The Feel of Ancient Philosophy

Posted by Robert Sharp Apr 15, 2006

An introductory philosophy course is often a person's first introduction to philosophy. Until then, they have a vague idea that it involves difficult ideas and thinking about God. But that first introduction to the real thing can be a magical experience. I believe Plato is the key to that experience. His dialogs cover most major areas of philosophy and are among the most subtly complex works ever written. Somehow they combine the simplicity of a great play with ideas that people have struggled to grasp ever since they were first presented.

It has been said that all philosophy is just a footnote to Plato. I think that's wrong, but there is a very real sense in which Plato is the source of the philosophical moment. When I need a reminder of why I enjoy philosophy, I read Plato. Yes, Nietzsche is a fine writer, and Kant's work amazes me every time I read it. But Plato...Plato is the beating heart of philosophy.

Something of Plato permeates the rest of Ancient philosophy as well. Reading Epictetus (a famous Stoic writer, which is an idea for a later article) or Epicurus (the hedonist who believed in pursuing pleasure) contains a similar magic. These writers are not naive. The feeling I am trying to express is not akin to reading a children's book. Instead, it is the purity, the optimism of Ancient philosophy that draws me back to it. Those writers believed in truth, they believed in reality. They knew we would eventually discover all the workings of the universe.

They were wrong, of course, at least as far as we can tell. Present day chaos theories, the horrors of 2 World Wars, the lack of ethical progress we have made as a species, all suggest that truth is fleeting. Truth changes, as Nietzsche puts the point. Perhaps then the magic of Ancient philosophy is in its insistence on stability. Plato was the first to clearly expose the dangers of an uncertain world in which nothing could be known. However, in rejecting that possibility, his work gives us hope that life can be perfect, if only we strive to achieve it.