Greek Philosophers The Big Three Socrates of Athens

Greek Philosophers The Big Three

Socrates of Athens c. 470 BCE-399 BCE - Interested in the thinking process. - Asked questions step-by-step to arrive to a final conclusion, or truth. - This process of questioning is called the “Socratic Method. ” - Socrates was brought to trial and executed. - He left no writings after his death.

Plato of Athens c 427 -347 BCE - Recorded the speeches made by Socrates - Aristocrat - Plato wrote his ideas about an “ideal state” in a book called The Republic. - Plato established a school called the Academy to train government leaders. - The Republic is the first book written on political science, or the study of government.

- Aristotle was one of Plato’s brightest pupils. Aristotle 384 -322 BCE - He believed in using your senses to discover the physical world. -Aristotle was the first to classify, or group together, similar plants and animals. - Aristotle added to the ideas of other scientists – he added the 3 rd step to the Scientific Method. …a hypothesis must be tested to be proven.

Aristotle also made contributions in logic. He developed the syllogism – a method of reasoning that uses three related statements. Sixth Grade students learn about Ancient Greece. Laura is learning about Ancient Greece. Therefore, Laura is a sixth-grade student.