Greek Philosophy and the Hellenistic World

Philosophical v. Mythological Perspectives
Mythological:
Particular
Ad hoc
Deification of nature
Philosophical:
General
Consistent
Reification of supernature
Philosophy is the intellectual project of questioning accepted ideas and requiring that reason and evidence be the criteria for belief. The Greeks are largely responsible for its forms.

Xenophanes on the Gods
“ The Ethiops say that their gods are flat-nosed and black,while the Thracians say that theirs have blue eyes and red hair. Yet if cattle or horses or lions had hands and could draw, and could sculpture like men, then the horses would draw their gods like horses, and cattle like cattle; and each they would shape bodies of gods in the likeness, each kind, of their own.”

Pre-Socratic Philosophy: the Milesians
First principles and foundationalism
The phusikoi and the “one big question”
Thales of Miletus (6 th c. BC): water
Anaximander: the infinite
Anaximenes: the mist

Pre-Socratic Philosophy: Pythagoras
The Pythagorean brotherhood
The Harmony of the Spheres
Justice is four, marriage is five
π and the importance of secrecy

Pre-Socratic Philosophy: Change and Continuity
Heraclitus and the world of flux
The Eleatics: Parmenides
Zeno’s paradox of motion
Atomism: Empedocles and Democritus

The Sophists
Herodotus: History and cultural relativism
Protagoras: “Man is the measure of all things”
Philosophy for hire
Ancient post-modernism?

The Sophists v. Socrates
Sophists:
Believed in paid teaching
Taught Rhetoric
Sought to mold opinion
Favored democracy
Socrates:
Believed in free instruction
Taught dialectic
Sought knowledge
Suspicious of democracy (preferred aristocracy)

Socrates
“ the Gadfly”
The virtues of knowing nothing
The Socratic dialogue
Socrates’ Trial (399 BC )
The Apology

Plato
the Academy
The pharmakon
Idealism and the Forms
The Republic
Guardians, Auxiliaries, masses

Aristotle
Deduction and induction
Linguistic analysis and the categories
Teleology
The Nichomachean Ethics and phronesis

Plato v. Aristotle
Plato:
Being
Math
Forms
Extremism
Aristotle:
Becoming
Biology
Analysis
Golden Mean
Concern Subject Method Nature of the Good

Phillip and Alexander
The Battle of Chaeronae and the Corinthian League
Alexander and the Conquest of Persia
The Alexandrias
“ Asiatic Despotism”
The End of the World
An Empire Divided

The Hellenistic Kingdoms

The Hellenistic Age
Diffusion of Greek culture
Fusion of east and west
Cosmopolitanism
Lingua franca
Ptolemaic currency
Scientific Culture

Hellenistic Philosophy
Ataraxia
Universalism
Individualism
Diogenes the Cosmopolite and the Cynics
Skepticism
Stoicism
Epicureanism

Mystery Religions
Mysterion
Ekstasis and enthusiasmus
Dionysos worship
The Cult of Cybele
The Mysteries of Isis
The Trials of Mithras

Summary
The Hellenic and Hellenistic eras were times of great intellectual ferment. Philosophy attempted to provide knowledge and perspective on the nature of humanity and the universe, though it often produced as many questions as it answered. The replacement of a highly localized, communal form of life associated with the classical polis with a cosmopolitan despotism prompted a shift in philosophical ideals towards a higher degree of individualism and disengagement. These cultural forms would be imported by the next emerging Mediterranean power, Rome.

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Greek Philosophy and the Hellenistic World

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