ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY

TRIUMVIRATE

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 ANCIENT

Knowledge
and Virtue
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 TRIUMVIRATE
SOCRATES

PLATO

ARISTOTLE
(FATHER OF
PHILOSOPHY
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 SOCRATES (470/469 – 399 BC)

Virtuous Man
The Socratic Method
• DIALECTIC: A method of seeking truth through a
series of questions and answers.
The Socratic method is a “dialectic” method
teaching.
To solve a problem, it is broken down into a series
of questions, the answers to which gradually distill
the answer a person would seek.

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 Socrates

Ethics
primary concern in
philosophy was, “How
should we live?”
3 Questions
What is good?
What is right?
What is just (justice)?

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Socrates
Ethics:
Socrates' ethics assumes
that Education is the key
to living an ethical life.
No one desires evil.
No one errs or does
wrong willingly or
knowingly.
Virtue—all virtue—is
knowledge.
Virtue = positive moral
behavior
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 ¼ Yellow Paper

(SOCRATES IDEOLOGY)
CHOOSE 1 and EXPLAIN your own
THOUGHT…

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 Plato
Socrates' Student
Founded the Academy –
First institution for higher education

First Western philosopher

whose writings have survived
Most of what we know about
Socrates comes from Plato's
writings
Agreed with Pythagoras that
Mathematics were essential in
understanding the world

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 Plato
Ethics
Humans are made of 3
INTELLECT PASSIONS conflicting elements:
Passions
Intellect
Will
WILL
Most people live life allowing
the PASSIONS, INTELLECT
and WILL to be in conflict
with one another.
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 Plato
INTELLECT

WILL
Ideal living is when
the INTELLECT
controls the
PASSIONS
PASSIONS through
the WILL
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 Plato

Metaphysics
Reality can be divided into two
realms:
The Visible World
Forms - Ideas

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 Plato
Metaphysics
The Visible World
Lower - Imperfect
World experienced by our
senses
Physical
Bound by Space and Time
Always changing
Always “becoming”
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 Plato
Metaphysics
HORSE Realm of Forms-Ideas
Higher - Perfect
ULTIMATE REALITY
Not accessible to our senses
Non-Physical
Not Bound by Space and
Time
Never Changing
Always “is”
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 Plato's Cave

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CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF PLATO’S
ALLEGORY OF THE CAVE (SW)
BASED ON THE VIDEO CLIP: Answer the ffg:
Answer it in BRIEF, CONCISE and SHORT manner.

1. What is your own perception of the Allegory of the

Cave?
2. What symbol represents the said thought of Plato in his
Allegory that you can relate to your daily existence?

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 Plato
Politics: The Ideal Republic

Philosophically Aware Rulers

(Governing Class)

Police Class
(Protective Class)

General Population
(Worker Class)
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 Aristotle (384-322 BCE)
• the first to classify areas of human
knowledge into distinct disciplines such as
mathematics, biology, and
ethics
• He was the first to devise a formal system
for reasoning, whereby the validity of an
argument is determined by its structure
rather than its content
• Aristotle was the founder of the Lyceum,
the first scientific institute, based in
Athens, Greece.
RPCorpuxz 2013
• Along with his teacher Plato, he
was one of the strongest advocates
of a liberal arts education,
which stresses the education of
the whole person, including
one’s moral character, rather
than merely learning a set of
skills.
• According to Aristotle, this view of
education is necessary if we are to
produce a society of happy as well
as productive individuals.

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 Aristotle (384-322 BCE)

• The “real” or “encyclopaedists” or “inspired common sense”

or “the prince of those who know”
• Studied under Plato at the Academy
• Son of a Macedonian doctor, returned home to become the
teacher of Alexander of Macedon for three years, beginning in
343 BCE
• Later returned to Athens to open
school called the Lyceum in 335 BCE

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 Aristotle’s LOGIC

Logic 3 Areas of
Learning

1. Theoretical
2. Practical
3. Productive

Logic is a Tool underlying

all learning
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Logic
Categories
Sets the boundary of terms
Essential in forming an argument

Dogs
Animals Pugs

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 The 4 Causes
To really “know” something you
need to know the causes of it.
Example:
What is a house?

Material Cause
The “materials” that make up the
thing.
Bricks are the material cause of a
Brick House

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 Material Cause
Insufficiency of the Material Cause
The materials that make up a thing are not the
same as the thing itself.
A pile of Bricks is not a House
Some things can be made of different materials.
Houses can be made of Bricks or
Wood or Metal.

Formal Cause
The FORM of the thing.
The pattern, shape, characteristics of a
thing.
Not the same as Plato's idea of Forms, i.e. no
realm of forms.
The Form does not have an existence apart from
the thing as in Plato's concept of Forms
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 Efficient Cause
The cause that changes
the materials into the
thing.
The Tools/Instruments
used to create the thing.

Final Cause
The reason, purpose or
goal of a thing.
Ex. The purpose of a house is to
shelter a people.
Final Cause is evidence of
an Intelligent Designer who
provides things with
purpose
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Intelligent Design
 ARISTOTLE
Ethics: Virtues
theory of happiness that is still relevant
today
• happiness is a final end or goal that
encompasses the totality of one’s life.
• It is not something that can be gained
or lost in a few hours, like pleasurable
sensations.
• It is more like the ultimate value of your
life as lived up to this moment,
Acquired by Habit measuring how well you have lived up to
your full potential as a human being.
Not innate
Habit develops a disposition to act virtuously
The Golden Mean: Mid-point between 2 extremes
Courage
Cowardice RECKLESNESS
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 Ethics: Virtuous Life
Know what is Right
Do what is Right
Practical Wisdom - Make Right Decisions based on
Good Reasons
Contemplation of the Best things NOT just Good
things – Good is the enemy of the Best
Motivation for Doing Anything is Flourishing (Full -
Meaningful)

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 THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS AS THE
EXERCISE OF VIRTUE
• Aristotle tells us that the most important factor in the effort
to achieve happiness:

is to have a good moral character — what

he calls “complete virtue.”
But being virtuous is not a passive state: one must act in
accordance with virtue. Nor is it enough to have a few virtues;
rather one must strive to possess all of them. As Aristotle
writes,
He is happy who lives in accordance with complete
virtue and is sufficiently equipped with external goods,
not for some chance period but throughout a complete
life. (Nicomachean Ethics)
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 THUS,
• Happiness is the ultimate end and purpose of human existence
• Happiness is not pleasure, nor is it virtue. It is the exercise of virtue.
• Happiness cannot be achieved until the end of one’s life. Hence it is a
goal and not a temporary state.
• Happiness is the perfection of human nature. Since man is a rational
animal, human happiness depends on the exercise of his reason.
• Happiness depends on acquiring a moral character, where one
displays the virtues of courage, generosity, justice, friendship, and
citizenship in one’s life. These virtues involve striking a balance or
“mean” between an excess and a deficiency.

• Happiness requires intellectual contemplation, for this is

the ultimate realization of our rational capacities.
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 Eudaimonia
or Happiness
A key theme in
Aristotle's
thought is
that happiness is
the goal of life.
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“We are what we repeatedly do.
Excellence, then, is not an act,
but a habit. ... At his best, man
is the noblest of all animals;
separated from law and justice
he is the worst.”

(Aristotle, 384 - 322 B.C.)

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Thus, HAPPINESS DEPENDS
OURSELVES!

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 THANK YOU!
Some excerpt:
Slideshare.com
A History of Greek Philosophy, Vol.
6. Cambridge University Press. One of the
standard classics of the history of Greek
philosophy

http://www.pursuit-of-
happiness.org/history-of-
happiness/aristotle/
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