Greek Contributions to Western Civilization

Plato was very important in history; the Athenian philosopher is one of the most important figures of the Ancient Greek world as well as the entire history of Western thought. Born in 427 and died 347 BC, this man would be most known for his work in the “Republic” where he envisioned that a civilization should not be governed by democracy but by having the pure wisdom of a philosopher king. And with his teachings from his teacher Socrates who was also known as a Greek philosopher. And in 399 BC he was accused of impiety and corrupting the youth and was sent to trial. This would lead to an essay written by Plato to defend Socrates and write about what he said in his speech.

The Apology was written by Plato it talks about how Socrates defended himself in court and his reaction to the sentence of being put to death. With the accusations of corrupting the youth, he said that they were made because people couldn’t be proved foolish which caused them to be angry. He ends up not answering the charge about believing in new or different gods which leads to arguing against Meletus. One of his main arguments is that he has a purpose or mission and if he dies then he dies. He wants to seek the truth and wisdom personally while challenging others to do so by exposing the pretenders. He claims that a certain voice stops him from doing what is wrong. He lastly talks about death and how it must be good if the distinct voice in him leads him to it. He says that death might be a migration of the soul or a sort of sleep. As he leaves for the sentence of death he urges other people to continue what he started and speak wisdom and the truth.

Socrates’s beliefs and teaches were fairly new to the world. The one who basically started them was his student, Plato. Before them, the most common ideas and cultures were that of Egypt. They were more concerned about renewal and how all life was created and re-created in an endless cycle. They had two gods that were the most fundamental to their belief which were Osiris and Isis which were brother and sister as well as husband and wife. Their belief and religion as well as worldview were based on the stories and how different gods played their part in life. For instance, Anubis the god of the dead.

This is a lot different than what Socrates believed in, although the Egyptian religion was more common in how they worshiped other gods and stories. Socrates believed that philosophy would provide a lot more results for a greater well-being society rather than being as he said foolish and believing in the stories and myths that have been passed down. Before he was executed, he established an ethical system based on human reason rather than theological doctrine. He believed in God rather than the gods like the way Greek mythology started. Which was sort of like the Egyptian religion.

Plato’s apology and Socrates’s beliefs and what he was trying to teach impacted Western Civilization and Greek society drastically. Plato’s work has covered a broad platter of ideas and interests like mathematics, science, nature, morals, and political theory. And with this, he taught Socrates and Aristotle. And Aristotle founded his own school (Lyceum) where he also added to his teacher’s platter of ideas and interests. He went on to teach that there is a single God who is the motive power of the universe. He also tutored Alexander the Great, which really affected the future of Greek society and Western civilization because this religion and belief would be taught and passed on and aspects of it would be brought into today’s time.

One thing that Plato did was he made a book called The Republic, and book seven was called The Allegory of the Cave. This book is known for being most catching in terms of platonic education and the good in people. Through this book, he mainly addresses the abstract of ideas and how it's better for people to focus on them.

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In the parable, Socrates asks Glaucon to think of a dark cave where a lot of prisoners are chained up and are unable to move their heads so they can only see in front of them. Behind them, there is fire light and the people attending the prisoners make shadows projected against the wall. With the sounds that come with the projections, the prisoners think that they are both real and it escalates to names and matching those names to things that they think are real. And on a certain day, a prisoner is released, and he goes out of the cave and looks at the sunlight which ends up blinding him. Another prisoner is released but he is more accustomed to the reality of the cave so after going outside he goes back into the cave and the other prisoners tease him.

Plato is trying to say that there are truths that are invisible lying under the apparent surface. This can be reached and understood by being dragged out of the dark and into the light. With this, his point is that human perception can’t derive through knowing and knowledge. Instead, real knowledge can only come from philosophical reasoning. The prisoners cannot know the truth because they are chained, just like a lot of people today we can be stubborn and ignorant and live our lives pursuing and believing in the shadow instead of the real thing or the truth.

The Egyptians wanted to see what they wanted to see and believe what they wanted to believe. They were pursuing the “darkness” of stories and myths of gods that were righteous and powerful. They worshiped these gods and made their temples and pyramids. Whereas Socrates believes that there is one god, and the allegory of the cave is supposed to teach you that there will be instances where everyone possibly won’t be happy for you or understand when you decide to change your habits and outlook on life. I mean, Socrates tried to teach that to kids so they would know and be prepared and he got killed for it. Like when the prisoner came back from the cave after he got used to the sunlight the other prisoners mocked him and you can expect friends and family members to laugh at you if you decided to change your ideas up about life.

This is very different from Egyptians because you didn’t hear at all if someone changed their beliefs and didn’t believe in the gods or the stories. I’m sure if someone did have doubts or other beliefs they would be mocked or possibly sacrificed for it. The allegory of the cave changed Greek society in many ways. It helped form elements of leadership and live in a better environment. An environment that promotes what would make a good future leader as well as helps form a community with standards and individual rights and responsibilities of their own. In today's society, everyone has a part or responsibility. It's not just based on the gods or the stories that they have to follow for the rest of their lives. People get to do what they want to do and live how they want to live while there is only one god.

Another thing is that with the allegory of the cave it’s almost like Socrates is explaining the steps to coming out of the belief of gods to the final step in development. For the Western Civilization, this idea of the cave helped develop a new civilization of independence and community which is still a thing today. Today there are still a lot of people that are still that don’t follow the world's ideas and follow the imaginary world. And by Plato writing this he wants people to keep teaching his beliefs so that no one is left a prisoner and that no one is bound by imaginary myths and beliefs.

The ideas that sprouted from Plato’s apology and The Allegory of the Cave really helped shape western civilization and Greek society, even today. The teachers of Plato, Socrates, and Aristotle formed the belief of only one god in that generation. Although Aristotle believed in the power of observation, they all have made new ideas and different techniques to the views of life and life itself.