Three Sages of Ancient Greek Philosophy

Socrates (Greek: (469 BC - 399 BC)) is a famous ancient Greek philosopher. One of his students is Plato and Plato's student Aristotle were collectively known as the "Three Sages of Greece". They were born in the golden age of Athens under the rule of Pericles and died in the period of the decline of Athens (the Thirty Tyrants after the Peloponnesian War). The period after the fall of the Group). Born into poverty, his father was a sculptor and his mother was a midwife. Socrates was a legendary historical figure with a distinctive personality who was praised and criticized. Socrates was Plato's teacher. , he never wrote anything in his life, and his remarks and thoughts are mostly found in the works of Plato and Xenophon, such as "Memoirs of Socrates' Words and Actions". Socrates was eventually accused of corrupting the minds of young people because he violated the interests of the powerful at that time. He died from drinking poisonous violet juice. He has long relied on education. Socrates' teaching method is unique, and he often uses enlightenment and debate to educate. Socrates is the founder of Plato's philosophical line. , was the first person in ancient Greece who proposed using reason and thinking to find universal morality. He was the founder of moral philosophy. He emphasized that morality is guided by reason, so "virtue is knowledge" and believed that goodness comes from knowledge. Evil comes from ignorance. In the history of European philosophy, the idealist theory of teleology was first proposed, believing that everything is created and arranged by God and embodying God’s wisdom and purpose. In the pursuit of nature (because it is the domain of God), the most knowledgeable person is God. Knowledge ultimately comes from God. In terms of logic, Ari. Stoudet believed that Socrates proposed inductive arguments, found certain arguments from specific facts, paid attention to general definition methods, and made precise explanations of concepts. The legend of Socrates mainly believed that there were standards for right and wrong. His family life was unfortunate, and his wife was a shrew.

Plato (Greek: ?, English: Plato, about 427 BC to 347 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher whose main philosophical thoughts were. The theory of ideals has a significant and far-reaching influence on Western philosophical thought. His original name was Aristoklēs. Plato was the fourth child in his family. He was a student of Socrates. He was also Aristotle's teacher. "The Republic" is his most important work. Plato was born in the Athenian aristocracy and received a good aristocratic education. When he was about twenty years old, he began to follow Socrates (European History). In 399 BC, Socrates was tried and sentenced to death, and Plato fled to Megara for refuge. Later, he traveled to various places, including Sicily, southern Italy, Egypt and other places. In 387 BC, Plato returned to Athens and founded the Athenaeum. The name of the academy is related to the address of the academy. The location of the academy is related to the legendary Greek hero Academus, so it is named after the Academy. This naming. The Academy is the earliest teaching institution in the West and the predecessor of the universities that developed in the West during the Middle Ages. The academy existed for more than 900 years until it was closed by Emperor Justinian in 529 AD. The academy was greatly influenced by Pythagoras, and its curriculum was similar to the traditional topics of the Pythagoreans, including arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and acoustics. In 367 BC, Plato traveled again. At this time, the Academy had been established for more than 20 years. He arrived in Syracuse and put his ideas into practice, but was forcibly exiled. He returned to Athens in 360 BC and continued to lecture and write in the academy. Plato's main philosophical thoughts are recorded in the form of dialogues. In Plato's dialogues, there are many conversations in the name of Socrates, so it is difficult for people to distinguish which are Socrates' thoughts and which are Plato's thoughts.

Aristotle (Greek: approximately 384 BC to 322 BC) was a famous philosopher, scientist and educator in ancient Greece. He was a student of Plato and a teacher of Alexander the Great. He summarized the results of the development of ancient Greek philosophy since Thales, distinguished philosophy from other sciences for the first time, and initiated independent research in logic, ethics, politics, biology and other disciplines. His academic thoughts had a huge impact on the development of Western culture and science. Aristotle divided science into: (1) theoretical science (mathematics, natural science and the first philosophy later called metaphysics); (2) practical science (ethics, politics, economics, strategy science and decoration); (3) the science of creation, that is, poetics.

Introduction

When we talk about ancient Greek philosophy, there are three coherent figures that we have to mention: Socrates, Plato and Aris Stoudet. Together, the three of them founded today's Western philosophical thought. Although Aristotle was a student of Plato, his views differed in many ways from Plato's. Plato was an idealist and rationalist. Plato believed that our material world is actually an imperfect world, and behind it there is a perfect "world of ideas." Aristotle believed that our understanding of the world comes from our senses. Therefore, Aristotle's philosophy actually created the subsequent scientific method.

Aristotle's writings still exist today. Most of them are textbook-style documents, and many are even notes by Aristotle's students. In the early Middle Ages, due to the popularity of Neoplatonism, Aristotle's works were not translated. But by the 12th century, Aristotelianism began to rise, and his works were translated into various European texts, forming the scholastic philosophy of the late Middle Ages. This philosophy later became the target of criticism by early modern philosophers such as Galileo and Descartes.

Life

Aristotle was born in Stagira, Thrace. His father was the physician to the King of Macedonia. In 366 BC Aristotle was sent to study at Plato's Academy in Athens. Aristotle lived in the Academy for the next 20 years until the death of his teacher Plato. After Plato's death, Aristotle could not bear the fact that the new head of the Academy was more sympathetic to the mathematical tendency in Plato's philosophy, so he left Athens. However, it can be seen from Aristotle's writings that although Aristotle did not agree with the views of the new leaders of the academy such as Posippus, he still maintained good relations with them. After leaving the academy, Aristotle first accepted the invitation of his former schoolmate Hermias to visit Asia Minor. Hermias was the ruler of Mysia on the coast of Asia Minor. There Aristotle also married the niece of Hermias. But in 344 BC, Hermias was murdered in a riot, and Aristotle had to leave Asia Minor and go to Mytilene with his family. Three years later, Aristotle was summoned to his hometown by King Philip II of Macedonia and became the teacher of Alexander the Great, who was only 13 years old at the time. According to the famous ancient Greek biographer Plutarch, Aristotle instilled a moral, political and philosophical education in the future world leader. We also have reason to believe that Aristotle also used his influence and played an important role in the formation of Alexander the Great's thoughts. It was under the influence of Aristotle that Alexander the Great was always very concerned about science and respected knowledge. However, Aristotle and Alexander the Great may not have had exactly the same political views. The political outlook of the former was based on the Greek city-states that were about to decline, while the centralized empire later established by Alexander the Great was nothing more than a barbarian invention to the Greeks. After Philip died in 335 BC, Aristotle returned to Athens and established his own school there. The name of the academy (Lyceum) is named after the wolf-slayer (Lyceus) near the Temple of Apollo. During this period, Aristotle lectured and wrote many philosophical works. Aristotle had a habit of walking in the corridors and gardens while lecturing. Because of this, the philosophy of the academy is called "the philosophy of leisure" or "the philosophy of strolling". Aristotle also wrote many works during this period, mainly about natural science and philosophy about nature and physics, and the language he used was much more obscure than Plato's "Dialogues". Many of his works are based on lecture notes, and some are even class notes of his students. Therefore, some people regard Aristotle as the author of the first textbook in the West. After Alexander's death, the Athenians began to rise up against Macedonian rule. Because of his relationship with Alexander, Aristotle had to flee to Chalcis for refuge after being accused of impiety. His academy was placed in the charge of Theophrastus. A year later, in 322 BC, Aristotle died. The cause of his death was an illness that had accumulated for many years. Rumors that he was poisoned or committed suicide by jumping into the sea due to unexplained tidal phenomena are completely unfounded.

Philosophical Views

Although Aristotle was a student of Plato, he was the first to publicly criticize Plato. He was particularly opposed to the mathematical aspects of Plato's philosophy. Some people think that although Aristotle was familiar with the mathematics of his time, he never understood Plato's mathematics. In addition, Aristotle also criticized Plato's theory of phases. Although he agrees that the "form" of a thing is eternal, he believes that the "form" itself does not exist, but is a concept formed by people after feeling the physical object. Therefore, he believes that "form" is actually the characteristic of the thing itself. He pointed out that any thought or concept we have enters our consciousness through our senses. But Aristotle does not deny that people have reason. It is with reason that people can distinguish different sensory impressions. But he also pointed out that before human senses experience anything, reason is a complete vacuum. Aristotle believed that there is a causal relationship in nature. He believes that there are four different causes in nature. The ancient Greeks' concept of "cause" is different from the modern concept of "causality". "Cause" corresponds to "why" and does not correspond to "result". That is, "purpose cause", "material cause", "dynamic cause" and "formal cause". Aristotle proposed the so-called syllogism in logic. His theory remained the only accepted form of argument in the West for the next two thousand years. In terms of ethics, Aristotle emphasized the so-called "golden mean". This may be similar to the concept of "harmony" of Greek natural philosophers. He believes that people should not gravitate towards any extreme. Only with balance can people live a happy and harmonious life. Aristotle believed that humans are inherently political animals and that humans are not real humans if they do not live in society.

He also proposed three good political systems: monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy (which he called Polity).

View of Science

Aristotle marked a turning point in the history of ancient Greek science because he was the last person to propose an entire world system and the first to engage in extensive A person who examines experience. In astronomy, Aristotle founded the theory that moving celestial bodies are material entities. In physics, Aristotle believed that objects can only maintain motion if they are in direct contact with a constantly acting mover. According to Aristotle, a "vacuum" cannot exist because space must be filled with matter. This allows physical effects to be transmitted through direct contact. Newton, a later physicist, pointed out the fallacy of Aristotle's conclusion and pointed out that force is not the direct cause of keeping objects in motion. Force can only change the state of motion of an object. ?It can be said that before the building of Newton's classical mechanics system was built, the entire Western world was ruled by Aristotle's physics.

Artistic Views

In terms of drama, Aristotle's "Poetics" is the first concluding work that discusses the art of tragedy in ancient Greece. He proposed the famous "mimesis theory" in the book, arguing that tragedy describes serious events and is an imitation of actions of a certain length; the purpose is to arouse pity and fear and lead to the purification of these emotions; the protagonist often appears Unexpected misfortune becomes a tragedy, so the conflict of tragedy becomes a conflict between man and destiny. This was the first time in the history of art that the nature of drama was discussed, and it also created the Aristotelian poetic tradition. His views were later developed by Horace of ancient Rome in "The Art of Poetry", thus indirectly influencing the entire history of Western art.

Archimedes (287 BC - 212 BC), a great ancient Greek philosopher, mathematician, and physicist. Born in Syracuse, Sicily. Archimedes visited Alexandria, and it is said that he invented the Archimedes-style water lifter while he was living in Alexandria, which is still in use in Egypt today. During the Second Punic War, the Roman army besieged Syracuse, and Archimedes died at the hands of Roman soldiers.

Scientific Achievements

Archimedes developed a goniometer for astronomical measurements and made an instrument for measuring the angle of the sun to the earth. His most famous discovery is the principle of buoyancy and relative density, that is, the apparent weight of an object reduced in a liquid is equal to the weight of the liquid displaced, which later became known as Archimedes' principle. In geometry, he created a method of finding pi, which is the relationship between the circumference of a circle and its diameter. Mead has a famous saying: "Give me a fulcrum and I can move the earth." ?He devoted his life to studying scientific problems of volume and buoyancy. There is an interesting story that the king asked the goldsmith to make a pure gold crown. The king suspected that the goldsmith had added impurities, so he asked Archimedes to make it. Identification, Archimedes has been thinking about the method of identification. When he walked into the bathtub to take a bath, when he saw the full water, he realized the method of using buoyancy to measure the volume of irregular objects. He ran out of the bathroom happily. Shouting: ?I found it! ?I forgot for a moment that I was naked. In addition, Archimedes also had mathematical achievements in geometry. Archimedes was the first scientific engineer. In his research, he used Euclidean methods, first assuming, and then using rigorous logical deduction to obtain results. He constantly sought general principles for use in on special projects. His work always combined mathematics and physics, and Archimedes became the father of physics. His application of the principle of leverage in warfare and his defense of Silas is well known. He also used the same principle to derive the volume of partial spheres and the volume of revolutions (ellipsoids, paraboloids of revolution, hyperboloids of revolution). In addition, he also discussed the Archimedean spiral (for example: a fly rotates at a constant speed from the center of a turntable The trajectory left by walking outward), the related principles of circles, spheres, and cylinders, and their achievements. Archimedes effectively used the concept of approximation proposed by Euclid. He proposed polygons inscribed in circles and polygons circumscribed by similar circles. When the number of sides is large enough, the perimeters of the two polygons will increase from one to the other. One approaches the circumference of the circle from below. He first used hexagons, then doubled the number of sides one by one. When it came to ninety-six polygons, he found that the estimated value of ? was between 3.14163 and 3.14286. In addition, he calculated that the surface area of ??the ball is four times the area of ??the largest circle it inscribes. And he derived that the volume of a sphere inscribed in a cylinder is two-thirds of the volume of the cylinder. This theorem is engraved on his tombstone.

Works

"Methodology"

"On Floating Bodies"

This book discusses the buoyancy of objects and studies the rotation of parabolic objects in fluids Stability in

"On Sphere and Cylinder"

Starting from several definitions and axioms, this book derives more than 50 propositions about the area and volume of spheres and cylinders

"The Balance of Plane Figures or Its Center of Gravity"

This book starts from several basic assumptions, demonstrates the principles of mechanics through strict geometric methods, and finds the center of gravity of several planar figures

"The Sand Counter"

This book mainly talks about designing a method that can represent any large number

"On Lever"

"On Splitting" Cones and Spheres》

《Quadrature of Parabolas》

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《On Spirals》