Classical philosophy studies the fundamental problems concerning human existence through the eyes of our intellectual ancestors. Many thinkers from Classical times were pioneers of our modern philosophical and scientific ideas. The earliest beginnings of philosophy are traced back to the sixth century B.C.E., when the first scientists of Western history, the Pre-Socratics – among them Thales, Heraclitus and Parmenides – advanced revolutionary
theories concerning the natural world, human knowledge and humans’ relationship with the gods. Some centuries later, Socrates ignited an intellectual revolution that would challenge traditional notions of morality and value forever.
Plato, who had studied under Socrates, and Plato’s own student Aristotle, expanded the discipline of philosophy and forked out the path of Western intellectual thought with their discussions of logic, ethics, poetry, myth, politics,
physics, and metaphysics. Their work was continued, systematized and amplified by Stoic, Epicurean, and Skeptical thinkers. It had an important impact on prominent figures of Late Antiquity such as Marcus Aurelius, Plotinus,
Porphyry, and greatly influenced the early Church Fathers, most notably St. Augustine. Studying the Classics will give students with an interest in ancient philosophy a particularly thorough grasp of the broader linguistic, literary, historical, and cultural background of philosophical issues and problems.
