Western civilization. Ideas of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle Essay

Western civilization. Ideas of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle - Essay Example Athens in olden times was an intellectual and artistic centre of the Greek world. The advanced thinkers came in and rejected the traditional explanations of the world of nature. The Greek thinkers started suspecting rational order to the universe.In such an atmosphere came the traveling teacher the Sophist. They were men whose responsibility was to train and educate the sons of Athens [1]. Amongst the ranks of Sophist came Socrates (c.469-399 B.C.), the most notable and wisest Athens ever survived. His most prized student was Plato (c.427-347 B.C.), who came from a wealthy and powerful family and devoted himself to teachings of philosophy under Socrates at a young age of twenty. Amongst Plato's prized student was Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) born in small Greek colony in Thrace and whose father served grandfather of Alexander the Great. He was interested in details of natural life. [2]Socrates was a classical Greek philosopher. He is the founder of Western philosophy, and has contributio ns in the field of ethics, epistemology and logic. His ideas and approaches strongly provide a foundation for the western philosophy. His most important contribution is his dialectic method of inquiry which is known as Socratic Method used in examination of concepts of good and justice. He is known as the father of politics, philosophy, ethics and moral philosophy. He taught his students to be concerned with their families, careers and political responsibilities and also with the welfare of their souls. He believed in immortality of the soul, and that virtue could be taught. Socrates argued that the moral excellence was a matter of divine legacy and not the 1) Steven Kreis, the history guide, Lecture 6: The Greek thoughts: Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, 2000. http://www.historyguide.org/ancient/lecture8b.html 2) Dr. C. George Boeree, the ancient Greeks part2: Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, copyright 2000, 2009. http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/athenians.html Parental nurture. His few believe were that no one desires evil, no one does wrong willingly or knowingly, all virtue is knowledge and virtue is sufficient for knowledge. This believes are characterized as Socratic paradoxes. He is himself referred as saying, "I know that I know nothing" [3]; he believed that wrongdoing was a consequence of ignorance. He connected the art of love with the love of wisdom i.e. philosophy. Socrates believed that the best way for the people to live was to focus on self development rather than material wealth. He stressed that virtue was the most valuable of all possessions [4]. Plato was Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, writer of philosophical dialogues and the founder of Academy in Athens. He laid the foundations of natural philosophy, science and western philosophy. He taught philosophy, logic, rhetoric and mathematics. He often discussed the father-son relationship and the impact it had on son's life. Plato discovered that mankind is born with knowledge and it is present in human mind at birth. He argued that in daily lives we collect information from our experiences and gave great importance to the physical, mental and spiritual development of an individual. Plato introduced the idea that the mistakes were due to not engaging properly within justice, beauty and equality (he called them "forms"). In metaphysics Plato predicted a systematic rational treatment of the forms and their interrelation. In ethics and moral psychology he developed the view that the good life requires not just a certain kind of knowledge but also training to healthy emo tional responses and harmony between the three parts of the soul; reason, spirit and appetite. [5] Aristotle was a Greek philosopher, a student of Plato and the teacher of Alexander the Great. His 3) Benjamin Jowett, The republic by Plato, book 1, 23rd September 2009. 4) Sarah Kofman, Socrates: Fictions of a Philosopher ,1998, ISBN 0-8014-3551-