Classical PhilosophersEssay Preview: Classical PhilosophersReport this essayClassical PhilosophyThe golden age of Greece was an age of thinking, of knowledge, and of the arts. Some of the greatest minds of any time projected their ideas upon the masses. They were called philosophers. These were men whose minds developed some of the most abstract and revolutionary ideas of the time. Some of them were put to death for their ideas and their beliefs and became martyrs for their cause. During this age, three philosophers in particular stood out from the rest.
SocratesSocrates was the first of the three great philosophers. Before devoting his life to his teachings and philosophies, he was a stonemason and also served as a soldier of some distinction during the Peloponnesian war. He never wrote any of his teachings down, and he preferred to speak about his beliefs and philosophies. He also involved himself with the political workings of Athens. He spent most of his life in discussion with young aristocratic men, unrelentingly questioning their blind confidence in popular opinion, but he never offered them any outlined abstract teaching. He merely conversed and questioned their beliefs. Also, unlike other Sophists of the time, he refused to accept pay for his teachings.
Because he had no texts written by himself on his beliefs, we turn to his followers for information on his beliefs. Plato documents many of Socrates conversations with the youth of Athens in his book, Platos Republic. In 405 BC Socrates was convicted (wrongly I might add) of corrupting the youth of Athens, interfering with the religion of the city, and for his intervention into politics. There is a text called `Apology, which documents his unsuccessful defense speech before the Athenian jury. In 399 BC, surrounded by friends and disciples, he drank hemlock (a poison made from the plant with the same name) and died gracefully.
Socrates beliefs were not only revolutionary, but also controversial. He spoke with disdain about the gods, and refuted the notion that Ðgood is doing whatever pleases them. Many texts document his beliefs and morals. Most informative of these are in Platos Republic. The best known out of all of his ideas were ideas about virtue, and doing what is right and good.
PlatoPlato was the next great philosopher, chronologically. It should be noted that Platos real name was Aristocles, and that Plato was a nickname, roughly translated to mean Ðthe broad, this could have been referring to many things, from the width of his shoulders, to the results of his wrestling training, to his forehead. Comparative with Socrates, before starting his own philosophical career (if that is what one can call it), he served in the Peloponnesian war. After the war was over, he devoted a significant portion of his life to following Socrates and documenting his conversations with the youth of Athens and also learning from him at the same time.
Plato was very interested in a career in politics, but after the death of Socrates and numerous other occasions involving the politicians of Athens, he gave up his ambitions and fled to Egypt, and after that, traveled to Italy. In Egypt, he learned of the water clock and later introduced it to Athens. His trip to Italy was of greater importance. There he met Pythagoras and came to appreciate the workings of mathematics. He also learned with the disciples of Pythagoras, learning from them and developing his idea Ð that the reality which scientific thought is seeking must be expressible in mathematical terms, mathematics being the most precise and definite kind of thinking of which we are capable. The significance of this idea for the development of science from the first beginnings to the present day has been immense.
The Pythagoreans are the original and most important Greeks of the world. Their names refer to Pythagoras and the Greeks. They are the most ancient and important of all those who followed Socrates from the time we have recorded as a group and who were called the “Lemoniacs of Athens.” The Greeks were a group of people who had been living in Egypt for most of the last millennium years. They came to the land of Greece and became friends with the members of the Pythagorean sect. From the twelfth century onwards they were active citizens in all Greek public societies, even if only for a few years. They also attended meetings in the courts in the churches in Rome, and were active in business. During this period, the Greek students, whose number was 10 to 12, were called the “Horus.” From this time they were called, “Symphaea.” (The Hippodrome at Nis, the Phoenicians “the Trojan” who were known as the “Kingdoms” of the world). Their name came from the symbol, Sótikos, which means “straw man,” as the Greeks refer to them. (1 Corinthians 15:19)
The Athenians began to believe in the ability of Pythagoras to communicate with his disciples, however, they continued to deny his views. It was this belief which led, in turn, to the idea that in doing so, he was trying to take advantage of the people’s mistrust of Pythagoras, making him a threat to society at large. In the time of Socrates, a similar form of mistrust was established in Greece, in which “any one who rejects the divine wisdom [of the human mind] can never be saved.”[7]
An important difference between Socrates and the Pythagoreans in their claims to have found a spiritual basis for science was that they thought of nature as being the beginning and end of a very long evolutionary chain. In fact, it appears that they believed in the “natural law of causality,” which the Pythagoreans held to be the foundation for “scientific religion.”[8] Their skepticism of their own understanding of nature had an important effect on their beliefs in the very idea that we all are equal and to God. The idea of human beings as being the beginning of our evolution in every moment of our lives is what Socrates was trying to prove to their followers. His notion of “the nature of all men,” which he was trying to prove from the very beginning, was actually a false and distorted interpretation of an early conception of the physical world that was being pursued. (See the quote in italics for what he meant there.) The idea that all mankind are created from nothing is an attempt by the Pythagoreans to deceive the world. Therefore, even as Pythagoras proved his theory to be true, the idea was made to look at its origins from the ancient history of science. Their attempt to create a religion of science from the early history of science is a form of self-creation which has become increasingly common in the modern world after the collapse of Christianity.
But because Socrates is not Christian nor Greek, or, as his followers said, to the point of his being a Christian, nor a Christian since he had joined the