How are the Greek philosophers influential and why do we study them in European history?
I have to write an essay on this, but i don’t have enough key topics and points. help ?
I probly should’ve put classical greek philosophers is that changes anything ?
Tags: European, Greek, History, influential, Philosophers, study, them
May 13th, 2010 at 10:38 pm
A lot of our modern culture is based on principles introduced by the Greeks. The Greeks invented democracy and with it, they paved the way for our western civilization to develop. The Greek philosophers laid the foundation for our way of thinking in many areas, such as: medicine, architecture, maths, art and life itself. Some famous ones are Socrates, Aristotle and Plato.. Hope this helps!
May 13th, 2010 at 10:48 pm
We study them in European history because although their philosophies and ideas existed from 500 BC or whenever they were written, they were lost to the West and reintroduced during the European Renaissance. The Islamic cultures in the East preserved them and added to them after translating them into Arabic. During the Renaissance they were translated into Latin (the scholarly language at the time) and scholars in the West could then read and interpret them. That”s why they are studied with European History.
They are influential for many reasons. Theories of democracy, ideas about mathematics, astronomy, and science that had been forgotten were now rediscovered. Also they either contained or promoted the idea of a state separate from religion. The Eastern cultures rejected the idea, but the Western ones espoused it, leading to the governments we know today.
May 13th, 2010 at 11:28 pm
600 and 200 bc. Greek philosophy formed the basis of all later philosophical speculation in the Western world. The intuitive hypotheses of the ancient Greeks foreshadowed many theories of modern science, and many of the moral ideas of pagan Greek philosophers have been incorporated into Christian moral doctrine. The political ideas set forth by Greek thinkers influenced political leaders as different as the framers of the U.S. Constitution and the founders of various 20th-century totalitarian states.
The Ionian School…
Greek philosophy may be divided between those philosophers who sought an explanation of the world in physical terms and those who stressed the importance of nonmaterial forms or ideas. The first important school of Greek philosophy, the Ionian or Milesian, was largely materialistic. Founded by Thales of Miletus in the 6th century bc, it began with Thales” belief that water is the basic substance out of which all matter is created. A more elaborate view was offered by Anaximander, who held that the raw material of all matter is an eternal substance that changes into the commonly experienced forms of matter. These forms in turn change and merge into one another according to the rule of justice, that is, balance and proportion. Heraclitus taught that fire is the primordial source of matter, but he believed that the entire world is in a constant state of change or flux and that most objects and substances are produced by a union of opposite principles. He regarded the soul, for example, as a mixture of fire and water. The concept of nous (“mind”), an infinite and unchanging substance that enters into and controls every living object, was developed by Anaxagoras, who also believed that matter consisted of infinitesimally small particles, or atoms. He epitomized the philosophy of the Ionian school by suggesting a nonphysical governing principle and a materialistic basis of existence.
Pythagoras, the Eleatic School, and the Sophists…
The division between idealism and materialism became more distinct. Pythagoras stressed the importance of form rather than matter in explaining material structure. The Pythagorean school also laid great stress on the importance of the soul, regarding the body only as the soul”s “tomb.” According to Parmenides, the leader of the Eleatic school, the appearance of movement and the existence of separate objects in the world are mere illusions; they only seem to exist. The beliefs of Pythagoras and Parmenides formed the basis of the idealism that was to characterize later Greek philosophy.
A more materialistic interpretation was made by Empedocles, who accepted the belief that reality is eternal but declared that it is composed of chance combinations of the four primal substances: fire, air, earth, and water. Such materialistic explanations reached their climax in the doctrines of Democritus, who believed that the various forms of matter are caused by differences in the shape, size, position, and arrangement of component atoms. Materialism applied to daily life inspired the philosophy of a group known as the Sophists, who were active in the 5th century bc. With their stress on the importance of human perception, such Sophists as Protagoras doubted that humanity would ever be able to reach objective truth through reason and taught that material success rather than truth should be the purpose of life.
Socrates…
In contrast were the ideas of Socrates, with whom Greek philosophy attained its highest level. His avowed purpose was “to fulfill the philosopher”s mission of searching into myself and other men.” After a proposition had been stated, the philosopher asked a series of questions designed to test and refine the proposition by examining its consequences and discovering whether it was consistent with the known facts. Socrates described the soul not in terms of mysticism but as “that in virtue of which we are called wise or foolish, good or bad.” In other words, Socrates considered the soul a combination of an individual”s intelligence and character.
Plato and Aristotle…
NOT ENOUGH ROOM TO TYPE OUT.
NEED MORE…
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May 13th, 2010 at 11:56 pm
Melinda what a great question…. You know I was thinking of asking the same thing. Ms. Alwood would be kind of mad if we had the same answers, and we wouldn”t want that now would we? So you cheated first, so Ill let u have the answers. Hope u get an A! (:
May 14th, 2010 at 12:22 am
Melinda i don”t think Mrs. Alwood assigned us an essay.
I believe its was to read the first 103 pages of Sophie”s World and answer the 3 questions provided.
Hope Mrs. Alwood gives you a 100% for all your hard work and effort towards her summer homework.
Remember its due JULY 1. @ MIDNIGHT.
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