Socrates, Plato, Aristotle The Big Three: Key Ideas.

An action is right if it promotes our true happiness Socrates (470 – 399 BCE) concerned with ETHICS The truth about how to live a good moral life: what is goodness, justice, temperance? An action is right if it promotes our true happiness True pleasure is attained through ethical living Universal definition of justice The Death of Socrates by Jacques-Louis David See www.pima.gov/publicdefender/socrates.htm

Observe laws & limits to lead a good life Socrates continued… Observe laws & limits to lead a good life Dialogues – role of ignorant questioner to show experts their own ignorance (ideas of Socrates documented by Plato. Some of the most famous philosophical publications) Care for the soul: gaining wisdom is key to a virtuous life & saving the soul Knowing what is good = doing what is good

The Death of Socrates by Jacques-Louis David See www.pima.gov/publicdefender/socrates.htm

See www.philosophypages.com Socrates continued: In this painting, Socrates (470–399 B.C.), unforced and unshackled, freely prepares to die by drinking poisonous hemlock The philosopher is condemned to die by the Athenian democracy for promoting skepticism and impiety (the Athenians were nervous about offending the gods) Rather than flee the city, Socrates accepts his unjust punishment and sacrifices himself on abstract principle. Nevertheless, Socrates shows nobility and self-control in the face of death. See www.philosophypages.com

Socrates calmly sits upright with his finger extended in the air, exuding authority, responsibility, and intellect Surrounding him are his students, most reacting emotionally

PLATO Name Plato (Πλάτων) Birth c. 428–427 BC, Athens Death School/tradition Platonism Main interests Rhetoric, Art, Literature, Epistemology, Justice, Virtue, Politics, Education, Family, Militarism Notable ideas Platonic realism Influences Socrates, Homer, Hesiod, Aristophanes, Aesop, Protagoras, Parmenides, Pythagoras, Heraclitus, Orphism Influenced Aristotle, Cicero, Plutarch, Stoicism, Anselm, Descartes, Hobbes, Leibniz, Mill, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Heidegger and countless other western philosophers and theologians PLATO

Theory of Forms / Ideas: Plato (428 – 347 BCE) Knowledge through reason, the intellect – not the senses. Knowledge of reality & how we perceive it: what is whiteness, roundness, treeness? (Metaphysics – meaning and reality) Theory of Forms / Ideas: world of the senses / change / illusion / appearance / imperfect Vs the authentic world / ideas / unchangeable / spiritual / eternal Allegory of the Cave(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTWwY8Ok5I0) Image courtesy of news.bbc.co.uk

Consider the following questions Consider the following questions. (In so doing you are considering concepts of great interest to Plato): Think over how a baker can bake 50 absolutely identical biscuits. Is this possible? Ask yourself why all horses are the same. Or are they? Do humans have immortal souls? Are men and women are equally sensible?

Interested in scientific proof & principle of cause & effect Aristotle (384 – 322 BCE) Interested in scientific proof & principle of cause & effect Form and matter: recognises the essence of something & its physical manifestation: what makes me unique + the physical characteristics I exhibit. Both need each other. Form = what makes something what it is: whiteness, treeness, it is unchanging; matter = individual, particular, concrete, it changes. Knowledge begins with the senses. 2 ways of knowing: through the senses first + then through the intellect. We must use our senses as well as our intellect. Seasons: senses tell us there is change. Intellect tells us why. Within change there is stability and a foundation for scientific thought / principles Image courtesy of space.about.com