Western Philosophy, Essay Example

According to Bertrand Russell, Pythagoras was the most influential man who ever lived. (A) On what basis does Russell make this judgment? Why would you agree or disagree with Russell? (B) Discuss the main ideas of the Pythagorean School and (C) explain why Pythagoras, the leader of a religious community whose concern was largely with the liberation of the soul and salvation, is of such great importance for the history of philosophy.

Bertrand Russell accurately cites Pythagoras as definitively one of the most influential philosophers in history because he essentially reformed Greek philosophy as framed by Orpheus and transformed the religion of Bacchus. He is often touted as the first true mathematician.

Pythagoras was the father of feminism. He was a great respecter of women during a time in which women were neither politically or socially equal to men. He integrated feminism into his Pythagoras Orphic philosophy centuries before the notion of female equality gained momentum. He challenged the Greek philosophical foundation of serenity through the promotion of the tumultuous idea of a contemplative pensive soul.

Pythagorean philosophy encompasses mathematics, mysticism, and numerology. He built a quasi-religion around the principles of axioms and logic that he used to build upon the rudimentary geometric structure that led mathematics at the time. By creating the Pythagorean Theorem, a² + b² = c², he changed mathematics. Though he applied the concept to right angle triangles it can be applied to any shape. Mathematics and the divinity of gods were intertwined by previous mathematicians. The truth and the logic of Pythagoras’s mathematical ideas appealed to many garnering him a “religious” following.

The Pythagoreans were his followers, a select group of 300 men. Pythagoras believed that the study of mathematics could transform the soul and elevate it from the concrete to the ethereal. Essentially liberating the soul and causing man to transcend the constraints of his body. This concept of the immortality of the soul still influences every religion today.

The average Greek person at the time can be characterized as engaged in a continual internal battle. The inner conflict that permeated Greek existence caught the fancy of Pythagoras which changed the trajectory of philosophy. Elements of his philosophical concepts influenced Plato which persuades every religion known to modern man.

He altered the philosophical relationship to god by challenging the basic concepts of geometry. He steeped mans association to the deity of god in an exhilarating passion. He had no respect for the well-behaved man. He had an obsessive zeal for numbers. This concept influenced Euripides and the god’s of Orphism: Bacchus and Eros. Traditional Greek philosophers, like Homer, Sophocles and Aristotle endorse the beauty of peacefulness. Pythagoras was defined by infatuation and fervor for the sacred nature of mathematics that permeates every aspect of human life.

Pythagoras was a dissenting voice in the world of Greek philosophy. He saw numbers and logic in everything from musical notes to the astrological maps. He recognized the multi-faceted nature of man while using numbers and logic to define the world around him. He appears to have let the state of man influence his philosophy instead of attempting to impose change through an impossible idealistic standard. He used the linear nature of numbers to delineate everything around him.

From your reading of the Apology, the Crito and the Euthyphro, explain what is unique about the philosophical method of Plato’s Socrates with specific examples drawn from each dialogue. What do these dialogues tell us about his outlook on the meaning and purpose of life, of politics and justice?

The unique nature of the writings is that they are the imaginings of Plato recorded in dialogue form, centered on the trial and death of Socrates. Plato provides the only written account of the Apology of Socrates in Athens in 399 B.C.E. Though there are other descriptions of the one day event, his is the only one by an authentic attendee.

For all intents and purposes, Socrates’ Apology was the catalyst that jumpstarted Plato’s prolific writing career. Plato’s imaginative, pensive description of how Socrates would have thought of his accuser was enlightening. Meletus, a young man of the deme of Pitthis had resoundingly accused Plato of corrupting youth by inventing new gods and denying the existence of the old ones.

Plato imagined a dialogue between Euthyphro and Socrates about the charges waged by his accuser in the same contemplative curious fashion Plato had grown accustomed to as a pupil of the philosopher. He used an analogy of Euthyphro’s father being prosecuted by Euthyphro to shine light on the notions of impiety and piety. Citing Zeus, known to be a righteous god, who punished his father for devouring his sons.

Socrates pressed Euthyphro for definitions of piety and impiety to which he replied, “Piety, then is that which is dear to the gods, and impiety is that which is not dear to them.” Socrates demonstrated that these definitions were wrong as evidenced by the gods themselves and their interactions. So how then are we left to define these elusive concepts; with sufficient hypocrisy. The definitions are purposely ambiguous so as to render the authorities free to carry out their biased bidding.

Crito attempts to persuade Socrates to escape because he can see that the outcome will not be favorable for the thinker. Socrates was not willing to run from his fate. He saw the meaning of life as resting resolutely in the reason that formulates a man’s ethos. His was such that he could neither participate in the politics that determined his future nor shrink from the justice that was to be exacted.

In the Crito dialogue Socrates postulated that “neither injury nor retaliation nor warding off evil by evil is ever right.” This was the linear logic by which he determined that escape was not the solution to the dilemma he was facing. If he held true to the premise that the law is just he must do so under every aspect of the law, even if it was not swaying in his favor. Justice is not about one man, but about the system by which a person agrees to be governed. Socrates agreed to Athenian authority from the onset. Therefore, he could not suddenly thwart it when it no longer suited his personal welfare.

What is the significance of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave for an understanding of his conception of truth, and the meaning and purpose of life? (B) How would Plato have responded to Gorgias and Protagoras, the two Sophists that Russell discusses in his chapter on Protagoras? First, you should summarize the main ideas of these two leading Sophists.

A Sophist was simply a professor who taught men things that society surmised they needed to learn. This service was reserved for the wealthy. Plato despised and disparaged the Sophists as a group. He did not like the fact that the Sophists charged money for instruction. He undoubtedly would have privately loathed Protagoras because of his disbelief in objective truth, but publically would have maintained some degree of professionalism.

Gorgias purported nothing existed and therefore nothing was knowable. He was also in opposition of the philosophical findings of Plato. Plato was always concerned with promoting ideas that would facilitate virtuous people. Intellectualism was never a concern of his teachings.

In Plato’s Allegory of a Cave the dialogue between Socrates and Glaucon describes a cave with three prisoners. They are tied up to rocks and unable to move their heads and bodies. They can see the shadows on the walkway as people pass by their little confined area. The prisoners begin to guess the objects the shadows represent. One prisoner escapes and begins to see and experience real life not just the shadows. Realizing that his senses had deceived him, he returned to the cave to free the others yet to his chagrin, they do not believe him. They threaten to kill him if he tries to set them free.

According to Plato there are two realms of existence. There is the physical world that we can experience with our traditional senses. There is also the world of forms and ideas. Plato’s writing is chiefly influenced by Socrates Theory of Forms. This supposition postulates that reality is the forms and not the shadows that the cave prisoners experienced.

He theorizes that most people are trapped in the shadows, forever eluded by the forms. The average person today is not going to reach philosophical enlightenment. Plato’s Allegory of the Cave emphasizes the erroneous nature of knowledge gained from the senses. This empirical evidence perpetually traps the believer in a “cave” of misinterpretation. The escaped prisoner is representative of the philosopher while the Sun is philosophical truth.

Plato theorized that people are fearful and distrust philosophical truths. The average person would rather remain in a cerebral prison of their own rational limitations than face the uncertainty of truth and wisdom. Wisdom, according to Plato, was escaping the cave and experiencing things as they really are.