation of good and of evil and of the Forms themselves, is the
One (the cause of the essence of the Forms). It can be argued, then, that Plato's concept of God affirms
Monotheism, although he also talked of an Indefinite Duality (which he also called Large and Small).

In Epistemology, although some have imputed to Plato the remarkably modern analytic view that
knowledge is justified true belief, Plato more often associated knowledge with the apprehension of
unchanging Forms and their relationships to one another. He argued that knowledge is always
proportionate to the realm from which it is gained, so that, if one derives an account of something
experientially then (because the world of sense is always in flux) the views attained will be mere
opinions. On the other hand, if one derives an account of something by way of the non-sensible Forms,
then the views attained will be pure and unchanging (because the Forms are unchanging too). In several
dialogues, Plato also floated the idea that knowledge is a matter of recollection ("anamnesis"), and not of
learning, observation or study. Thus, knowledge is not empirical, but essentially comes from divine
insight.

To a large extent, it is Plato who is responsible for the modern view of the Sophist as a greedy and
power-seeking instructor who uses rhetorical sleight-of-hand and ambiguities of language in order to
deceive, or to support fallacious reasoning. He was at great pains in his dialogues to exonerate
Socrates from accusations of Sophism. Plato, and Aristotle after him, also believed in a kind of Moral
Universalism (or Moral Absolutism), opposing the Moral Relativism of the Sophists.

In Ethics, Plato had a teleological or goal-orientated worldview, and the aim of his Ethics was therefore
to outline the conditions under which a society might function harmoniously. He considered virtue to be
an excellence of the soul, and, insofar as the soul has several components (e.g. reason, passions,
spirit), there will be several components of its excellence: the excellence of reason is wisdom; the
excellence of the passions are attributes such as courage; and the excellence of the spirit is
temperance. Finally, justice is that excellence which consists in a harmonious relation of the other
three parts. He believed, then, that virtue was a sort of knowledge (the knowledge of good and evil) that
is required to reach the ultimate good (or eudaimonia), which is what all human desires and actions aim
to achieve, and as such he was an early proponent of Eudaimonism or Virtue Ethics.
Plato's philosophical views had many societal and political implications, especially on the idea of an
ideal state or government (much influenced by the model of the severe society of Sparta), although there
is some discrepancy between his early and later views on Political Philosophy. Some of his most famous
doctrines are contained in the "Republic" (the earliest example of a Utopia, dating from his middle
period), as well as in the later "Statesman" and the "Laws".

In general terms, Plato drew parallels between the tripartite structure of the individual soul and body
("appetite-stomach", "spirit-chest" and "reason-head") and the tripartite class structure of societies. He
divided human beings up, based on their innate intelligence, strength and courage, into: the Productive
(Workers), labourers, farmers, merchants, etc, which corresponds to the "appetite-stomach"; the
Protective (Warriors), the adventurous, strong and brave of the armed forces, which corresponds to the
"spirit-chest"; and the Governing (Rulers or Philosopher Kings), the intelligent, rational, self-controlled
and wise, who are well suited to make decisions for the community, which corresponds to the "reason-
head". The Philosophers and the Warriors together are thus the Guardians of Plato's ideal state.

Plato concluded that reason and wisdom (rather than rhetoric and persuasion) should govern, thus
effectively rejecting the principles of Athenian democracy (as it existed in his day) as only a few are fit to
rule. A large part of the "Republic" then addresses how the educational system should be set up (his
important contribution to the Philosophy of Education) to produce these Philosopher Kings, who should
have their reason, will and desires united in virtuous harmony (a moderate love for wisdom, and the
courage to act according to that wisdom). The Philosopher King image has been used by many after
Plato to justify their personal political beliefs.

He also made some interesting arguments about states and rulers. He argued that it is better to be ruled
by a tyrant (since then there is only one person committing bad deeds) than by a bad democracy (since
all the people are now responsible for the bad actions). He predicted that a state which is made up of
different kinds of souls will tend to decline from an aristocracy (rule by the best) to a timocracy (rule by
the honourable), then to an oligarchy (rule by the few), then to a democracy (rule by the people) and
finally to tyranny (rule by a single tyrant).

In the "Laws", probably Plato's last work and a work of enormous length and complexity, he concerned
himself with designing a genuinely practicable (if admittedly not ideal) form of government, rather than
with what a best possible state might be like. He discussed the empirical details of statecraft, fashioning
rules to meet the multitude of contingencies that are apt to arise in the "real world" of human affairs,
and it marks a rather grim and terrifying culmination of the totalitarian tendencies in his earlier political
thought.

Plato's views on Aesthetics were somewhat compromised and he had something of a love-hate
relationship with the arts. He believed that aesthetically appealing objects were beautiful in and of
themselves, and that they should incorporate proportion, harmony and unity among their parts. As a
youth he had been a poet, and he remained a fine literary stylist and a great story-teller. However, he
found the arts threatening in that they are powerful shapers of character. Therefore, to train and protect
ideal citizens for an ideal society, he believed that the arts must be strictly controlled, and he proposed
excluding poets, playwrights and musicians from his ideal Republic, or at least severely censoring what
they produced. He also argued that art is merely imitation of the objects and events of ordinary life,
effectively a copy of a copy of an ideal Form. Art is therefore even more of an illusion than is ordinary
experience, and so should be considered at best entertainment, and at worst a dangerous delusion.

In the "Symposium" and the "Phaedrus", Plato introduces his theory of erôs or love, which has come
to be known as "Platonic love". Although he invented the image of two lovers being each other's "other
half", he clearly regards actual physical or sexual contact between lovers as degraded and wasteful
forms of erotic expression. Thus, unless the power of love is channelled into "higher pursuits"
(culminating in the knowledge of the Form of Beauty), it is doomed to frustration, and people sadly
squander the real power of love by limiting themselves to the mere pleasures of physical beauty. On an
unrelated note, he is also responsible for the famous myth of Atlantis, which first appears in the
"Timaeus".

Plato's consideration of epistemology, or the theory of knowledge, comes mainly in the "Theaetetus". In
it, he (through the person of Socrates) considers three different theses - that knowledge is perception,
that knowledge is true judgement, and that knowledge is true judgement together with an account -
refuting each of them in turn, without leaving us with any definitive conclusion or solution. One is left,
though, with the impression that Plato's own view is probably that what constitutes knowledge is actually
a combination or synthesis of all these separate theses.

Although the study of Plato's thought continued with the Neo-Platonists, his reputation was completely
eclipsed during Medieval times by that of his most famous student, Aristotle. This is mainly because
Plato's original writings were essentially lost to Western civilization until they were brought from
Constantinople in the century before its fall by the Greek Neo-Platonist George Gemistos Plethon (c.
1355 - 1452). The Medieval Scholastic philosophers, therefore, did not have access to the works of
Plato, nor the knowledge of Greek needed to read them. Only during the Renaissance, with the general
resurgence of interest in classical civilization, did knowledge of Plato's philosophy become widespread
again in the West, and many of the greatest early modern scientists and artists who broke with
Scholasticism saw Plato's philosophy as the basis for progress in the arts and sciences. By the 19th
Century, Plato's reputation was restored, and at least on par with Aristotle's.

Plato's influence has been especially strong in mathematics and the sciences. Although he made no
important mathematical discoveries himself, his belief that mathematics provides the finest training for
the mind was extremely important in the development of the subject (over the door of the Academy was
written, "Let no one unversed in geometry enter here"). He concentrated on the idea of "proof", insisting
on accurate definitions and clear hypotheses, all of which laid the foundations for the systematic
approach to mathematics of Euclid (who flourished around 300 B.C.)

However, Plato also helped to distinguish between pure and applied mathematics by widening the gap
between "arithmetic" (now called Number Theory) and "logistic" (now called Arithmetic). Plato's
resurgence in the Modern era further inspired some of the greatest advances in Logic since Aristotle,
primarily through Gottlob Frege and his followers Kurt Gِdel (1906 - 1978), Alonzo Church (1903 - 1995)
and Alfred Tarski (1901 - 1983).

Plato's name is also attached to the "Platonic solids" (convex regular polyhedrons), especially in the
"Timaeus", in which the cube, tetrahedron, octahedron, and icosahedron are given as the shapes of the
atoms of earth, fire, air and water, with the fifth Platonic solid, the dodecahedron, being his model for the
whole universe. Plato's beliefs as regards the universe were that the stars, planets, Sun and Moon all
move round the Earth in crystalline spheres. The sphere of the Moon was closest to the Earth, then the
sphere of the Sun, then Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and furthest away was the sphere of the
stars. He believed that the Moon shines by reflected sunlight.

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Further Resources
Further links and studying on Plato:

 Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: Stanford offers a huge resource on all things Plato.
 Plato Resources: References and links to more sites about Plato.
Platonism

Platonism is an ancient Greek school of philosophy from the Socratic period, founded around 387 B.C. by
Socrates' student and disciple, Plato, and continued by his students and followers. It was based in the
Academy, a precinct containing a sacred grove outside the walls of Athens, where Plato delivered his
lectures (the protoype for later universities). Platonism was originally expressed in the dialogues of
Plato, in which the figure of his teacher, Socrates, is used to expound various doctrines.

Plato's philosophy is best known for its Platonic Realism (also, confusingly, known as Platonic Idealism),
its hylomorphism (the idea that substances are forms inhering in matter) and its Theory of Forms
("Forms" are the eternal, unchangeable, perfect universals, of which the particular objects we sense
around us are imperfect copies). It poses an eternal universe, and describes idea as prior to matter,
so that the substantive reality around us is only a reflection of a higher truth. (see the section on Platonic
Realism for more details).

Platonic Epistemology holds that knowledge is innate, and the immortal soul "remembers" its prior
familiary with the Forms ("anamnesis"). Learning is therefore the development of ideas buried deep in
the soul. Of these, the Form of "the Good" (the ideal or perfect nature of goodness) is the ultimate basis
for the rest, and the first cause of being and knowledge. Plato held that the impressions of the senses
can never give us the knowledge of true being (i.e. of the Forms), which can only be obtained by the
exercise of reason through the process of dialectic (the exchange of arguments and counter-arguments,
propositions and counter-propositions).

Platonic Ethics is based on the concept that virtue is a sort of knowledge (the knowledge of good and
evil) that is required to reach the ultimate good ("eudaimonia" or happiness), which is what all human
desires and actions aim to achieve (see the section on Eudaimonism). It holds that there are three parts
to the soul, Reason, Spirit and Appetite, which must be ruled by the three virtues, Wisdom, Courage
and Moderation. These are, in turn, all ruled by a fourth, Justice, by which each part of the soul is
confined to the performance of its proper function.

The Academy, in which the school was based, is usually split into three periods: the Old, Middle, and
New Academy. The chief figures in the Old Academy were: Plato's most famous student, Aristotle, who
rapidly developed his own set of philosophies and a whole separate Aristotelian tradition; Speusippus
(407 - 339 B.C.), Plato's nephew, who succeeded as head of the school after Plato's death in 347 B.C.;
Xenocrates (396 - 314 B.C.) who was head from 339 B.C. to 314 B.C.; Polemo, from 314 B.C. to 269 B.C.;
and Crates, from 269 B.C. to 266 B.C. After this time, the Middle Academy and New Academy were more
vehicles for Skepticism than Platonism proper, before being re-founded, after a lapse during the early
Roman occupation, as a Neo-Platonist institution in 410 A.D.

Around 90 B.C., a period known as Middle Platonism began, when Antiochus of Ascalon (c. 130 - 68
B.C.) rejected Skepticism, and propounded a fusion of Platonism with some Aristotelian and Stoic
dogmas. Philo of Alexandria can also be considered a Middle Platonist, as he attempted to synthesize
Platonism with monotheistic religion, anticipating the Neo-Platonism of later philosophers such as
Plotinus.

Platonism influenced Christianity first through Clement of Alexandria (c.150 - 216 A.D.) and Origen (c.
185 - 254 A.D.), and especially later through St. Augustine of Hippo, who was one of the most important
figures in the development of Western Christianity. Platonism was considered authoritative in the
Middle Ages, and many Platonic notions are now permanent elements of Latin Christianity, as well as
both Eastern and Western mysticism.
Aristotle (384 - 322 B.C.)

Introduction
Aristotle (384 - 322 B.C.) was an important Greek philosopher from the Socratic (or Classical) period,
mainly based in Athens. He is one of the most important founding figures in Western Philosophy, and
the first to create a comprehensive system of philosophy, encompassing Ethics, Aesthetics, Politics,
Metaphysics, Logic and science.

His own school of philosophy, known as Aristotelianism or the Peripatetic School, influenced almost all
later philosophical thinking, particularly the Medieval movements such as Scholasticism, Averroism and
Avicennism.

Life
Aristotle was born to an aristocratic family in Stageira on the Chalcidice Peninsula of Macedonia (a
region of northern Greece) in 384 B.C. His father, Nicomachus, was the personal physician to King
Amyntas of Macedon, and Aristotle was trained and educated as a member of the aristocracy. Aristotle's
mother, Phaestis, came from Chalcis on the island of Euboea, and her family owned property there.

When he was just a boy of the age of 10, Aristotle's father died (which meant that Aristotle could not now
follow in his father's profession of doctor) and his mother seems also to have died young, so he was
taken under the care of a man named Proxenus. At the age of 18, he moved to Athens to compete his
education at Plato's famous Academy, where he remained for nearly twenty years (first as a star student
and then as a teacher and a philosophical force to be reckoned with in his own right) until after Plato's
death in 347 B.C.

Plato's nephew Speusippus (407 - 339 B.C.) was chosen to succeed him as head of the Academy (partly
because Aristotle's ideas had diverged too far from Plato's) and Aristotle left the Academy. He travelled
for some time in Asia Minor with Xenocrates (396 - 314 B.C.) and Theophrastus (371 - 287 B.C.). While
staying at the court of Hermias of Atarneus, an ex-student of Plato, he met and married Hermias'
daughter, Pythias, and together they had a daughter also called Pythias. After Hermias' death, Aristotle
was invited by Philip of Macedon to tutor to the young Alexander the Great, which he did for several
years before returning to Athens. His wife Pythias died soon after, and Aristotle became involved with
Herpyllis from his home town of Stageira, and they had a son named after Aristotle's father,
Nicomachus.

In 335 B.C., Aristotle established his own school just outside the walls of Athens, known as the Lyceum,
in competition with Plato's long-established Academy, and he conducted courses at the school for the
next thirteen years. His immediate followers were known as the Peripatetics (meaning "itinerant" or
"walking about", for their habit of walking the covered walkways of the Lyceum). The Lyceum had a
broader curriculum than the Academy, and a stronger emphasis on natural philosophy. Artistotle's
most famous students were Theophrastus (371 - 287 B.C.), who followed Artistotle as head of the
Lyceum, and Strato of Lampsacus (225 - 269 B.C.) who succeeded him.

It is during this period in Athens that Aristotle is believed to have composed many of his major works,
although only fragments of his many dialogues have survived, and those mainly in treatise form,
generally thought to be lecture aids for his students. His most important treatises include the six books of
the "Organon", "Physics", "Metaphysics", "Nicomachean Ethics", "Politics", "De Anima" ("On the
Soul"), "Rhetoric" and "Poetics".
On the death of Alexander the Great in 323 B.C., anti-Macedonian sentiment in Athens flared once
again, and Aristotle fled the city to his mother's family estate in Chalcis, explaining "I will not allow the
Athenians to sin twice against philosophy" (a reference to the trial and execution of Socrates). He soon
died of natural causes there, at the age of 62, and was eventually buried next to his wife.

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Work
Aristotle wrote extensively, but only about one-fifth of his works have survived (although even that fills
about 12 volumes, and touches on the whole range of what was available knowledge at his time).

Aristotle himself divided his writings into the "exoteric" (intended for publication) and the "esoteric"
(compiled from his lecture notes, and intended for the narrower audience of his students and other
philosophers familiar with the jargon and issues typical of the Platonic and Aristotelian schools).
Unfortunately, none of the exoteric works he produced for publication (which were praised throughout
antiquity for their great beauty of style) seem to have survived, not even fragments, and so we have no
examples of his literary art, as we have of Plato's writing.

Even some of his esoteric works may well have been altered or "repaired" after the original manuscripts
were left to languish in a cellar in Asia Minor before being rediscovered by some Roman scholars of
dubious reputation in the 1st Century B.C. (although this account of their history is disputed). It was not
until the Scholasticism and Averroism of the Middle Ages (when he was known simply as "The
Philosopher") that Latin translations became widely available again, stimulating a revival of
Aristotelianism in Europe, and ultimately revitalizing European thought through Muslim influence in
Spain to fan the embers of the Renaissance.

What we today call Aristotelian Logic, Aristotle himself would have labelled "analytics", and he used the
term "logic" to mean dialectics (the exchange of arguments and counter-arguments in search of a
synthesis or resolution). Aristotle's ground-breaking work on Logic were collected together into the six
books of the "Organon" in the early 1st Century A.D., and it constitutes the earliest formal study of
Logic. His conception of Logic has had an unparalleled influence on the history of Western thought, and
was the dominant form of Logic until 19th Century advances in mathematical logic and predicate
logic. As recently as the late 18th Century, no less a philosopher than Immanuel Kant claimed that
Aristotle had said all there was to say on the subject of Logic.

His aim was to develop a universal method of reasoning by means of which it would be possible to
learn everything there is to know about reality. Aristotle defined logic as "new and necessary
reasoning", "new" because it allows us to learn what we do not know, and "necessary" because its
conclusions are inescapable.

At the heart of Aristotelian Logic is the syllogism (or deductive logic or term logic), which he developed
in his "Prior Analytics", the third book of the "Organon". In a syllogism, one proposition (the
conclusion) is inferred from two others (the premises), each of which has one term in common with
the conclusion. A proposition in this context is an assertion which consists of two terms (the subject
and the predicate), and which is capable of truth or falsity. He enumerated ten categories to describe
all the possible kinds of thing which can be the subject or the predicate of a proposition: Substance,
Quantity, Quality, Relation, Place, Time, Position, State, Action and Affection. In other books of the
"Organon", Aristotle considers issues in constructing valid arguments, probable inferences (as
opposed to certain ones) and logical fallacies, among other topics.

Aristotle also popularized the use of axioms (self-evident principles requiring no proof), claiming that
nothing can be deduced if nothing is assumed, as well as the hugely important Principle of Non-
Contradiction, which held that a particular attribute can not both apply and not apply to the same
subject at the same time (e.g. 2 + 2 = 4 and 2 + 2 = 5 cannot both apply). The use of axioms was
important in other areas of Aristotle's philosophy, not least in his Metaphysics.
Aristotle's Metaphysics (the very word "metaphysics" dates back to Aristotle, originally having the rather
mundane meaning of those books which come after his work on physics) revolves around the concept of
substance, which is a combination of both matter (the substratum or "stuff" of which a thing is
composed) and form (the actual thing itself). Things have both potentiality (what it is capable of doing or
becoming, if not prevented by something else) and actuality (the fulfillment or the end of the potentiality).
Thus, the matter of a thing is its potentiality, and the form is its actuality. Essence is what provides the
shape or form or purpose to matter, and the movement from formless stuff to complete being results from
four causes: material cause (what something is made of, the coming together of it parts), efficient
cause (the motion or energy that changes matter), formal cause (a thing’s shape, form, essence or
definition) and final cause (a thing's reason or purpose or the intention behind it).

Aristotle tried to pin down what it is that persists in a thing that gives it its continuity as a single thing,
even while its properties and attributes change (e.g. a leaf starts as a bud, grows and turns green, and
then withers and dies, but it remains throughout incontestably the same leaf). He also asked what are the
fundamental properties of a thing which give it its identity as a particular thing, and without which it
would cease to be the same thing. He saw these two questions as inextricably entwined.

Aristotle broke irrevocably with his teacher Plato and the Platonists over the problem of universals and
his conception of hylomorphism (the idea that substances are forms inhering in matter). Aristotle's
conception of hylomorphism differed from that of Plato in that he held that Form and Matter are
inseparable, and that matter and form do not exist apart from each other, but only together. Just as the
word hylomorphism itself is composed of the Greek hyle (matter or stuff) and morphe (form or structure),
Aristotle's classic answer to the question of what reality really consists of was that reality = stuff +
structure. Stuff without structure was mere chaos, while structure without stuff was no more than the
ghost of being.

Plato believed that ideal Forms exist, separate and apart from particular things, for which they are
prototypes or exemplars. Aristotle, on the other hand, held that universals exist only where they are
instantiated, and then only "in things", never apart from them (i.e. the universals are “inside” the
particulars). Where Plato had located ultimate reality in ideas or eternal Forms, knowable only through
reflection and reason, Aristotle saw ultimate reality in physical objects, knowable through experience.
Indeeed, he considered it meaningless to discuss something which has not been encountered or
experienced in real life. For Plato, the philosophic method means the descent from a knowledge of
universal Forms (or ideas) to a contemplation of particular imitations of these, while for Aristotle the
philosophic method implies the ascent from the study of particular phenomena to the knowledge of
essences.

Aristotle made some highly influential constributions to the field of Ethics. He considered Ethics to be a
practical science (i.e. mastered by doing rather than merely reasoning) but also a general, rather than
a certain, knowledge. Unlike some other moral philosophers before him, Aristotle started by posing the
very general question of what it actually means to lead a good human life. He was also very aware
that morality is a complex concept and so cannot be measured in any one simple way (in the way that
Utilitarianism, for example, measures morality on a simple scale of happiness created). Also (again,
unlike some other philosophers such as the Stoics and the Epicureans, for example), Aristotle firmly
believed that we are not self-contained moral entities and that we cannot control our own moral
environment.

His several treatises on Ethics, most notably the "Nichomachean Ethics", outline what is commonly
called Virtue Ethics or Eudaimonism. He argued that Man must have a specific or proper function, which
is uncommon to anything else, and which is an activity of the soul. The best activity of the soul is
eudaimonia (happiness or joy or the good life), which can be achieved by living a balanced life and
avoiding excess by pursuing a golden mean in everything between the two vices of excess and
deficiency.
In Politics, Aristotle was the first to conceive of an organic city or natural community, and indeed
conceived of Politics as a whole as organic, as a collection of parts that cannot exist without the others.
For Aristotle, a city (the political unit with which he was familiar, the concept of the state as we know it
still being then unknown) was a political partnership which existed for the sake of "noble actions", not
merely for the sake of living together, nor as a social contract to avoid injustice or economic instability. In
comparison with some other political commentators of the time (such as Plato), though, Aristotle's had a
rather narrow-minded view of just who should be allowed to be a citizen of such a city, and his attitude
to women and foreigners in general was quite chauvinistic. His formula for political stability was a
strong middle class in order to achieve the middle ground between tyranny and democracy. He may
also have been the author of a model constitution of Athens, in which the abstract notion of
constitutional government is applied to the concrete life of a particular society.

Aristotle's philosophical endeavours encompassed virtually all facets of intellectual inquiry, including
"natural philosophy", the branch of philosophy examining the phenomena of the natural world (what
would be regarded today as physics, biology and other natural sciences). In fact, he spent much of his
time performing original research in the natural sciences, in areas such as botany, zoology, physics,
astronomy, chemistry, meteorology and several other sciences, and to a large extent Aristotle was
responsible for establishing these sciences as individual fields of enquiry and study. He was endlessly
fascinated with nature, and went a long way towards classifying the plants and animals of Greece
through observation and anatomical dissection.

In Aristotle's physics there are five elements, all of which naturally move towards their default natural
place: fire (hot and dry), earth (cold and dry), air (hot and wet); water (cold and wet) and aether (the
divine substance that makes up the stars and planets). In his treatise "Meteorology" (then a broader
term than its use today), he discussed the nature of the earth and the oceans, including the hydrologic
cycle and natural occurences like winds, earthquakes, thunder, lightning, rainbows, and meteors, comets
and the Milky Way. His "De Anima" ("On the Soul") is perhaps the first ever book on psychology. In it,
he argued that the mind is essentially the purposeful functioning of the nervous system, and he
described the struggle of the id and ego (desire and reason).

Unlike Plato, Aristotle took observation to be crucial, but (in the absence of concepts like mass, velocity,
force and temperature, and given his insistence on deriving "laws of the universe" from simple
observation and over-stretched reason, rather than strict scientific method, and his largely qualitative
rather than quantitative approach) his scientific observations are a mixture of precocious accuracy and
curious errors, and have long been deemed hopelessly inadequate. However, his project of a
systematic investigation into natural phenomena in the living world arguably marks the birth of
empirical science.

Aristotle was interested in more than a strictly scientific exploration of human nature, though, as testified
by works like the "Poetics" and "Rhetoric". Aristotle considered literature (e.g. epic poetry, tragedy,
comedy), music and dance to be essentially imitative, although he considered such imitiation to be
natural to mankind and one of mankind's major advantages over animals.
Aristotelianism
Aristotelianism is a school or tradition of philosophy from the Socratic (or Classical) period of ancient
Greece, that takes its defining inspiration from the work of the 4th Century B.C. philosopher Aristotle.

His immediate followers were also known as the Peripatetic School (meaning itinerant or walking about,
after the covered walkways at the Lyceum in Athens where they often met), and among the more
prominent members (other than Aristotle himself) were Theophrastus (322 - 288 B.C.), Eudemus of
Rhodes (c. 370 - 300 B.C.), Dicaearchus (c. 350 - 285 B.C.), Strato of Lampsacus (288 - 269 B.C.), Lyco
of Troas (c. 269 - 225 B.C.), Aristo of Ceos (c. 225 - 190 B.C.), Critolaus (c. 190 - 155 B.C.), Diodorus of
Tyre (c. 140 B.C.), Erymneus (c. 110 B.C.) and Alexander of Aphrodisias (c. 200 A.D.).

Aristotle developed the earlier philosophical work of Socrates and Plato in a more practical and down-to-
earth manner, and was the first to create a comprehensive system of philosophy, encompassing Ethics,
Metaphysics, Aesthetics, Logic, Epistemology, Politics and Science. He rejected the Rationalism and
Idealism espoused by Platonism, and advocated the characteristic Aristotelian virtue of "phronesis"
(practical wisdom or prudence). Another cornerstone of Aristotelianism is the idea of teleology (the idea
that all things are designed for, or directed toward, a final result or purpose).

Aristotelian Logic was the dominant form of Logic until 19th Century advances in mathematical logic,
and as late as the 18th Century Kant stated that Aristotle's theory of logic completely accounted for the
core of deductive inference. His six books on Logic, organized into a collection known as the
"Organon" in the 1st Century B.C., remain standard texts even today.

Aristotle's works on Ethics (particularly the "Nicomachean Ethics" and the "Eudemian Ethics") revolve
around the idea that morality is a practical, not a theoretical, field, and, if a person is to become
virtuous, he must perform virtuous activities, not simply study what virtue is. The doctrines of Virtue
Ethics and Eudaimonism reached their apotheosis in Aristotle's ethical writings. He stressed that man is a
rational animal, and that Virtue comes with the proper exercise of reason. He also promoted the idea of
the "golden mean", the desirable middle ground, between two undesirable extremes (e.g. the virtue of
courage is a mean between the two vices of cowardice and foolhardiness).

Aristotelian Metaphysics and Epistemology largely follow those of his teacher, Plato, although he began
to diverge on some matters. Aristotle assumed that for knowledge to be true it must be unchangeable,
as must the object of that knowledge. The universe therefore divides into two phenomena, Form (the
abstract and unobservable, such as souls or knowledge) and Matter (the observable, things that can be
sensed and quantified), and these two phenomena are different from, but indispensable to, each other.
Aristotle's conception of hylomorphism (the idea that substances are forms inhering in matter)
differed from that of Plato in that he held that Form and Matter are inseparable, and that matter and form
do not exist apart from each other, but only together.

Aristotle's theory of Politics emphasizes the belief that humans are naturally political, and that the
political life of a free citizen in a self-governing state or "polis" (with a constitution which is a mixture of
leadership, aristocracy and citizen participation) is the highest form of life. Aristotelian ideals have
underlain much modern liberal thinking about politics, the vote and citizenship.

Although much of Aristotle's work was lost to Western Philosophy after the fall of the Roman Empire,
the texts were reintroduced into the West by medieval Islamic scholars like Averroes and Maimonides.
Just as these Muslim philosophers reconciled Aristotelianism with Islamic beliefs, St. Thomas Aquinas
was largely responsible for reconciling Aristotelianism with Christianity, arguing that it complements and
completes the truth revealed in the Christian tradition. It became the dominant philosophic influence on
Scholasticism and Thomism in the early Middle Ages in Europe.
The distinctively Aristotelian idea of teleology was transmitted through the German philosophers
Christian Wolff (1679 - 1754) and Immaneul Kant to Georg Hegel, who applied it to history as a totality,
resulting in turn in an important Aristotelian influence upon Karl Marx.

The lasting legacy of Aristotelianism can be seen in the works of contemporary philosophers such as
John McDowell (1942 - ), Hans-Georg Gadamer (1900 - 2002) and Alasdair MacIntyre (1929 - ).