We began our first evening with a reflection on the meaning of philosophy - philosophy was seen to be a 'love of wisdom' - philia (love in Greek) and sophia(wisdom). It was also outlined that in Greek there are four words for love,
(i) Philia (φιλία) is often seen as friendship.
(ii) Agape (ἀγάπη) is a love akin to fraternal love, it is used in the New Testament to signify Jesus' love for his disciples.
(iii) Eros (ἔρως), is a sensual desiring love. Plato's work the Symposium deals with this love in particular.
(iv) Storge (στοργή) means affection - for example the love of parents' for their children.
C.S. Lewis, the writer of The Chronicles of Narnia wrote a work on these loves called The Four Loves. He writes this work from the Christian perspective.
Philosophy as we outlined began in the 500s BCE (Before Common Era). It is reported that Thales of Miletus predicted a solar eclipse in the year 585 BCE. This prediction of the solar eclipse relied on 'natural' (physis/ physics) methods. It is seen as a break with the earlier classical tradition that explained these 'events' as the work of the gods.
After this turn towards philosophy by the ancient Greeks in Miletus in the 500s the tradition of reasoning about the world and reality passed down from generation to generation. Xenophanes, Heraclitus and Parmenides stand out as prominent Pre-Socratic thinkers.
The first martyr (witness) to the philosophical life was Socrates. He died for his philosophical beliefs in 399 BCE. Socrates did not leave writings as such but his life is characterised by his student Plato who wrote numerous dialogues. Some of the principle dialogues where you can encounter the life of Socrates is in the Apology, the Euthyphro, the Meno and Phaedo dialogues. These dialogues alongside the Crito are handily published together under the title of The Five Dialogues, trans. G. M. Grube.
The Apology (defense) sees Socrates being told by the oracle of delphi that he is the wisest of all men. Socartes aims to find out if this is true and does so by questioning the wisest in Athens. He questions the politicians, the poets, the craftspeople etc. and realises that he is the wisest of all men because 'he knows what he does not know'. Whereas the others seem to think that they know, when in fact when they are questioned they don't know what they think they know. Socrates irritates the community and they put him on trial for (i) corrupting the youth and (ii) introducing gods into the polis that were not worshiped in the polis. At the end of the Apology, we see Socrates convicted and sentenced to death.
The Euthyphro sees Socrates ask a priest the question about what piety is, and in the Meno the story of the slave-boy is an important one. Here Plato's understanding of the soul comes to the fore. Plato believed that the soul pre-existed the body and before 'being born' was able to see the 'Forms' as they truly were, but through the process of birth (hysteria) the trauma results in the soul forgetting all that it once knew and life is thus lived 'remembering' or 'recollecting' what was already known. So Plato holds that we have this knowledge which is innate (a priori). Aristotle didn't follow Plato in this regard and believed that knowledge was acquired via experience (a posteriori). The Phaedo dialogue accounts for Socrates last day before he dies and the questions of the immateriality of the soul and what happens at death come to the fore.
The School of Athens (painted c. 1510-1511)- in the Signatura Room of the Vatican. Painted by Raphael. Plato in this picture is seen pointing to the sky - to the world beyond the physical world, that is, to the metaphysical world. Physis in Greek meant 'nature' - so this world is beyond (meta-) the natural (physis) world. In the next post we move to consider Plato's political work - the Republic.
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