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ANCIENT THOUGHT: DEFINITIONS

Ancient Greek Philosophy: philosophy of this period (derived from a Greek word which means in English 'love' [philos] of 'wisdom' [sophia]) focused its attention on clarifying the role played by the reason especially in intellectual inquiry.  Their efforts in this regard formed the foundation for the subsequent development of philosophy in Western Europe and, in particular, of modern science. 

The Pre-Socratics (c.650 - c. 500 BCE): these were, as the name applies, philosophers who preceded Socrates.  Striving to understand the nature of the natural world in particular, They rejected traditional mythological explanations for the phenomena they saw around them in favour of more rational explanations.  Some questions which they posed include:

• From where does everything come?
• From what is everything created?
• How do we explain the plurality of things found in nature?
• How might we describe nature mathematically?

Socratic Philosophy: the heyday of ancient Greek philosophy is often located in 5th century BCE Athens and identified with the work of Socrates and his two main disciples, Plato and Aristotle (who are considered the great of the Ancient philosophers).

Sophism (c. 500 - c. 300 BCE): Sophism (from the Greek sophistes meaning "wise-ist," or one who 'does' wisdom, i.e. who makes a business out of wisdom; cf. sophós, "wise man", cf. also wizard) was originally a term for the techniques taught by a highly respected group of rhetoric teachers in ancient Greece.  In the second half of the 5th century B.C., and especially at Athens, 'sophist' came to be applied to a group of thinkers and speakers who employed rhetoric to achieve their purposes, generally to persuade or convince others.  Many of them taught their skills, apparently often for a fee.  Due to the importance of such skills in the litigious social life of Athens, practitioners of such skills often commanded very high fees.  The practice of taking fees, coupled with the willingness of many sophists to use their rhetorical skills to pursue unjust lawsuits, eventually led to a decline in respect for practitioners of this form of teaching and the ideas and writings associated with it.

Hellenistic, Roman and Late Antique Thought (c. 300 BCE - c. 150 BCE):

Epicureanism was a Greek school of philosophy based upon the teachings of Epicurus.  Epicurus believed that the greatest good was to seek modest pleasures in order to attain a state of tranquility and freedom from fear (ataraxia) as well as absence of bodily pain (aponia) through knowledge of the workings of the world and the limits of our desires.  The combination of these two states is supposed to constitute happiness in its highest form.  Epicureanism is most often opposed to Stoicism. 

Neoplatonism was a school of religious and quasi-mystical philosophy that took shape in the 3rd century CE, based on he teachings of Plato and earlier Platonists. 

Pyrrhonian skepticism (or Pyrrhonism) was a Greek school of skepticism inspired by Pyrrho in the fourth century BCE, developed by Aenesidemus in the first century BCE and recorded by Sextus Empiricus in the late 2nd century or early 3rd century CE. 

Stoicism was a Greek school of philosophy, founded by Zeno of Citium, which teaches that self-control, fortitude and detachment from distracting emotions, sometimes interpreted as an indifference to pleasure or pain, allows one to become a clear thinker, level-headed and unbiased. 

PHILWEB was last updated: October 15, 2009

PHILWEB is edited by Richard L. W. Clarke

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