Early Modern Thinkers

Hellenistic, Medieval, and Early Modern Thinkers

Analisia Roberson

PhL/464

Jan 27, 2011

Dr. Farshad Sadri

Hellenistic, Medieval, and Early Modern Thinkers

In 250 to 500 words, briefly describe either Plato or Aristotle’s ideas about metaphysics or epistemology.

As for Plato, Aristotle’s metaphysics and epistemology are closely bound together. The nature of what we know is tightly bound up with what it is we know.
Like Plato, Aristotle takes his cue from language, though, again like Plato, the objects of his enquiry are not linguistic items, but ontological ones. The classification of categories is of things, not terms. metaphysics is not interested so much in making a huge list of things, but in describing what kinds
It is usually divided into three periods: the pre-Socratic period, the period of Plato and Aristotle, and the post-Aristotelian or Hellenistic period. A fourth period that is sometimes added includes the Neoplatonic and Christian philosophers of Late Antiquity. The most important of the ancient philosophers in terms of subsequent influence are Plato and Aristotle. Medieval philosophy is the philosophy of Western Europe and the Middle East during the Middle Ages, roughly extending from the Christianization of the Roman Empire until the Renaissance. Medieval philosophy is defined partly by the rediscovery and further development of classical Greek and Hellenistic philosophy, and partly by the need to address theological problems and to integrate the then widespread sacred doctrines of Abrahamic religion in the form of Islam, Judaism, and Christianity with secular learning. The history of European medieval philosophy is traditionally divided into two main periods: the period in the Latin West following the Early Middle Ages until the 12th century, when the works of Aristotle and Plato were preserved and cultivated; and the "golden age" of the 12th, 13th and 14th centuries in the Latin West, which witnessed the culmination of the recovery of ancient philosophy, and significant developments in the field of philosophy of religion, logic and metaphysics. The medieval era
The medieval period is usually considered to be from the sixth to about the sixteenth century, and from the seventeenth on is pretty much modern history. The thing is, history is actually living and vibrant--and doesn't necessarily allow itself to be rigidly categorized. After all, the people who lived in the three periods mentioned all thought that THEY were in the MODERN period. I can just hear some Babylonian teen saying something like, Dad, come on! This isn't the reign of Nebuchadnezzar! We're in the fifth year of Xerxes! Or, perhaps in China, someone observing to his friend, "Oh, that went out with the Ch'in Dynasty! Even the medieval period is sometimes broken down into the so-called Dark Ages, High Middle Ages, and Renaissance, so you see the labels can easily be blurred. Three predecessors heavily influenced Plato's thoughts on metaphysics and epistemology, Heraclitus c. 540 B.C.-480-70, Parmenides c.515 B.C.-449-40, and Socrates 470 B.C.-399. Only fragments remain of the writings of Parmenides and Heraclitus, including some