ANCIENT GREEK SOCIETY Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

ANCIENT Greek SOCIETY - Essay ExampleAncient Greek philosophy is a very diverse quash and the scope of this paper is limited to the key aspects focusing on philosophers from the Presocratics to the Neoplatonists. Presocratics Presocratics is a term used to decipher philosophers that existed before Socrates. Despite the fact that the ancient Greek society did not primarily use fabulous ideas to explain certain events, it is still clear that their logic to some extent was influenced by older acquaintance (Anton et al., 20-45). The initial consent of pre-Socratic philosophers was to explain the entire cosmos, with the aim of identifying the underlying principle behind it (Anton et al., 20-30). The Presocratics originated from Western and easterly Greece, where as Plato, Aristotle and Socrates were from Athens. Presocratics mainly focused on physics, a trait they were acknowledged for over the years. As they were the jump philosophers, they strongly objected mythical ideologies emp hasizing on rationality of things. Their main scientific interests included astronomy, mathematics, and biology (Anton et al., 20-45). Unfortunately, the genuine evidence of their works is absent. Their ideas and knowledge of their work is derived from proceeding literature such as The Opinions Physicists by Theophratus (Anton et al., 20-45). The head start philosophers of this time originated from Ionia and aims of this great the material principle of objects, the reasons for their disappearance and also their origin. It was in this time that Thales of Miletus determined body of water to be the basis of living things. Other philosophical principles that proceeded include the differentiation between cold and hot, wet and dry which were derived from the principle formulated by Anaximander. Philosophy was however first introduced to everyday life by Pythagoras of Samos. He perceived the world as perfectly harmonious, dependent on number, and encouraged the population to anticipat e a life of harmony. Xenophenes of Colophon, also referred to as the father of pantheism, referred to God as an eternal unity governing body the daily activities of the world with his thoughts (Anton et al., 20-45). In later years, a materialistic system was formulated by Leucippus and Democritus which refer one of the first doctrines of atoms or indivisible elements. These were assume to be infinite, in divisible, qualitatively similar and imperishable. They were assumed to move eternally, unite and collide on several occasions. In essence it is clear that the main of target of these philosophers was to decipher the ultimate basis of nature. In this era, the conception of human knowledge resolved around the philosophers theories on the constitution of things. Socrates The era between 469-399 BCE was that of Athenian Socrates (Anton et al., 20-45). Socrates rejected the previous theories formulated by his predecessors, making opinions and thoughts important in his theories. Soc rates excessively questioned people on their opinions which is opposite to the approach that was taken by Sophists, who considered thoughts and beliefs of people as their standard (Kingley, 45-79). Socrates lived in a period of transition from the Athenian hegemony to its defeat in the Peloponessian War by Sparta and its allies (Kingley,