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Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle are the most famous of the ancient Greek philosophers. All three of them have left a deep impact on the Western philosophy. In this paper we will look at the main points of their philosophies and the impact they left on us.
Socrates (469-399 BC)
Socrates was the first of the famous trio. He did not write any books and most of what we know about Socrates has been derived from the works of his equally illustrious pupil, Plato. Socrates not having written any book is part of his philosophy as he believed in the superiority of argument over writing and spent most of his life in public places practicing dialogue and argument with his contemporaries.
Socrates' basic philosophy was ethical in nature. He believed in an objective understanding of justice, love, and virtue. He particularly emphasized 'self-knowledge' and believed in the essential goodness of men. According to Socrates no person is willingly bad and 'virtue is knowledge.' According to this philosophy, it is only with...
He also placed great emphasis on rational argument.
Plato (428-347 BC)
Plato was a true disciple of his famous teacher in every way but one: unlike Socrates, he believed in writing. Most of his writing was in the form of a dialogue in which his philosophical ideas were advanced, discussed and criticized through debate involving two or more persons. Plato's dialogues can be divided into the early, middle and the later dialogues. The early dialogues are an attempt by Plato to describe the philosophy of Socrates, while the middle and later works represent his own philosophy. At the heart of Plato's philosophy are his theory of Forms (or ideas) and his theory of Knowledge. Plato distinguishes between the two levels of awareness: opinion and knowledge. He believed that observations, including those of science were just opinions that could be right or wrong but the higher level of…
Socrates is one of the most renowned philosophers of all times. His dialectic method is used in a number of ways and has vital importance in literature and deliberation. In the contemporary era, Socratic or Dialectic Method is the term that is used to point out a conversation between two or more people who might have opposing views about an issue but they come to a conclusion after trying to
This is Aristotle's launching pad for his discussion of politics. To him, ethics and politics are matters of rational judgment, stemming from the natural inclinations of individual humans. This notion is reflected in Aristotle's analysis of the constitutional doctrines of some 158 cities. Essentially, he recognized that every state -- necessarily city states -- exist in unique sets of circumstances that act upon the universal forms of ethics in ways
Socrates asked them to come forward with their thoughts if they were "still doubtful about the argument." The two proceed to make a sophisticated argument, contrary to Socrates' points, that were counterexamples to the points about the body and the soul that Socrates had been making with such eloquence. It was cross-examination, but it was also a series of new hypotheses that Cebes and Simmias presented to the philosopher
Aristotle also argues that "happiness, above else, is held to be" (Book I, 7). He supports this argument by stating that, for every other virtue, people not only seek to obtain that virtue for its own sake, but also consider whether or not they will be happy in doing so. Thus, Aristotle sees happiness as the greatest because it is the only virtue that is sought simply for its
Plato and Death One of the most influential minds in western philosophy describing this search for meaning was Plato. Plato lived from 422-347 B.C, and was born into an aristocratic family in the city of Athens where he became a student of Socrates, and eventually a teacher of Aristotle. As a student of Socrates, Plato followed the structure of philosophical agreement to ensure a just society - no laws are to
Plato and Aristotle Metaphysics The idea of metaphysics is a complex idea that focuses on expanding beyond the mere realities of physics within the natural world. In a sense, this goes "beyond physics," in that the study of metaphysics is "devoted to matters that transcend the mundane concerns" expounded by those of practical scientists such as Einstein and Heisenberg (van Inwagen, Peter). So in a broad term, "metaphysics" attempts to delve deeply