Many
modern philosophers cite the Classical Philosophers as influences; but are the
philosophies of Socrates and his students Plato and Aristotle still relevant?
For me personally, I would not hesitate in answering “yes.”
Socrates,
who is termed as “the father of philosophy” is incredibly important in the
growth of classical philosophy. Not much of his life is known and we only know
of his “philosophies” through the writings of Plato, arguably his most devoted
and well-known student. The most interesting aspect of Socrates’ life, for me
at least, is his death. He was sentenced to death by the Athenian government
for his controversial ideas and died by drinking hemlock. Plato writes in his Phaedo that Socrates’ last words were "Crito [one of Socrates’ closest
friends], we owe a rooster to Asclepius. Please, don't forget to pay the debt." I find
this interesting and yet conflicting on the surface. Asclepius was the god of
healing. Why I find this so conflicting is Socrates was sentenced to death
supposedly for his outspoken atheism and for “corrupting young minds.” However,
many interpretations of this are that Socrates was referring to death – death is
freedom for the soul and for the mind; in death the soul is heading for an
idyllic place where it is free from society’s constraints. Fast forward two
thousand five hundred years later and many people believe in the same sort of
concept; albeit in a religion of some kind.
We are much more knowledgeable about Platonic and Aristotelian Philosophy, because unlike Socrates, they wrote down their philosophies. The most famous concept of Platonism is the Theory of Forms. This theory suggests that the world was far from perfect, but that there is a perfect world in which people were once acquainted with. Plato believed that we were somehow damaged by living in the imperfect world in which we live; but we could get reacquainted with the perfect world by listening to our own human reasoning. This is similar to the Augustinian Theodicy and this is because Augustine, like many of Early Christian philosophers was heavily influenced by Platonism.
Aristotle
is more concerned with ethics as opposed to philosophy and is especially
concerned with humankind’s ability to be virtuous. He believed that studying philosophy
and being contemplative was the best way of reaching eudaimonia;
a Greek word meaning the maximum
wellbeing. Alasdair McIntyre, a Scottish philosopher, famous for his work in
Virtue Ethics is a modern day Aristotelian. His belief that with good character
comes good judgement stems from Aristotle’s work.
