Introduction to the Ancient World: Greece

Early Greek Philosophy; the Sophists

I. A few more takes on the Olympics, e.g. boxing (Hellenistic Boxer statue; face; hands)

II. Greek philosophy: definition and development; mythos - logos

III. Contributory factors

a.  curiosity
b. the polis

1. individual
2. absence of religious dogmatism
3. assumption of order (cosmos)

IV. The Pre-Socratics

a. Thales - water; Hippodamus of Miletus (urban grid plan)
b. Anaximander - the "Infinite"
c.  Anaximenes - air
d.  Xenophanes - the "One"
e.  Heracleitus - "everything is in flux"
f.  Anaxagoras - "mixtures" and the "mind" (nous)
g.  Democritus - atoms (a-tomos)

V. The Sophists

a. definition
b.  the "old" education
c. nomos vs. physis
d. effect on the polis
e. Protagoras and relativism: "Man is the measure of all things, of the things they are, that they are,
and of the things that are not, that they are not."

Syllabus