Western Civilization. Paul R. Waibel
to the goddess Athena on the north side of the Acropolis in Athens, 421–406 BC.
Source: Photo courtesy of Brent Kooi, private collection.
Both Plato and Xenophon, another of Socrates' students, speak of Socrates' well‐known fascination with young boys. Both speak of measures taken by Socrates to avoid relationships with the boys from becoming physical, though Plato admits that Socrates did occasionally give in to temptation. Both agreed with their master that the relationship between the adult and the boy could be aimed at both sexual love and “also at obtaining moral wisdom and strength” (Van Dolen 2018).
Greek Philosophy
The greatness of Greek civilization is not found in its political history, but like the ancient Hebrews, in how they tried to answer the perennial questions of the meaning and purpose of existence. The Greeks, like the Hebrews, demythicized nature. But the Greeks were the first to attempt to understand the world, and human beings, relying only on reason. For the Hebrews, there was a natural order to the universe because it was created by a reasonable God. Because the individual was created in God's image, the individual could understand and discover the order of the universe. The Greeks also believed that there was a natural order inherent in the universe. Because the individual possessed the capacity to reason, the individual could discover and understand the natural order of the universe. For the Hebrews the individual's value came from being the image bearer of God. For the Greeks the individual's value came from the capacity to reason. The emphasis by both on the value of the individual and the individual’s ability to reason are two fundamental values that distinguish Western Civilization from non‐Western civilizations throughout history down to the present.
The Greek philosophers of the Hellenic period may be conveniently divided into cosmologists, or natural philosophers, and the humanistic philosophers. The first philosophers were from Ionia, the Greek colonies along the coast of Asia Minor. They were seeking reasonable explanations for natural phenomena, rather than attributing them to the arbitrary will of the gods or simply random chance. Thales (624–546 BC), Anaximander (610–546 BC), and Anaximenes (585–528 BC) were all from Miletus.
Thales, often called the first philosopher, believed that everything originated in water, the most basic element, and came about by a natural process. Anaximander began with matter, which he called the “boundless” or “unlimited.” Life, he reasoned, began in a warm slime. Fish moved onto land and eventually evolved into human beings. It is said that Anaximander supported his theory with a collection of fossils. Anaximenes believed that air was the basic element and all that existed was the result of the thickening and thinning of air.
Matter was the ultimate reality for the philosophers of Miletus. Elsewhere, other Greek thinkers took different approaches. Heraclitus of Ephesus (435–475 BC) postulated change, or flux, as the basic reality. He taught that fire was the basic element. All other elements, and thus all that exist, has its origin in fire. “All things,” said Heraclitus, “are an interchange for fire, and fire for all things, just like goods for gold and gold for goods.” In contrast, Parmenides of Elea (fl. early fifth century BC) in southern Italy held that reality is one, eternal, and unchanging. In his didactic poem, “Nature,” he contrasts “Being” (mass) with “Not Being” (void). Being, that is matter, said Parmenides, is the only object of knowledge, and knowledge can be arrived at through abstract thought. Parmenides is sometimes called the father of formal logic.
Empedocles (495–430 BC) of Agrigentum (a.k.a. Akragas or Agrigento) in Sicily tried to reconcile Heraclitus (change, flux) and Parmenides (eternal, unchanging) with the concept of the four basic elements: earth, air, fire, and water. The four elements were combined or separated by the forces of love and hate. Pythagoras (c. 570–c. 495 BC) of Samos, also in southern Italy, pointed to the importance of mathematics by suggesting that there is an inherent mathematical order to the universe. The visible world and the world of ideas merely reflects the mathematical relationships in the universe. Democritus (460–370 BC), a pupil of Leusippus (c. 460–370 BC), postulated an infinite number of atoms falling through a void. Everything that existed was formed by different combinations of atoms which were governed by natural law. By seeing the universe as a kind of machine operating according to natural laws, whose order was mathematical and subject to logical proof, the natural philosophers discovered the basis of scientific reasoning.
The “scientists” of the Hellenistic period built upon the discoveries of the Hellenic natural philosophers. Euclid (fl. fourth century BC), a mathematician living in Alexandria, wrote a textbook on plane geometry, Elements of Geometry, which remained valid into the twentieth century AD. Archimedes (287–212 BC) of Syracuse calculated the value of pi, and wrote the first scientific works on statics and hydrostatics. Heraclides Ponticus (387–312 BC) discovered that the earth rotated on its axis. Whether he postulated a heliocentric model of the universe is not known for certain, but Aristarchus (310–230 BC) of Samos did do so. Hipparchus (190–120 BC) of Nicaea, on the other hand, put forth a geocentric model of the universe. It was Hipparchus' model, adopted by the second century AD geographer and mathematician Claudius Ptolemy (90–168 AD), that survived the fall of the Roman Empire in the West and remained dominate until Copernicus revived the heliocentric model in the sixteenth century AD.
The naturalistic philosophers pioneered theoretical reason as the means for understanding nature. Beginning with Socrates (c. 470–c. 399 BC) the humanistic (or metaphysical) philosophers applied reason to the study of the individual and society, which they considered more important than the study of nature.
The ancient Hebrews believed that the individual was endowed by his creator with moral autonomy to choose between obedience to, or disobedience of, God's moral precepts. The individual was not free to create his or her own moral precepts or standard of right and wrong. To disobey God's laws would result in bondage, suffering, and death. The individual existed in a community. For example, the Hebrews were God's chosen people and so, the community likewise, was obligated to conform to God's moral laws. The result would be a just society. This sense of social conscience has been an important part of Western Civilization.
In contrast to the Hebrew writers, Socrates did not believe that moral values originated with an all‐sovereign, transcendent God. Rather, moral values were discovered through reason. By a process referred as dialectics, that is logical reasoning or logical discussion, individuals in society could acquire knowledge, develop character (virtue), and enjoy the good life. By discovering truth through reason, Socrates did not mean that truth was relative, as did the Sophists of his day.
The Sophists were traveling teachers who offered instruction in useful knowledge for a price. Since rhetoric was definitely a useful skill in democratic Athens, they offered to teach the effective use of language in public speaking. They claimed to teach arête (moral virtue or excellence). Socrates loathed the Sophists3 not only because they made education a business, but also because they were moral relativists. Socrates believed that the pursuit of knowledge had its own rewards. He also taught that truth did exist and could be discovered through dialectical reasoning.
Socrates' most famous pupil was Plato (c. 427–347 BC).4 Plato is perhaps best known for designing one of the first utopias, or ideal states. In The Republic, he tried to define justice by seeing it in the ideal state. Plato's visionary republic, though, turned out to be a totalitarian state. Not even freedom of thought was permitted its subjects. It is in Plato's discussion of where reality lies, that is, his theory of ideas, that his real significance for Western Civilization is found.
Plato believed the world we experience from day to day is but a reflection of the real world of ideal forms that exists in the realm of ideas. A chair that we sit on is recognized as a chair because it resembles the one true chair, or chair‐form, that exists in the ideal world beyond space and time. The same holds true for such concepts as justice, beauty, etc. The world mankind inhabits is unstable, always in flux. But the realm of ideal forms is eternal and unchanging. This emphasis on universal