Key Concepts in Ancient Greek Philosophy: Socrates to Aristotle

The Sophists and Socrates

The Sophists introduced a new ideology that challenged traditional norms regarding man and society.

Often referred to as 'Wise Charlatans' by their critics, key figures included Gorgias, Protagoras, Melitus, and Anytus.

Protagoras: "Man is the measure of all things."
Gorgias (Nihilism): Nothing exists. If something existed, we could not know it.
Parmenides (Contrast): If something we knew, we could not communicate it.

The method created by Socrates was Inductive, divided into several parts:

Irony: Using disconcerting questions to make the student realize their ignorance.
Maieutics: The art of bringing forth knowledge.
Hallmark Discovery: Defining essential concepts.

Doxa: Opinion, the sensible world, or the shadows (as seen in the Cave).
Episteme: Well-founded, certain knowledge.
Myth of the Cave: Illustrates that the senses are deceptive and prevent us from seeing true reality.

The method created by Plato is Dialectics.

Platonic Eros: Love is the force that prompts the soul's ascent from the sensible world toward the intelligible world.
Ascent from Doxa to Episteme: The Platonic method is a rise in knowledge because it always seeks the ultimate truth or certainty.

For Aristotle, reality is causal, not casual. Reality must be explained by a cause (reason) to be concluded as real.

Understanding reality requires identifying four distinct causes:

Material Cause: The substance from which something is made (e.g., the bronze of a statue).
Formal Cause: The form or essence (e.g., the shape of the statue).
Efficient Cause: The agent that brings about the change (e.g., the sculptor).
Final Cause: The purpose or end goal (e.g., to decorate a temple).

Potential Act (Actuality): The realization of a capacity; the state of having achieved the potential.

Cynicism is a derogatory designation referring to their frugal and simple lifestyle.

Representatives: Antisthenes (founder) and Diogenes of Sinope.
Founding Location: Antisthenes established the school at the gymnasium called Cynosarges (meaning 'white dog').
Best Way of Life: Radical freedom, shamelessness, and continuous attacks on traditions and social lifestyle.
Social Order: Cynicism often functioned as a form of anarchism for small groups rejecting conventional social order.
Autarky: Self-sufficiency.

Founded by Epicurus, this school focused on Hedonism (Pleasure) as the highest good.

Goals: Achieving Aponia (absence of physical pain) and Ataraxia (absence of spiritual disturbance).
Ataraxia Defined: The state of the imperturbable soul, free from spiritual disturbance.

Founded by Zeno of Citium.

Core Principle: "Living according to nature is to live according to reason."

Founded by Marcus Tullius Cicero.