Philosophical Ideas And The Greatest Concepts 30.10.2009

Philosophical Ideas and the Greatest Concepts: An Overviewup to XX centuryBrigitta Zics, Brigitta.Zics@newport.ac.uk, Room J14, E: 2036 SocratesPlatoAristotleRaphael: School of Athens (1509-10)PlatoAristotleSocrates (469-399 BC)• He have never written anything.• He clamed to know nothing.• His thoughts and way of life had a profound impact on many his contemporaries, and, through Plato’s portrayal of him in his early writings, he became a major source of inspiration and ideas for later generations of philosophers.• He was tried by the Athenian courts in 399 BC and executed, on charges, among other things, of corrupting the ‘youth’Socrates' death is described at the end of Plato's Phaedo. Socrates turned down the pleas of Crito to attempt an escape from prison. After drinking the poison, he was instructed to walk around until his legs felt numb. After he lay down, the man who administered the poison pinched his foot. Socrates could no longer feel his legs. The numbness slowly crept up his body until it reached his heart. Shortly before his death, Socrates speaks his last words to Crito: "Crito, we owe a cock to Asclepius. Please, don't forget to pay the debt." Asclepius was the Greek god for curing illness, and it is likely Socrates' last words meant that death is the cure—and freedom, of the soul from the bodyVideo about Socrates •Socrates - Encyclopaedia channel http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2KzymrmNa0&feature=player_embedded•Socrates on the Soul http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=2339873451603167170&ei=mmjkSvzfB4ek2ALTw-SvDg&q=socrates&hl=en#•Giants of Philosophyhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRg6HZv33HA•The trial and death of Socrates http://www.trilulilu.ro/alonewolf/fc3ad495b6f9c5Plato (427-347 BC) • Plato is one of the world’s best known and most widely read and studied philosophers. He was the student of Socrates and the teacher of Aristotle, and he wrote in the middle of the fourth century B.C.E. in ancient Greece. • Though influenced primarily by Socrates, to the extent that Socrates is usually the main character in many of Plato’s writings, he was also influenced by Heraclitus, Parmenides, and the Pythagoreans.Plato (427-347 BC) • Invented the subject of philosophy as we know it. • Western Philosophy started with Plato.• His teacher was Socrates.• He is the fits philosopher whose works have come down to us complete.• He is also the first to have written on the full range of philosophical question: knowledge, perception, nature of the mind, change and the underlying order of things, politics, ethics, art; language and its relations to the word; death, immortality.• Later , some of his followers called themselves ‘Platonists’Plato’s DIALOGUESHis special writing style: dialogues It is an entry and invitation to thought.•Plato never appears in the dialogue itself.•Socrates was the inspiration of the dialogues and often the participant of the dialogue. It was Plato’s tribute to him •Although Socrates voice is very articulated through the dialogues, Plato is not necessarily telling us to believe his conclusions. Other dialogues are often inconclusive.•A complication in trying to extract Plato’s philosophy from the dialogues: they do not all present the same philosophy Metaphysical Concepts of Plato • Books 5-7 Republic, Education of the Guardians• Plato’s very famous vivid image about the human soul: PLATO’s CAVEEternal reality/ Higher Reality – illusion of the changing material world (everyday experience)