Aristotle made unprecedented contributions to all categories of knowledge, but perhaps his greatest gifts came from his examinations of the foundation of “knowledge,” itself. In other words, in the absence of some external authority, such as Plato’s Realm of True Forms which Aristotle rejected, how can human beings “know things.” The philosopher asserted that the basis of knowledge (episteme) lay with an examination of everything […]
Illusory Forms
In his desire to come up with objective definitions of concepts such as “justice”, “virtue” and “beauty,” Plato (as Socrates before him) struggled with the reality that the definitions of those terms seemed, at least on the surface, to vary a lot from one culture to the next – and even from one individual to the next. That seemed to loan the expedient ethics of […]
The Sophist Quagmire
Before I start with the ideas of Socrates, I need to discuss the ideas of his primary opponents. As the power of Athens spread, and Athenian ideas flowed out while the wealth of imperial subjects flowed in (voluntarily or not), the ability engage in persuasion gained in importance. As something of a democracy, the ability to persuade Athenian juries and assemblies of the benefits of […]