Pre-Socratic Schools of Philosophy

Pre-Socratic Schools

• The initial eras of Greek Philosophy center on Socrates of Athens, dividing philosophy into pre-Socratic and Socratic periods.
• During the pre-Socratic era (6th to early 4th century BC), four major, generally concurrent, philosophical schools or tendencies arose.
• These schools are pre-Socratic due to their subjects, not because all members predated Socrates.

Main Pre-Socratic Schools

• Ionian School (Asia Minor): Notable philosophers were Thales of Miletus, Anaximenes of Miletus, Anaximander of Miletus, and Heraclitus of Ephesus.
• Pythagorean or Italic School (Magna Grćia): Leading figures included Pythagoras of Samos, Philolaus of Croton, and Archytas of Taranto.
• Eleatic School: Key philosophers were Xenophanes of Colophon, Parmenides of Elea, Zeno of Elea, and Melissus of Samos.
• Philosophers of the Plurality School: Prominent thinkers were Empedocles of Agrigento, Anaxagoras of Clazomenae, Leucippus of Abdera, and Democritus of Abdera.

Central Concern and Primary Investigation

• Pre-Socratic schools emphasize the study of nature as the origin of progress and evolution.
• Cosmology provides a rational explanation for the origin, order, and transformation of nature.
• Philosophy elucidates nature to explain the origin and changes of humans.
• There is a search for a rational origin of the world through empirical observation of nature and rational thinking.

Characteristics of Nature

• Nature is eternal.
• Everything in nature transforms without disappearing; only the form changes, not the matter.
• The eternal source where everything originates and returns is not visible but conceivable.
• Physis, the primordial element of nature, is eternally transforming.
• Physis gives rise to diverse beings, which are mortal and constantly changing.
• Change involves alterations in quality or quantity, such as color, temperature, or state (wet to dry).
• The world is ever-changing while maintaining its form, order, and stability.
• Change is movement, and the world is in constant motion.
• Devir is the ongoing movement that follows strict laws known to thought.

Philosophers and Physis

• Different philosophers defined the physis differently.
• Thales proposed that the principle was water or humidity.
• Anaximander believed it was limitless without defined qualities.
• Anaximenes suggested it was air or cold.
• Pythagoras considered it number, symbolizing structure and proportion.
• Heraclitus claimed it was fire.
• Leucippus and Democritus posited that it was atoms.

The Sophists

• Sophists emerged during the democratization of Athens, transitioning from cosmological to anthropological philosophy.
• As there was no public higher education, affluent young individuals turned to sophists for preparation for adult life.
• One specific challenge was resolving conflicts through dialogue, due to the rise of democracy.
• Sophists were traveling teachers who provided education for fees, focusing on rhetoric and argumentation strategies.

Focus and Discussion

• Sophists specialized in rhetoric to prepare young people for political life.
• Knowledge of their teachings mainly comes from fragments, citations, and their adversaries like Plato and Aristotle.
• They did not establish a formal school but prompted debate.
• They discussed in public, aiming to persuade audiences and focused on human and natural problems.

Relativism

• Sophists viewed religion, politics, and practical life as cultural factors that could be modified.
• They questioned norms, habits, and relativized justice, equating it to relative law based on human will.
• They had a practical and relativistic view of justice and law, emphasizing the subjective nature of morality and truth.

Laws vs. Nature

• There was a separation between man-made laws (nomos) and natural laws (physis).
• Human laws were seen as social conventions and mutable.
• Natural laws are immutable and universal - societal norms could be imperfect or unjust.

Truth

• Truth varies with individual or group perspective, leading to relativism.
• There is no single, objective truth.

Contributions of the Sophists to Philosophy

• Language is a tool to influence thought and action.
• They studied rhetoric, which is essential in Athenian democracy.
• They created a distinction between natural and artificial laws, enabling the critique of social and political norms.
• The study of rhetoric was motivated when the sophists attributed persuasive rhetoric to political and legal contexts.

Influence on Brazilian Law

• Sophist philosophy with its relativism influenced how contemporary law understands justice as social constructs that were subject to change over time.
• Brazilian law reflects such changes across the political spectrum.

Socrates

• Socrates used the Maieutic method, which uses a series of questions to find the truth and general concepts.
• Socrates aimed for reflection and truth, leading individuals to acknowledge their ignorance.
• Socrates valued legal certainty and believed law obedience marked the boundary between civility and barbarity.
• Laws should be respected, even if unjust.

Ethics

• Ethical teachings opposed the Sophists.
• They valued knowledge for discerning good and evil.
• They found happiness through virtue, not material assets, and sought ethics and controlled passions.
• There was an emphasis of collective ethics over individual ethics.
• Laws could not be revoked based on one's moral judgement, with inner judgement subjected to public benefit.

Plato

• Plato preserved Socrates' ideas, greatly influencing Western philosophy.
• He wrote 'Apology of Socrates' to promote Socrates' views.
• He discussed love through dialogue in 'The Banquet.'
• He talked about city governance, citizen roles, and virtues in 'The Republic,' focusing on justice and virtue.
• He was Socrates' aristocratic student who founded the Academy in Athens, withdrawing from political life.
• He lived during a tumultuous time in Athenian democracy and focused on metaphysics.
• Metaphysics studied the principles of reality beyond traditional sciences, including the nature of being.

Idealism and Virtue

• Only ideas are definite, everlasting, and immutable.
• There is separation between eternal ideas and mutable appearances.
• The virtuous master of impulse had control and balance.
• Knowledge equaled virtue.
• Ignorance equals vice, courage, temperance, wisdom, and justice.

The State

• Socrates' unjust death shaped Plato's view of the government and it should be led by wise philosophers.

Justice and Order

• Political order is necessary to get people to act justly with justice.
• There is order, health, and social harmony with three parts of the soul.

The Soul

• There is the rational soul which seeks wisdom.
• There is a courageous soul for defense.
• There is a appetitive aspect for economics.

The Republic

• The "Republic" serves as a means for achieving justice based on a desire for selection.
• Individuals in a population would ideally come from strong lineage and have measures in place to ensure that lineage.
• The State should educate young people.
• Everyone would perform duties compatible with individual aptitudes in favour of social order.
• Platonic justice is harmony and order geared toward community welfare.
• A State would need to integrate common interests and have the government act on promotion of this and be based on supreme ideas.

Influences on law

• This influenced views that were deemed unreachable by humans as well as being the ethics and virtues found in the allegory of Plato's cave.
• There should be a pact in order to ensure justice.
• The task to educate would exist within a state.

Aristotle

• Aristotle believed there was a need for ethics and virtue with justice, courage and temperance.
• Virtue is obtained through habit or action and through a middle ground for courage.
• Injustice produces one vice.
• Virtue, habit, and action had to be deliberate not passive.
• There did not exist injustice towards oneself.
• Acts of following the law were beneficial.
• Justice was defined as the law.

Concepts

• There was a concept that a bad law was not a law.
• Justice could be total or universal.
• Distributive justice would be understood proportionally with wealth and benefits.
• Criteria for justice included merit, concours, competitions, reparations, compensation, reciprocacy.

Philosophy

• There was domestic law that was inclusive with laws applied towards all cities while domestic law was only for the select men.
• A judge would be able to apply the law to very specific circumstances in order to correct legal injustices and have the judge be a representative.

Philosophy-Hellenistic

• The philosophy around declining civilization and the greek and Macedonian powers.
• Power bases would start in Athens and move to Alexandria.
• The Roman power would take over after conquests in Greece with the thoughts of autonomy and living independently increasing.
• Philosophies were created about coping with negative changes.
• These philosophies were referred to as stoicism, epicurism, cynicism, cecitism and were about achieving happiness through various methods in an uncertain world.

Cynicism

• To achieve this virtue one must dispose of social status.

Scepticism

• It was impossible to know the truth.

Empiricism

• Happiness was caused by eliminating suffering and pain.

Stocism

• Virtuous practice was consistent with overcoming difficulties.
• It was important to surpass one's emotions and desires.

Stoic Thinkers

• Marco Aurelio was an adept follower and stated that a simple ethical conformity exists.
• Cicero wanted to elevate the soul.

Stoicism and Society

• The philosophy's instrument was for problem solving in ethical spaces.
• Society recognized someone not from their city's origin, one from the whole world.
• Morals are to be above government laws.
• Ethics determined that one should live in conformity.