Greek And Hellenistic Philosophy

Term Paper Title	Greek And Hellenistic Philosophy
# of Words	770
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	3.08

Greek and Hellenistic Philosophy

Mike Mayeux Jr
Extra credit essay

     The Greek and Hellenic cultures brought about huge changes for the world, the Greek achievements were exemplified mostly in the fine arts as well as in the search for wisdom, called philosophy, while the Hellenistic culture was formed from the eastern kingdoms and empires. The many philosophers that were brought forth in these eras were alike in several ways. They all wanted self peace and thought that was important to the empire. However; these men found many different ways to go about it.
     The Greek society brought forth the very first of the great philosophers. One of the first was Socrates who lived from 470-399 B.C.E..He was one of the first to focus on the ethical and truth establishing questions that have worried the thoughtful since the dawn of creation. He felt it was important to focus on the human being instead of the physical nature. Socrates believed that intellectual excellence could be obtained. So he often engaged in systematic questioning with his young disciples. The very essence of the Socratic method was that everything should be fearlessly examined and justified before it should be taken as truth. Socrates was a wonderful teacher wich was why his pupils used his information in their works.
     Plato was a dedicated student of Socrates. He defended him against the unjust accusations of Socrates corrupting the youth. Regardless of how dedicated he was to his predecessor his thought process was very different.  Plato wanted more than anything to solve the problem of how the mind can experience and recognize truth. Plato began to analyze the politics of the Greeks. He was an anti-democrat, and he often argued about the turmoil in Greece, this thermal is what probably influenced his conservative political views. Just like Plato was a pupil of Socrates, Aristotle another great philosopher, was a student of Plato's. Aristotle was said to be the closest thing to a universal genius that Greece had ever seen. He was extremely interested in the sciences and had great knowledge of almost all of them. He was an author of many books including Politics, Physics, and Metaphysics,. Many people referred to him as master while other believed he was a pagan saint. The Greek philosophers be...

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