Greek Philosophy & History

Section Overview
This section describes Greek contributions to the study of philosophy and the writing of history.

Main Idea
Setting a Purpose for Reading Think about these questions as you read: What ideas did Greek philosophers develop? How did Greeks contribute to the history of Western civilization?

Philosopher

Ideas

Pythagoras

all relationships can be expressed in numbers; Pythagorean theorem absolute truth exists within everyone; Socratic method
government should be divided into three groups, ruled by philosopher-kings; men and women should have equal education and employment
golden mean; use senses to make observations like a scientist; analyzed governments and decided that the best was a mixture of government by a few and democracy

Socrates

Plato

Aristotle

People To Meet
Herodotus: Greek historian who wrote the history of the Persian Wars; the father of history Thucydides: Greek historian who wrote History of the Peloponnesian War

Terms To Know
philosophy: love or pursuit of wisdom; a system of thought philosopher: Greek thinker who believed in the power of the human mind Sophist: professional teacher in ancient Greece

Socratic method: a way of teaching that uses pointed questions to force students to use their reason

Greek Philosophy and History

Greek Philosophers
The word philosophy comes from the Greek word for love of wisdom. Greek thinkers, called philosophers, believed the human mind could understand everything.

Greek Philosophy and History

Greek Philosophers (cont.)

Pythagoras was a Greek philosopher who taught that the universe followed the same laws that governed music and numbers. He developed many ideas about mathematics. Most people know his name because of the Pythagorean theorem used in geometry Sophists were professional teachers who traveled from city to city, teaching others. They did not believe that gods and goddesses influenced people.

Greek Philosophy and History

Greek Philosophers (cont.)

They also did not believe in absolute right or wrong. Socrates was a philosopher and a critic of the Sophists who believed that an absolute truth existed and that all real knowledge was within each person.

The Socratic method is a form of teaching that uses questions to lead students to discover things for themselves.*

Greek Philosophy and History

Greek Philosophers (cont.)

Leaders did not trust Socrates, and accused him of teaching young Athenians to rebel. Socrates was tried and sentenced to death.

Greek Philosophy and History

Plato was on of Socrates best students. In his book the Republic, Plato described the ideal government.*

Greek Philosophy and History

Greek Philosophers (cont.)

At the top were rulers and philosophers, in the middle were warriors, and at the bottom were all others. Aristotle was one of Platos students.

He opened his own school called the Lyceum.

The golden mean, one of Aristotles ideas, states that a person should do nothing to excess. Aristotle helped advance science and government.

Greek Philosophy and History

Like Plato, Aristotle also wrote about the government. In his book Politics, he divided government into three types:
Government by one person, such as a monarch (king or queen) or a tyrant Government by a few people, which might be an aristocracy or an oligarchy Government by many people, as in a democracy

Greek Philosophy and History

Greek Philosophers (cont.)

Many of his ideas shaped the way European and American founders thought about government.

Plato and Aristotle

Greek Historians
In 435 B.C., a Greek named Herodotus wrote the history of the Persian Wars. He asked questions, recorded answers and verified his sources. Many Western historians consider him to be the father of history. Many historians consider Thucydides the greatest historian of the ancient world. He fought in the Peloponnesian War and then wrote the History of the Peloponnesian War while in exile. Unlike Herodotus, he saw war and politics and acts of humans, not gods,