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The Greek Philosophers
✏Greeks had great confidence in the power of the human mind
✏Driven by:
✏ curiosity
✏belief in reason
✏ Philosopher-lover of wisdom
✏ Some Greek thinkers did not believe that the gods were in control
✏ They used observation and reason to find causes for what happened
✏ They studying many subjects (math, physics, music, logic and rational thinking)
✏ reason and observation =laws that governed the universe
✏ Much modern science traces its roots to the Greeks
✏ Other philosophers were interested in ethics, or moral behavior
✏ Their debates centered on questions about government
✏ Many citizens condemned these philosophers for undermining traditional values (ex. Socrates)
✏ Socrates encouraged those around him to examine their deepest beliefs and ideas
✏ Eventually this would cost him his life
✏ Most of what we know about Socrates comes from his student Plato
✏ Socrates questioned citizens about their beliefs
✏ known as the Socratic method
✏ Socrates believed it was a way to seek truth and self-knowledge
✏ To other Athenians, however, it was an annoyance and a threat to accepted traditions
✏ When he was about 70 years old, Socrates was put on trial
✏ His enemies accused him of corrupting the youth and failing to respect the Gods
✏ A jury of 501 citizens condemned him to death
✏ morally wrong to flee
✏ Socrates accepted the death penalty
✏ He drank a cup of hemlock, a deadly poison
✏ The death of Socrates shocked Plato so much that he left Athens for 10 years
✏ When he returned, he set up an academy
✏ Like Socrates, Plato emphasized the importance of reason
✏ Through rational thought, he argued, that people could discover unchanging ethical values, recognize perfect beauty and learn how to organize an ideal society
✏ In The Republic, Plato described his vision for an ideal state
✏ He rejected Athenian democracy because it condemned Socrates
✏ Instead, Plato felt that the state should regulate every aspect of its citizens’ lives
✏ He divided society into three classes:✏ workers to produce the necessities
of life,✏soldiers to defend the state✏philosophers to rule
✏ This elite class of leaders would be specially trained to ensure order and justice
✏ The wisest of them, a philosopher king, would have the ultimate authority
✏ Plato argued that every object had an ideal form
✏ The work of the Greek artists and architects reflected the same concern with form and order
✏ Plato’s most famous student
✏ He analyzed all kinds of government
✏ Like Plato, he was suspicious of democracy, which he thought could lead to mob rule
✏ In the end, he favored rule by a single strong virtuous leader