Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle Are the Most

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 knowledge that one can differentiate between 'right' and 'wrong' and once a person has the knowledge he (or she) will act rightly. 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 awareness was knowledge backed up by the insight of reason, which was abiding and universal. Plato's other theories include his political theory described in his Republic that is concerned with the question of justice and his theory of the enlightened 'philosopher-king' providing the political leadership.

Aristotle (384-322 BC)

Aristotle was the third great Greek philosopher and scientist who was a pupil of Plato at his academy. Aristotle's range of intellectual thought is astonishingly vast covering most of the sciences (physics, chemistry, zoology, botany), philosophy (metaphysics, logic, ethics, psychology, political theory) and arts (history, rhetoric, literary theory).

Apart from his pioneering work in science, particularly in the study of zoology, Aristotle's most notable work as a philosopher is in the field of 'logic' as he invented the study of formal logic and devised a system known as 'Aristotelean syllogistic' that for centuries was regarded as the sum of logic. In psychology Aristotle made a deep study of the soul and concluded that soul does not exist apart from the body. In this theory he has challenged the Platonic description of the soul. Aristotle's philosophy of Ethics is an analysis of character and intelligence as they relate to happiness. In his study of metaphysics he argues for the existence of a divine being described as the Prime Mover who is responsible for the unity and purpose of nature.