Category Archives: Homeschooling

Grasping the Worldviews of Socrates and Plato

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Illustration showing Plato’s allegory of the cave.

Socrates and Plato are probably the two most prominent philosophers to ever live. It would be impossible to review all of their teachings in one essay, so I will cover one aspect of each philosopher’s career. Specifically, Socrates’ disagreement with the Sophists and Plato’s allegory of the cave. 

Socrates was intrigued by matters of morality and interpersonal relationships. Since Socrates had no writings of his own, most of what we know about his teachings come from his student, Plato. Socrates was strongly opposed to the Sophists, mostly because they taught subjective truth: the idea that what was true for one person could be untrue or false to another. Socrates argued that truth was objective and no matter what someone believed or didn’t believe that doesn’t change the reality of truth or falsity of that belief. While debating with Sophists, Socrates rightly argued that it was against their own teachings to tell opponents that their beliefs were untrue or wrong because they did not believe in objective truth, and therefore contradicted the foundation of their argument. Because of his teachings and his disagreements with the Sophists, who held more mainstream views at the time, Socrates was sentenced to death for charges of impiety and corrupting the youth. He was convicted by a jury and executed by drinking poison. 

After Socrates’ death, Plato succeeded him. Plato argued that everything has non-essential traits, but people are still able to determine that a thing is part of a certain group. He used the example that a triangle is still a triangle whether it’s scalene, isosceles, equilateral, whether it’s written in red or black pen, whether it’s thick or thin. Everyone will still be able to identify a triangle since all triangles share common characteristics. For example, they all add to 180 degrees. Plato also taught that even if all triangles disappeared, the idea and truths of triangularity would still exist. He thought this same logic could be applied to concepts like justice and goodness, believing these were not man-made invented concepts, but rather are unchanged standards that existed before us and will exist after.  

Most of Plato’s beliefs are summed up in what he called “the allegory of the cave.” In this parable, prisoners are chained in a cave, unable to turn their heads. They are only able to see a wall in front of them. Behind them there is a fire burning and a bridge on which puppeteers walk and cast shadows on the wall. The prisoners would be unable to see the puppets, or real objects, that passed behind them, but would only be seeing the shadows and echoes cast by the real objects. Plato asserted that these prisoners would certainly mistake the appearance of the shadows as reality. They would have no idea the shadows they perceived as reality were really just shadows cast by real objects behind them. Plato’s point is that people may acquire concepts of physical objects, but those concepts are not on the same level as the things we perceive. 

Although Plato and Socrates lived thousands of years ago, their teachings are still relevant today. These philosophers held many views and beliefs. However, Socrates’ arguments against the Sophists and Plato’s allegory of the cave are critical to grasping their worldviews and our reality today.

Alexander the Great and Hellenistic Culture

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Alexander the Great in battle.

Alexander the Great was one of the most successful emperors in the history of the world. Like his father King Philip II of Macedon, Alexander was a formidable military leader. Philip II developed Macedon’s military immensely and wanted to conquer the Greeks and Persians even had wide success defeating every Greek city-state except Sparta.

Unlike other emperors of vast empires at the time, Philip and later Alexander saw themselves as liberators instead of conquerors. This was somewhat true, as Philip lowered taxes in Greece but made it mandatory to send soldiers to help bolster his army. Although he was a well-liked and respected emperor, Philip was assassinated by one of his own men so Alexander took over the throne. 

Alexander was a highly intelligent man, partly because he was tutored by Aristotle the philosopher. Once he became emperor, Alexander consolidated power, dealing with his rivals in Macedon and re-conquering rebellious Greek city-states. Despite not being ethnically Greek, Alexander’s goal was to spread Hellenistic culture. This was Greek-like culture but different from Hellenic culture which was classical Greek culture and its traditions that the Greeks themselves actually practiced. 

Alexander started expanding his empire, taking Asia minor, Syria, Phoenicia, Palestine, Egypt, the Persian Empire, and parts of India. After subduing these vast swaths of land, he built cities and implanted Hellenistic culture wherever he went. Alexander was not known as a brutal conqueror and showed his military intelligence by using brilliant engineering tactics. In 331 BC, after obliterating Persia, he looted the empire so thoroughly that all of their riches were brought back to Macedonia. Dying in 323 BC, he is remembered as one of the most effective military leaders to have ever lived. 

Alexander’s death brought a struggle between his generals in deciding who would succeed him as emperor. Ultimately, this led to the downfall of Alexander’s once mighty empire, as it was split up between his generals. The Hellenistic period lasted from the death of Alexander the Great to the death of Cleopatra (325 – 30 BC). Philosophy, arts, and medicine flourished during this period. 

Classical Greece Art, Drama, and Religion

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Greek playwright Aeschylus.

Like many other components of Western civilization, drama and playwriting can be traced back to ancient Greece. Drama was invented during festivals which honored the god Dionysus. Each play had three playwrights and they each presented one part of a trilogy of tragedy dramas. 

One of the most well-known playwrights was Aeschylus (525-456 BC) who wrote more than 80 plays and half a dozen of them are still around today. A deeply religious man, he thought that gods could tempt men into evil and put men into morally impossible predicaments, in which whatever they did there would be punishment. Aeschylus’ play tells one of these situations: the king must defend his city, but his brother is among the attackers. So it is impious for him to flee or to fight. 

Sophocles is most famous for writing the character Oedipus. Similar to many of his other works, Sophecles describes Oedipus trying to escape a horrible fate or prophetically imposed on him by the gods. An entire trilogy of Oedipus describes how he desperately tries to escape his destiny but ends up fulfilling it anyway. 

Euripides was an extremely controversial playwright who was contemptuous and critical of the gods. Loathed by traditionalists, he was a skeptic and often put this into his plays. Many times, Euripides wrote plays disproving Greek myths and traditions. Despite this, Euripides is easier to follow, translates better into English, and his concept of a tragedy is closer to ours than the other playwrights. 

At the time, the most popular playwright was a traditionalist and comic called Aristophanes. He believed in religion and opposed popular rule. Gaining the people’s support, Aristophanes wrote various plays mocking Euripides and satirizing politicians instead of the general public. Hilariously, he won first prize for a play making fun of Euripides. 

In Greek culture, there was a heavy emphasis on buildings, vases, and statues. Although some modern historians say that the Greeks were a progressive and irreligious culture, the vast majority of the population were faithful to the gods and there were few radicals trying to destroy Greek mythology and tradition.