Greek Philosophy I
II) Philosophy: the most important of the Greek contributions
A) 1st philosophers
*3 main branches of philosophy
- Ontology... the study of the nature of being (existence)
- Epistemology... the study of the nature of knowledge (how do
we know what is right)
- Ethics... the study of how we should treat each other
*Philosophy tends to answer unanswered questions
- all questions that receive an answer become disciplines
1) 1st ones tried to explain everything around them
i) Greeks used to attribute everything to
the gods
ii) trading allows the knowledge of other
gods, or people who don't believe or have never heard of the Greek gods
iii) confusion lead to the reliance on human
reason
B) 1st Philosophers
1) Thales (600 b.c.)
i) "water is the source of all things"
ii) some disagreed and said earth, air, or
fire, are the sources
iii) some one combined all four together and
came up with a concept that earth, fire, water, and air are the elements
that make up everything
iv) Invented physics - the study of
the physical world
2) Demecretis
i) said all things are made up of indivisible,
invisible atoms
*Greeks begin to investigate change
3) Heraclitus
i) "everything changes"
a) "can't step into the same river twice"
- flow = change
b) "Change is good"
1) way in which things find a
natural balance
i) hot things cool, cold
things warm up
4) Parmenides
i) said nothing changes - logically speaking
a) explained movement - things
only appear to move
b) Zeno's paradox
1) no speed can ever be matched
with a small head start
2) theoretically true but he made
a small mathematical error
c) says you must suspend the senses
in order to know the world
C) Sophites
1) believed there was no truth
i) truth is individually divided
2) they were well paid teachers
i) taught students how to win friends and
influence people
ii) very useful during the time period
3) fails to teach people morals and good truths
D) Socrates
1) method of study - Socratic method / Dialecture
i) study through a series of well placed questions
to help define the knowledge of things
2) Believed in 2 kinds of truths
i) Non controversial truth
a) can be easily proved
ii) truth - virtue - love - bravery
a) can not be understood with a definition
b) says way to understand things is
to look at it in many different angles
c) one will never know the truth, one
will only develop a better understanding