Philosophy - Socrates

Socrates (470-399 BC) was in many ways anti-thetical to the Sophists; he was a defender of the objectivity of truth, preferable to suffer wrong than to commit it, freedom meant control of the passions and impulses (autarkia), the goal of mankind is moral improvement, intellect directed will, knowledge is virtue

Socratic irony: asking questions, seek information from others.

Socratic dialectic: all points of view regarding an issue are debated from every angle.

Cynicism developed into Stoicism, it sought a return to a state of nature (ascetic).

Cynics: Antisthenes (445-365 BC); Diogenes (412-323 BC); Crates of Thebes

To Stoics evil meant the failure of man’s reason to control his passions

Happiness is a state of inner tranquillity, freedom from disturbance, mental composure.

Cynics emphasised the Socratic concept of virtue, the Hedonists stressed the Socratic principle that happiness results from the practice of virtue.

Cyrenaics: pleasure = happiness, therefore pleasure is mankind’s highest attainable good.

Ethical relativism: pleasure is never evil, only communities and laws designate some as good.

- feelings which we experience are the essence of our existence.

Epicarps (341-270 BC): the moral quality of any action depends upon the amount of pleasure derived (a sensory experience), ascribed greater value to spiritual or mental than to physical pleasures.

- the central idea of the early Sceptics was to avoid mental insecurity by abstaining from judgement on issues; they could not prove their philosophical conclusions so they sought to defend them by launching attacks against their rivals.

- since we can’t know ultimate reality and must therefore be indifferent, the only significant problems were those of everyday living (appearances can be known on the basis of probabilities).

Eclectics [Cicero (106-43 BC); Seance (4-65 AD)] sought truths in all the school of thought (1. Stoics, 2. Epicureans, 3. Platoons, 4. Aristotelian) and attempted to unify them into a single integrated philosophical system.