Day 4:

The Greek philosophers:

Socrates:

1. His famous motto was know theyself Sophists

Socrates was born in Athens, Greece His father was a sculptor and his mother was a midwife.
He spent most of his time in the public places of Athens conversing with friends. He never tried
to teach everybody directly instead, he would just engage in conversations with everybody-old
and young high and low rich and poor- and tried to bring into the open by his questions the
inconsistencies in the people's opinions and actions. The people greatly appreciated his wisdom
that during his time, he was even considered as the most intelligent man in Athens.

According to Socrates the unexamined life is not worth living By this, he meant, among other
things, that a life devoid of philosophical speculation is hardly a human life, Le. it is incomplete
and it is not fully functioning or lacks virtue or excellence. When one learns how to examine
his/her life, he/she will be able to distinguish the good from the bad. In doing so, the human
person will be able to distinguish what good really is. The philosophy of Socrates focused on the
idea that to know the good is to do the good" it was also his belief that "knowledge is virtue".

Socrates argued that knowledge is inborn. He believed that a human person is already capable
of doing the good, because goodness is already innate in him. It is just that the person needs to
be awakened in order for him to realize that his nature is calling him to do good. To be
awakened, for Socrates, would mean that a person has to attain knowledge. And to attain
knowledge the surest way would be through the practice of disciplined conversation acting as
intellectual midwife. This is what is known as the dialectic method, the process of dialogue
where everybody participates into the conversation in order to clarify one's ideas

Socratic Concept of the Human Soul:

For Socrates, the essence of humanness is the human psyche. He believes that man's
body comes from matter, while his psyche (mind) which is immortal comes from the Universal
Reason (God). An individual should not be concerned with self or property, but with
improvement of his soul through the pursuit of wisdom and truth. Only through wisdom would
lead him to right living; and that I only evil could result from his ignorance

Socrates strongly believed that evil is the result of ignorance. This is the reason why
Socrates believed that it is necessary for the human person to develop his knowledge and
examine his life.

He believes that what makes the human person act is this psyche or human soul. The
activity of this soul is to know and therefore to direct our behavior in our day to day living.
 As a person, every human being will have the responsibility to take good care of the soul
in order to make his soul as good as possible According to Socrates. I those who have the
proper care of their soul in mind will conduct their behavior in accordance with their knowledge
of the true moral values.
Consequently, every human person is aiming to obtain happiness. Socrates held that in
order to obtain happiness, a human person has to be virtuous. And in order to be virtuous, one
should fulfill one's own function. Since a human person has the desire for happiness, he
therefore should choose an action that will surely lead himself towards happiness. As a human
being, happiness can only be attained if a person possesses knowledge instead of possessing
bodily pleasures and adornments.

The more a man knows, the greater his ability to reason out the correct choice and to
choose those actions, which truly bring happiness to him. According to him, the individual who
truly knows himself possesses the highest knowledge. This knowledge constitutes ultimate
wisdom. It enables man to act in a virtuous manner at all times, because he knows what will
bring him true happiness. He claimed that the "unexamined life is not worth living for man".

Plato:

Plato was born in Athens. His real name was Aristocles, but his instructor in gymnastics
called him Plato because of his broad shoulders. He was a student of Socrates. He founded the
famous school called the Academy.

The chief aim of the Academy was to pursue scientific knowledge through original
research. Plato founded the Academy on the principle that students should learn to criticize and
think for themselves, rather than simply accept the views of their teachers. It was for this reason
that the Academy was considered as the first university. Many of the finest intellects in the
classical world were schooled at the Academy, including Aristotle.

Unlike his beloved mentor Socrates, who wrote nothing. Plato was a prolific writer. He
produced more than two dozen dialogues that cover nearly every topic about Socrates.

Plato was greatly influenced by the political situation of the time. He was discouraged by
Socrates fate, i.e.by the jury at Socrates trial, whom he considered irrational and dangerous. He
believed that the jury, who represented the common citizenry, was swayed by sophistic appeals
to emotion, not by reason

Socrates death, the revolt of the Thirty, the abuses of the sophists, and other factors
convinced Plato that a corrupt state produces corrupt citizens. He therefore attempted to
develop a theory of knowledge that could refute sophistic skepticism and moral relativism. Plato
understood that before he could provided satisfactory answers to ethical, social, political, and
other philosophical questions, he must first tackle the problem of knowledge
 Plato's View on the Multiplicity of Things:

One of the first problems of the early Greek thinkers was on the unity and multiplicity of
things. Hence, one of the ongoing dialogues that Plato conducted with his students was related
to the traditional questions of being and becoming-the search for the permanent element in
things, which are subject, as they all are, to change. This was actually a continuation of the
Socratic search for the essence of things.

Plato was aware that different philosophers provided different views as regards this
problem of the one and the many Parmenides believed that the whole of reality consists of a
changeless, single reality, the One Parmenides believed that since reality is changeless, hence
change is just merely an illusion. However, Heraclitus described reality as always changing. He
believed that everything is in constant change and that the only thing that is not changing in this
world is change

Plato leaned toward the permanent of Parmenides and put emphasis on the being rather
than on the becoming. Plato held that changing things are really as important as the permanent
things. Hence, the changing things occupy a lower rank in the hierarchy of the real. These
changing things were held by Plato as not really real. The becoming can never have the same
value as the being.

The distinction between changing and unchanging has been best explained in the
famous "allegory of the cave" of Plato.

According to Plato, human beings are imprisoned in the world of opinion. Hence, they became
too blind to see and too deaf to hear the wisdom of the higher world. In this case, people
became incapable of attaining knowledge Plato believed that the real knowledge is only the
knowledge of the eternal and higher world

Plato saw that most of humanity dwells in the darkness of the cave. They have oriented their
thoughts around the world of shadows. Hence, it is the function of education to lead the people
out of the cave into the world of light

Plato's Concept of Human Person:

Plato believed that the human person is composed of a body and a soul. The body of the
human person is subject to change and impermanence. Nevertheless, since the human person
has the capacity to know the unchanging and the permanent, part of him should therefore be
permanent as well. In other words, whatever knows the permanent must itself be permanent in
some way, whatever knows essences must itself somehow be an essence Since the human
person is capable of knowing the permanent and the essences of things, then part of him should
also be permanent. This part of the human person that helps him to know the permanent is his
soul
 The ethics of Plato is an application in practice of the principles, which had been
reached in the metaphysical field. We know that the soul which was happy in the contemplation
of the ideal world now finds itself imprisoned in the body and impelled by the pleasures of
sense.

Plato came up with two virtues; fortitude and temperance. One who is strong tempers
the impulses of anger and eager enthusiasm, he who is temperate moderates the pleasures of
the senses by bringing them under the dominion of reason. The actuation of fortitude and
temperance is not possible without a third virtue namely justice. Justice is fundamental in Plato's
philosophy in so far as granted the destiny of the soul, justice wills that during the course of
earthly life. the rational soul must live by dominating the two aspects of the irrational soul
without being overcome by them. All three of the virtues mentioned, justice.

Fortitude and temperance, have their origin in a fourth, wisdom, the contemplation of the
truth of the ideal world, which is in itself virtue and happiness.

Regarding the destiny of souls after death, Plato is dependent not only on his
philosophy, but also on the Orphic-Dionysian mysteries. In general, he distinguishes three
classes of souls!

● Those that have committed inexpiable sins, and hence are condemned forever .
● Those that have committed expiable sins,
● Those living according to justice.

Souls in the last two categories are reborn and reincarnated in order to receive their I
due punishment or reward