The representatives of the new Stoa belong to the first two Christian centuries. Their views approach Platonism, advocate man's relationship with God, and emphasize love for fellow human beings. A well known representative of the new Stoa was the slave Epictetus (50-135 AD). He believed that within man there is a space that is inaccessible to material power and to the temptation of external goods. He also believed that being indifferent to things which he can not control, someone can get rid of passions. An admirer of the Epictetus was Marcus Aurelius (121-180 AD), who wrote that knowing that everything changes, one can not desire anything and be afraid of anything outside, submitting to the natural course of the world and thus cultivating his inner freedom, which is in accordance with his rational nature.
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Thursday, August 6, 2020
THE STOIC PHILOSOPHY OF THE METALEXANDRIAN AGE
Sunday, August 2, 2020
ARISTOTLE: THE MOST METHODICAL MIND OF THE ANCIENT WORLD
At the level of political philosophy, again,
Aristotle distinguished two different types of classification of the citizens
of a society. He first divided them into farmers, craftsmen and merchants. His
second categorization ranked them as rich, poor and middle class. The
philosopher thus stated that the relations between these social groups
determines the state.
Aristotle distinguished three typical types of regimes and three deviations from them. The first are the kingdom, the aristocracy and the democracy. The latter are tyranny, oligarchy and mob rule. Nevertheless, like Plato, Aristotle ultimately considered that there are essentially only two kinds of regimes: that which serves the good of society and that which serves only the good of the lords.
However, Aristotle supported the idea of a society where the middle class prevails and where everyone is equal before the law. Finally, the Macedonian philosopher was the first to support the principle of separation of powers and that of the majority.
As an epilogue it is noted that Aristotle was the teacher of Alexander the Great.
Finally, in modern Greece, the largest university is named after the great philosopher: It is the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.
Thursday, July 30, 2020
PLATO'S EXCITING THEORIES
The greatest of Socrates' disciples was Plato (427-347 BC). This philosopher believed that the soul had known the meanings of things in the period before it came on Earth. Thus all knowledge in the terrestrial world is essentially a memory of what the soul had seen before it entered the body and then forgot. So, when the soul sees in the earthly world things that resemble its formerly superhuman forms, it awakens and feels nostalgia for the eternal archetype. This state evokes true love or otherwise "Platonic love", that is, the soul's desire to know the real beings and to imitate them in the earthly world.
The conquest of knowledge, according to Plato, takes place through dialogue. Through this, the meanings and the relations between them are determined. Meanings contribute to the approach of eternal and pre-existing ideas, which are, according to the philosopher, the real beings and the cause of everything that happens in the world. In fact, the idea of the good was considered by Plato as the ultimate purpose of the world.
For the soul, the philosopher formulated the following theory: The soul once inhabited the world of ideas but the laws of the earthly world forced it to enter the body and come to the earthly world. Depending on its actions on earth, the soul after the death of the body is either released immediately and returns to the divine world or enters successively into bodies of other living organisms, until it is completely cleansed of its faults and can one day return to the divine world.
According to Plato, the soul is not an idea but a relative of it. Also, the way for the soul to know the divine, the ideal is to become the same as it. In order for the soul to know the beautiful and the good, it must become beautiful and good itself. Finally, in order to know God, the soul must know the idea of the good, which, as foretold, is the ultimate purpose of the world.
Plato believed, like his teacher, Socrates, that no one is bad at will but only because he does not know good. This implies that the knowledge of good leads to virtue, so virtue is instructive.
In a political level, Plato believed that the purpose of the state is the spiritual and moral promotion of its citizens, so the good politician must move towards their achievement. In the ideal city, according to the philosopher, there are three categories of citizens: Professionals, security guards and lords. The professionals form the largest team of citizens and with their work they maintain the rest. The guards protect the state in case of external and internal dangers. Finally, the lords come from the guard class, after careful selection, and aim to rule.
According to the philosopher, the guards must acquire music and gymnastics education. The first contributes to knowledge and the second to will. However, in order not to use their skills only for their own benefit and not for the common good, Plato considered that the guards should not have property but instead are required to stay in camps and be feeded there.
Finally, as far as the lords are concerned, they should have at the highest level the virtues of the guards and always act guided by the happiness of all the whole group of citizens.
Friday, July 24, 2020
WHAT DID SOCRATES SAY?
The theories of the sophists did bring the human soul to the center of philosophical thought, but they provoked the feeling of uncertainty in the people of their time. This is what Socrates came to face (470-399 BC).
Socrates was not a professional teacher, as the
sophists were. Instead he used to develop his thoughts, through dialogue, in
places like the market, workshops and gyms.
According to Aristotle, the method by which
this philosopher was trying to discover truth and knowledge was as follows: He was
asking his interlocutor about questions that were always concerning man and
then was judging his answers by checking their validity.
Socrates was very interested in the subject of
ethics, which he was considering to be based on logic and to be independent of
religion and custom. Unlike the sophists who were believing in the relativity
of things, Socrates was arguing for the existence of good and evil. He was
believing, then, that no one chooses evil when he knows what he is doing. Thus
he came to the conclusion that virtue is based on knowledge, which is
instructive.
Socrates was considering the beauty of the soul
to be good and beneficial for man, which, in his opinion, was surpassing other
goods such as physical strength, health, external beauty, pleasure, wealth and
glory.
The teaching of Socrates contributed to the
internalization of man and to the projection of the imaginary world as of
special value. However, his morals were not ascetic because he was not
disregarding human nature.
Without the philosopher himself seeking it, his
students created their own schools, based on his philosophical theories. However,
each of them evolved with the personal tendencies of its own representative.
Thursday, July 23, 2020
MAGICAL NORTHERN ITALY & SERENE SOUTHERN SWITZERLAND
Wednesday, July 22, 2020
THE TURN OF SOPHISTIC THOUGHT TO MAN AND HIS SOUL
Monday, July 20, 2020
THE BIRTH OF THE ATOMIC THEORY IN GREECE OF THE 5TH B.C. CENTURY
One of the most important achievements of ancient Greek thought of the 5th century BC was undoubtedly the genesis of the concept of the atom, this tiny amount of matter that has occupied scientists and philosophers for thousands of years.
The important current that first conceived this idea was the atomic philosophy. Its representatives studied with the "Dorian" Eleatan philosophers but also opposed them. They therefore accepted the doctrine of their teachers that "BEING" is unborn and incorruptible but at the same time claimed that it moves and is divided.
Atomic philosophers first acknowledged the coexistence of emptiness and non-emptiness in the universe. The existence of a vacuum is a necessary condition for the possibility of division of physical bodies. However, they rejected the view of Zeno the Eleat about the infinite division of bodies. That is, they supported the existence of finite molecules of matter, which can not be further cut and remain atoms. Thus the theory of the atom was conceived.
The most important atomic philosopher was Democritus (470/460 - 400/390 BC) from Abdera in Thrace, the most versatile and methodical mind before Aristotle. He dealt with issues of physics, epistemology, human behavior, social and political organization.
Democritus defined the atom as unborn, incorruptible, unchangeable, complete and perfect, uniformly compact, free from emptiness, simple, unified and amorphous, without fluctuations, dilutions and densities or expansions and contractions, indivisible and with definite boundaries. In his opinion, atoms were infinite in number and shapes and moved eternally into space.
An important difference between the theory of Democritus and that of the Eleats was that the former meant substance not metaphysically but materially. At the same time, he considered the phenomena of nature not as an illusion of people but as something that happens around the essence.
As for how a world is created, Democritus taught that it is composed when in a large space void many atoms collide with each other to form a vortex. In the vortex, similar atoms are attracted to each other and form known physical bodies such as fire, water, air and earth. Then the heavier materials gather in the center and create the earth while the lighter ones are pushed towards the periphery creating the celestial bodies and the meteorological phenomena. Thus infinite worlds are synthesized and decomposed. In fact, he defined as their way of destruction the fall of one world over another. Finally, he argued that in some worlds there is no sun and moon while in others there are many such celestial bodies. In addition, the philosopher believed that in many worlds there are no liquids, animals and plants.
Democritus also formulated positions in the field of biology. Thus he argued that the skills and organs of the various animals were created by chance and that only those organs that seemed necessary to preserve each species were saved. The philosopher also considered every living organism as a small world.
As for the soul, Democritus considered it as a physical body, with a composition like fire, he identified it with the mind and believed that it wears together with the body.
For knowledge, the philosopher taught that it is related to the situations that surround each person and that the truth is at the bottom, that is, in the void and in atoms. The process of knowledge was for him a natural mechanism, which in fact was based on the "dark" sense and the "genuine" intellect. For the second to exist, a necessary condition was the existence of the first, as Aristotle later believed.
Finally, a characteristic formulation of the philosopher about the importance of teaching was this: "Teaching is close to nature because it restructures human nature and thus creates a new nature."
Today, about 300 excerpts from numerous books by Democritus survive.
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