Category
- Study
Author
Jung Soo-hyun
I wrote this with the intention of hoping that you do not think of philosophy as something too difficult or superficial. I hope you realize that they are human beings, after all. It is interesting to learn by listening to what smart people have to say. I hope you will also take a keen interest and explore the various ways of viewing the world.
Let's take a brief look at the philosophy of a representative philosopher and related anecdotes while viewing Raphael Sanzio's masterpiece, 'The School of Athens'.
In the very center are Plato and Aristotle, figures you have likely heard of at least once. Plato is strikingly depicted pointing his finger toward the sky, while Aristotle presses down on the ground; these poses embody the philosophies of each figure.
The core theme of Plato's philosophy is the 'Idea'. An Idea is the original, source, and most essential of all forms (objects, thoughts, ideas, etc.). Therefore, Ideas are perfect and become what we must pursue.
On the other hand, Aristotle's pose implies that truth lies in the real world we are standing in.
He completely refuted his teacher Plato, viewing individuals in reality as substances in themselves.
Interesting stories about Plato and Aristotle. Plato is not a name, but a nickname meaning "broad shoulders." As a former wrestler, he is said to have actually been in great shape. After the death of Socrates, Plato traveled to broaden his horizons and build his philosophy; during this time, he wrote *The Republic*, in which he established a new political system. In fact, he went to Sicily and forcefully pushed his philosophical ideas, arguing, "Try this," only to be arrested for sedition and sold into slavery... For reference, Plato was a high-ranking aristocrat of ancient Greece and one of the wealthiest among them... Fortunately, a friend discovered him and paid a large sum of money to secure his release. The extraordinary nature of a figure who would sustain Western philosophy for the next 2,000 years stands out.
Aristotle was the teacher of Alexander the Great, who later conquered the world.
Surprisingly, Socrates is surrounded by people in the left corner rather than in the center. At first, I thought, "Huh? Why is one of the Four Great Sages—a legend among legends who is still talked about today because his disciples wrote it all down even though he didn't write a single book himself, all just by talking—in a corner like that?"
In fact, Socrates was not a man who sat at a desk writing, but a pragmatic philosopher who stirred up Athens and engaged in various debates, earning him the nickname "The Gadget of Athens." Socrates had a unique method of speech known as Socratic Socratic method. Socratic Socratic Socratic is a technique in which, while conversing with someone, if a flaw or contradiction is found in their statement, one persistently probes by asking, "Why do you think that way?" It seems the illustration portrays Socrates as someone who mingles among people and continuously asks questions, rather than standing in the center to expound his philosophy. This can be seen as a position befitting Socrates.
The Cynic school (meaning "dog-like scholars") is a school of thought that advocates living like stray dogs on the roadside, possessing nothing and unbound by norms. The most famous figure in this school is Diogenes, the man sprawled out on the stairs over there. A famous anecdote involving him tells of Alexander the Great, who, upon hearing rumors, sought him out and offered to grant him one wish; Diogenes replied, "You are blocking the sunlight, so please move aside." Turn the chance for a life-changing opportunity into life as it is!
The person diligently writing something in the bottom left is Pythagoras, whom we heard about countless times in math class. Yes, it is the same person who explains the Pythagorean theorem: a^2 + b^2 = c^2.
The Pythagorean school believed that everything in the world could be explained by numbers. However, since the range of numbers was limited to rational numbers, they refused to acknowledge the existence of irrational numbers. There is even a gruesome legend that a disciple who discovered the square root of 2 (an irrational number), which shook the school's beliefs at the time, was drowned in a lake.
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