The Greek Mind, Chp 8 Les 2

Greek Thinkers

●Greeks believed the mind was capable of great understanding

●Golden Age of Greece lasted from 500 BCE to 350 BCE

○During this time great philosophers, scientists, mathematicians,
artists, and writers emerged

●Philosophy

○Means “love of wisdom”

○Helped to develop the study of history, political science, biology,
logic, reasoning

The Sophists

●Traveled from polis to polis

●Taught subjects like math, science, and history

●Best known for teaching art of public speaking

●Reject absolute right or wrong

●Challenged Greek traditions

●Did not believe Gods influenced life

Socrates

●Harsh critic of the Sophists

●Absolute truth

●Socratic method

○A new way of questioning

○Used to this day in colleges

○Encouraged students to ask questions to seek knowledge

●Athenian government feared him as his students would
question government

○Sentenced to death

Plato

●

Student of Socrates

●

Wrote The Republic

○Plan for ideal society and government

○Organized society into 3 groups

■Philosopher Kings

●At the top

●Ruled through logic and wisdom

■Warriors

●Defended society

■Regular People

○Just and reasonable government

○Equal rights for women

Aristotle

●Wrote 200 works on government, astronomy, and
political science

●Golden Mean

○Middle position between two extremes

○Live moderately

●Helped to develop modern science

●Wrote of 3 governments

○Monarchy

■Rule by one person

○Oligarchy

■Rule by a few people

○Democracy

■Rule by many

○Said the best government has features of all 3

○Influenced United States Constitution

Historians

●Herodotus wrote a history of the Persian Wars

○Wrote gods influence events

○Separated fact from fictions

○“Father of history”

●Thucydides

○Wrote History of the Peloponnesian Wars

○Rejected idea that gods impact history

○Only accepted eyewitness accounts

Scientists

●Believed natural events could be explained with logic

●Thales of Miletus

○Studied astronomy

●Pythagoras

○Relationships could be explained through numbers

○Pythagorean Theorem to find length of sides of triangle

●Hippocrates

○“Father of Medicine”

○Disease caused naturally

○Hippocratic Oath

■Doctors should do their best to help their patients

■Keep their patients information private