Reference address : https://ellopos.net/elpenor/greek-texts/ancient-Greece/guthrie-history-intro.asp?pg=10

ELPENOR - Home of the Greek Word

Three Millennia of Greek Literature
 

W.K.C. Guthrie 
A Synopsis of Greek Philosophy

From, A History of Greek Philosophy, vol. I, The early Presocratics and the Pythagoreans, Cambridge University Press, 1962, pp. 1-25.

ELPENOR EDITIONS IN PRINT

HOMER

PLATO

ARISTOTLE

THE GREEK OLD TESTAMENT (SEPTUAGINT)

THE NEW TESTAMENT

PLOTINUS

DIONYSIUS THE AREOPAGITE

MAXIMUS CONFESSOR

SYMEON THE NEW THEOLOGIAN

CAVAFY

More...


Page 10

In the time of Anaxagoras and Democritus, there occurred at Athens the change which the ancients universally associated with the name of Socrates. From the middle of the fifth century to the end of the fourth, we are in our second main period, which most people would agree to call the zenith of Greek philosophy. Athens is its centre, and the outstanding intellectual figures are Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. The shift of interest which marked the beginning of this period may be described as being from the universe to man, from interesting intellectual questions of cosmology and ontology to the more pressing business of human life and conduct. Nor was the physical side of the microcosm excluded. Contemporary with Socrates were Hippocrates and the earliest of those anonymous followers of his who with him produced the impressive body of medical and physiological writings known as the Hippocratic Corpus. At this time, says Aristotle roundly, 'the investigation of nature came to a stop, and philosophers turned their attention to practical morality and political thought'. Some three centuries later, Cicero was saying much the same thing. Socrates 'called down philosophy from the skies and implanted it in the cities and homes of men'. He 'brought it into communal life, compelling it to attend to questions of virtue and vice, good and evil'. As for what went on in the heavens, that was far removed from our grasp, and even had it not been, it had no relevance to the good life.

Previous Page / First / Next

The Greek Word Library

 

Three Millennia of Greek Literature


Greek Literature - Ancient, Medieval, Modern

Learned Freeware

Reference address : https://ellopos.net/elpenor/greek-texts/ancient-Greece/guthrie-history-intro.asp?pg=10