1. Greek Achievements:
Philosophy & Science
Social Studies for 9th
Teacher: Mauricio Torres

2. Introduction to Philosophy
• Ancient Greeks worshipped
gods and goddesses whose
actions explained many o f the
mysteries of the world.
• By 500 BC others started to
look for other explanations.
• These people are known as
philosophers.
• They believed in the power of
the human mind to think,
explain and understand
human life.

3. Socrates
• One of the great thinkers of the era was
Socrates. He believed people should never
stop looking for knowledge.
• He was a teacher, and his method is known
as the Socratic method. He would ask a
question and the answer was challenged by
him with another question!
• This was an effective method to make
people think and question their own
beliefs.
• Because of this, authorities were
frightened of him. He was arrested and
condemned to death.
• He drank his deadly “kool aid”, and calmly he
passed away.

4. Plato
• He was a student of Socrates. But he created a
school called the Academy. This was a place for
students and scientists to discuss ideas.
• Unlike Socrates he did write down his thoughts.
Among them were his most famous work, The
Republic. This is a description of an ideal
society.
• It was based on justice and fairness for everyone.

5. Aristotle
• He was Plato’s student.
• His views on life were that people
should live a balanced life. A
balance between extremes.
• He believed that this moderation
was based on reason (clear and
ordered thinking). In short,
people should think before they
act.
• He advanced in the field of
inferences: you could use facts
you knew to figure out new facts.

6. Science
• Thanks to Aristotle, many other began to look
closely at the world to see how it worked!

7. Mathematics
• One of the men that studied
Mathematics was Euclid.
• He was interested in geometry (the
study of lines angles and shapes).
Most of the rules in geometry that we
study, come from his writings.
• Other Greek mathematical
achievements included the accurate
calculation of the earth’s size.
• In the 300s and 400s AD, a woman
named Hypatia taught about math and
astronomy (“Agora” movie).

8. Medicine & Engineering
• Greek doctors also studied the human body.
• Hippocrates studied what caused diseases and
how to treat them
• He is known mostly for the hippocratic oath.
• Greeks also developed new things in the field of
engineering.
• One such engineer was Archimedes
• They also developed mechanical toys like birds,
puppets and coin operated machines!

9. Bibliography
• Burstein, S. M., & Shek, R. (2012). World History
(Teacher´s Edition) (1st Edition ed.). (H.
McDougal, Ed.) Orlando, Florida, US.: Houghton
Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
• Images taken from www.google.com