Intro to Greek Legacy Flashcards
How scholars describe Greek Philosophy
- Rational and secular
- “Looking for knowledge, understanding, wisdom, and illumination in the exploration of nature and man” (Ebenstein and Ebenstein 2000)
- Ideas during that time were considered modern
what is Miletus and the thinkers from the area?
Miletus is a burgis port area
Important thinkers formed milesian school
1. Thales = water
2. Anaximander = 4 elements
3. Anaximenes = air
what are ionian philosophers/pre socratic thinkers & lack of materials
- from diff parts of greece
- first to organize city states and learn self govt
- their role is to look for the “rational exploration of nature (physis)”
- used to think nature cannot be defined by reason & primitive man is only aware of the things useful or harmful to them; animistic=irrational, supernatural & mythical view (rituals for rain etc)
- nature as “one of the few great intellectual revolutions of all time as it is freed reason”=nature can be rationalized & understood=no supernatural=everything follows natures laws
- small & insufficient materials covering Ionian Philosophers
- Christianity also played a role in the lack of understanding of these philosophy (full of greek elements; god is above nature & miracle in change in regular changes; greek thinks theres divine in nature; miracle in orderly regularity)
what are the greek legacies
philosophy & religion
what is philosophy
love & search of knowledge or wisdom & understanding across various disciplines
process of learning
what is religion in accordance to greek legacy
- religion is connected to nature
- xenophanes & protagoras=god is created out of man’s image
- pre-socratic thinkers adhere to empiricism (Democritus & atomos)
- realism played a role in understanding the nature of the world before man’s rationality
what are sophists
- philosophers that travel city to city
- helped access education in city states instead of being concentrated in the aristocrats
- undertaking education of what it means to be a man
- negative connotation=”method of reasoning which perverts truth by captious & cunning logic, bordering on dishonesty” [twisted logic]
who is socrates
- socratic method (Q&A with self)
- tried in 399 BC for “corrupting the minds of the young and believing in deities of his own invention”
- used his trial for professing his wisdom
who is plato
- 427-347 BC
- student of socrates & founder of the Academy
- wrote the Republic
- Ended Greek rationalism due to his hate for Athenian democracy
what is the start of political philosophy
started with the greeks & commentaies on plato
what is politics & polis in greek period
- inseparable from time in polis (city with common habits, military strength, myth of origin, own god & religion, & citizens)
- sole source of authority dedicated to the purpose of achieving the good life thru indiv participation in communal affairs
- creation of social balance and harmony of individual differences based on premise that desire for individual fulfillment need not end in anarchy (disorder w/ no rulers) (not totalinarian)
what is athens
- one of the pinnacles of human civilization
- more concerned on public affairs (polites; opposite is idiotes [uninterested in public affairs])
- had the Academy & Lyceum
- had great art & literature
- affected by military aggresion, intolerance, & economic base of slavery
what is the military aggression in athens
490 & 480 = Athens beat Persians at Marathon & Salamis
432 = 27 year war with Sparta=ruined Athens
332=Athens fell to Macedonians
what is athens intolerance
- killing of socrates
- banishing of themistocles (naval strategist accused of collabing with Persians)
- imprisonment of militiades (land warfare general at the Battle of Marathon)
- critias, student of socrates, became one of the 30 tyrants (pro-Spartan oligarchy after athens defeat in peloponessian war)
what is the versatility in the greek period
- leisure, love of conversation, admiration of physical beauty of both men & women, delight in the theater & the dramatists Aeschylus, Sophocles, & Euripides, participation in communal affairs = all brings influence to arts of literature, architecture, philosophy, and political behavior
- versatility as hallmark of the citizen
