Greece is probably one of the richest countries when it comes to philosophical heritage. The biggest people who shaped the thinking of the world today like Plato and Socrates are both products of a country rich in the critical thinking area like Greece. But ofcourse, before Plato and Socrates started taking the world by storm, there had been prominent thinkers the paved the way for the greatest men to find the most important treasures in life; Philosophy.
It all started when the early forms of philosophic thought was introduced in a Greek poem written by Hesiod; Theogony. This book details the myths of the gods and speculates in part about the origins of things and the order of the universe. Soon to follow after the outbreak of philosophy was the Milesian or Ionian School. Here, Thales proposed that this primary substance was water, Anaximander then argued that the primary substance was “the unlimited” or “the indefinite. Another theory was formed by Anaximenes defining it as air.
From there the Pythagoreans beginning towards the end of the 6th century in the Greek cities in southern Italy; the Pythagoreans, defined that one thing that formed the substrate of all the infinite things in the universe was numbers. One of the most important part of the history of the Greek philosophy were the Sophists. The Sophists were professional teachers who, would undertake to teach their students how to get ahead in the world. Here we saw Socrates and Plato emerge as the big boys of the world of history.
The Term Paper on Metaphysics Aristotle Philosophy Things
... derives from the Greek meta ta physik a (after the things of nature). In medieval and modern philosophy metaphysics has also ... latter of concepts, and descending back to the world of the senses. Platos metaphysics means the theory of Ideas, which are ... were of great importance in medieval philosophy since they formed a link between medieval and ancient philosophy. The main figure was Plotinus ...
The Sophist were trained to equip a person be a leading entity, and they also provided answers to help people live in a world whose reality had been somewhat undermined by the Pre-Socratics. Although the world of philosophy owed a lot to Socrates and Plato, in presenting their principles and their schools of teachings, it is pretty obvious that the world not only owed them for the knowledge they imparted, but more importantly the wisdom they shared in their own lives and how they chose to live it.
The questions that sophist like Plato or Aristotle tackled along with the Sophists were questions about virtue nature and law, coming into contact, contrast and agreement into how we live our day to day lives,. It was pretty evident that Greek Philosophy wanted to focus on the meaning of life by living it, than defining it by definitions that restrict our living by reason of Gods and beliefs. This is what the prominent difference Greek Philosophy has with ancient east Philosophy. In ancient east philosophy, the philosophies mostly revolved around the cosmos and the examples given by God for us to use as a reference for living.
This is very much contrary to the sophists and Plato or Socrates who examined life, not by reason of God, but more of a reason of Judgement in daily living. While the two areas of philosophies has its pro’s and cons and differences and similarities, the fact that both schools of though exist must mean that it works for a society that still uses and believes in it.
References
Gaardner, Jostien. “Sophie’s World: The History of Philosophy” United States: Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2007. 30-57 Jordan, Michael. “Eastern Wisdom: The Philosophies and Rituals of the East” New York: Carlton Books Limited
