Until the sixth century, the Greeks were content with mythological explanations about the nature and meaning of life and the universe, as in other cultures. Beginning around 600 BC, several thinkers in the city of Miletus began to take a different approach, one that involved observation, analysis and reasoning about reality. The first of these was Thales (636 - 546). Some of this analysis was prompted by practical needs. Miletus was a major Greek trading center on the coast of Asia Minor. Thales traveled through Egypt and Mesopotamia seeking knowledge, and he attempted to develop his understanding of nature into a generalized cosmology, a system of knowledge. During the next three centuries, a number of Greek thinkers developed their own cosmologies, the most accurate being that of Democritus (460 - 370 BC), which espoused the atomic composition of all matter.
The early Greek philosophers dealt mostly with issues of Cosmology. A different philosophic focus was provided by Socrates (469-399 BC), who concentrated on reasoning about human life. Socrates left no writings, but his thought was captured in the work of his disciple Plato (427-346), who presented Socrates and the protagonist is a series of dialogues. It is difficult to separate what may have been the original thinking of Socrates and what was contributed by Plato, but together they provided the first reasoned presentation of what a good and ethical human life should be. They presented a fundamental shift in values: “A person’s worth might no longer be measured by family, wealth, or prowess, or even by … one’s worth to the state, but by the extent to which the self, and particularly the soul, was perfected [1].”
Plato established a sort of institution in Athens called the Academy, where he gathered with his disciples. After Plato’s death, his disciple Aristotle (384 – 322) parted with the other disciples and established the rival Lyceum, also in Athens. Aristotle was the most comprehensive of the Greek thinkers, and he compiled and organized the teachings of many of his predecessors as well as making many fundamental contributions in Philosophy and Science.
Greek literature begins with the epic tales of Homer (around 800 BC), which are similar to the epics of other cultures, although with perhaps providing fuller characterizations of the heroes, and thus showing an early humanistic orientation. Romantic and inspirational poetry and great dramatic works further developed this exalted view of man between 600 and 400 BC.
The surviving Greek architecture is primarily religious, as in other cultures, but with more refined decorations. It is in sculpture where Greek humanism shines, with realistic and admiring renditions of the human figure and human scenes.
The Greek and Roman thinkers were aware of the value of a liberal education in developing the human spirit. The Roman Cicero was the one who best developed this theme. In Pro Archia, which was a defense of the social utility of poetry, Cicero wrote of "the humanities and letters”, (studia humanitaties ac litterarum), which he saw as the subjects that should be studied in order to achieve man’s full potential.[2]
[1] Alan Samuel , The Promise of the West (New York: Routledge, 1988), 130-131.
[2]
Charles G. Nauert, Humanism and the Culture of Renaissance Europe,
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), 12.