In 430 BC, during the funeral of Athenian soldiers after the first battles of the Peloponnesian War, Athens’ leader Pericles made a speech on the glory of Athens and its democracy. Pericles argued the Athenians were a brilliant people who valued liberty, leisure, knowledge, and generosity. Pericles lauded Athens’ democratic system as fair and an... Continue Reading →
Libertarians, or “Aristotelian liberals”, have used Aristotle’s ideas to argue for liberty, despite the fact that he was not a libertarian. They have cited Aristotle’s observation of humanity’s unique capacity to exercise reason. Free, rational people obtain happiness through practicing virtue with others in a state that fosters their well-being, a basis for the libertarian... Continue Reading →
Aristotle (c. 384-322 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher, perhaps the greatest in history. He invented the idea of separate academic disciplines, dipping his toes into philosophy, politics, ethics, biology, natural sciences, aesthetics, poetry, and metaphysics. In contrast to his master Plato, who focused on the ideal otherworld, Aristotle focused on the real, particular world.... Continue Reading →
In Plato’s Republic, Socrates discusses the philosopher king, ruler of his ideal city state of Kallipolis. He is the best suited to protect the state’s laws and institutions, hence his other name of the guardian. The philosopher king is wise, austere, and just. He learns the true Forms and how to implement them in his... Continue Reading →
In Plato’s book the Republic, Socrates uses the allegory of the cave to explain to Glaucon how most people are stuck in a world of ignorance, only looking at the material examples of Forms that they can see rather than understanding the higher immaterial Forms which exist in an infinite world beyond our own. People... Continue Reading →
The pre-Socratics were the first philosophers in the West and possibly the world, living in the 500s - early 400s BC. They asked questions about the world and tried to answer them by applying human reason, knowledge, and science rather than mere myth. While some of their answers were wrong, the nature of their discourse... Continue Reading →
The classical Greeks are considered the founders of Western civilization, but what made them significant and set them apart from others? They were the first to think about thinking. They tried to understand the structure of the universe, and to master it using reason. They also posited absolute moral values for all people to follow.... Continue Reading →
Dante Alighieri and Francesco Petrarch were Florentine thinkers active in the 13th and 14th centuries. But their worldviews were very different, and two of their most famous texts reflect this. Dante’s On Monarchy uses Aristotelian scholasticism to argue that the Holy Roman Emperor has the right to rule over Europe. Meanwhile, Petrarch’s On His Own... Continue Reading →
Friedrich Nietzsche was a German philosopher who pushed back against the narratives of progress and the rationalistic ordering of society in nineteenth century Europe, seeing these along with the societal traditions as hypocritical and repressive. In “On Truth and Lying in a Non-Moral Sense”, Nietzsche strongly critiques the idea of rationality and classification in a... Continue Reading →
Plato’s Republic is a Socratic dialogue on justice, how the perfect city-state should be ordered, and how the virtuous man should behave. In “Book X”, Glaucon and Socrates explore the nature of poetry. They argue that Poetry must be excluded from a well-ordered state, as it is an imitative art form, thrice removed from the... Continue Reading →
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