Socratic Period

The nature of philosophy in the pre-Socratic period was highly nature-centric. In the socratic period however, philosophy was much more society-centered.

That is, it dabbled with ethics, the importance of, and the directions needed for living a pious and good life. The socratic period was marked by:

  1. Beginning of Greek Enlightenment
  2. Critical Thinking Encouragement - Departure from speculative thought
  3. Individualism - Freedom emphasized

This period was the rise of Skepticism and Subjectivism.

Skepticism has been defined earlier, followers believe that “true knowledge” is impossible to attain. Subjectivism says that different people can have different beliefs. Fundamentalism is a form of extreme subjectivism, where people assert that ONLY their beliefs are true.

Fundamentalism disrupts the harmony which is needed to progress knowledge.

Although naive theories full of gods and occult powers existed, a mechanical theory of atomists was around as well during this period.

This period is the beginning of Greek enlightenment, where freedom and individualism was encouraged and they displayed a critical attitude towards life.

First half of the period was full of natural philosophy of cosmos. Man’s place was determined using Metaphysical conclusions. The second half was marked with a change in the political, economic and intellectual atmosphere. This is after the Great Persian war. That is, the nature of thinking shifted from speculative to critical.

This new age was majorly due to the establishment of a democratic institution. This ushered in many great people such as Socrates and Hippocrates.

Sophists

They were the representation of a new movement in Greece. These were wise and skillful people who worked as professional teachers and travellers. As a livelihood, they used to train people in:

  • Dialects - Argumentative reasoning (Lawyers, for example) and Aporia (trying to lead the other person into a contradiction)
  • Grammar
  • Rhetoric - Flow of speech
  • Oratory

They were relevant because it was beneficial to be a good orator in democracy, as it opens up opportunities for one to better their life and influence others as well.

However, Socrates felt that they did not use their intelligence properly, and that their logical arguments were lacking. They were also highly skeptical in nature, as that was the prevailing school of thought at the time.

 

Socrates

“Virtue is Knowledge - An unexamined life is not worth living” (paraphrased)

Socrates urged for clear and rational thinking, and emphasized that knowledge and virtue are necessary for society. That is, he gave importance to ethics.

As mentioned earlier, philosophy before Socrates was highly nature-centric but Socrates focused more on the betterment of society. He caused a shift in philosophy to be more society-centric in nature.

At the time, most of the Sophists lacked objectivity and placed emphasis on subjective opinions. They followed Protagoras, “Man is the measure of all things.” Ethical was divorced from epistemological, which caused issues in society.

Socrates was a moderate thinker, and was infatuated with finding the true meaning of Knowledge. To better understand it, he tried to establish why knowledge is important.

He emphasized that every person is supposed to examine and reflect upon themselves to improve. This is further more important for leaders, and he expressed moral and physical courage in politics and war.

Knowledge

Socrates believed knowledge to be the highest good. He emphasized the importance of knowledge for the improvement of one’s soul.

  1. Knowledge is Morality

    Understanding the meaning of Morality, as it is important for the proper functioning of state and society. In short, Moral Knowledge is important.

  2. Knowledge is Virtue

    He says that Virtue is good in itself, just like a happy man usually is temperate, brave, wise and just. He believed knowledge to be both the necessary and sufficient condition for virtue.

    A teacher can transmit knowledge, values and rules. But Socrates believed that Virtue cannot be taught. That is, virtues are to be practiced and values are to be discovered. Every individual person must reflect on ones’ self and use the knowledge gained to better themselves.

    A teacher’s role is to cure social ills such as alchoholism and the such.

    Athenians however, weren’t ready to accept and criticize themselves. This was because Athens was a very wealthy city-state; due to which people were ego-istic and self-centric in nature.

    Socrates believed that humans are reasonable, and stated that experts are required to understand what is just and unjust. He also emphasized the importance of establishing such a institution in Athens.

Socratic Method

This method is a way of cross-examination, used to test the validity of an opinion. A dialogue is initiated, and skilful questioning is done to prove/disprove its importance.

The Socratic Method includes:

  • Scepticism of truth of the matter under discussion. This is provisional wheras Sophists’ scepticism was definite in nature

  • Conversation - Dialogue with the motive of discovering truth

  • Conceptual in nature

  • Empirical or Inductive reasoning; reffering to particular instances

  • Deductive reasoning; testing validity

 

Plato

Disciple of Socrates, Theory of Ideas

Plato felt that Socrates missed upon utilizing Ontology while discussing ethics, and took it upon himself to do so. He brought back Metaphysics into discussion. His theory of ideas tries to combine epistemology, metaphysics and ethics.

He believed that genuine knowledge is unchanging and absolute; but our senses and experiences keep changing. (Latter was inspired by Heraclitus) He emphasized that true knowledge could be comprehended through reason.

Metaphysics - Idea of a form

The concept was originally introduced by Paramenides. It refers to the “being-ness” of an object. (What makes a Banyan Tree, a banyan tree?)

Although plato did not agree with everything said by Parmenides, he did use this concept in his works.

Paramenides Plato
Idea is not a thought It may be an object of thought
Only one idea Multiple, indivisible ideas exist
Not known to us, as human knowledge is not absolute Can be grasped using reason

Plato argues that ideas are universal and eternal, and that they aren’t subject to change. Ideas correspond to an abstract concepts, and cannot be seen directly.

Ideas are:

  • non-temporal
  • existing in an independant realm
  • participate in particulars

Plato believed that Forms are not related to the Physical world, that they existed in their own plane of existence.

That is, the idea of horseness is independent of the original horse it might have been based on; and exists on even after the original horse has died.

Therefore, Plato’s originality lies in raising the issue of universals when talking about particulars. For example, beautiful objects are related to the universal, beauty.

Dialectical Method

This method is used for proper comprehension, and is used to try and comprehend the form of an object/concept. We first try to generalize scattered particulars into a single idea, and then we try to classify this broad general idea into specific smaller classes. That is, this method consists of:

  1. Generalization
  2. Classification

This allows for clear and consistent thinking. This is also called as Thinking in Concepts.

He introduced this because he felt that the Sophists’ ideas were too cluttered and this caused confusion amongst the people regarding the true nature of things.

This requires that language has general words such as “similar” and “before”, instead of just proper nouns. That is, you cannot say that a Bamboo Banyan Tree and a Oak Tree are similar without knowing what similarity is.

Metaphysics and Epsitemology

(It was then believed that soul was responsible for thinking)

Plato believed that knowledge is latent in the soul, bringing both these branches of philosophy together. He said that the soul can contemplate on pure eternal ideas.

Idea of Unity and Diversity, all horses are united under the concept of “Horseness”; wheras the presence of various horses is diversity.

He believed that the idea of good is LOGOS. That is, he believed the idea of good to be the supreme idea.

That is, plato believed that experience is not the source of concepts. Rather, conceptual knowledge is the only genuine knowledge.

He believed in a Hierarchy of Knowledge, where doxa had the lowest position. He believed genuine knowledge to be infalliable in nature, because forms are unchanging and eternal. This is different than what Heraclitus and Protagoras were saying. The knowledge attained via senses is thus falliable in nature.

Therefore, attaining genuine knowledge requires reflection upon senses by the mind and soul.

Platonic Ethics

Plato believes in the pre-existence of soul, and that the body-soul relation is akin to the relation between a chariot and a charioteer.

Tri Partite Division

  1. Rational Faculty: Intellectual activities are handled by this faculty

  2. Spirited Faculty: Responsible for decisions and will. Irrational in nature.

  3. Appetitive Faculty: Desires for pleasure, wealth and the such

He also describes two types of pleasures; intellectual and sense-driven.

Psychological Relativity: Not being driven by either pleasure or pain

Moral perfection can only be attained only when control over spirited and appetitive faculty is acheived. The purpose of life is to be good, not to chase pleasures. He says that this is possible only upon self-reflection.