When Pagans like Plato, Socrates, and (later) Aristotle became the world's first great philosophers...?

Question

what were Yahweh's followers doing? Were they still arguing over whether Yahweh was a competent farming God, like Baal?

Answer 1

Yes, pretty much. Actually Yah absorbed many of the duties and characteristics of his fellow Middle Eastern Gods, such as Ba'al and El. Originally he was a local tribal volcano God.

Answer 2

Plato and Aristotle were definitely agnostic, not Pagan. Aristotle argued that Paganism is harmless, while Plato thought Greek Mythology formed a sort of mental illness.

I'm sure Socrates had something to say about it as well, his teachings were definitely at variance with traditional Greek pagan thought.

If Yahweh's followers were arguing, then they were philosophizing as well. The fact that there was agreement on right and wrong, on Yahweh being supreme over Baal, is why it is a religion and not a philosophy. There was no argument between religions, just alternative religions to choose from.

I guess the later is kind of like how American (and most Western, and worldwide probably) politics are developing. The camps are becoming entrenched in their own beliefs and it's choose one of the other. While the idea of being able to question elements within a certain train of thought is disappearing from our culture.

Is philosophy dead?

Answer 3

Socrates is my favorite, as he brought philosophy to the common man. He'd spend hours in the agora just questioning and questioning, speaking with all who cam near. He turned away nobody and was intrigued by everybody. Too many philosophers tend to be arrogant and elitist, snubbing the common man. However, the common man often has a better grip on the deep mysteries of life, than some snobby man who has never truly experienced life outside of his privileged existence. Socrates was remarkable, up to an including his death. He was given the opportunity to escape the night before his execution by hemlock. He refused and said something along the lines of that the people who he loved and respected so dearly had passed his judgment, and he was therefore bound by it. Yes, Socrates was the greatest.

Answer 4

Nothing so noble. They were making do under Persian rule. The Persians inability to annex Greece preceded Socrates teachings. Socates taught Plato. Plato taught Aristotle. Aristotle taught Alexander the Great, who went on to crush the Persians. This led to Greek rule of Israel. The integration of Greek philosophy into Hebrew teaching led to Christianity.

Still, Judaism survived Babylonian (barely as noted in 2 Chronicles), Persian, Greek and Roman conquest.

Answer 5

The Greek philosophers were first only in the West.

And the answer is, the Hebrew leaders were framing a religion that allowed the masses to feel elite while making them submissive. Politically brilliant.

Answer 6

Dang, thats a really good question and was actually brought up in my philosphy class. As to the answer, the teacher said they should of probably had knowledge because the Hebrews at that time should of at least been to Egypt and Alexandria was a great intellectual capital.

Answer 7

Ha, There you go again with you dumbbutt questions: actually your and mine ancestors were doing all the same stuff those dumbbutt people were doing at that time, pissing, farting, stewing enemies, and getting it on so we could possible be here thousands of years later. I hear even Plato like big breasted blond babes that he regularly had intercourse with!!! Sounds like some good philosophizing to me..

Answer 8

You're assuming Socrates existed. Does anyone else find it odd that Socrates only exists in the writings of other people? I find it very difficult to believe that a man of Socrates's talents would not publish or leave any academic record.

I think the more likely scenario is that socrates is the Platonic ideal of what a philosopher should and could be.

Answer 9

http://www.bibleprobe.com/exodus.htmthis might interest you. The Hebrews knew their
God very well. They were not arguing about their God in the sense you mean. condescendingly.

Answer 10

That could be argued. Abraham was a pretty great philosopher. Joseph, too. They came way before the Greeks.