Greece is a country built on legends, the birthplace of Western civilization, home to

democracy, philosophy, medicine, science, architecture, theatre, and outstanding

written works. The ancient Greece was not a state-expert unit, but a collection of city
states. A little kingdom drives that sprung up to strongholds in the fertile valleys of a
mostly mountainous and infertile country. But out of these fiercely independent and
often competitive city states have emerged a unified ideal of beauty, wisdom, patriotism,
and the pursuit of knowledge. Although the Greek areas stretched from the west coast
of Small Asia (currently Turkey) along the coasts of the Mediterranean and Black Sea to
the main country of modern Greece, the Greek influence was felt in Spain and Russia.
All Greeks shared the same language, religion, and culture.
Greek Philosophy and Politics is often said to really start with Socrates, Plato and
Aristotle. We are then in the fourth century BC, in ancient Athens. Aristotle and Socrates
never met, for Aristotle was born only after Socrates' death. What connects them is the
philosopher Plato. Plato was difficult to grasp as a philosopher, for he kept the middle
between Socrates and Aristotle in the way he drove philosophy. Plato wrote dialogues,
not explanations. Apart from that, it is equally worth noting that in the West we have a
habit of naming the thinkers for Socrates as 'presocratics', which says something about
the influence of Socrates. There are many presocratics, but often they are the first
Western thinkers who systematically started to think about, for example, the nature of
nature.
Many of these philosophers came from Athens, which for all sorts of reasons became
the epicenter of ancient Greek philosophy. The form of government in Athens was a
'city-state', a policy in which the citizens of the city had participation in the governance
of the city and in the judiciary. Because of the growing prosperity in Athens, wealthy
citizens could devote their time to politics and mutual discussions. This climate could
lead to the rise of philosophers and thinkers. In many different places, thinkers and
speakers gathered to exchange thoughts on a theme. There is talk from many different
sources that Athenians would rather do nothing than discuss a new idea with each
other.
To gain political influence or to exonerate yourself from the law, it was necessary that
you could influence public opinion with good arguments. In Athenian democracy, many
people were active writing speeches, and many citizens in training learned the art of
rhetoric: convincing speech. Later in ancient times, more and more people sent their
children to Athens to learn rhetoric and logic. And here, this pragmatic, politically and
self-serving approach touches on the rise of Greek philosophy. In the time of Aristotle,
Greek philosophy still entailed just about all sciences, not least because an important
core task of philosophers was to deal with the most basic parts of knowledge. More and
more individual teachers came to offer their services to people who needed them – they
were called sophists, and they taught students the art of rhetoric and logic. Socrates
and Plato rebelled vehemently against this. Socrates resisted the idea that truth is just a
matter of persuasion. What sophistists are doing, Socrates argued, is not knowledge,
but his opinions. But you cannot build a good society on opinions and you can never
know what you really need to do to be a good person.

In conclusion, the search for truth also stands in close relation to ethics for many of the
ancient thinkers. Plato and Aristotle represent the primary molds of Western political
philosophy and practice. Some prefer one over the other. In the modern capitalist
democracy, we tend to lean toward Aristotle. Yet, there is still some clear influence by
Plato. Because of the influence of Greek politics and philosophy we find fulfillment in
personal freedom and community that we currently enjoy.