ADSactly History : The Contributions Of Egyptian Philosophy To The Wider World - A Survey Of Ancient Greeks [Concluding part]

This is an addendum to the survey of ancient Greece that we started in our first post. We have taken a look at how Egyptian philosophy provided the fulcrum upon which the Greek philosophy hinged on, particularly that which related to the pre-socratic philosophers. We made a review of ancient pre-socratic philosophers and how their interaction with the Egyptian mystery school system propelled them to the row echelon in philosophy. Here, we will focus on Socratic philosophers and their impact to the world of science.

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Socratic Philosophers

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Remember what I told you about pre-socratic philosophers, they were majorly concerned with the explanation of the "world-stuff"; Socratic philosophers (or rather, the philosophers that were conformed to the Socratic method) were concerned with the ability to stimulate critical and logical thinking to draw inference based on pre-existing assumptions. This is the reason Greek philosophers gained massive influence among the western world that people tend to assume that philosophy originated in Greece. No wonder Greek philosophy is usually called "classical philosophy".

Basically, the Socratic method of philosophy seeks the truth about a particular subject matter by eliminating contradicting hypothesis. Socratic method also incorporates dialog and critical reasoning. Blazing the trial in the Greek philosophy is Socrates who has been considered by philosophy scholars as one of the founding fathers of western philosophy. Here, we will looks at some proponents of Socratic method.

_{[The Legendary Greek Statue. Image from Pexels. CC0 Licensed]}

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Plato

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Plato is a very significant philosopher of the ancient times who lived around 428 BCE to 348 BCE. He had an extensive study in Egypt where he was indoctrinated into the mystery school system of Egypt _[ref]. Asides the fact that he was a philosopher, he was also a great mathematician. As a matter of fact, the idea of negative number system is credited to plato and this is a result of the knowledge he acquired while he trained in Egypt. In his school of thought, Plato believed that the answers to "stuff" are gotten by reasoning and not necessarily by experimentation.

After plato's extensive studies in the mystery school of Egypt, he relocated to Athens; Greece, where he opened his own academy which produced first class philosophers and scientists. Among the products of Platos's school is the renowned astronomer and philosopher, Heraclides, who postulated the rotation of the earth round its axis in a 24 hour period. He also talked about the trajectory of planets Mercury and Venus. Let's take a look at another renowned philosopher that rose from Plato's school; Aristotle.

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Aristotle

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Aristotle was a student of Plato and a very successful one at that. Aristotle moved a little further from his master's school of thought and believed that observation and reasoning were "key" to finding solution to questions - no wonder he became a very respected name among philosophy scholars. Aristotle's works were based on various fields of life including anatomy, astronomy, psychology, metaphysics (philosophy), physics, mathematics, astrology, biology, logic, botany, politics, economics and even law.

Aristotle's contribution and influence to the growth and development of various scientific disciplines were numerous. Even though history has remained somewhat silent whether Aristotle studied in Egypt or not, we know he was tutored by someone that gained extensive knowledge in Egypt. So by inference, he was taught with the same Egyptian syllabus. This means that the ancient Egyptian philosophy had an impact and influence on him.

_{[Statue of Aristotle. Image from Wikipedia. Public Domain License]}

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Socrates

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Socrates was one of the most accomplished philosophers of the ancient Greece and the wider world, and was also the teacher of many strategic philosophers like Plato. He lived between 470 BCE and 399 BCE and was recognized as one of the founding fathers of western philosophy with his "Socratic method" of classical philosophy. Even though history was not particular if he studied in Egypt, but some of his methods hinged on what the ancient Egyptian philosophy represents.

Apart from the fact that Socrates was a philosophy scholar, he was also a warrior _[ref]. I know many are not aware of this fact, but Socrates fought many battles and even the historic Peloponnesian war at Athens. He was drafted into the "hoplite" (foot soldier) and was very useful under the command of the Athenian general; Alcibiades; because of his courage. Even while at battle, Socrates had a very strong belief that philosophy is a potent tool to achieve a greater good of the society. He went further to propose that the human mind is borne out of the desire for ultimate wisdom, but according to him "this ultimate wisdom comes from the knowledge of one's self".

_{[Statue of three strategic Socratic Philosophers: Plato, Aristotle and Socrates. Image from Flickr. Author: Mararie. CC BY-SA 2.0 Licensed]}

The socratic method was basically a system of reasoning that majorly hinged on logical argument. In his approach, he would ask questions to the audience and allow them to think out the logical solution themselves. Though many loved this philosophical approach to life, so many others felt vexed by it and this contributed to Socrates' trail before the Athenian law. The trial didn't favour him and he was sentenced to death by the jury; not willing to be exiled, he chose to die with honour.

Shortly before Socrates' death, he pointed out that his death was only a freedom of his soul from his mortal body - no wonder his Socratic methods lived posthumously as evidenced in Plato's Phaedo dialogue. With all these pointers, you will agree with me that western philosophy may not have been possible without the influence of Egyptian philosophy.

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References: Ref1, Ref2, Ref3, Ref4, Ref5, Ref6