Blog 2

It is difficult to say how much the influence of Greek philosophers impacted contemporary thinking – but then again, I’m allowed to describe it in whatever way I want and using additional mediums as I like.

So I’m going to use my favorite medium: Internet memes.

Two of the most famous Greek philosophers are, Plato, and Socrates. In my personal opinion, Socrates probably had the most obvious impact on the average person (at least the average person I have contact with). The Socratic method of bringing people to realize new ideas through asking them questions is clearly evident in today’s culture.

Although many people view these questions as intentionally convoluted and confusing, in many other cases this tactic can be seen as enlightening a person to something that they never would have been able to figure out on their own.

Still others feel they can stumble upon these truths on their own – through contemplation of the universe they can grow to learn more about it, without use of observation. This thought also follows from Socratic ideology, based on the idea that a person doesn’t need to be educated to know things. Socrates believed that even a slave already understood complex mathematics and did not need to be taught, merely ‘reminded’.

Plato also had significant influence (although probably the most common used of his name is in the word platonic, which fairly few people realize comes from the fact that he described love as having two forms, vulgar and divine). His allegory of the cave is one of his most famous ideas, and I think it is actually fairly well understood by most people who hear it, since he did a very good job of making it accessible to the common man.

I think one of his most profound impacts on modern thought is based off the theory of the forms. Although most people do not consciously believe that there is a perfect version of each thing that all other things are striving to emulate, people do strive for a perfect unattainable ‘something’, oftentimes without even recognizing precisely what that thing is. We seek for a thing that we know must exist, based on other things that we see… Even though what we seek is generally just a concept, rather than a physical reality.

Although I cannot possibly say what all of the impacts of the Greek philosophers are and will be, I definitely think that we are more influenced by them than most people realize. There are, I’m sure, more historically accurate and concise ways of explaining it, but this is a blog, this class is awesome, and I don’t have any more time. I shall leave you with a philosophical question about religion. (Please forgive me for going so incredibly far past the word count – for as we know, a picture is worth a thousand words.)