Sem. Mark Cloyd T. Degrano Rev. Fr.

Jason Aguilar
IV-A.B. Philosophy November 19, 2015
Walls of Antiquity:the world of Ancient Philosophy and its philosophical importance
The cradle of philosophy started at the west particularly in Greece. But looking at
philosophy and how it started is a great thing to deal. However, the dawn of philosophy at
Greece was difficult because the people were already consumed by mythology.
History puts it that the first conception of philosophy appeared in the person of natural
philosophers or by reference we call them Pre-Socratics. They were the first who have an
account with nature through reason without reference to the gods. The first philosophical
investigation that occurred was about the origin of the world or the principle of diversity and
cause of individuality. The general division on this issue was between the monists and the
pluralists. The monists assert that the world is out of a singular principle and out of such
materials comes diversity of life forms while the pluralists settle that the principle was from
many materials and at some point they come together. The pre-Socratics were occupied with
materialism and determinism. But a great transition came to the aspect of power and success
realized in politics through rhetoric’s, hence the Athenian period came. The well-known
rhetoricians were the Sophists who stand for subjectivity, relativism and expediency. They
devoured the thought of the Athenian for years until when Socrates, their former student found
everything as vague. He wanted to present objective truth and the existence of the soul. He
provided the nature of knowing, the character of knowledge, ethics and instigated that
knowledge is virtue and happiness is acquired through virtuous life. He was made known
through his student and confidant who brought him known by his “Dialogues” and this is Plato.
He prepared the way to rationality, theory of forms, immortality, truth, politics, poetry, arts, etc.
but more than this, is his dualism of body and soul i.e. material and immaterial. He put up a
school, the Academy from which Aristotle, his student took 20 years to study until he broke from
Plato’s extreme rationalism and he provided the character of reality as corporeality. He founded
his school, Lyceum, where he opened the door to definitive structure of philosophy from his
work on the “categories” by setting the substance from accidents, matter from form, and his
greatest work was symbolic logic. But after Aristotle’s death Greece fell under Roman Empire
and the Hellenistic culture came with two main philosophies of Epicureanism and Stoicism. The
coming of Christianity was a great battle between pure rationality and the idea of God. The end
of Neo-Platonism was the start of the medieval world and the birth of Christian philosophy.