1. Chapter 8, Section 2 Greek Philosophy and History

2. Philosophers – Greek thinkers who believed the human mind could understand everything. Many were teachers. Pythagoras – famous Greek philosopher who developed many new ideas about mathematics. Known for the Pythagorean theorem used in geometry – a way to determine the length of the sides of a triangle.

3. Pythagoras

4. The Sophists Professional teachers in Ancient Greece. Traveled from city to city. Taught students how to win arguments and make good political speeches. Did not believe that gods and goddesses influenced people. Believed that was right for one person might be wrong for another. No absolute.

5. Ideas of Socrates A critic of the Sophists. Athenian sculptor who loved philosophy. Believed in an absolute truth. Invented the Socratic method of teaching. Asked pointed questions to force his students to use their reason and see things for themselves.

6. Some Athenian leaders felt threatened by the Socratic method. They did not like to be questioned and felt Socrates was teaching young Athenians to be rebellious. In 399 B.C. a jury sentenced Socrates to death.

7. The Ideas of Plato Plato, a student of Socrates, wrote the Republic which explains his vision of government. Plato did not believe democracy was a good kind of government. He believed people should be divided into three groups: 1) philosophers/kings to rule 2)warriors to defend and 3) the rest of the people to produce food, shelter and clothes. Plato also believed men and women should have the same education and an equal chance to have the same jobs.

8. Plato

9. Who was Aristotle? Aristotle was a student of Plato. Wrote more than 200 books on topics ranging from government to the planets and stars. Opened a school called the Lyceum where he taught his students the “golden mean.” This idea holds that a person should do nothing in excess.

10. Aristotle helped advance science. He urged people to use their senses to make observations and was the first person to group observations based on their similarities and differences. Wrote books on government including Politics, which divided the governments into three types: 1) Government by one person (king or tyrant) 2) Government by a few people (aristocracy or oligarchy) 3) Government by many people (democracy) He believed the best governments were run by a mixture of the rich and the poor. This idea influenced Europeans and American’s thoughts on government.

11. Greek Historians Greeks wrote the first real histories in Western civilization. In 435 B.C. a Greek named Herodotus wrote this history of the Persian Wars. He tried to separate fact from legend and checked the truthfulness of his sources. Herodotus considered the “father of history” by many historians.

12. Thucydides is considered the greatest historian of the ancient world. Wrote History of the Peloponnesian War. He stressed the importance of having accurate facts.