Greek Wisdom and Philosophy

In ancient Greece, philosophers contemplated and theorized about many different ideas such as human nature, ethics, and moral dilemmas. Ancient Greek philosophers can be categorized into three groups: the Pre-Socratics, the Socratics, and the Post-Socratics.

Pre-Socratic philosophers mostly investigated natural phenomena. They believed that humans originated from a single substance, which could be water, air, or an unlimited substance called “apeiron.” One well-known philosopher from this group was Pythagoras, the mathematician who created the Pythagorean Theorem. 

Many early philosphers were focused on where everything came from or what caused it all. The definition of a First Cause was rejected by Pythagoras who claimed number as Truth. Numbers have no beginning or end and neither does the world or a person’s soul. One’s immortal soul goes through many incarnations, acquiring wisdom, and although Pythagoras suggests it finally joins with a higher soul (God), how he defined that oversoul is unclear. Xenophanes answers this with his claim that there is only one God who is the First Cause and also governor of the world. He rejected the anthropomorphic vision of the Olympian Gods for a monotheistic vision of God as Pure Spirit.

Ancient Greek philosophy extends from as far as the seventh century B.C. up until the beginning of the Roman Empire, in the first century A.D. During this period five great philosophical traditions originated: the Platonist, the Aristotelian, the Stoic, the Epicurean, and the Skeptic.

Ancient Greek philosophy distinguishes itself from other early forms of philosophical and theological theorizing for its emphasis on reason as opposed to the senses or the emotions. For example, among the most famous arguments from pure reason we find those against the possibility of motion presented by Zeno.

Socrates, who lived at the end of the fifth century B.C., was Plato’s teacher and a key figure in the rise of Athenian philosophy. The Socratic philosophers in ancient Greece were Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. These are some of the most well-known of all Greek philosophers. Socrates (470/469–399 B.C.E.) is remembered for his teaching methods and for asking thought-provoking questions. Instead of lecturing his students, he asked them difficult questions in order to challenge their underlying assumptions—a method still used in modern-day law schools. Because Socrates wrote little about his life or work, much of what we know comes from his student Plato.

Socrates’ focus was on the improvement of individual character, which he defined as the “soul”, in order to live a virtuous life. His central vision is summed up in the claim attributed to him by Plato that “an unexamined life is not worth living” (Apology 38b) and that one should not, therefore, simply repeat what one has learned from others but, instead, examine what one believes – and how one’s beliefs inform one’s behavior – in order to know one’s self truly and behave justly. His central teachings are given in four of Plato’s dialogues, usually published under the title The Last Days of Socrates – Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, and Phaedo – which recount his indictment by the Athenians on charges of impiety and corrupting the youth, his trial, time in prison, and execution.

Plato’s other dialogues – almost all of which feature Socrates as the central character – may or may not reflect Socrates’ actual thought. Even contemporaries of Plato claimed that the “Socrates” who appeared in his dialogues bore no resemblance to the teacher they had known. Antisthenes founded the Cynic school, which focused on simplicity in living – on behavior as character – and denial of any luxury as its basic tenet, while Aristippus founded the Cyrenaic school of hedonism in which luxury and pleasure were held to be the highest goals one could aspire to. Both of these men were students of Socrates, just as Plato was, but their philosophies have little or nothing in common with his.

Whatever the historical Socrates may have taught, the philosophy Plato attributes to him is based on the concept of an eternal realm of Truth (the Realm of Forms) of which observable reality is only a reflection. The concepts of Truth, Goodness, Beauty, and others exist in this realm, and what people refer to as true, good, or beautiful are only attempts at definition, not the things themselves. Plato claimed that people’s understanding was darkened and limited by acceptance of the “true lie” (also known as the Lie in the Soul), which caused them to believe wrongly about the most important aspects of human life. In order to free one’s self from this lie, one had to recognize the existence of the higher realm and align one’s understanding with it through the pursuit of wisdom.  

Plato (428/427–348/347 B.C.E.) studied ethics, virtue, justice, and other ideas relating to human behavior. Following in Socrates’ footsteps, he became a teacher and inspired the work of the next great Greek philosopher, Aristotle. Aristotle (384–322 B.C.E.), while also interested in ethics, studied different sciences like physics, biology, and astronomy. He is often credited with developing the study of logic, as well as the foundation for modern-day zoology.

Aristotle would go on to become the tutor of Alexander the Great (l. 356-323 BCE) who, through his conquest of Persia, spread the concepts of Greek philosophy throughout the East from the regions of modern-day Turkey up through Iraq and Iran, across through Russia, down to India, and back toward Egypt where it would influence the development of the school of thought known as Neo-Platonism as formulated by the philosopher Plotinus (l. c. 202-274 CE) whose vision, developed from Plato’s, of the Divine Mind and a higher reality which informs the observable world would influence that of Paul the Apostle (l. c. 5-64 CE) in his understanding and interpretation of the mission and meaning of Jesus Christ, laying the foundation for Christianity’s development.

The works of Aristotle, which would come to inform Christianity as much as Plato’s, would also be instrumental in the formulation of Islamic thought after Islam was established in the 7th century CE as well as the theological concepts of Judaism. In the present day, Greek philosophy is the underlying form of belief systems, cultural values, and legal codes all around the world as it has largely contributed to their development.  

Aristotle believed that the entire purpose of human life was happiness. People were unhappy because they confused material wealth or position or relationships – all of which were impermanent – with lasting, internal satisfaction, which was cultivated by developing arete (“personal excellence”), which allowed one to experience eudaimonia (“to be possessed of a good spirit”). Having attained eudaimonia, one could not lose it, and one could then see clearly to help others toward the same state. He believed that the First Cause was a force he defined as the Prime Mover – that set everything in motion – but that, afterwards, things which were in motion stayed in motion. Concerns about a First Cause were not as important to him as an understanding of how the observable world worked and how best to live in it.  

The Post-Socratic philosophers established four schools of philosophy: Cynicism, Skepticism, Epicureanism, and Stoicism. The Post-Socratic philosophers focused their attention on the individual rather than on communal issues such as politics. For example, stoicism sought to understand and cultivate a certain way of life, based on one’s virtues, or wisdom, courage, justice, and temperance. Modern philosophers and educators still employ the patterns of thinking and exploration established by ancient Greek philosophers, such as the application of logic to questions of thought and engaging in debate to better convey philosophical ideas.

Stoicism originated in Athens with Zeno of Citium, around 300B.C. Stoicism asserts reality is governed by logos and that what happens is necessary. For Stoicism, the goal of human philosophizing is the achievement of a state of absolute tranquility. This is obtained through the progressive education to independence from one’s needs. The stoic philosopher will not fear any bodily or social condition, having trained not to depend on bodily need or any specific passion, commodity, or friendship. This is not to say that the stoic philosopher will not seek pleasure, success, or long-standing relationships: simply that she will not live for them. The influence of Stoicism on the development of Western philosophy is hard to overestimate; among its most devoted sympathizers were the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, the economist Hobbes, and the philosopher Descartes.

Among philosophers’ names, “Epicurus” is probably one of those that is most frequently cited in non-philosophical discourses. Epicurus taught that the life worth being lived is spent seeking pleasure; the question is: which forms of pleasure? Throughout history, Epicureanism has often been misunderstood as a doctrine preaching the indulgence into the most vicious bodily pleasures. On the contrary, Epicurus himself was known for his temperate eating habits, and for his moderation. His exhortations were directed towards the cultivation of friendship as well as any activity which most elevates our spirits, such as music, literature, and art. Epicureanism was characterized by metaphysical principles; among them, the theses that our world is one out of many possible worlds and that everything happens by chance. The latter doctrine is developed also in Lucretius’s De Rerum Natura.

Pyrrho of Elis (c. 360-c. 270 B.C.) was probably influenced also by the Buddhist tradition of his time, Pyrrho viewed the suspension of judgment as a means to achieve that freedom of disturbance that alone can lead to happiness. His goal was to keep each human’s life in a state of perpetual inquiry. Indeed, the mark of skepticism is the suspension of judgment. In its most extreme form, there is nothing that should not be doubted, including the very fact that everything can be doubted. The teachings of ancient skeptics exercised a deep influence on a number of major Western philosophers, Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592), Renè Descartes, David Hume, George E. Moore, Ludwig Wittgenstein. A contemporary revival of skeptical doubting was initiated by Hilary Putnam in 1981 and later developed into the movie The Matrix (1999.)