Athenian philosophy |
Socrates |
Some of the most remembered philosophers from ancient Greece were citizens of Athens. These people are Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. They covered fields such as politics, ethics, metaphysics, ontology, logic, biology, rhetoric and aesthetics.
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Socrates was a classical Greek philosopher. Considered one of the founders of Western philosophy, he strongly influenced Plato, and Aristotle. He made his most important contribution to Western thought through his method of inquiry. He is principally renowned for his contribution to the field of ethics, Socrates also lends his name to the concepts of Socratic irony and the Socratic Method. Socrates also made important and lasting contributions to the fields of epistemology and logic, and the influence of his ideas and approach, remains strong in providing a foundation for much western philosophy which followed.
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PlatoPlato has the reputation of one of the most influential philosophers in Western thought. He wrote several dozen philosophical dialogues . Though the early dialogues deal mainly with methods of acquiring knowledge, and most of the last ones with justice and practical ethics, his most famous works expressed a synoptic view of ethics, metaphysics, reason, knowledge, and human life. One can view Plato, with qualification, as an idealist and a rationalist.
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AristotleAristotle placed much more value on knowledge gained from the senses, and would correspondingly better earn the modern label of empiricist. Thus Aristotle set the stage for what would eventually develop into the scientific method centuries later. The works of Aristotle that still exist today appear in treatise form. Aristotle was a great thinker and philosopher, and his philosophy was crucial in governing intellectual thought in the Western world. His views and approaches dominated early Western science for almost 2000 years. As well as philosophy, Aristotle was a formidable inventor, and is credited with many significant inventions and observations. Aristotle also studied many different sciences.
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"Wonder is the feeling of a philosopher, and philosophy begins in wonder."
-Plato