Overcome Your Fear of Ancient Philosophy
Philosophy is part of daily life, but you are not alone if you feel overwhelmed by the philosophy of Plato or Aristotle.
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"In terms of the breadth of his intellectual curiosity and the vastness of his influence, Aristotle is without equal in the history of human thought."
S. Marc Cohen [faculty.washington.edu/ smcohen/arintro.htm]
Philosophy Is Part of Daily Life
If you think philosophy or, more specifically, ancient philosophy isn't for you, think again. You might be surprised at the number of borrowings from ancient philosophers you run across in daily life. From Protagoras we know that their are two sides to every question. From Diogenes Laertius we hear that appearances are deceitful. Lucretius wrote that nothing can be produced out of nothing. These are easy to understand, empirical bits of wisdom, seemingly different from that vast area of mysticism we call philosophy, but they are, nevertheless, philosophy. If we only had such limited chestnuts from Aristotle and Plato, the greatest masters of philosophy would probably be easier to know, but we don't. We have volumes discussing the meaning of life, reality, knowledge, the good, and much more.No One Has Perfect Understanding
One of the beauties and frustrations of philosophy is that it is subject to interpretation. No one has The Ultimate Answer. For instance, after you've memorized a definition of dialectic asA pattern of argumentation that examines each issue from several sides, exploring the interplay of alternative ideas while subjecting all of them to evaluation by reason.you will probably believe the person who gave you the definition has explained it all, but you were just too dense to get it. You may not understand what "pattern of argumentation" and "interplay of alternative ideas" mean, and even if you do, you probably won't know how this applies to the method with which it is associated, the Socratic. Don't feel bad. "Dialectic" may be so overused as to be worthless as a description.
Plato forms*
Over and over, Plato tells us that the method which the philosopher uses to reach this science is dialectic. Despite his frequent discussions of dialectic, however, scholars have remained divided about just what dialectic is. (In fact, I'm inclined to say that the word 'dialectic' is the most abused word in philosophical parlance, with the possible exception of 'philosophy'.) One scholar has even suggested that Plato uses the term almost as an honorific, meaning 'the true method of philosophical inquiry, whatever that turns out to be.'
Predication, Homonymy, and the Categories
This should be a real confidence booster: Not even Aristotle could understand Plato -- or so some say.
[J.N.] Findlay's Aristotle is the father of an heretical understanding of his master's teaching which has won support from his own time....
Did Aristotle Understand Plato?
In case Aristotle seems more puzzling to you than his teacher, you should realize much of what remains of his writing is in the form of working papers and lecture notes -- ironically, according to the lecture notes of [faculty.washington.edu/smcohen/arintro.htm] S. Marc Cohen, whose internet site very clearly explains many aspects of ancient philosophy.
Note: Philosophy should be thought about, grown into, read, and re-read -- much like poetry.
Philosophers Are In Great Demand $$
All the jargon of philosophy, words like dialectic, syllogism, metaphysics, forms, ideals, and epistemology, may have left you philosophobic (I do apologize. It's a dreadful neologism and for all I know there may be a perfectly acceptable, useful one already available.
There seem to be at least as many philosophobic people as there are people who think they can't do mathematics or operate a personal computer. If you're philosophobic, do try to overcome it, if for no other reason than that there is currently tremendous financial incentive:
Tom Morris, author of "If Aristotle Ran General Motors: The New Soul of Business," earns $30,000 an hour -- one of the highest fees for a non-celebrity speaker in America -- for teaching Socrates and Hegel to the likes of IBM, Campbell Soup, General Electric and Ford.In reality, operating a PC is, as you would already know, simple. Basic math is part of daily life. So, as we saw in the opening maxims, is (ancient) philosophy. No one expects you to become another Socrates.
- From Economist, reprinted in July 17, 2000 Star Tribune article: Philosophy counseling is latest management fad.
How To Learn More About Ancient Philosophy
First, you need to set goals. Do you want to know enough to impress your friends? Satisfy curiosity? Add direction to your life? Be a public inspirational speaker? Teach others?Piecemeal
To impress others or satisfy curiosity, you don't need a structured approach. Enough philosophy to pepper your speech with philosophical themes or quotes will impress/intimidate most (philosophobic) people. To do this, you could just read bits here and there.Have you ever been amazed by someone who could quote extensively from Shakespeare, Plato or Aristotle? Chances are he knows only select quotes, pithy one-liners and speeches, rather than entire plays and dialogues. You can, too. While this may seem superficial, making those lines a part of your vocabulary will familiarize you with the wisdom contained therein.
The Internet
Isolated quips may do nothing for you. Perhaps you want to learn the context. If you want a more systematic approach, especially if you want to learn what the philosophers have to say about a specific topic (how to live a good life or how the state should be run, for example), you need direction. The Internet provides a mass of wonderful resources for this, including- Study Guides
- Outlines
- Texts
- Commentaries
- Articles
- Essays
Thorough Immersion
Readers that don't have knowledge of Greek are strongly advised to make use of several translation of the same dialogue as soon as they want to do serious work on them, if only to avoid building "wild" theories on what may in the end only be a feature of a single translation, not of Plato's text, and to get a feel for where there might be translation problems, when they see varying translations for the same section.If, after you've perused bits of text and commentary, you want to study ancient philosophy more thoroughly, you should probably take some courses, either in Greek, so you can read the original, or in philosophy, or both. If you want to pursue your interests on your own, then try reading the Greek with an English translation and commentary on the side (or, if despite your best efforts, you can't get your Greek skills up to snuff, use a bilingual edition).
Bernard Suzanne
Greek Texts of Plato and Aristotle on Perseus
Plato in English; some with Jowett's commentary.
Aristotle in English; most with commentaries.
Remember: Use more than one translation, read, and reread.
Better yet, ask a real philosopher for guidance.
* URL = [people.delphi.com/gkemerling/hy/2f.htm]
The URL for this feature is
http://ancienthistory.about.com/library/weekly/aa072400a.htm
© by N.S. Gill
