The Ancient Greek Philosophers Socrates, Plato and Aristotle.

Plato wrote socratic dialogs in which Socrates was in them, and so we know most of what we know about Socrates from what Plato wrote not from what Socrates wrote. Socrates challenged the sophists, they were a school of philosophers at the time of the Peloponnesian war that were very cynical and said you should just see what's best for yourself and forget about altruism and virtue and doing good things. And Socrates said that was wrong, you know, Socrates is famous for having said the unexamined life is not worth living. You need to examine yourself, live a just and righteous life. Then Plato's Socrates school, Socrates pupil, set up a school called the academy. And that was in the latter part of his life that the academy didn't have any specific teachings that they taught, but they simply posed questions for others to answer. I Plato did write a lot. Again, he wrote the socratic dialogs where we learned about Socrates. He wrote a book called the republic, which is still a famous book studied in political philosophy today. One of the main ideas in it, he said philosopher king should rule. 

He said other forms of government like democracy, oligarchy, they failed because kings ambitious and stuff whereas philosophers he implied wouldn't become that way. So the ideal government is ruled by a philosopher king. Oddly, Plato said there should be no poets in this ideal republic. Kids would be raised communally, deserving women should be given an education that was a new idea for his time. So there's Plato, Socrates student. And then Plato's famous student Aristotle. Aristotle founded a school called the lyceum. Which believed in cooperative learning. And they studied basically practical things history and science research. So these philosophers form the basis of modern science, because stop and think about it. They're in a time ancient Greece where the Greek gods think of the Greek gods, you know, Zeus and all the stories of these gods. These philosophers of that ridiculous were things don't happen because it's a whims of some crazy gods. We need to study. We need to use a rationality. 

So study and rational thinking form the basis of these philosophers. And so really they're the basis of western civilization or the scientific method. But then Eric's Alexander, who was a student of Aristotle, he's no longer a philosopher, he basically conquered the world. And so he put into practice, perhaps some of the practical things learned from studying these philosophers. And of course, you can see in the background there, the area that he conquered. There's another picture of it there. The empire of Alexander the Great, through Asia Minor and all the way to India. And here's the picture that appears in your textbook. So you can see Alexander basically conquered the world. He brought grecian culture and learning to the east, but he also picked up Persian culture as he moved moved east and so the culture that came from Alexander is called Hellenistic were the grecian philosophy, all the grecian ideas of architecture and philosophy while he spread those east as again as Alexander moved east and is conquering he began to aggrandize or take to himself Persian customs even took a Persian wife. And so this blending of Greek Greek ideas and Persian ideas and Indian ideas is called Hellenistic culture. 

This gives you an idea how big his empire was superimposed over a map of the United States, so a huge empire founded by Alexander as a relatively young man. Socrates, as he said, said the unexamined life is not worth living. He challenged all around him to examine their beliefs and their ideas. He was put on trial for corrupting the city of Athens youth, their young people, and also for failing to respect the gods. And as we said, these philosophers didn't believe in these Greek God. They believed in a reason and studied. And so again, this is the roots of modern science. So when Socrates was condemned to death, there's a socratic dialog about this called the credo CRI and Socrates is given a chance to escape, but he said, why would I escape? The government I believe in, the Athenian government has what they think justly condemned me and I can't condemn the government that I've been grown up in and has been a source of help to me. And so if they say I must die, then I must die any drinks. 

The poison, the hemlock. Plato left Athens for ten years after the death of Socrates, striking thing that happened to him. When he returned, he set up the academy. His idea of forms is that everything that exists exists in its most pure form in heaven, let's say, in a form. So any horse is simply a reflection of the perfect ideal of a horse, and each chair there's many different kinds of chairs or all just various reflections of the perfect form of the chair. He emphasized the importance of reason. And in the republic we've talked about this, it said that the state should regulate citizens lives. Children should be raised community. There would be workers, soldiers, and then philosopher kings. And talented women would be educated. So Plato's book, the republic. Then Aristotle analyzed governments, monarchy, aristocracy, democracy, but he said democracy was the worst form of government. We think it's the best. He said it was the worst. It would lead to the ultimate the lower class is getting what they want to. We'd be run by our lower nature, not by our higher nature and mob rule would take over. 

So in the end he favored rule by a single strong and virtuous leader. So to Plato did. People ought to live by the golden mean between the extremes. You know, don't be too spendthrift, don't be hold your pennies too much, be in the middle, you know? Reason should be the guiding forces with all these philosophers and the first universities in Europe, 1500 years later after Aristotle were still based on Aristotle because he tended to study the practical arts. Here's a famous picture, it's called Raphael's school of Athens, and you can see in this picture Plato and Aristotle Plato's pointing up sort of like talking believing in his forms in these ideal forms and theory. Aristotle's kind of pointing ahead and down indicating science, leading the way in politics. And so here's the picture, and you can see Plato and Aristotle are at the center of the school of Athens. And then Alexander the Great conquers the world. He's not a philosopher. He's not arguing about forms. He puts onto the earth into practice. The idea of trying to be the single great ruler, of course he wasn't a philosopher king. And. So there's a quick look into Socrates Plato, Aristotle, and. Oh baby, baby it's a wild word