THE GREEK

PHILOSOPHERS

Aristotle
He proposed as formal rules for correct reasoning the basic
principles of the categorical logic that was universally accepted by
Western philosophers until the nineteenth century.
Aristotle further supposed that this logical scheme accurately
represents the true nature of reality . Thought, language, and
reality are all isomorphic, so careful consideration of what we say
can help us to understand the way things really are.

Aristotle's contributions to philosophy

Aristotle's logic, especially his theory of the syllogism, has had
an unparalleled influence on the history of Western thought.

 Aristotle's logical works contain the earliest formal study of

logic that we have. It is therefore all the more remarkable that
together they comprise a highly developed logical theory, one
that was able to command immense respect for many centuries:
Kant, who was ten times more distant from Aristotle than we are
from him, even held that nothing significant had been added to
Aristotle's views in the intervening two millennia.

PLATO
Plato often discusses the father-son relationship and the
question of whether a father's interest in his sons has much to
do with how well his sons turn out. In ancient Athens, a boy was
socially located by his family identity.
Plato often refers to his characters in terms of their paternal
and fraternal relationships.

"Platonism" is a term coined by scholars to refer to the

intellectual consequences of denying, as Plato's Socrates often
does, the reality of the material world.
An expression that means literally, "happily without the muses"
(Theaetetus 156a). In other words, such people live without the
divine inspiration that gives him, and people like him, access to
higher insights about reality.
In the Theaetetus, he is found recruiting as a disciple a young
man whose inheritance has been squandered.

Socrates
The most interesting and influential thinker in the fifty century
was Socrates whose dedication to careful reasoning transformed
the entire enterprise.
Since he sought genuine knowledge rather than mere victory
over an opponent, Socrates employed the same logical tricks
developed by the Sophists to a new purpose, the pursuit of truth.
Thus, his willingness to call everything into question and his
determination to accept nothing less than an adequate account of
the nature of things make him the first clear exponent of critical
philosophy.

Although he was well known during his own time for his
conversational skills and public teaching, Socrates wrote nothing,
so we are dependent upon his students (especially Xenophon and
Plato ) for any detailed knowledge of his methods and results.
Socrates himself did not write any philosophical texts, and our
knowledge of the man and his philosophy is based on writings by
his students and contemporaries, particularly Platos dialogues,
but also the writings of Aristotle, Xenophon and Aristophanes.
The Socratic Method is used to solve a problem by
breaking the problem down into a series of questions, the
answers to which gradually distill better and better
solutions. Both the questioner and the questioned explore
the implications of the other's positions, in order to
stimulate rational thinking and illuminate ideas. Thus,
Socrates would counter any assertion with a
counterexample which disproves the assertion (or at least
shows it to be inadequate).