Philosophy Articles

Hipparchia was the wife of Crates, a very popular Athenian philosopher. She was also notable for her brazen abandonment of her aristocratic upbringing for life as a Cynic. Though not much is known about Hipparchia, her importance in the history of ancient Greek women is undeniable. She was an educated philosopher, she was outspoken, and she was unconventional... [continue reading]

Plato, whose dialogues on Truth, Good and Beauty have significantly shaped Western thought and religion, wrote and taught under a nickname. His real name was Aristocles. Names In Ancient Greece In ancient Greece a child was given the name of the grand-parent; the grand-father if a boy and grand-mother if a girl. The remembrance of the dead was a sacred... [continue reading]

Plato's Euthyphro is a dialogue between Socrates and the young 'prophet' Euthyphro outside the court in Athens just before Socrates is to go to trial. As Socrates has been charged by the Athenians with 'impiety', and as Euthypho claims to understand piety perfectly (5a) Socrates, sarcastically, asks the younger man to explain "what is piety and what is impiety?"... [continue reading]

In his famous work Republic, Plato discusses the concept of the `True Lie' or the `Lie in the Soul'. Through a conversation between Socrates and Adeimantus (Plato's brother) Plato defines the `true lie' as believing wrongly about the most important things in one's life. The `lie in the soul' can be understood as Plato's answer... [continue reading]

Protagoras of Abdera (ca. 490-ca.420 BCE) is most famous for his claim that "Of all things the measure is Man, of the things that are, that they are, and of the things that are not, that they are not"(DK 80B1) usually rendered simply as "Man is the Measure of All Things". In maintaining this stance he pre-figures the existential relativism of writers like... [continue reading]

Zeno of Elea (c. 465 BCE) was a student of the famous Eleatic philosopher Parmenides who claimed, "There is a way which is and a way which is not" (a way of truth and a way of opinion) and that, "There is not, nor will there be, anything other than what is since indeed Destiny has fettered it to remain whole and immovable. Therefore those things which mortals... [continue reading]

Hypatia, the much loved pagan philosopher of Alexandria, Egypt, has long been acknowledged as the symbol of the passing of the old ways and the triumph of the new. Hypatia (370-415 CE) was the daughter of Theon, the last professor of the Alexandrian University (associated closely with the famous Library of Alexandria). Theon was a brilliant mathematician... [continue reading]

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (121-180 CE) has been hailed as “one of the noblest figures in antiquity” and his work, Meditations, would certainly attest to the truth of that praise.  Aurelius is known today as “the last of the good emperors” and, while his depiction in the film Gladiator(2000) is highly fictionalized (especially concerning... [continue reading]

They [fundamental elements] prevail in turn as the cycle moves round, and decrease into each other and increase in appointed succession. For these are the only real things, and as they run through one another they become men and the kinds of other animals, at one time coming into one order through love, at another again being borne away from each... [continue reading]

In this thesis I set out to determine the possible motivations in response to which Diotima agreed to teach Socrates the arts of love. In the process I develop a broader understanding of Diotima and her natural, feminine complexity. This understanding of Diotima suggests an interpretation of her teaching to show that, for all that can be said of love... [continue reading]