Ethics of Socrates and Plato. History of ancient philosophy

Studies of modern scientists show that philosophy as an independent science was born thanks to the works of the ancient Greeks. Certainly, primitive people can also see some rudiments of philosophy, but they do not have integrity. The ancient Chinese and Indians also made attempts in the development of philosophy, but in comparison with the ancient Greeks, their contribution is minimal. The peak of ancient Greek philosophy is ancient ethics. Socrates, Plato, Aristotle are its ancestors.

Ancient Philosophy

Analyze the ancient philosophy is possible by its representatives, whose ideas are based on ancient ethics. Socrates, Epicurus and Stoics, Plato, Aristotle studied this philosophical direction at about the same time, but each with its own particular position.

Socrates presented his methods and tried to convey the idea of the inability to influence a person from outside, since all changes must happen inside him.

Epicurus is a follower of Democritus and continuer of atomistic teachings. He left more than three hundred works to the modern generation, of which only a sixth part was preserved. Epicurus reasoned that the main thing is to teach people to live happily, because everything else does not matter.

The Stoic philosophy includes three aspects - logic, physics and ethics. In their opinion, logic is responsible for securing the system, physics allows you to know nature, and ethics teaches life according to the laws of nature.

Plato was the best of the students of Socrates. He deeply penetrated the Socratic teachings and strove to develop it as much as possible. Together with his pupil Aristotle, he made a serious contribution to the development of philosophy by creating a school of peripatetics. Plato deeply studied the achievements of his predecessors and reduced them to one single vault.

Aristotle, following the teachings of Plato, became one of the most outstanding scientists who came from ancient Greece. It was he who became the founder of true natural science.

In ancient times, ancient ethics developed very rapidly. Socrates, Epicurus and the Stoics, as well as Plato with Aristotle were the most brilliant philosophers of that period.

Socrates as a person

The years of life of Socrates - 470 (469) -399 years. BC. E. Socrates is an Athenian philosopher, immortalized in the dialogues of Plato as the main character. His mother's name was Fenaret, and his father was Safronix. My father was a well-to-do sculptor. Socrates did not care about his well-being and by the end of his life he was practically a beggar. Information on his life and worldview has been preserved very little. The main data scientists draw from the works of his students.

According to Xenophon, Socrates was distinguished by a high degree of abstinence from amorous pleasures and from excessive consumption of food. He easily endured various burdens of life, difficult work, heat and cold. He always had very few means of subsistence, but that did not stop him from having everything necessary to sustain life.

According to contemporaries, Socrates had an amazing power of influence on the interlocutor. After communicating with him, people rethought their lives and realized that it was impossible to live like that anymore.

Socrates refers to the last representative of the Sophists. Although he had practical work contrary to their ideology. Having put forward the formal grounds conducive to the birth of a new science, Socrates became the founder of the ethical stage of philosophical development.

Socrates as the founder of ethical philosophy

He noted that only those sciences, the truths of which are equally true for all, are real. As an example, the situation is that if for two people two times two were four, for another five, and for the third six, then mathematics would never become a science.

This principle is also relevant for morality. Ethics of Socrates speaks of the existence of generally accepted norms of behavior. He believed that it was necessary to deduce these norms and bring them to the human minds. In this case, all people will stop quarreling. The philosophy and ethics of Socrates says that there is virtue in everyone, and if it is revealed to all people, universal happiness will come.

The main merit of Socrates is the definition of the fact that people of the whole world have absolutely identical values. This is said and now, but even 2,500 years ago, Socrates received the answer.

The paradoxes of Socratic ethics are different, they include a statement that defines a person the measure of all things, to which the idea of the universality of moral norms contradicts. Ethics of Socrates distinguishes it from the Sophists by its submission. Socrates did not just teach people, but used a method that helps people to comprehend the truth. Thanks to this, people came to the truth on their own.

Methods of Socratic Philosophy

Ethics and the method of Socrates awakened in the minds of people dormant knowledge. Such a philosophical approach is called the Mayevtic method. He says that if a person decides to enter into a dispute, then he must come to the truth by putting forward rational arguments that will help him to know the truth. You can not inspire it, but you can only discover it for yourself. Socrates noted that you can come to knowledge only with your own mind. The behavior and worldview of a person can not be influenced from the outside, everything depends on the changes inside him.

The method of Mayevtika refers to the inductive, together with the methods of doubt (know that I do not know anything), induction (in the wake of the facts), irony (finding contradictions) and definitions (the final formulation of the required knowledge). Inductive methods are relevant for today. Most often they are used for scientific discussion. In the process of finding solutions lies the rational ethic of Socrates. According to him, the basis of any virtue is the mind. Ignorance Socrates imagined as an indicator of immorality.

Question answer

Good and evil Socrates defined the term "ethical rationalism." Hence the rational ethics of Socrates have developed. He considered it very important to assign to each moral category his individual name. The scientist actively used the question-answer principle of comprehending the truth, which in those days was called dialectics. The ethics and dialectics of Socrates played a huge role in his vision of philosophy. The comprehension of true knowledge is realized only through dialogue. It is he who helps to reveal the truth to the participants. Dialectics Socrates defined as the art of competent dialogue.

The Noble Plato

Plato belonged to a distinguished family, the oldest of its kind. His parents had a close relationship with the Athenian king Codr. In the family, Plato was not the only child, he had two brothers and a sister. Plato was born during the reign of Pericles, when Athens flourished and rapidly developed in the field of science. This is very beneficial for his mental enrichment in childhood and adolescence.

But after a while everything turned upside down. The reins of government passed to the near-by people, and society began to chaos. Know began to oppress, which affected the family of Plato. Such experience and teachings of Socrates led him to the path of the Spartan state system and action against Athenian democracy. In the carefree times of his youth, Plato used every possible benefit to obtain a comprehensive education. In addition to key areas, he studied drawing, music, gymnastics. He was so perfect that he could even win the title of champion in the Olympic and Nemean games.

Poverty was a blow to Plato, he even thought of going into a mercenary army, but Socrates did not allow him to do this. Prior to meeting his teacher, Plato was eager to become a famous poet. Dithyrambs and dramas turned out to be especially eloquent. Philosophy also interested him from an early age, and getting to know Socrates only intensified this interest. In his youth, he was attracted to the Heraclitean school and its teachings about boundless changes in sensory subjects.

Platonic philosophy

In his teachings, Plato always referred philosophy to the highest of sciences. After all, it is she who helps in the quest to know the truth. Philosophy, according to Plato, is the only way to personal knowledge, knowledge of God and true happiness. He believed that receiving daily impressions helps to distort the image of reality. Plato paid special attention to the world of things and ideas. He calls the idea something identical, which can be found in at least a couple of different things. But to know the nonexistent is impossible for anyone, so the idea is real and exists, despite the fact that people can not touch it. In addition, Plato noted that it is precisely the world of intelligible ideas that is real, while the world of sensible things is only its pale shadow.

The universe, according to Plato, has a somewhat mythological connotation with notes of oriental traditions. This view was brought to Plato during his long travels. According to his theory, God is the creator of the whole universe. In the process of creation, he combined ideas and material matter together. Management of the symbiosis of ideas and material things takes on not reason, but three forces, which are called inert, inert and blind.

His thoughts and researches about the soul Plato laid out in the works of "Phaedrus" and "Timaeus." He notes that the human soul has immortality. The creation of the soul occurred at the moment when the universe was formed. According to Plato's assumption, there are 3 independent parts in the soul. The first is in the head and is called reasonable. The two remaining parts are unreasonable. One lives in the chest, actively interacts with the mind and is called the will. The other is located in the stomach and consists of passion and the lowest instincts, which deprives her of all nobility.

Socrates and his pupil Plato

The acquaintance of Plato with Socrates occurred when the first was about twenty years old. This acquaintance became the most significant in his life, because thanks to Socrates he took the path of philosophy with soul and body. After a time, Plato thanked heaven for not being born as an animal, but as a man, not as a woman, but as a man, not as a barbarian, but as a Greek, and most importantly, that he was born in Athens and exactly at the time when Socrates lived.

There is a legend saying that the night before the teacher recognized his disciple, the first saw a wonderful dream. In it, Socrates saw a snow-white swan, who came to him, leaving the altar of Eros, and soaring gracefully into the skies on the incredibly mighty wings that grew up at that very moment. The next day, Socrates first saw Plato, such a tall young man with a close-to-ideal face and high intelligence, he immediately noted that this is that adorable swan of sleep. It was at this very moment that the ancient ethics of Socrates and Plato were born.

Lessons of Socrates Plato received during all nine years of their acquaintance. Relations between them were filled with deep friendship and mutual understanding, as well as respect and love. Information about their relations is very abstract, as records about them are extremely rare. It is known that Plato wrote "The Apology of Socrates," in which he indicated that his teacher was being brought to trial. Plato appeared in court and proposed that in the event of a verdict in monetary terms be paid for Socrates. Also in the proceedings, Plato broadcast from the rostrum in defense of his teacher. When Socrates was planted, Plato could not visit him, since he was seriously ill. The death of Socrates was the strongest blow for the beloved disciple.

Ancient ethics through the eyes of Socrates and Plato

Ethics of Socrates and Plato was actively promoted and broadcast to the masses in ancient times. Their teachings said that, expecting that a person's life was happy, it is necessary to be a virtuous and moral person. Only a moral person can know true happiness. To achieve this goal Socrates developed the stages of the method of cognition. Initially, there is a doubt that allows us to identify the need for further discussion of the problem, and then comes a stage to identify conflicting moments, which allows us to determine the desired concept.

First of all, the ancient ethics of Socrates and Plato was based on the principles of rationalism. In other words, virtuous actions are conditioned by knowledge, while ignorance is considered a source of immoral behavior. From this scientist and his student have defined a happy life as correct, moral and reasonable. The philosophy and ethics of Socrates and Plato teach people to take the path of virtue. In their opinion, if a person does not have enough knowledge, he is a potential source of anger. As an example, they lead the virtue of courage, which is generated by knowledge of overcoming the danger, or the virtue of moderation, born in a person who knows about overcoming passion.

Ethics and philosophy of Socrates and Plato included a number of basic ideas. First, the person who has a knowledge base about right and virtuous life will always perform moral and virtuous deeds. Secondly, life proceeds according to a single pattern common to all, which is represented in the "world of ideas", therefore only life according to its principles and no other is considered correct.

Followers of the philosophy of Socrates and Plato

Modern scientists come to the conclusion that the ethics of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle allowed the deepest understanding of ancient philosophy. Socrates is called the father of ancient philosophy, not because he was her first grandparent, but because he developed the basic principles that later served as a basis for other scientists.

The brightest follower of Socrates was his pupil Plato. He admired his teacher, based on his knowledge and created something of his own. He developed the stages of the decline of the state, brought out the notion of justice, and introduced philosophy in the form of three fundamentals: physics, logic and ethics.

Based on the teachings of Plato, philosophy began to study Aristotle. For twenty years he studied and learned the principles of Platonic philosophy in the academy of his teacher. It was thanks to the knowledge gained at the academy that Aristotle came to the creation of the original kind of Platonism.

Developing the ideas of his teacher, he tried to put on the first place the form-building properties of philosophy. Form or idea he calls a common form, which characterizes as the essence of a thing, studied by reason with the support of logic.

The philosophical path of Aristotle was different from Platonic, since the first completely cut off the connection between philosophy and mythology. In addition, Aristotle paid much attention to detail and detailed analysis. He denied Plato's words that an idea can not be in a thing and beyond at the same time. Things Aristotle characterizes the essence or substance. In his opinion, essence is represented in the form of a concrete thing from matter and form, physical object and concept, material and ideal parts.

Aristotle is the creator of the lyceum, serving for the benefit of science. The most talented scientist, who left the walls of the school of Aristotle, is considered to be Theophrastus. He was a peripatetic and continued the philosophical teachings begun by his teacher. "History of plants", "History of physics" - these are the works of Theophastus.