3 Great Greek Philosophers

During ancient Greece, there lived three great Greek

philosophers, named Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. They were all very

intelligent, wise men and I will tell you about some of their main

philosophies.

Socrates

One of Socrates main ideas was that he wanted everybody to

question their own beliefs and put their belief through questions and

prove that their original belief was wrong or right. He thought people

should do what they think is right, even if everybody opposes to your

actions. Socrates also believed in the pursuit of knowledge.

Plato

Plato continued much of his teacher’s (Socrates) work. He wrote

many dialogues where Socrates would ask someone questions, and

end up proving that the person originally had the wrong or right idea

about the subject. Plato had some philosophies of his own, though. The

Republic, is one of Plato’s most famous pieces of writing. This book

expresses Plato’s philosophy, and the main idea of the whole book

deals with how to live a good life. The nature of justice, the nature of

an ideal republic, and the allegory of the cave and the divided line are

his main philosophies. The allegory of the divided line basically is a

metaphor. There is a line divided in two. One half of the line stands for

the visible world which is always changing, and the other half stands

for the abstract world, which never changes.

Aristotle

Aristotle studied under Plato’s school in Athens and was a

very intelligent student. Unfortunately, Aristotle didn’t get along with

Plato very well at all. Aristotle disagreed with Plato on almost

everything. For one, Aristotle just could not look at the world in

abstract terms like Plato did. Aristotle believed that you could

understand our universe through detailed observation and cataloging.

He said that knowledge depends upon experience or observation, and

not theory. Because of this idea, Aristotle wrote about almost every

subject in the world you could think of. When he came across a

problem he would study what previous people had written on the

subject, and study everything that is part of, or related to, the subject.

This is called inductive reasoning: observing as many examples as

possible and then working out a conclusion.

Those were the three philosophers and there main philosophical

ideas. They all had some relationship with another, (Socrates was

Plato’s teacher, and Plato was Aristotle’s teacher) and they had some

of the same ideas, but they had a lot of big differences in their

philosophies too. Socrates believed knowledge was a living and

interactive thing, so he never wrote anything. Aristotle however wrote

about literally everything, from politics, to anatomy, he studied it all.

Plato and Aristotle didn’t have the same ideas either. Plato thought of

the world as if it were split in two. On one side was the physical world,

and on the other side was the abstract world. Plato believed that

knowledge came from the abstract side. Aristotle believed that

knowledge was empirical, almost the opposite of Plato’s beliefs.

Aristotle

Aristotle was one of the most influential Greek philosophers. He was born in

384 BC, and when he was seven years old his dad sent him to study under Plato at

the Academy. Aristotle started as a student, then moved up to researcher, and finally

a teacher. When Plato died Aristotle traveled to Assos in the Asia Minor. There he met

Hermias, a former student of Plato, who had become the King of Assos. Aristotle

married Hermias’s niece, Pythias. She died ten years later. In 342 BC, Aristotle was

invited by King Phillip to educate his son, Alexander. Phillip then died and Alexander

became king, eventually earning the name, “Alexander the Great.” Aristotle returned

to Athens and founded his own school, Lyceum, named after Apollo Lyceus.

Alexander the Great died in 323 BC, and Athens became a dangerous place for

people with a relationship towards Macedonia. To save his own life, Aristotle fled from

Athens to Chalcis on the island of Euboea, where his mother lived. He died a

year later in 322 BC.

Aristotle has influenced many people with his intelligence and

philosophies. His method of inductive reasoning became the foundation of

the Western scientific method. His works were translated into tons of different

languages so people could read them. Lots of later philosophers studied his work. In

the middle ages, his philosophy dominated European thought. Thus, Aristotle

became on of the greatest, most influential Greek philosopher of all time.

By, Jason Lim