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

2. 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

3. 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

4. The Death of Socrates by Jacques-Louis David
See

5. 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

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

7. 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

8. 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(
Image courtesy of news.bbc.co.uk

9. 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?

10. 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
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