Transcript Ancient Greek Philosophy

ANCIENT GREEK PHILOSOPHY
哲學研究所專任助理教授 陳斐婷
Today’s agenda
 Learning Classical Greek
 A brief history of ancient Greek philosophy
 Introduction to Unite 2: nature, change and cause
Learning Classical Greek
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Fragment of Aristotle’s Politics
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ὁ Δικαιόπολις
Dicaeopolis
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Ἀθηναῖος
(an) Athenian
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ἐστί(ν)
He is; he exists.
εἰμί
I am; I exist
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ὁ Δικαιόπολις Ἀθηνᾶίος ἐστιν.
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οἰκεῖ
He/she/it lives, dwells
οἰκέω
I live, dwell
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δέ
and
ἀλλά
but
οὐκ
not
ἐν ταῖς Ἀθήναις
in Athens
ἐν τοῖς ἀγροῖς
in the fields
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ὁ Δικαιόπολις Ἀθηνᾶίος ἐστιν.
οἰκεῖ δὲ ὁ Δικαιόπολις οὐκ ἐν
ταῖς Ἀθήναις ἀλλὰ ἐν τοῖς
ἀγροῖς.
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A Brief History of Greek Philosophy
The Pre-Socratic philosophers
 Milesians (4/13)
Thales: water
Anaximander: ἄπειρον (the unlimited, unbound, boundless)
Anaximenes: air
 Ionians (4/20, 4/27)
Heraclitus: change and logos
 Eleatics (4/27, 5/4)
Parmenides: the One
Zeno of Elea: the paradoxes
 Atomists (5/11)
The Pre-Socratic philosophers
 Pluralists
Empedocles: Four elements and two forces (Love and Strife)
Anaxagoras: Mind and the divisibility of material ingredients
 Sophists:
Protagoras and Gorgias
 Plato’s criticisms of sophists
(a) Some sophists as a group responsible for decay in moral
standards, e.g., Callicles (Gorgias) and Thrasymachus (Republic)
(b) Other sophists such as Protagoras and Gorgias simply repeat
those prejudices without founding their view on any rational
basis that goes beyond the unexamined beliefs of the majority.
Plato connects Sophistic with “appearances” or “images” in the
Republic.
Socrates (470/469-399 BCE)
 Son of a midwife and a stone
sculptor. Snub nose, bulging eyes,
thick lips and a pot belly. Often
barefoot, seldom bathed, and wore
the same thin cloak winter and
summer. Infantryman in the
Peloponnesian War.
 In the Apology: corrupting the youth,
not believing in the gods of the city
state, introducing new divinities.
 In the Clouds (423BCE)
founder of Thinkery School: (a)
believing in Breath, Air, Chaos;
thunder is not caused by Zeus; (b)
teaching the Inferior Logic…
The historical Socrates
 Socrates in Plato’s Apology:
corrupting the youth, not believing in the gods of the city state,
introducing new divinities.
 Socrates in Aristophanes’ The Clouds (423BCE):
a naturalist philosopher. The Thinkery School, believing in Breath,
Air, Chaos. Thunder is not caused by Zeus…
 Socrates in Xenophon’s Socratic writing:
concerned only with ethical issues; pessimistic about knowledge
of heavenly phenomena.
 Socrates in Aristotle’s writing: ethical issues
Plato (427-347 BC)
 Two worlds: the visible
world vs. the intelligible
world.
 Particulars exist in the visible
world.
 Forms exist in the intelligible
world.
 Particulars are inferior to the
Forms.
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Aristotle (384-322 BC)
 There is only one world.
 Particulars are the primary
substances.
 Particulars are primary and
fundamental to the
universals.
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Unite 2: Nature, Change, and Cause
Nature and Change
φύσις (nature)
What x consists of or comes to be from
Crocodiles
Epilepsy
Hippocrates on nature
From the regular and permanent traits to
their underlying constituents
Explaining Change
The material explanation as the principle
Thales, Anaximenes, Heracleitus
Aristotle’s criticism
The efficient explanation as the principle
Aristotle’s (and Plato’s) Criticism?
 If you were Aristotle (or Plato), how would respond to the
efficient explanation as the principle of the cosmos (the world,
the universe)?
Next week: Heracleitus