What periods can the ancient Greek era be divided into?

1. The first stage:

About from 600 BC to 400 BC before Socrates. The starting point of ancient Greek philosophy is Thales, the "father of Western philosophy" who proposed that "water is the origin of all things."

The ancient Greeks began to get rid of the shackles of creationism and opened the door to rational thinking about the world. After that, a large number of ancient Greek thinkers began to think rationally about the world. There are several famous schools, including the Milesian school represented by Thales; the "Eleatic school" represented by Parmenides; The "Pythagoreans" represented by Coras.

Many great philosophers emerged during this period, such as Anaximenes who proposed the "principle theory of air", Heraclitus who proposed the "principle theory of fire", Democritus, who proposed the "atom theory", and of course Pythagoras who proposed the "number theory", etc.

A major feature of the thoughts of philosophers during this period is that they all tended to "natural philosophy" and the theme of discussion was "ontology", which means they put forward their own opinions on the origin of the world and the composition of all things. Thoughts and insights. Although their views and ideas seem unbelievable to us today, they can even be said to be absurd.

However, in ancient Greece more than 2,000 years ago, people began to get rid of the shackles of gods and look at the world with a more rational attitude, which has to be said to be a huge progress.

2. The second stage: Protagoras proposed "man is the measure of all things" in more than 400 BC, and then came the three most famous philosophers of ancient Greece: Socrates, Plato and Aristotle.

The ideological characteristic of this period is that it shifts from the external nature to focusing on human beings themselves. From exploring the composition of all things, to focusing on topics related to human beings such as the good and evil of human nature, morality and knowledge. Socrates proposed "know thyself" and devoted his life to inspiring others to think and spreading knowledge.

Plato’s “Theory of Ideas” later influenced Western thought and civilization for thousands of years. Aristotle is obviously the master of ancient Greek philosophy and science. He is an encyclopedic thinker and the founder of logic and biology. He also systematically proposed the concept and idea of ??"metaphysics" for the first time. system, including his "Four Root Theory", "Ten Categories" and so on.

It can be said that this period was the most prosperous period of ancient Greek thought, but this period was also a period from prosperity to decline of ancient Greece. Ancient Greece successively experienced the Persian War, the Peloponnese During the Nyssa War and other events, ancient Greece went from being a prosperous and powerful democratic city-state to being conquered by the Macedonian Empire headed by Alexander. Eventually, ancient Greek civilization gradually disintegrated and declined.

3. The third stage:

From more than 300 BC after Aristotle to more than 200 BC. Ancient Greek culture gradually declined, and during this period the four major schools of thought in ancient Greece also emerged, which we are going to introduce today: Cynicism, Epicureanism, Stoicism, and Skepticism.

The characteristic of ancient Greek thought during this period is that they were not interested in the world, nor did they care about the development of the country and society. The only thing they cared about was people's own feelings and how to obtain happiness. and happiness and other topics.

For example, the Epicureans are famous for their philosophy of happiness and even indulgence; while the Stoics pursue the joy and happiness of the soul while giving up the pursuit of happiness of the body and reality. Looking back at the three stages of ideological development in ancient Greece, we can find that the ideological civilization of each period is highly related to the historical background of this matter.

Okay, let’s briefly introduce the historical background of the development of ancient Greek thought. Next, let’s return to the “Epicurean School” we introduced today. As we just said, the Epicurean school is often considered to be a representative of "hedonism" or even "indulgence". But in reality, Epicureanism was a “hedonistic philosophy.”

They advocate a rational, frugal and simple lifestyle, and the happiness they pursue is also a simple happiness with a clear heart and few desires. The main purpose is to achieve a state of undisturbed tranquility and learn to be happy.