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What's the major difference between ancient Greek and medieval philosophy?
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The major difference between ancient Greek and medieval philosophy lies in the integration of religious elements. Ancient Greek philosophy focused on rational explanations of the world, moving away from mythology towards logic, particularly in the works of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Medieval philosophy, emerging in the Christian era, synthesized philosophical thought with Christian theology, emphasizing God's influence on nature and human free will, marking a shift from Greek human-centered ethics to religious doctrine.
Western philosophical thought began in Ancient Greece. Loosely translated, the word philosophy means wisdom. How people should live, how they should think, and what they should believe was the focus of philosophy in ancient times.
In the Western world, philosophy might be broken down into three major branches: epistemology, or the study of knowledge; metaphysics, or the study of the nature of reality; and ethics, or the study of morality. Beginning in Ancient Greece, little is definitively known about the pre-Socratics. Records from the era around B.C.E 650 are scarce. What is evident is a trend in philosophy away from mythological explanations of the natural world and toward more rational approaches to the physical world.
For example, Thales and Anaximander examined the four major elements of earth, air, fire, and water to reach rational conclusions about the material world in which they lived. Early philosophers like Pythagoras developed theories on...
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the reincarnation of souls. While their work did not culminate in principles that would satisfy twenty-first century scientists, it did show a trend toward more analytical thinking.
The Sophists developed principles of moral relativism, arguing both sides of virtually every philosophical opinion espoused in Ancient Greece. While their postulates were often rejected by the people, they did have a profound influence on Socrates and, therefore, Greece.
The three greatest philosophical thinkers from Ancient Greece were Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Socrates left the world nothing in writing. Most of what is known about him comes from Plato. All three great thinkers opined on a variety of subjects like truth, morality, piety, "the good life," politics, epistemology, metaphysics, and especially ethics. While their positions, theories, and perspectives might have differed, there is no doubt that each of them moved ancient Greek thought farther from thoughts of mythological gods as the causes and scapegoats of the natural world and closer to logic and rationality as the basis of philosophical thought.
Medieval thinkers were highly influenced by the ancient Greeks, especially Plato and Aristotle. Philosophers like Augustine built upon Plato’s vision of aesthetics and Thomas Aquinas and Albert the Great adopted Aristotle’s basic vision of logic.
Medieval philosophy developed in the Christian era and spanned nearly a thousand years. Philosophical thought began to merge with religious perspectives. For example, light and beauty were of particular interest to the people in the Middle Ages when studying aesthetics. They reasoned that since God created light and beauty, nature reflected the hand of God. Philosophy began to reflect monotheistic ecclesiastical thought, and Christian religious symbolism replaced Greek symbols of mythological gods.
Medieval thinking changed the notion of free will. Philosophers reasoned that individuals could not be held responsible for their actions unless they possessed free will. In pondering some of the same notions philosophers study today, they theorized that human beings have the intellectual capacity to act freely, which they were given by God upon their creation. Therefore, the contemporary belief shifted to adherence to Christian religious doctrine that was a major departure from ancient Greek thought, which focused on human actions and feelings to attain a good life, rather than tenets proposed by theologians based on their interpretations of God’s will as expressed through Christianity.
The single greatest change between what is termed ancient and what is termed medieval philosophy was the rise of Christianity and the concomitant necessity to synthesize Scriptural interpretation with more abstract philosophical theorizing. However, it would be inaccurate to think of this change as a dramatic rupture. The scripturalizing phenomenon was not unique to Christianity. Among Stoics, for example, there was a major debate concerning whether it was more important to produce exegesis of Chrysippus or to work from basic principles. Similarly, most of the Neoplatonic texts after Plotinus occur in the forms of commentary on Platonic dialogues, and in method are not radically different from many of the commentaries of Augustine or Origen on the Bible. Furthermore, many Christian theologians were strongly influenced by ancient philosophy.