Socrates, Plato, Aristotle

Key ideas

Socrates (470 399 BCE)

Ethics The truth about how to live a good moral life: what is goodness, justice, temperance? An action is right if it promotes our true happiness (drunkenness=enslavement) True pleasure is attained through ethical living

Universal definition of justice

Observe laws & limits to lead a good life Dialogues role of ignorant questioner to show experts their own ignorance Care for the soul: gaining wisdom is key to a virtuous life & saving the soul Knowing what is good = doing what is good
The Death of Socrates by Jacques-Louis David See www.pima.gov/publicdefender/socrates.htm

When I visited New York City last May, I took the opportunity to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where this painting is displayed. Socrates (470399 B.C.), uncoerced and unshackled, freely prepares to die by drinking poisonous hemlock. The philosopher is condemned to die by the Athenian democracy for promoting skepticism and impiety; the Athenians were nervous about offending the gods after losing to Sparta in the Peloponnesian War. Rather than flee the city, Socrates accepts his unjust punishment and sacrifices himself on abstract principle. Like Thomas Jefferson, who saw the painting at its unveiling, I love what Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825) does with the subject matter. Socrates calmly sits upright with his finger extended in the air, exuding authority, responsibility, and intellect. Surrounding him are his students, most of them acting emotionally. The only students in control of themselves are Plato, seated resigned and unhappy at the end of the bed, and Crito, who has his hand on Socrates leg attempting to persuade him rationally not to die until the very end. Nevertheless, Socrates shows nobility and self-control in the face of death. (Thoughts, Books and Philosophy; J H Bowden) See www.philosophypages.com

The Death of Socrates by Jacques-Louis David See www.pima.gov/publicdefend er/socrates.htm

Plato (428 347 BCE) Knowledge through reason, the intellect not the senses. Knowledge of reality & how we perceive it: what is whiteness, roundness, treeness? (Metaphysics question of meaning) Theory of Forms / Ideas:

world of the senses / change / illusion / appearance / imperfect

vs the authentic world / ideas / unchangeable / spiritual / eternal The Republic allegory of the cave What is spiritual truly exists; the soul no changeability. Plato distrusted the senses
Image courtesy of news.bbc.co.uk

Dualism - Body & soul in conflict; body imprisons soul

Ethics seek truth, goodness, beauty: focus on upward journey to the spiritual realm

Name Plato ()
Birth c. 428427 BC, Athens Death c. 348347 BC, Athens
Plato

School/tradition Platonism

Rhetoric, Art, Literature, Main interests Epistemology, Justice, Virtue, Politics, Education, Family, Militarism
Notable ideas Platonic realism

Socrates, Homer, Hesiod, Aristophanes, Aesop, Protagoras, Influences Parmenides, Pythagoras, Heraclitus, Orphism
Aristotle, Neoplatonism, Cicero, Plutarch, Stoicism, Anselm, Descartes, Hobbes, Leibniz, Mill, Schopenhauer, Influenced Nietzsche, Heidegger, Arendt, Gadamer and countless other western philosophers and theologians

Plato asks the young girl in Sophies World (by Jostein Gaarder) to think about the following 4 questions, thereby engaging in philosophy

Think over how a baker can bake 50 absolutely identical biscuits Ask yourself why all horses are the same Decide whether you think that [the human person] has an immortal soul Say whether men and women are equally sensible

Aristotle (384 322 BCE) Interested in scientific proof & principle of cause & effect Whiteness, treeness, justice etc exist called these forms Form and matter: recognises the essence of something & its physical manifestation: what makes me unique + the physical characteristics I exhibit. Both need each other.

Image courtesy of space.about.com

Form = what makes something what it is: whiteness, treeness, it is unchanging; matter = individual, particular, concrete, it changes. Knowledge begins with the senses. 2 ways of knowing: through the senses first + then through the intellect. We must use our senses as well as our intellect. Seasons: senses tell us there is change. Intellect tells us why. Within change there is stability foundation for scientific thought / principles