Category: Classical Philosophy

These notes cover Neoplatonism in full: the great shift from secular Classical to religious Medieval philosophy; three mystery cults (Cybele/Attis, Osiris/Isis, Mithraism) and their parallels with Christianity; the collapse of Rome after Marcus Aurelius and the psychological demand for personal salvation; how Neoplatonism emerged to solve unresolved problems in Plato’s Theory of Forms; Plotinus’s biography…

These notes cover ancient scepticism: its name from Greek skeptikos (inquirer); the self-refutation problem with naive definitions of scepticism and why appearance language is essential; Pyrrho’s lens analogy showing senses cannot verify reality; the failure of reason to settle disputes; Pyrrho and the Indian connection; the Academic Sceptics — Arcesilaus redirecting Plato’s Academy and Carneades’…

These notes cover Stoic philosophy: Zeno of Citium and the founding of the school; Stoicism vs Epicureanism on universe, human nature, virtue, and social philosophy; Stoic metaphysics — the logos as divine rational principle, benevolent determinism, the fire and spark imagery, and the problem of evil; the three ethical principles — freedom from passion, happiness…

These notes cover Epicurean philosophy: happiness as pleasure minus pain; philosophy as a tool not an end; two types of pain (physical unavoidable, mental avoidable); false beliefs about gods and death as the primary sources of mental suffering; atomism and the swerve; two arguments against fear of death (no subject of harm and symmetry); prudence…

These notes cover ancient Cynicism: its identity as a practical way of life rather than a theoretical system; the three inseparable characteristics of the Cynic good life — reason (follow natural reason, reject convention), self-sufficiency (minimal needs, no dependence), and freedom (no desires, no vulnerability); the physis/nomos framework inherited from the Sophists and its Cynic…

These notes establish the historical context for Hellenistic philosophy: the five periods of ancient Western thought; the critical distinction between Hellenic (pure Greek, Classical) and Hellenistic (Greek-influenced, post-Alexander); Alexander’s role as both cultural bridge and cause of political collapse; the psychological shift from civic agency to helplessness that created demand for practical philosophies of inner…

These notes cover Aristotle’s Politics: the natural development of the state from family to polis; humans as political animals defined by the capacity for speech; the six forms of government — monarchy, aristocracy, polity, tyranny, oligarchy, and democracy — classified by who rules and for whose benefit; the four types of oligarchy; demagogues and lawless…

These notes cover Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics: ethics as a practical art rather than a theoretical science; eudaimonia as the final end — neither pleasure nor fame but activity of the soul in accordance with reason; the two types of intellectual virtue — philosophical wisdom for universal principles and practical wisdom for situational application; the golden…

These notes cover Aristotle’s three levels of soul — nutritive, sensitive, and rational — and the key distinction between what enters the organism at each level: matter in nutrition, sensible form in perception, and intelligible form in thought. The wax seal analogy and dual actualisation explain how accurate perception works. The hylomorphic account establishes soul…

These notes cover Aristotle’s concept of God in full: the taxonomy of substances (natural/artifact/non-sensible) and why natural science requires a sustaining principle; the four types of change (qualitative, quantitative, locomotion, substantial); why ‘First Mover’ is misleading and ‘Unmoved Mover’ is correct, with the flower/sun analogy and the domino contrast; how the Unmoved Mover causes motion…