Ancient pphilosophy

ANCIENT PPHILOSOPHY
ESSAY
María Fabiana Grant

“THE 21ST, CENTURY MAN’S MISERY FROM THE SOCRATIC POSTULATES”
Despite the millennia that have passed it is probable that the 21st-century man cannot find an ethical attitude as the one presented by Socrates. We believe that today’s man does not know what to do in order to achieve meaningfulness, satisfaction and fulfillment.
1. THEHISTORIACAL CONDITION OF MAN.
1. ANCIENT TIMES
In ancient times we find a mythic-religious thought. Human decisions depend on the decisions of the gods.
The pre-Socratic philosophers did not rise directly the question of the man since their admiration was caused by the phenomena of nature. They wondered what the ultimate principle of natural phenomena was.
PARMENIDES:
There is a methodto find the truth of things, our thoughts as opposed to our feelings which allow us to know only the superficial. The philosophical significance of Parmenides is enormous. The discovery of the being as the fundamental goal of thought is a milestone in history; it opens a new way of philosophizing. Parmenides doctrine was based on the assertion of the self and the rejection of change. Being is one,and the affirmation of multiplicity that implies the becoming, and the becoming itself, are nothing more than wishful thinking. Parmenides comes through the exclusive use of reason and without the aid of the senses, to deduct all we can know about reality (the being), denying the validity of any truth, or to deny that what was perceived by the senses is to be regarded as real. Parmenides,reintroduces the world of appearances. Parmenides’ philosophy as opposed to that of Heraclitus for whom everything flows, everything is in constant movement (no one can bathe twice in the same river) for Parmenides, on the contrary, everything is at rest, the Being is immovable and immutable. Both, however, agree that the reason, and not the senses, is the source of true knowledge.
THE SOPHISTS ANDSOCRATES:
Socrates’ interest in Greek thought is focused on man, on any search and pursuit of truth, dignity, self-knowledge and life according to moral standards dictated by reason. There was a concern for the man inside: "Know thyself." Ethics is founded on virtue.
At the stage of pre-Socratic Greek thought, the man was a part of the cosmos. Socrates criticized Sophist doctrine calling itsuperficial, hollow, and that was not something coherent, and a philosophy he regarded as apparent with a veneer of knowledge. Regarding the way to "see” man, the Sophists, placed it as the central object of his reflection with all his needs to know, understand and learn.
For Socrates, man is a cosmic accident, which ends on the order of nature, which has a function to perform, has thecapability of rational understanding and thanks to the mind can consciously direct his life on a voluntary basis. He departs from self-awareness, recognizing its limitations, the pursuit of truth through introspection.
PLATO:
Man is primarily a soul of divine origin, immaterial. An eternal and immortal soul, accidentally attached to the body with the mission to govern and direct thebody. The body is the prison of the soul and things are shadows of ideas.
ARISTOTLE:
For Aristotle the soul and body come together as two natures substantially incomplete, as matter and form in one nature. He defines man as a rational animal who owns reason and the right of word. He considers man as a social animal by nature. He regards intelligence as something whose essence consistsin reasoning.

THE STOICS:
They are not so worried about knowing what man is but only how to live for happiness with an ethic that requires the mastery of the passions and affections to conform to reason.
They believe in an optimistic theory of which everything is governed by a Logos. Things cannot happen but under the best, the orderly and perfect.
EPICURUS:...