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Many people believe that these men were the only major players in early Greek and Roman philosophy. In reality, philosophy began long before the times of these men when a man known as Thales in 600 BC began to think about more than just what would keep him alive through the day. Thales was the man who began to ask "what our world really is" (Taylor).
Another man who added to the thoughts of Thales was Anaximander. He introduced to philosophy the concept of opposites: light and dark, hot and cold, and good and evil began to appear in his work (Taylor 15). These two men, along with Anaximines, Pythagoras, and Xenophanes, helped to complete the Ionian school of philosophy in Italy, which pulled philosophy as a whole closer to what we know it as today.
By using the ideas of the Ionians as a springboard into new areas of philosophy, a man known as Paremides was able to successfully break off from the ideas of these men. The Ionians believed in the precept that the universe consisted of things changing all of the time. Paremides instituted the idea of constancy in the universe, he believed that things in the universe were static, and that they would never change (Taylor).
Socrates was the first major player in Greek philosophy. Socrates lived in the time of the sophists, with whom he was in constant disagreement. The main difference between the sophists and Socrates was that Socrates believed that a person should live his life doing the things that he does best, while the sophists believed in living your life in order to gain the most profit for yourself (Taylor). This ongoing feud with the sophists eventually helped lead to the trial and death of Socrates.
One student of Socrates who stands head and shoulders above the rest was Plato. Plato is still perhaps the most famous philosopher to date. After studying under Socrates, Plato was able to use the works of Socrates to form his own school of philosophy known as the platonic school of thought. Platonic philosophy continues to build on Socratic philosophy to state that all true virtue comes from insight (Zeller).
Like Socrates, Plato was also a teacher with a protégé. Aristotle was Plato's prize student, and hegrew to become another leader in Platonic thought. It was long held that Plato was despised by Aristotle, but we now know that this was not the case (Zeller). Although he limited his philosophizing far more than Plato, Aristotle nonetheless gave us the concept of analytic logic, the deriving of the special detail from the general detail, which we still use today (Zeller).
Each of these men were great in their own right; however,
their greatest gifts to society came when their successors, along
with society, had time to study their ideas for some time.
Therefore, these men were appreciated far more by later
generation than their own.
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