SOCRATES PLATO and ARISTOTLE IN EARLY GREECE
As one of the greatest Greek philosophers, Socrates had a passionateconcern to discover valid guidelines for leading a just life and to provethat justice is better than injustice under all circumstances which ineffect gave a new direction to Greek philosophy and teaching. Compared tomost of his contemporaries, Socrates lived in poverty and publiclydisdained material possessions, but as a teacher, Socrates spent a gooddeal of his time in conversation and contemplation with his fellowAthenians, especially the young people of Greece. Socrates wrote nothing and all of our knowledge of his ideas comesfrom the writings of others, especially those of Plato, his one-time pupil.Plato's dialogues portray Socrates as a great teacher who often conversedabout philosophy, the arts and pedagogy. By using what has come to becalled the Socratic method, Socrates nev
Not surprisingly, much of Aristotle's philosophies and teachingmethods reflected the influence of Plato, but he also refined and evenrejected ideas that his great teacher had advocated. He arguedthat people in their souls often possess knowledge of what is right butthat their irrational desires overrule this knowledge and leads them to dowrong. For example, he had studentresearchers compile reports on the systems of government of 158 Greekstates. Another Greek thinker and teacher was Aristotle, one of Plato's mostbrilliant followers who earned his reputation in science and philosophyfrom his work in promoting scientific investigation of the natural world. Thus, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle represent the quintessentialmasters of philosophy and teaching and have as of yet never been equaled oroutdistanced in Western civilization. Much like his great teacher Socrates, Plato's idea that humanspossessed immortal souls distinct from their bodies established the conceptof dualism, being a separation between the spiritand the physical. As a teacher at his Lyceum in Athens, Aristotle lectured on nearly everybranch of learning-biology, medicine, anatomy, psychology, meteorology,physics, chemistry, mathematics, music and metaphysics. er directly instructed hisstudents; instead, he led them to draw their own conclusions in response tomany probing questions concerning numerous cherished by unexaminedassumptions about life and sometimes death. According to this idea, aknowing, rational god created the world which therefore inherited order andpurpose. Plato referred to this deity as the craftsman because it used knowledge tocraft the world of living things from raw matter. Ideally, Aristotlesharply departed from the Socratic idea that knowledge of justice andgoodness was all that was needed for a person to behave justly. Apparently aninspiring teacher, Aristotle encouraged his students to conduct research innumerous fields of specialized knowledge. Nevertheless, the sheer intellectual power of Plato's thoughtsand ideas and the controversies they have created since his lifetime havewon him fame as one of the world's greatest philosophers and teachers. Along with Socrates, Plato's ideas were basically aimed at attemptingto describe the ideal political and social organization to be headed byleaders imbued with philosophical wisdom.
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