Friday, February 5, 2016

Philosopher Lollapaloozas

Socrates
- look to science and logic explanation of how the world worked (not mythological gods)
- Socrates Method fostered critical thinking (you think about, you use your brain)
- I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think
Everyone came to Athens to learn and communicate with others (connected people from other places)
Trouble: dare to teach young people question teachers, elders, etc. (not believe in god)
- the unexamined life is not worth living
- was charge with serious crimes: impurity (disrespecting of God) and corrupting youth of Athens
- he described himself as a stinging gadfly and Athens as a lazy old horse
- did not deny what he had done, asked for free dinners
- found guilty by an Athenian jury, died because of drinking hemlock

Plato
- the student and follower of Socrates
- Apology (means explanation): Socrates' teaching
- Republic (one of the most influential book on philosophy): Socrates' discussion of justice and ideal state

Aristotle
- the student of Plato
- helped foster the idea of Athens as an intellectual destination 
(if people go to Athens, they will not only learn about Athens also other places because many people go here)
- his school Lyceum: focus on cooperative research, build on knowledge gathered from all over the world (his idea)
→ like the Internet, dream of having a sum of mankind's knowledge easily accessed in one location
- wrote many topics (logic, physics, biology, ethics, etc.)
- tutored Alexander the Great

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