today we're looking at ancient Greek philosophers
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videos human behavior flows from three main sources desire emotion and knowledge as quoted
by the famed Greek philosopher Plato Plato was one of many ancient Greek philosophers
that sought to have a deeper understanding of human nature and the world around them along
with their art and architecture the ancient Greeks became known for their philosophy and
pursuit of knowledge actually the term philosophy is based on the Greek word philosophia which means
the love of knowledge and wisdom a philosopher is someone that forms ideas and theories about
the world around us the nature of man and the difference between right and wrong the ancient
Greek civilization had developed to such an advanced point that ancient Greeks could devote
themselves to study and developing these ideas these ideas established by the ancient Greeks
would have a huge impact on the growth of Western Civilization the development of Greek philosophy
is broken down into three different eras the pre-socratic era starting in the 6th Century
BC and extending through the 5th Century BC the socratic era lasting roughly between 499 BC to
323 BC and lastly the post-socratic era between 323 BC to about 30 BC the term Socratic is based
on the Greek philosopher Socrates who lived from approximately 470 BC to 399 BC the study
philosophy before during and after his life marked major changes in Greek thought during
the pre-socratic era Greek philosophers focused primarily on the natural world and especially
focused on the question of where did Life Begin the Greeks polyte religion or in other words a
belief in many different gods did not give an answer to this question so philosophers began
to develop their own ideas thales of miletus was a leading philosopher during this time that gave
rise to the idea that life originated in the Seas philosopher Democritus explored the idea that all
things were made up of tiny particles years before the technology of microscopes or the discovery of
the cell also during this era Greek philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras promoted the idea
that the only truth was in numbers Pythagoras developed many mathematical theories including
of course the Pythagorean theorem which still to this day is taught and used extensively the
socratic era of Greek philosophy is arguably the most well known as it occurred during the Golden
Age of ancient Greece and some of the most famous philosophers in history were active
during this time instead of focusing on the origins of life philosophers during this time
were concerned with issues of morality and ethics or the difference between right and
wrong Socrates dominated the early part of this era as he stressed the importance of questioning
and critical thinking rather than just lecturing his students Socrates continually asked difficult
questions one of Socrates students Plato then carried on his work Plato did not focus as much on
questioning but rather on the issue of government Plato explored the idea of government and question
what government is best Plato's student Aristotle then carried on the legacy of great philosophers
of the age Aristotle's Focus was on the physical world extensively studying physics astronomy and
biology he would use questioning and observation to establish scientific methods that are still in
use today the post-socratic era or the Hellenistic area concentrated not on morality and ethics but
rather on the quest question of what makes for a good life or what makes you happy philosophers
of this age were concerned more about the individual rather than the society as a whole
four main schools of philosophy or in other words primary theories that were popular emerged during
the time cynicism argued that to be happy you had to experience as much pleasure as possible while
epicureanism stressed that life was not about pleasure but instead finding ways to minimize
or reduce pain in your life stoicism argued that in life there are certain things you simply cannot
change so the key to happiness was to learn to be content lastly those that believed in
skepticism argue that there is no truth and that there are no answers to any of these questions
over two thousand years later the philosophies of the ancient Greeks are still taught and used
in the areas of science mathematics engineering ethics and government just to name a few Greek
ideas and philosophy would go on to shape the basic thought and ideas of civilizations
throughout the ages so with that hopefully you learned something and thanks for watching
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