Page 46 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol III

greece, ancient 865

them, as happened in Athens with the development of honor, justice, and all the other ideas that citizens held
dramatic festivals honoring Dionysos (Dionysus).Athen- dear, were unchanging and rooted in the nature of
ian playwrights used drama to explore moral and polit- things, though Socrates was more successful in refuting
ical issues, but never came near to making the world as those who disagreed with him than in explaining his
a whole make sense. That was left to a handful of own beliefs. Socrates wrote nothing, but his pupil Plato
philosophers, who, beginning in Ionia with Thales of (d. 347 BCE) pursued the same effort by writing a long
Miletus (d. c. 546 BCE), took the radical step of disre- series of dialogues that survive for our inspection and
garding gods and spirits, surmising instead that just as continuing delight. Plato wanted to believe in a world
men in the polis regulated their lives by invisible binding of unchanging immaterial ideas that somehow guaran-
laws, nature too perhaps obeyed its own natural laws. teed truth; but, to judge by his later dialogues, never
Thalesforexample—perhapsdrawingonMesopotamian entirely convinced himself that such a world existed.
creation myths—said that everything came from water Nevertheless, Plato’s dialogues raised questions for sub-
by rarification and condensation,with the difference that sequent philosophers to examine endlessly. In addition,
gods were erased, leaving water and other elements by founding the Academy, where young men gathered
(earth, air, and fire) to behave lawfully. Others pursued for advanced study and debate, Plato set up a lasting
this leap in the dark in different directions, proposing institutional framework for ancient philosophy. His
some notions that were destined to future significance, pupil, Aristotle (384–322 BCE), codified the rules of
like the atomic theory of matter. Mathematics had spe- logic, and his other writings offered plausible answers
cial attraction for early Greek philosophers since geomet- to almost everything else his predecessors had argued
rical demonstrations were logically certain and seemed about. Subsequent Greek and Roman philosophers
universally true. Here, perhaps, was a model for natural continued to disagree until the Christian Emperor Jus-
law in general, of which polis law itself was only an tinian forcibly disbanded the Academy in 529 CE.All
instance. Pythagoras of Samos (d. c. 500 BCE) carried the same, pagan philosophers’ ideas provided an edu-
such ideas to an extreme. He founded a secret brother- cated upper class of citizens in Hellenistic and Roman
hood that was soon forcibly dispersed, and taught that times with ready answers to a wide range of personal
the world was made of numbers and that studying their and scientific questions, independent of any sort of reli-
harmonies might permit human souls to survive death gious authority.
through reincarnation. Only fragments remain from the This body of learning—secular, rational, argumentative
sayings and writings of Pythagoras and other early and complex—rivaled (and also suffused) later religious
Greek philosophers, so modern understanding of their worldviews. It ranks among the most significant her-
efforts to make the world make sense remain very uncer- itages passed on from Greek antiquity, for in later cen-
tain and imperfect. turies Greek philosophy and natural science took on new
Philosophical discussion turned increasingly to human life among both Muslims and Christians, and still colors
affairs, with the intense controversies surrounding the contemporary thought.
rise of democracy. Not surprisingly, Athens became the In sum, science, philosophy, art, literature, war and
principal center of debate. A school of sophists made politics throughout the world are still influenced by our
their living by preparing young men for political careers, complex and tangled heritage from ancient Greece.
teaching them how to argue a case—any case—con-
William McNeill
vincingly. Some sophists taught that right and wrong
were merely human inventions. That in turn provoked See also Alexander the Great; Aristotle; Art—Ancient
others, of whom Socrates (d. 399 BCE) was the most Greece and Rome; Herodotus; Homer; Macedonian Em-
influential, to argue that right and wrong, truth, beauty, pire; Plato; Thucydides; Trading Patterns, Mediterranean