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The Big Three of Greek Philosophy

Socrates was an Athens street philosopher who was accused of corrupting youth and sentenced to death for embarrassing powerful figures. Plato was Socrates' student and wrote dialogues featuring Socrates' questioning, and believed in the pre-existence of souls and forms. Aristotle was Plato's best student, tutored Alexander the Great, and founded his own school, emphasizing using reason and moderation.

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Oohris Moira Sumilang
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306 views2 pages

The Big Three of Greek Philosophy

Socrates was an Athens street philosopher who was accused of corrupting youth and sentenced to death for embarrassing powerful figures. Plato was Socrates' student and wrote dialogues featuring Socrates' questioning, and believed in the pre-existence of souls and forms. Aristotle was Plato's best student, tutored Alexander the Great, and founded his own school, emphasizing using reason and moderation.

Uploaded by

Oohris Moira Sumilang
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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SOCRATES, PLATO, AND ARISTOTLE: THE BIG THREE IN GREEK PHILOSOPHY

SOCRATES: ATHENS STREET-CORNER PHILOSOPHER

Socrates was the big-city philosopher in ancient Athens. Accused and convicted of
corrupting the youth, his only real crime was embarrassing and irritating a number of
important people. His punishment was death. Socrates didnt write books; he just liked
to ask probing and sometimes humiliating questions, which gave rise to the famous
Socratic Method of Teaching. This street-corner philosopher made a career of deflating
pompous windbags.

PLATO: THE PHILOSOPHER WHO WOULD BE KING

An aristocratic man with plenty of money and a superb physique, Plato at one time won
two prizes as a championship wrestler. Actually, the mans real (and little known) name
was Aristocles; Plato was just a nickname given to him by his friends, whose original
connotation made reference to his broad shoulders.

Plato became an enthusiastic and talented student of Socrates and wrote famous
dialogues featuring his teacher verbally grappling with opponents. Our wrestler believed
in the pre-existence and immortality of the soul, holding that life is nothing more than
the imprisonment of the soul in a body. In addition to the physical world, there is a
heavenly realm of greater reality consisting in Forms, Ideals, or Ideas (such as Equality,
Justice, Humanity, and so on). As his crowning achievement: He wrote a famous
treatise (The Republic) on the ideal society, in which he expressed the thought that a
philosopher, of all people, who should be king (big surprise!)

ARISTOTLE: A LONG WALK TO THE GOLDEN MEAN

Aristotle was Platos best student. He went on to become the very well-paid tutor of
Alexander the Great probably the highest paid philosopher in history. Aristotle
started his own philosophical school when he was 50 years old. Although he lived only
ten more years, he produced nearly a thousand books and pamphlets, only a few of
which have survived.

This great thinker was called a peripatetic philosopher (peripateo = to walk around)
because he liked to lecture to his students while taking a walk. Another group of
philosophers were called stoics because they preferred sitting around on porches (stoa)
when they shot the breeze.

A key theme in Aristotles thought is that happiness is the goal of life. Aristotle was a
good deal less other-worldly than Plato. He voluntarily went into exile from Athens
when conditions became a bit politically dangerous for him, in his words, lest Athens
sin twice against philosophy.

The founder of logical theory, Aristotle believed that the greatest human endeavor is
the use of reason in theoretical activity. One of his best known ideas was his conception
of The Golden Mean avoid extremes, the counsel of moderation in all things.

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