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Chapter Three:
Classical Greece and the
Hellenistic Period
Culture and Values, 7th Ed.
Cunningham and Reich
The Fall of Athens
Philip of Macedon (359 B.C.E. )
– Macedonian Empire
League of Corinth
Alexander the Great
The Classical Ideal
Classical period (479-323 B.C.E.)
Contributions of “pioneers”
Search for order and control
– “Nothing too much”
Value of human potential, capability
Athens
Exemplar of human achievement
– Defeat of Persians (479 B.C.E. )
Democratic Government
– Ecclesia, boule, magistracies
Delian League
– Peloponnesian War (431- 404 B.C.E.)
Pericles
Drama Festivals of Dionysus
Theater = religious ritual
3 Tragedies + Satyr Play
– Plots
– Actors and props
– Function of Chorus
Athenian Tragic Dramatists
– Aeschylus
– Sophocles
– Euripides
[Image 3.5]
The ancient theater at Delphi
Aeschylus (525-456 B.C.E. )
Optimistic philosophy / themes
Orestia Trilogy (458 B.C.E. )
– Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers,
The Eumenides
– Growth of civilization through reason
and order
Diagram of Greek Theater
Sophocles (496-406 B.C.E. )
Friend of Pericles
Consequences of human error
Most traditionally religious in theme
Antigone, Oedipus the King
Euripides (484-406 B.C.E. )
Realistic, rational
– Social, political, religious injustice
– Concern for psychological truth
Suppliant Women, Helen, Iphigenia
in Taurus, Bacchae
Aristophanes (450-385 B.C.E.)
Athenian comic poet
Political satire + fantasy
– The Birds
– Lysistrata
Philosophy
in the Late Classical Period
Socrates
– Fate of the individual
– Questioning traditional values
– The Socratic problem
Xenophon
– Apology, Symposium, Memorabilia
Philosophy
in the Late Classical Period
Plato
– Disciple of Socrates
• Apology, Crito, Phaedo
– The Academy
– Political theory / ideal society
• Theory of Forms
• Inspired by chaos of 4th c. Greek politics
The Forms:
Four levels of reality:
images, sensible objects, lower
forms, higher forms
These give rise to:
imagination, perception, reasoning
and understanding
Those on one level of reality cannot
comprehend what happens on a higher
level.
Aristocracy of Wisdom
Enlightenment is always
accompanied by a desire to help
others escape the bonds of illusion
and ignorance. A reciprocal
relationship exists between the
individual and the kind of society
lived in.
Plato’s Ideal state (or plane)
 We cannot live a truly good life without some
social activities, obligations and concerns.
Society originates because no individual is selfsufficient. The just or ideal state meets 3 basic
categories of needs: Nourishing (food, shelter,
clothing), Protection (military, police), Ordering
(leadership, government). These needs are met
by three corresponding classes of people:
Workers (banker, truck driver etc), Warriors
(soldiers, police, fire-fighters), Guardians
(philosopher-kings). An unjust state is
dysfunctional because it fails to meet some
essential need.
Leads to: Maslow’s Hierarchy
of Needs
Philosophy
in the Late Classical Period
Aristotle
– Pupil of Plato
– The Lyceum
– Platonist vs. Aristotelian
– Metaphysics, Physics, Rhetoric,
Poetics
– “Master of those who know.”