Development Of Greek Philosophy

Greek Philosophy emerged because of the following thinkers: Thales, Pythagoras, Heraclitus, Parmenides, Socrates, Plato, and last but not least, Aristotle (Bennagen, 2000). This paper entitled, “Development of Greek Philosophy” intends to describe the thinkers involved, key schools, as well as their ideas. First stop is Thales, who emerged in 610 to 546 BC (Bennagen, 2000). He is said to be the first philosopher because of the fact that he motivated people to think that the world in all made up of water (Bennagen, 2000).

Second is Pythagoras, who came about in 582 to 507 BC (Bennagen, 2000). For Pythagoras, number is the most essential thing in life (Bennagen, 2000). It was him who established the relationship between angles and sides of the right triangle which he later technically referred to as the Pythagorean Theorem (Bennagen, 2000). Third is Heraclitus, who presented itself from 535 to 475 BC (Bennagen, 2000). For him, everything continuously changes and that stability does not exist (Bennagen, 2000). True enough because even those stable things, as they appear to be, are not (Bennagen, 2000).

Examples include neutrons, electrons, and quarks (Bennagen, 2000). Fourth is Parmenides, who made himself known from 610 to 547 BC (Bennagen, 2000). He was the founder of the school known as “Eleatics” (Bennagen, 2000). For him, change is unreal, it is merely an illusion (Bennagen, 2000). In addition to that, for him, reality or “being” is everlasting, fixed, and undivided (Bennagen, 2000). He warns us that we should not always trust our senses when it comes to what reality is (Bennagen, 2000). Fifth is Socrates, who emerged in 469 to 399 BC (Bennagen, 2000).

Socrates focused on the health of the soul and thus, he motivated people to look further into ethics or morality instead of nature as the first four philosophers were deeply interested in (Bennagen, 2000). Sixth is Plato (427 to 347 BC) who believes that reality is divided into two the perfect and imperfect (Bennagen, 2000). He also presented his ideal state and ideal leader to show his definition of reality (Bennagen, 2000). Last but not least is Aristotle who went to study things further using his senses, consequently discovering science itself (Bennagen, 2000).

Reference

1. Bennagen, P. (2000). Social, Economic, and Political Thought. Quezon City: UPOU.