Inspired by Socrates, Plato was an extremely influential classical Greek philosopher. He lived in Athens from 427-347 BC, and wrote philosophy solely in the form of dialogues, many of which involved Socrates as a character. Interestingly, we get much of the information on Socrates from these dialogues, but it is debated how true this information is because of the fact that Plato based the character off of Socrates personality but didn’t actually tell us about his life. 

One of Plato’s most forward questions was wanting to learn the essence and form of different things. An example of this might be, what makes a dog a dog? Because some are small, some are big, and they are different in many ways. In other words, whatever an individual thing shares in common with something that shares its name, is its form. Like Socrates, Plato was concerned with questions of morals and believed that philosophers were only people who tried to find the forms of things. Continuing, he stated that forms are unchanging and eternal, and what is perfect and true. 

Remarkably, Plato established the first academy in Athens and offered the first detailed formation in Western thought of themes that would persist and be developed further by later philosophers. He believed that the “good life” was the true development of man’s personality as a rational and moral being, the right cultivation of his soul, and the general harmonious well-being of life. However, Plato did oppose atheism, relativism, hedonism, and materialism. 

His most famous work “The Republic” was of course a dialogue involving Socrates, where he raised the question: “What is Justice?” it should be pursued regardless of its consequences, even if it means you are punished for being a good person. Plato asserted that the soul has three parts: rational, courageous, and spirited or appetitive. Rational is the highest element of the soul, and is portrayed as a charioteer, with the spirited and appetitive elements as horses. The spirited element is the natural ally of reason, though shared by animals. Appetitive is a friend of riot and insolence. The spirited horse is good and loves honor and temperance, but the appetitive horse is bad, unruly, and follows passion. After this discussion, Plato asserted that the ideal state should be modeled after the ideal soul. 

Consisting of different authors and eras in which they were written, the Psalms are one of the most famous pieces of literature of all time. Many of the Psalms, and some of the most famous, were written by David, an ancient Hebrew King. Psalms means “praises” in Hebrew but “songs” in Greek. There are 150 Psalms and they are essentially prayers and poems. Although most were written by King David, Moses is thought to be the author of Psalm 90 and some were even composed after the Fall of Jerusalem to Babylon (586 BC). 

Recurring themes include: God is supreme, God’s people can safely trust God, God’s law is perfect, God brings judgment in history, the righteous will inherit the earth, and David’s despair and rejoicing to the Lord. The Psalms often use strong imagery to prove a point. 

In Psalm 2, David explains that the kings and rulers of the earth have fallen away from God, and that they will be punished. As it goes on, it is David asking the Lord to deliver him from his enemies. Psalm 5 is well-known, and it starts off with David imploring, “Give ear to my words, O Lord, consider my meditation. Hearken unto the voice of my cry, my king and my God, for unto thee will I pray.” David cleverly uses clever language in Psalm 6: “Chasten me not with thy hot displeasure” and “Heal me, for my bones are vexed.” At the beginning of Psalm 6, God was angry with David but after praying to God, David’s enemies were destroyed. 

The hierarchy during the story of creation is retold in Psalm 8, where it reveals how God has dominion over man, yet man has dominion over all the animals of the earth. The theme in Psalm 14 is that fools think there is no God, and they are evil and corrupt, while he that is truthful, kind, dislikes evil, and doesn’t partake in usury will be saved. Finally, Psalm 15 proclaims that God is everywhere in heaven and earth and that everything about God is perfect.

In the 6th Century BC, before the time of Socrates, lived the first philosophers in history. Like Socrates, they also resided in Ancient Greece, it being the most civilized people group at the time. They are not notable because of the answers they gave to philosophical questions, but because of the questions themselves. Asking these queries would let later philosophers give the answers. The Pre-Socratic philosophers were not as interested in moral questions as the later Greek philosophers but were intrigued with scientific inquiry. 

Many of these philosophers lived in an area of Asia Minor called Ionia, which is why they are sometimes referred to as the Ionians. They believed that the entire world was composed of a single substance. Since all humans, animals, and plants need water to survive an Ionian named Thales stated that the substance was water. Anaximander had the notion that the world was only made up of an “unbounded or limitless Being.” 

There was a different group known as the Pythagareons who asserted that the fundamental element to the universe was “number” which actually makes sense due to the fact that they considered math to be divine because of it always being unchanging and continually true. Some Presocratics called the Eleatics denounced the poetic depictions of the gods such as in “The Iliad” and “The Odyssey”, which portrayed them as like humans with rivalries and fighting between themselves. Instead, the Eleatics decreed that the divine was perfect and entirely unlike human beings. 

Obviously, many philosophers had completely different views from each other. Another example is the philosopher named Zeno of Elea, who said that change and motion were impossible, and that everything stayed exactly the same. This sounds preposterous, but Zeno argued that if your senses indicated that something was changing, you were being deceived. Heraclitcus observed the exact opposite when he stated that everything is changing all the time and “nothing is.” A group called the Sophists would later be discouraged by Socrates because of their belief that whatever an individual thought to be true could be their truth and that you couldn’t tell them otherwise. Socrates thought this teaching would corrupt the youth of Athens into being immoral and only doing actions that benefited themselves.