Tag: #Ancient Greece

Ancient

Plato's Phaedo: Four Arguments for the Soul's Immortality — Read in Dialogue Order

Set on the day of Socrates' execution, Plato's Phaedo develops four arguments for the soul's immortality.

Ancient

Pythagoras: 'All Things Are Number' — The Philosopher Who Heard the Order of the Cosmos

Pythagoras discovered the laws of the universe in musical ratios and proclaimed 'All things are number,' forging the bond between philosophy, mathematics, and science.

Ancient

Heraclitus: 'All Things Are in Flux' — The Philosopher Who Found Logos in the Heart of Opposition

Heraclitus discovered the logos (rational law) behind the ceaseless change of all things, and taught that the cosmos is governed by the unity of opposites and the transformations of fire.

Ancient

Parmenides: 'What Is, Is; What Is Not, Is Not' — The Philosopher Who United Being and Thought

Parmenides started from the principle 'what is, is; what is not, is not'.

Ancient

Democritus: 'Only Atoms and the Void Truly Exist' — The Philosopher Who Rebuilt the World from Particles

Democritus explained all things by means of indivisible atoms and the void, answering Parmenides' challenge while laying the groundwork for a materialist worldview that anticipated modern science.

Ancient

Aristotle: 'All Human Beings by Nature Desire to Know' — The Master of Those Who Know Who Classified and Systematised the World

Aristotle critically inherited Plato's theory of Forms and single-handedly constructed a comprehensive system spanning metaphysics, logic, ethics, natural philosophy, and politics. Through the four causes and the framework of potentiality and actuality he explained being and change, and with the doctrine of the mean and eudaimonia he laid the foundations of Western ethics.

Ancient

Zeno (Stoic): 'Live According to Nature' — The Philosopher Who Accepted Fate and Held Virtue Alone to Be Good

Zeno of Citium made 'living in accordance with nature' the foundational principle of ethics and founded Stoic philosophy, which holds virtue alone to be good. His thought passed through the Roman Empire to influence modern ethics and cognitive behavioural therapy.

Ancient

Epicurus: 'Pleasure Is the Beginning and End of the Good' — The Philosopher Who Dispelled Fear and Taught the Gentle Life

Epicurus inherited Democritus's atomism while placing 'pleasure' as the criterion of the good, and founded a philosophy that dispels the fear of death and dread of the gods. His thought connects deeply to modern science, utilitarianism, and existential inquiry.

Ancient

Diogenes: 'Deface the Currency' — The Dog Philosopher Who Gave Civilization the Finger

Diogenes lived in a storage jar, held up a lantern in broad daylight and said 'I am looking for a human being.' He stripped away property, honor, and shame, proving through his body alone that philosophy is a way of life.

Ancient

Plato's Apology of Socrates: Philosophy on Trial — A Record of the Man Who Argued for the Examined Life at the Cost of His Own

In 399 BCE Socrates stood before an Athenian jury of over 500 citizens, charged with impiety and corrupting the youth. Plato's Apology records how, facing a death sentence, the philosopher declared that 'the unexamined life is not worth living' and refused to abandon his mission of inquiry to the very end.