Five Greek

philosophers
Thales of Miletus (620 BC–546 BC)
Despite the fact that none of Thales of Miletus’ writings survive, his work was so
formative to subsequent generations of thinkers, theorists, dialectics, meta-physicists
and philosophers that his reputation has endured.

Thales of Miletus is renowned as one of the legendary Seven Wise Men (or ‘Sophoi’)
of antiquity and was the first to pioneer the basic principle of matter. Most famous is
his cosmology, which proposed that water is the underlying component of the world,
and his theory that the Earth is a flat disk floating on a vast sea.

He actively engaged in understanding different aspects of knowledge such as

philosophy, mathematics, science and geography, and is also said to be the founder
of the school of natural philosophy. As well as discovering a number of fundamental
geometric theorems, Thales of Miletus is also credited with the phrases ‘know
thyself’ and ‘nothing in excess’.

mythology, he was an advocate for bridging the

Not one to entirely discount
gap between the worlds of myth and reason.

Pythagoras
(570 BC–495
BC)
Like Thales of Miletus, everything that we know about Pythagoras is reported third-
hand, with fragmentary accounts of his life only first appearing some 150 years after
his death. Similarly, many of his teachings, which he probably never wrote down,
were reported by his disciples from the Pythagorean Brotherhood and may have
even been developed after his death.

Though he is known far more for his theories and ideas in mathematics than in
philosophy, Pythagoras founded a philosophical school which gained a vast
following. This included many prominent women: some modern scholars think that
Pythagoras wanted women to be taught philosophy alongside men.

As well as his namesake – Pythagoras’ Theorem – his key discoveries

include the functional significance of numbers in the objective world and music, and
the incommensurability of the side and diagonal of a square.
More broadly, Pythagoras believed that the world was in perfect harmony, so his
teachings encouraged his followers to understand what to eat (he was a vegetarian),
when to sleep and how to live with others to achieve equilibrium.

Socrates (469
BC–399 BC)
Socrates’ teachings were so formative that
many contemporary historians categorize
other philosophers as either ‘pre-Socratic’ or
‘post-Socratic’ thinkers. Nicknamed the
‘Father of Western Philosophy’, Socrates is
known for pioneering the ‘Socratic Method’, which dictated that a dialogue between a
pupil and a teacher was a foundational method of learning.

In this way, he openly moved away from the endless physical speculation that his
fellow philosophers prized, instead advocating for a method of philosophy based on
human reason that was practically applicable.

This method of practical teaching ultimately led to his downfall, when he was put on
trial for ‘corrupting the youth of Athens’. During his defense, he delivered the famous
‘Apology of Socrates’ speech. It criticized Athenian democracy, and remains a
central document of Western thought and culture today.

Socrates was condemned to death, but was also given the opportunity to choose his
own punishment, and would likely have been allowed to opt for exile instead.
However, he chose death, and famously drank the poison hemlock.

Since Socrates had no written account of his philosophy, after his death his fellow
philosophers recorded his speeches and dialogues. Among the most famous are
dialogues aiming to define virtue, which reveal Socrates as a man of great insight,
integrity and argumentative skill.

Plato (427 BC–

347 BC)
A student of Socrates, Plato incorporated
elements of his teacher’s interpretations of
human reasoning into his own form of
metaphysics, as well as natural and ethical
theology.

The foundations of Plato’s philosophy are

dialects, ethics and physics. He also
investigated and agreed with physical thinkers and incorporated Pythagorean
understanding into his works.

Essentially, Plato’s philosophical work describes the world as composed of two

realms – the visible (which humans sense) and the intelligible (which can only be
grasped intellectually).

He famously illustrated this worldview through his ‘Plato’s Cave’ analogy. This
suggested that human perception (i.e. witnessing the shadows of flames on a cave
wall) cannot equate to true knowledge (actually viewing and understanding the fire
itself). He espoused finding meaning beyond face value – using philosophical
thought to truly understand the lived world.

In his famous work The Republic, Plato combines various aspects of ethics,

political philosophy and metaphysics to create a philosophy which was systematic,

meaningful and applicable. It is still widely taught as a key philosophical text today.

Aristotle (384
BC–322 BC)
Just as Plato was taught by Socrates,
Aristotle was taught by Plato. Aristotle
emerged as one of Plato’s most
influential disciples but disagreed with
his teacher’s philosophy that meaning
was beyond accessibility through our
senses.
Instead, Aristotle developed a theory of philosophy that interpreted the world as
based on facts learned from experience. He also proved to be an imaginative writer,
gradually re-writing and defining pre-established concepts in almost all areas of
knowledge that he encountered.

He is also credited with being the first to ‘break down’ knowledge into different
categories such as ethics, biology, mathematics and physics, which is a
classification pattern still used today. His philosophical and scientific system became
the framework and vehicle for both Christian Scholasticism and medieval Islamic
philosophy.

Even after the intellectual revolutions of the Renaissance, Reformation and

Enlightenment, Aristotle’s ideas and theories have remained embedded in Western
culture.