Greek thought

"Greek thought" is the technical name by philosophers for the thinking patterns that underlie Western philosophy.

Table of contents

1 History of Greek thought 2 What are the basic patterns found in Greek thought? 3 Who uses Greek thought today? 4 References

History of Greek thought

There is no record as to where it began, nor who first used it. Apparently it is a very ancient method of looking at the world, as it is used throughout the world, and is the basis of most schools of thought and religions.

The most famous historical users for this thought method were the ancient Greek philosophers, in particular Plato and Aristotle, hence the name "Greek thought". Their works became the basis for the majority of western philosophical, and even religious, thinking from their time to the present. We can trace their influence through ancient Roman philosophers, the works of Jews like Averoës and Maimonides, which influenced the scholastics in Medieval Roman Catholicism as well as Thomas Aquinas and his followers in the Renaissance, up to modern times.

Its main competition has come from what is called Hebrew thought, which is named after the Hebrew Bible. Hebrew thought is the underlying thought used in the New Testament, and was introduced to Northern Europe by the Protestant Reformation, where is served as the intellectual basis for the scientific and technological revolutions.

What are the basic patterns found in Greek thought?

The basic building block of Greek thought is form. This is not only the visual form of physical objects, but also the logical form of arguments and philosophical constructs. Along with form is an acknowledgement that form is basically static, which led one ancient Greek philosopher to comment that a person cannot step into the same river twice, because between the first and second times one steps into the river, it has changed in form.

Along with form is the evaluation of personal value based on how one looks. The beautiful people are those who look good. Hence there is a strong emphasis on personal beauty among those who use Greek thought.

In Greek thought there is a hierarchy of tasks, with one being much more important than another. In particular, the life of quiet contemplation is superior to the laborer working with his hands.

Politically, Greek thought tends towards absolute rulers, like dictators or "the divine right of kings" to rule as they wish. The other side of the coin is chaos, so societies dominated by Greek thought tend to look for strong rulers.

However, there is a tension within Greek thought, namely the gap between the multiple, varying forms of particular objects, such as the many variations of chairs, and the form that typifies the universal, example the form that defines "chair". There is no way to bridge that gap, which has led it to be called "the line of despair".

Over the ages, there have been different ways of marking that "line of despair". For some, on the one side is found the multitude of the particulars, on the other the universals; one side cold logic, the other the flights of intuition and artistry; one side is physical, mechanistic determinism, the other freedom; and so forth.

Because the "line of despair" is unbridgeable, people who use Greek thought tend to emphasize one side over the other. Western philosophers almost universally emphasize the side of the particulars, logic, and the physical. Hinduism and other "Eastern" religions tend to emphasize almost exclusively the universals, feelings and the mystical.

Who uses Greek thought today?

In the West, it was used by almost all the major thinkers from the time of the ancient Greeks, through the Romans and into the Roman Catholic Church, received a major boost through the Renaissance and into the modern age. The major exception was Martin Luther and to a lesser degree John Calvin and other Reformers. Those who follow the Reformation tend to emphasize the practical: e.g. the sciences, politics and art, and leave philosophy pretty much alone. Archimedes was the most famous ancient, non-Jewish practitioner of Hebrew thought, and fit the pattern of leaving philosophy pretty much alone.

Outside of the West, it is the cornerstone upon which mystical beliefs are built. Hinduism, Buddhism and other such beliefs are the other side, the mystical side, of Greek thought.

References

Schaeffer, Francis Escape from Reason InterVarsity Press; (June 1, 1968) ISBN: 0877845387

Boman, Torleif Hebrew Thought Compare with Greek Norton & Company, 1970 ISBN: 0393005348