Paul R. Waibel - Western Civilization

The “scientists” of the Hellenistic period built upon the discoveries of the Hellenic natural philosophers. Euclid (fl. fourth century BC), a mathematician living in Alexandria, wrote a textbook on plane geometry, Elements of Geometry , which remained valid into the twentieth century AD. Archimedes (287–212 BC) of Syracuse calculated the value of pi , and wrote the first scientific works on statics and hydrostatics. Heraclides Ponticus (387–312 BC) discovered that the earth rotated on its axis. Whether he postulated a heliocentric model of the universe is not known for certain, but Aristarchus (310–230 BC) of Samos did do so. Hipparchus (190–120 BC) of Nicaea, on the other hand, put forth a geocentric model of the universe. It was Hipparchus' model, adopted by the second century AD geographer and mathematician Claudius Ptolemy (90–168 AD), that survived the fall of the Roman Empire in the West and remained dominate until Copernicus revived the heliocentric model in the sixteenth century AD.

The naturalistic philosophers pioneered theoretical reason as the means for understanding nature. Beginning with Socrates (c. 470–c. 399 BC) the humanistic (or metaphysical) philosophers applied reason to the study of the individual and society, which they considered more important than the study of nature.

The ancient Hebrews believed that the individual was endowed by his creator with moral autonomy to choose between obedience to, or disobedience of, God's moral precepts. The individual was not free to create his or her own moral precepts or standard of right and wrong. To disobey God's laws would result in bondage, suffering, and death. The individual existed in a community. For example, the Hebrews were God's chosen people and so, the community likewise, was obligated to conform to God's moral laws. The result would be a just society. This sense of social conscience has been an important part of Western Civilization.

In contrast to the Hebrew writers, Socrates did not believe that moral values originated with an all‐sovereign, transcendent God. Rather, moral values were discovered through reason. By a process referred as dialectics , that is logical reasoning or logical discussion, individuals in society could acquire knowledge, develop character (virtue), and enjoy the good life. By discovering truth through reason, Socrates did not mean that truth was relative, as did the Sophists of his day.

The Sophists were traveling teachers who offered instruction in useful knowledge for a price. Since rhetoric was definitely a useful skill in democratic Athens, they offered to teach the effective use of language in public speaking. They claimed to teach arête (moral virtue or excellence). Socrates loathed the Sophists 3 not only because they made education a business, but also because they were moral relativists. Socrates believed that the pursuit of knowledge had its own rewards. He also taught that truth did exist and could be discovered through dialectical reasoning.

Socrates' most famous pupil was Plato (c. 427–347 BC). 4 Plato is perhaps best known for designing one of the first utopias, or ideal states. In The Republic, he tried to define justice by seeing it in the ideal state. Plato's visionary republic, though, turned out to be a totalitarian state. Not even freedom of thought was permitted its subjects. It is in Plato's discussion of where reality lies, that is, his theory of ideas, that his real significance for Western Civilization is found.

Plato believed the world we experience from day to day is but a reflection of the real world of ideal forms that exists in the realm of ideas. A chair that we sit on is recognized as a chair because it resembles the one true chair, or chair‐form, that exists in the ideal world beyond space and time. The same holds true for such concepts as justice, beauty, etc. The world mankind inhabits is unstable, always in flux. But the realm of ideal forms is eternal and unchanging. This emphasis on universal principles was challenged by Plato's most important student, Aristotle.

Aristotle (385–322 BC) wrote on every subject. He was an organizer, a systematizer. He wrote on botany, zoology, metaphysics, logic, rhetoric, poetry, ethics, and political theory, to name just a few of the areas he examined. Like Plato, who founded the Academy, Aristotle also founded a school, the Lyceum. Like Plato he wrote a book, Politics , in which he tried to describe the best form of government. But unlike Plato, Aristotle did not describe a utopia. Instead, he defended the city‐state of Hellenic Greece. For Aristotle, law, not a philosopher‐king, would rule the affairs of the city‐state's citizens.

Aristotle also departed from his former teacher with respect to where he found reality. For Aristotle, reality is in the object itself, not in a perfect realm of ideas. Whereas Plato stressed the universals, Aristotle stressed the particulars. This tension over what is real, or where reality is located, in the universals or the particulars, has troubled Western thought ever since. It became even more of an issue with the enthronement of Aristotle as the philosopher of the Middle Ages by Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) and other scholastic philosopher‐theologians (see Chapter 6).

Simply stated, the problem is, that if you begin with the particulars (e.g. the individual), how do you find ultimate and adequate meaning for the particulars? With Plato, the meaning of the particulars is found in the universals (absolutes) that exist in the realm of ideas. Clearly, Plato and Aristotle are two of the most important thinkers in the history of Western thought and examples of the importance of the classical period for the history of Western Civilization. It would be the task of the Romans to pass on this rich heritage, along with that of the ancient Hebrews, to Europe.

The influence of ancient Greece on Western Civilization is evident everywhere. Walk down just about any street and see the Greek influence in architecture, especially in government buildings. Participate in an election, or witness a trial, where attorneys appeal to the laws of the land before judges and juries sworn to consider the evidence in light of reasoned laws passed by the citizens for the good of the community as a whole. Consider the advances in modern science, whether space exploration or the latest advances in medicine, all possible, because the Greeks established the supremacy of human reason over mysticism, religion, custom, and accepted authority.

The elevation of the individual as a reasoning being who could understand nature and human society, and thereby improve both society and the individual is perhaps the greatest achievement of the Greeks. People could create an organized society in which the people governed themselves. It was possible, they believed, to improve both society and the individual through education, the disciplined pursuit of excellence ( arête , virtue). They did not see the individual as innately good in the sense that there was no dark side to human nature. Rather, by the creation of laws and public institutions, accepted moral norms, and the building of character, the flaws in human nature could be held in check.

The Greek contribution to Western Civilization can be summed up thus: “Whatever we experience in our day, whatever we set out to find, we see that the Greeks have been there before us, and we meet them on their way back” (Cahill 2003, p. 264).

1 Cahill, T. (2003). Sailing the Wine‐Dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter. New York: Nan A. Talese/Doubleday.

2 Drews, R. (1993). The End of the Bronze Age: Changes in Warfare and the Catastrophe Ca. 1200 B.C. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.