Chapter 6 Lesson 2: The Greek mind

​The Greek Mind

Greek Thinkers

• Greeks believed the human mind had a great understanding.

• 500 BCE - 350 BCE was the GOLDEN AGE OF GREECE

• Art, architecture, and literature flourished

• Thinkers pondered deep questions about truth and developed the study of Science and Mathematics

Open Ended

Why was this period in Greece Known as the Golden Age?

Philosophers

• Created a new body of Knowledge called Philosophy.

• Philosophy means "Love of Wisdom"

• Philosophy helped develop many subjects like history, political science, biology and logic.

Multiple Choice

What Does Philosophy Mean?

• Seeker of Truth

• Love of Wisdom

• Love of Truth

• Seeker of Wisdom

The Sophists

• Greek philosophers who were also teachers

• Traveled from polis to polis

• taught many subject including math, science and history.

• Best known for teaching rhetoric which is the art of public speaking and debate

• did not believe that God influenced human actions.

• rejected the idea of absolute right or wrong (what's right for you might be wrong for someone else)

• Challenged Greek traditions

• Other Greek Philosphers did not approve of Sophists and believed they lacked ideals and values and taught students to win arguments instead of seeking out the truth

Multiple Choice

What did Sophists believe?

• There is absolute right and wrong

• There is no absolute right or wrong

• There is absolute truth inside of all humans

• There is no absolute truth inside of all humans

Socrates

• trained to be sculptor

• loved philosophy

• lived in Athens and spent most of his time teaching

• Did not leave a written record of his beliefs they are only known from his student's writing

• believed in absolute truth and all real knowledge is within people.

• Did not believe it was right for Sophists to charge people for education.

• Created the Socratic method ( a way of teaching where the teacher asks students questions and allow them to find truth or answers on their own.

• Athenian leaders believed the Socratic method was dangerous and allowed people to publicly question the leaders.

• Athens lost the Peloponnesian war and the new leaders took away the freedom to question leaders.

• Socrates continued to teach his students

Open Ended

What is the Socratic Method?

Open Ended

Why did some people think the Socratic Method was dangerous?

Socrates

• 399 BCE city leaders feared the great influence of Socrates and had him arrested for urging young people to rebel against the government.

• He was found guilty and sentenced to death.

• After the verdict he was given the choice to stay and die or leave Athens and live.

• He chose to stay. Surrounded by his students and friends he decided to explain that he lived under the city's laws and must obey them. He gave his last speech, drank poison and died.

Open Ended

Do you agree with Sophist ( there is no absolute right or wrong) or Socrates (there is absolute right or wrong) and why?

Multiple Choice

How was Socrates different from Sophist?

• He believed that truth and Knowledge is within people but they believed there is no absolute right or wrong

• He believed in accepting money for teaching but they believed knowledge should be free

• He believed in right depended on the person

• They believed in absolute truth but he did not

​Plato

• One of Socrates' Students

• Became a teacher and founded "The Academy" in Athens.

• Recorded his ideas in writing

• Wrote "The Republic" which presented plans of an ideal society and government.

• Had a distrust for the common people

• Believed Women should have the same opportunities with work and education as men have.

The Republic

Plato organized society into three groups

• Plato believed that an ideal society had to have a just and reasonable government

• In his book he noted that he dislike Athenian society because common people did not think for themselves

Plato believed

• an ideal society had to have a just and reasonable government

• disliked Athenian society (democracy)

• Believed common people could not think for themselves and could be influenced to make foolish decision

• Philosopher Kings were well educated and intelligent and the only people fit to rule

Multiple Choice

What type of government did Plato think was the best?

• Monarchy

• Democracy

Multiple Choice

Why did Plato Dislike Democracy?

• He felt the Kings and Queens had too much power

• He thought democracy was fair but needed to change

• He believed common people were not intelligent and only Philosopher Kings were smart enough to rule.

• He didn't like social classes.

​Aristotle

• Wrote over 200 works on topics like government, astronomy and political science

• Started a school called the Lyceum

• taught the "Golden Mean" (mean is the middle distance between two extremes)

• The point of the golden mean is that people should live moderately ( don't do too much or too little of anything but just the right amount.

• had many interests. He studied Science, stars, plants and animals and carefully recorded what he saw.

• He classified living things according to their similarities and differences this was a very important step in the development of modern science.

• He wrote about government and wrote and compared the governments of different city-states with hopes of finding the best political system

• Wrote a book called "Politics"

Multiple Choice

What school did Aristotle start?

• The Sophist school

• The Academy

• The Lyceum

Open Ended

What did Aristotle's school teach?

Politics

• Divided government into three types

  1. Monarchy: ruled by one person (usually a king)

  2. Oligarchy: ruled by a few people

  3. Democracy: Ruled by many people

​Aristotle believed that the best government had the best characteristics of all three governments.

1. A chief executive would be the head of state

2. a council or legislature would assist the leader and be supported by the people.

​Aristotle's ideas influenced the way Europeans and Americans thought about government. The Us constitution is based on Aristotle's idea that no one person or group should have too much power.

Multiple Choice

Which government did Aristotle believe was the best?

• Monachry

• Democracy

• Oligarchy

• A mix of the best parts of all three

Citizenship

Aristotle believed that it was a citizen's duty to participate in civic life or public affairs of the community. USA uses this concept to require Americans to serve on juries in court (Jury Duty).

• Other countries around the world use the concept of civic duty by requiring citizens to go to the ballot box or serve a minimum amount of time in the armed forces.

Multiple Choice

Which way do the US Government require Citizens to fulfill their civic participation?

• Join the military

• Community service

• Go to the ballot box

• Jury Duty

New History and Science Ideas

Greeks used their thinking skills to write history and investigate the natural world leading to new ways of studying science and history.

Herodotus

• Known as the father of History

• 435 BCE wrote a history of the Persian Wars

• Wrote that God played a role in historical events

• Worked hard to separate fact from fiction.

• Questioned many people to get information then investigated the turthfulness of the sources.

Thucydides

• Famous Historian of Ancient Greece

• A general in the Peloponnesian War

• Considered the Peloponnesian war to be a major event in history

• Wrote "The History of the Peloponnesian War."

• Rejected the idea that gods played a role in historical events and believed that only people made history.

• Visted battle sites, carefully examined documents and accepted eyewitness accounts of events.

• Explored the cause and effect of events as well as stated the facts.

• Believed that future generations could learn from the past so wanted to leave behind items so others could learn.

Multiple Choice

How was Thucydides different from Herodotus?

• Thucydides believed that the gods DID NOT play a role in historical events

• Thucydides believed that the gods DID play a role in historical events.

THE FIRST SCIENTISTS

• Ancient Greeks developed many scientific ideas and influenced scientific thikng for centuries.

• Believed that natural events could be explained logically and people could discover the causes of these events by using reason.

Multiple Choice

Ancient Greek Scientists were different from other early people because they believed that disease or sickness was caused by factors in nature instead of gods and other supernatural factors.

• TRUE

• FALSE

Thales of Miletus

• Born in the mid 600s B.C.E

• Studied astronomy and mathematics without telescopes and other instruments used today.

• made discoveries and developed theories by thinking.

• Was one of the first scientist to explain the physical world using examples from nature.

PYTHAGORAS

• Taught students that the universe followed the same aws as music and numbers.

• Believed that all relationships could be expressed in numbers and developed new ideas about mathematics.

• Is known for the Pythagorean Theory used in math today to determine the length of the sides of a triangle.

ANCIENT GREEK MEDICINE

HIPPOCRATES

• A physician in Ancient Greece regarded as the "Father Medicine".

• Believed diseases came from natural causes but most people believed diseases came from evil spirits.

• travelled all over Greece to help the sick

• Used his new ideas to diagnose different illnesses he also discovered his own treatments to help cure sick people.

• Created a list of rules about how doctors should use their skills to help patients and they should protect their patients' privacy

• Today doctors around the world promise the Hippocratic Oath.