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Lecture 7. Ancient philosophy of classical period

1. Teachings of Socrates.
2. Plato and Aristotle’s concepts.

Having realized from the first lessons that a human being is the
centre of philosophy and philosophizing students must identify the role
of Socratic philosophy concerning the classical period of Antiquity.
Athenian philosopher Socrates (470-399 BC) had been a student of so-

called sophists, and after became their critic. The object of cognition by
Socrates was a human, he believed that the whole world focuses on him,
and such things as conversation and dialogue were the main methods for

human cognition of the universe and of himself. Socrates came to the
problem of knowledge, and was one of the first wise men who realized
the importance of the concept of achieving the truth by discussion.
Special place in the Socratic teaching took the study of moral norms and

principles, what is good and what is evil. These points should make
international students develop basic ethical associations of ethical
approaches concerning studies of Ancient Eastern paradigm.

Applying to the first question it should be emphasized that the
concept of a human being in Antiquity is directly related to the
peculiarities of the world view of that time. It was studied by two

philosophical schools: cosmological and naturialistic; moral and
aesthetic. The question concerning the nature of a human being, its
conscience, the sense of life was interpreted by sophists, Socrates,

Democrit, Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, stoics. On the one hand, a human
being was defined as a microcosm, a small Universe and respectively
consisted of different elements peculiar for substances, and on the other
hand the fundamental principles and the essence of human existence

were deducted from the moral principles, wisdom and moral believes.
Socrates applied to self – knowledge of each human being, Protagor
considered a human being to be the measure of all the things, Democrit

and Epicur considered happiness to be the main problem of a human
being. In general antique philosophers believed that a human being is
ruled by natural, materialistic, moral and ethical principles.
Plato /428/ 7 – 348/ 7 BC developed the doctrine about the

harmony in the relation of a man, society and a state suggested in the
treatise “State”. He created the project of forming the ideal method of
human existence in the ideal state. The factors which contributed to this

ideal, by Plato, were deprivation of private property and moral, ethical

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