Greek Philosophy (Essay Sample)

Student’s Name Professor’s Name Course Number Date Greek Philosophy Greek Tragedy Oedipus Tyrannus—most commonly known as Oedipus Rex— is a Greek tragedy drama by Sophocles, the ancient Greek Tragedian. In the play Oedipus was made king of Thebes who, in an effort to discover the former king’s murderer, was named himself as criminal. Oedipus considered it a plot to dethrone him. Jocasta, the queen, told the prophecy about king Laius murder to be done by her son and said that Laius was killed by the highwaymen. The information of Jocasta made him uneasy as he recalled having killed a man. At this time, an aged messenger arrived and announced death of king Polybus, Oedipus supposed father, and invited him for election as king to which Oedipus refused. The old man informed Oedipus that he was not the son of Polybus but was foundling from mountain. When they realized that prophecy was fulfilled, Jocasta murdered herself while Oedipus stabbed out his eyes and imposes self-exile on himself, the penalty for Laius murderer. (Yuehua, 2006) In the play, oracles were used by Sophocles to reveal Oedipus tragedy which leads to his ruin. Likewise, in the play Oedipus’ action of truth seeking is shown which started from the time when he came to know that he was not the real son of his parents. He was a person of swift action and wanted to find about his origin which made him flee to Delphi. However, he was not answered. On the other hand, he was told that he would kill his father and would marry his own mother. Oedipus, on his journey to Thabes, unknowingly killed his own father. When he reached Thebes, he solved the Sphinx mystery and became the king. Through this he completed second part of the oracle and married his mother. He committed his crimes for which he was led towards darkness, even these acts were committed in a way that he did not know. As per Dodds, in the play there is the terror of coincidences. Oedipus described that these things were merely Apollo. If he was charged with the divine injustice or justice, he simply failed in delivering it. For Dodds, the drama is not just a tool to deliver message to the audience it should act as a tool to deliver his opinion about the particular subject. It cannot be accepted that Oedipus tyrannus failed to deliver any message and it does not tell about Sophocles view of religion. He further adds that using author’s work as evidence about his opinion is dangerous. However, the deductions can be drawn about Sophocles opinion about gods that he did not believe gods are just in any human sense. This supposition is not only supported by this play but also by his other play like Trachiniae which was written in close period as Oedipus Rex. In the climax of drama Trachiniae, he had violently denunciated the god’s injustice. Secondly, it can be drawn that he believed in gods’ existence. External evidences strongly support this proposition. They are important because they are not bound to subjective impressions. It is evident that Sophocles held many priesthoods, he acted as god’s host and wrote a ‘’hymn’’ and was termed as hero in whispers after his death. Hence, it suggested that he was accepted by and accepts state religion. Likewise, this proposition was supported by the passages from Oedipus Tyrannus: the choral ode, the prophecy decline, and threat to religion were suggested by the scene with Creon. As for Dodds, Oedipus Tyrannus was a play about human blindness and condition insecurity. Every man is susceptible to what he face and what will come. However, the play showed the inner strength of human to reach truth that may be costly. Likewise, the play portrays the strong picture of man that come what may he faces it with strength. For Dodds, Oedipus was strong because he took the responsibility of all the acts done. He added, that Oedipus was human intelligence personified who wish to decode the mysteries of unsolved riddles. For him, the play is bent towards generalization in last scenes and suggests that Oedipus is the symbol of all men. The meaning of the play is that man is bound by unseen forces sometimes called as predefined destiny. For Oedipus, he was tied by the unseen and unbroken threat of prophecies in the play. He was a strong character who wished to reach his identity. Leaving the parent who brough him up and quest for his real parents were actually the forces that carried him to fulfill the prophecy and be drown in darkness. The tragedy stated that man, with all his efforts, is dependent to some unseen forces. Oedipus has to suffer the misery even he had done nothing but still he deserves it. The three oracles has to come true which implicitly suggested that the sufferings are destined. In addition the play suggested that people of Greece of strongly controlled by god. Concepts of the Milesian philosophers of Nature Milesian School of philosophy, founded in 6th Century BCE, was a Pre-Socratic school in Miletus, Asia Minor. It is also referred as primitive monist materialism and natural philosophers. It includes renowned philosophers such as Thales, Anaximander, and Anaximenes. This school challenged the prevalent concept about organization of world and dismantled beliefs about anthropomorphized gods. This school was mainly influenced by their Eastern neighborhood of Babylonians and Egyptian, who were skilled in Astronomy, Mathematics and technology. However, their debt to Eastern knowledge was solely practical as that knowledge was limited and not philosophic. This school may be referred as first scientific philosophy because they perceived nature in terms of observable entities. They tried to find the answers to natural questions from nature by understanding natural principles and laws. A radical shift was seen as they invented explanatory hypotheses to investigate the phenomenon of natural world. They tried to answer, “what is common in everything makeup?” Thales, for instance, tried to answer this basic question by saying that everything is made of water or water is the basis of all things. Likewise, he said, “all things are full of life”. Probably he came to the conception because when he saw mud and the emergence of herbs from the soil, he saw insects coming out of the soil. He predicted the first solar eclipse. Hence, he was considered first natural philosopher. Thales considered that things that can move by their own have a soul within. Anaximander, 606 – 546 BCE, was second great master of Milesian school. He, too, considered that whole world was made up of one thing. However, he opposed Thales about the same thing. He called it “Aperion”—a boundless infinite substance. According to Anaximander, everything emerged from aperion resultantly created opposites. Everything is created as opposite. These opposites are in state of war. Hence, the dialectics emerged. He, as cartographer, made the first map. He also described the evolution of humans by arguing that man was created by amalgamation of soil and water starting from fishes. Anaximenes (585-525 BCE) was considered as pupil of Anaximander. He, like his predecessors, considered that universe is made of one thing—air. Most probably, he reached this argument by observing death of living organisms. His doctrine about condensation-rarefaction was taken as a theory of physical transformation and he suggested that these processes are the manifestations of changing air. He further said that air is vast infinitely but characteristically determinate. He described that earth is floating on air. Heavenly bodies, like sun and moon, are made of the same stuff of which the earth is made. All natural rules and laws are applied on one human body—a micro version of cosmos. To conclude, it can be said that the Milesian School is considered as the first philosophers. They initiated the way of thinking. They opposed the mythological beliefs and pushed humans to think freely. Who was Parmenides? Parmenides—a Greek philosopher and poet—was born at Elea in fifth century BCE. He was considered as chief representative of the Eleatic philosophy. He had an active role in politics of Elea and was ascribed for his remarkable legislation. Being regarded as disciple of Xenophanes, he was deeply influenced by Xenophanes. For instance, the title of his work was “On Nature” just like that of Xenophanes. He presented his theory in poetry as his master did. To understand his theory, we shall start from the conclusions. He considered that everything emerged from one thing—thus making him a Monist. Everything is uniform and is not susceptible to any change. He started from Anaximander’s thesis of opposites. He considered that the fundamental opposites are being and not-being. We can understand the properties of being because it exists. The thing which is not-being has no properties because it does not exist. Hence, the only thing that exists is being. As per Parmenides, “nothing comes from nothing”. So the thing that is not- being cannot produce beings. From this argument he concludes that the universe and cosmos are pre-existing. Secondly, change is unavoidable in the pre-existing things completely opposed to Heraclitus. Resultantly, as per Parmenides, if the change occurs it will create a thing which does not exist. Since “what is not” does not exist, there will be no interaction and no change can occur. He also argued that no vacuum exists. He says, “You could not know what is not nor could you say what could not be thought cannot exist. Since we cannot think of nothing, therefore there can be no void or vacuum”. He further says, “For it is the same thing that can be thought and that can be”. Parmenides actually talked about the universal intelligence called Nous. Parmenides says that multiplicity of forms does not exist. Because if it exist it had been changed from on form to another but since no change exist in universe so there is no multi...