The Mind of the Greeks

Basic Structure The Greek city-state was called a Polis by the Greeks. This is the basis for the English word politics The structure of the Greek city-state was that there was an acropolis, a central building usually serving as a political or religious hub or both, and usually located atop a hill. Below the acropolis was the open market area referred to as the agora. This is akin to a public square or market. As a result of the geographical divisions between the city-states and the passing of centuries, the Greeks became extremely resentful and distrustful of one another, and this seeped into the political and military world of the Greeks

Forms of Rule The two earliest forms of Greek government came in the form of rule by kings, rule by the landed aristocrats, or a combination of the two. A new form of rule of one came in the form of a tyrant. This was a single person who seized control through military force. Eventually Greek society moved more and more away from the rule of an individual or the opinions of a handful and more towards the rule of law. This rule of law would give rise to government systems such as democracy (rule of the people) and a citizen oriented oligarchy (rule of a few).

The Birth of the Modern Western World In roughly 461 B.C.E in the city-state of Athens the radical new form of gov’t known as democracy was taking shape. This form of government was largely headed in Athens by Pericles. The theater play as we know it was also born from the Greeks at this time. The plays were performed outdoors in places called amphitheaters. The original and most famous form of Greek plays was the tragedy. The Greeks developed formal historical record keeping. The Greek Historian Herodotus is often viewed as the father of modern history as a result of his writing the History of the Persian Wars. *He was succeeded by the historian Thucydides, a general of the Peloponnesian war whose history of the war was a first hand account of people, not a second hand account of men and gods.

Love of Wisdom A new style of philosophy started to emerge in the world of classical Greece in late 5 th century B.C.E through the 4 th and 3 rd centuries B.C.E One such school of thought was presented by Pythagoras who believed that life could be understood through the combination of mathematics and music. Another school of philosophy was Sophism. Sophists believed that the meaning of life could never be understood by humans because it is beyond us. They instead believed that we should focus our thought on self improvement instead. *The Sophists also prided themselves on specializing in and teaching the skills of debate and logical thinking. They became famous for arguing for both sides of an issue so as to improve their skills of debate.

The most famous of the Greek philosophers were Socrates and his students Plato and Aristotle. Socrates was known for believing happiness was connected to living a moral life and that how to behave morally could be taught. He practiced this by using a method of thought called the Socratic method which is a question and answer approach to all that can be observed. “the unexamined life is not worth living”. He eventually used this method to question governmental and religious authorities in Athens. He was convicted of corruption of the youth and sentenced to death by drinking poison. His most famous student was Plato who carried on the teaching of the Socratic method. Plato practiced the belief that the key to achieving happiness was a just state, and that the only way to a just state was to abandon selfishness and desire.

Aristotle was the most famous student of Plato and one of the most influential thinkers in history. He separated from his teacher in that he believed that the meaning of existence was existence in the physical world. He made his largest impact through his practice of observation, analysis and categorization. He came to believe that the most effective form of government that could ever exist was a constitutional government. Both he and his teacher Plato distrusted the idea of a democracy. Democritus – Believed that the importance of life can be found in the material world and that the world operated as a mechanism and as such not everything has a purpose but we can see what lead up to the event Heraclitus – Practiced the basic beliefs in the application of logic and that everything in life happens and life and time will continue to flow over all of us. “Ever-newer waters flow on those who step into the same rivers” *He lived before Socrates Other Philosophers of the time