ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY

TRIUMVIRATE

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ANCIENT

Knowledge and Virtue

TRIUMVIRATESOCRATES

PLATO

ARISTOTLE (FATHER OF PHILOSOPHY

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SOCRATES (470/469 –

399 BC)

Virtuous ManThe Socratic Method

• DIALECTIC: A method of seeking truth through a series of questions and answers.

The Socratic method is a “dialectic” method teaching.

To solve a problem, it is broken down into a series of questions, the answers to which gradually distill the answer a person would seek.

Socrates

Ethics

primary concern in philosophy was, “How should we live?”

3 Questions

What is good?

What is right?

What is just (justice)?

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SocratesEthics:

Socrates' ethics assumes that Education is the key to living an ethical life.

No one desires evil.

No one errs or does wrong willingly or knowingly.

Virtue—all virtue—is knowledge.

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¼ Yellow Paper

(SOCRATES IDEOLOGY) CHOOSE 1 and EXPLAIN your own THOUGHT…

Plato Socrates' Student

Founded the Academy – First institution for higher education

First Western philosopher whose writings have survived

Most of what we know about Socrates comes from Plato's writings

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WILL

PlatoEthics

Humans are made of 3 conflicting elements:

Passions

Intellect

Will

Most people live life allowing the PASSIONS, INTELLECT and WILL to be in conflict with one another. Prepared by RPC2014

INTELLECT PASSIONS

Plato

Ideal living is when the INTELLECT controls the PASSIONS through the WILL

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INTELLECT

WILL

PASSIONS

Plato

Metaphysics

Reality can be divided into two realms:

The Visible World

Forms - Ideas

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PlatoMetaphysics

The Visible World

Lower - Imperfect

World experienced by our senses

Physical

Bound by Space and Time

Always changing

Always “becoming”Prepared by RPC2014

PlatoMetaphysicsRealm of Forms-Ideas

Higher - Perfect

ULTIMATE REALITY

Not accessible to our senses

Non-Physical

Not Bound by Space and Time

Never Changing

Always “is”Prepared by RPC2014

HORSE

Plato's Cave

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CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF PLATO’S ALLEGORY OF

THE CAVE (SW)BASED ON THE VIDEO CLIP: Answer the ffg:

Answer it in BRIEF, CONCISE and SHORT manner.

1. What is your own perception of the Allegory of the Cave?

2. What symbol represents the said thought of Plato in his Allegory that you can relate to your daily existence?

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PlatoPolitics: The Ideal Republic

Philosophically Aware Rulers (Governing Class)

Police Class (Protective Class)

General Population(Worker Class)

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Aristotle (384-322 BCE)

• the first to classify areas of human knowledge into distinct disciplines

such as mathematics, biology, and ethics• He was the first to devise a formal

system for reasoning, whereby the validity of an argument is determined by its structure rather than its content

• Aristotle was the founder of the Lyceum, the first scientific institute, based in Athens, Greece.

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• Along with his teacher Plato, he was one of the strongest

advocates of a liberal arts education, which stresses the education of the whole person, including one’s moral character, rather than merely learning a set of skills.

• According to Aristotle, this view of education is necessary if we are to produce a society of happy as well as productive individuals.

Aristotle (384-322 BCE)

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• The “real” or “encyclopaedists” or “inspired common sense” or “the prince of those who know”

• Studied under Plato at the Academy

• Son of a Macedonian doctor, returned home to become the teacher of Alexander of Macedon for three years, beginning in 343 BCE

• Later returned to Athens to open school called the Lyceum in 335 BCE

Aristotle’s LOGIC

Logic 3 Areas of Learning

1. Theoretical 2. Practical 3. Productive

Logic is a Tool underlying all learning

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Logic

CategoriesSets the boundary of terms Essential in forming an argument

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Dogs PugsAnimals

The 4 Causes To really “know” something you need to know the causes of it.

Example:

What is a house?

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Material CauseThe “materials” that make up the thing.

Bricks are the material cause of a Brick House

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Material CauseInsufficiency of the Material Cause

The materials that make up a thing are not the same as the thing itself.

A pile of Bricks is not a House Some things can be made of different materials.

Houses can be made of Bricks or Wood or Metal.

Formal CauseThe FORM of the thing. The pattern, shape, characteristics of a thing.Not the same as Plato's idea of Forms, i.e. no realm of forms.The Form does not have an existence apart from the thing as in Plato's concept of Forms

Efficient Cause

The cause that changes the materials into the thing.

The Tools/Instruments used to create the thing.

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Final CauseThe reason, purpose or goal of a thing. Ex. The purpose of a house is to shelter a people.

Final Cause is evidence of an Intelligent Designer who provides things with purposeTeleology – Nature Intelligent Design

ARISTOTLE Ethics: Virtues

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Acquired by Habit

Not innate

Habit develops a disposition to act virtuously

The Golden Mean: Mid-point between 2 extremes

Courage

Cowardice RECKLESNESS

theory of happiness that is still relevant today • happiness is a final end or goal

that encompasses the totality of one’s life.

• It is not something that can be gained or lost in a few hours, like pleasurable sensations.

• It is more like the ultimate value of your life as lived up to this moment, measuring how well you have lived up to your full potential as a human being. 

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Ethics: Virtuous Life

Know what is Right

Do what is Right

Practical Wisdom - Make Right Decisions based on Good Reasons

Contemplation of the Best things NOT just Good things – Good is the enemy of the Best

Motivation for Doing Anything is Flourishing (Full - Meaningful)

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THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS AS THE EXERCISE OF VIRTUE

• Aristotle tells us that the most important factor in the effort to achieve happiness:

is to have a good moral character — what he calls “complete virtue.”

But being virtuous is not a passive state: one must act in accordance with virtue. Nor is it enough to have a few virtues; rather one must strive to possess all of them. As Aristotle writes,

He is happy who lives in accordance with complete virtue and is sufficiently equipped with external goods, not for some chance period but throughout a complete life. (Nicomachean Ethics)

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THUS,• Happiness is the ultimate end and purpose of human existence

• Happiness is not pleasure, nor is it virtue. It is the exercise of virtue.

• Happiness cannot be achieved until the end of one’s life. Hence it is a goal and not a temporary state.

• Happiness is the perfection of human nature. Since man is a rational animal, human happiness depends on the exercise of his reason.

• Happiness depends on acquiring a moral character, where one displays the virtues of courage, generosity, justice, friendship, and citizenship in one’s life. These virtues involve striking a balance or “mean” between an excess and a deficiency.

• Happiness requires intellectual contemplation, for this is the ultimate realization of our rational capacities.

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A key theme in Aristotle's thought is

that happiness is the goal

of life.

Eudaimonia or

Happiness

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“We are what we repeatedly

do. Excellence, then, is

not an act, but a habit. ...

At his best, man is the

noblest of all animals;

separated from law and

justice he is the worst.”

(Aristotle, 384 - 322 B.C.)

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Thus, HAPPINESS DEPENDS OURSELVES!

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THANK YOU!Some excerpt:

Slideshare.com A History of Greek Philosophy, Vol.

6. Cambridge University Press. One of the standard classics of the history of Greek

philosophy

http://www.pursuit-of-happiness.org/history-of-happiness/aristotle/