The Big Three , Socrates, Plato, And Aristotle

When asked what famous Hellene philosophers they are aware of, most laymen would respond with the ‘Big Three’; Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. However, the Hellenic philosophical tradition was immensely rich beyond these three figures, with many other strains of philosophical thought emerging and withering throughout Ancient Greek history. One notable example of such a strain is the Stoics, a breed of philosophical thinking which was so strongly in favour of controlling one’s emotions, that the English adjective ‘stoical’ itself is derived from ‘stoa’, the painted portico from which Zeno of Citium gave lectures. To understand why the Stoics had such a negative view of emotions (or passions) one must understand their view of the soul and†¦show more content†¦Ergo it is an act inappropriate. The passions are described in detail by the Stoics. There are four major passions; appetite and fear, pleasure and distress. Each passion is associated with a different movement of the soul. Appetite is an irrational stretching, the pursuit of an expected ‘good’ where fear is an irrational shrinking, the avoidance of an expected danger, for example. The key linking factor between them is that appetite and fear are irrational expectations and act as precedent to the other two passions, which are present irrational judgements. For example, with our food example, a stretching of the soul, a surge of appetite, occurs but to a point of excess and so one experiences the emotion of gluttony, a craving for food without control. This overrides our reason and so we are motivated to eat to excess and in the present, feel pleasure in the form of satisfaction, an irrational swelling of the soul. In this way, Stoics believe passion to be the source of all unhappiness and wrong-doing, for passions override our good reason and deter us from virtuous action. To act in a reasonable manner would be to abide by one’s impulses but in a manner restrained by rationality, to avoid strong sources of the passions (perhaps avoiding fast food restaurants to expand upon our food example), to act with reserve. In this way, the aims of theShow MoreRelatedThe Three Important Philosophers: Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle836 Words   |  4 Pagesimportant greek philosophers. They all said something that is still known today. Some of these ideas are still accepted today as true. Three of these important philosophers are Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. They have all said something that is still accepted in modern society. Socrates was a greek philosopher that lived from four-hundred-sixty-nine BCE to three-hundred-ninety-nine BCE. He is one of the most influential Greek philosophers. 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