Ancient Greek Philosophy?

Question

Hi, I'm having a huge social studies test, and this is one of the questions on ancient greek philosophy, thanks so much!
1.) What does it mean?
2.) Who were the key philosophers and what new developments do we associate with them?
3.) Why were some people concerned about it and what it was going to young people?
4.) What happened to Socrates?

Answer 1

In the age of Plato, people were concerned about why one should live a good life, a life of virtue, when there did not seem to be gods who cared anymore. In the "good old days," the gods cared. But in the "present," the gods were subjects of droll stories about bad behavior. Plato put forth the idea that there was an actual "good," which existed outside this world and apart from things that are good. All things that are good partake of the actual "goodness." So one can "prove" that there is a good life apart from a bad life, and one should prefer the good.

Aristotle disagreed, saying that "good" was just a name, like "red." There is no real good, just as there is no "redness," existing outside somewhere. If we see red rubies, red beets, red blood, red leaves, red apples, those are just a lot of red things that we lump together.

Athenians were disturbed that Socrates, who was Plato's teacher, tried to show that there was a morality and a reason to do the right thing beyond the gods. To the Athenians, the gods looked after the city and people and protected them. So they put Socrates on trial. They offered Socrates a choice between death and something of his own choosing. Socrates replied that the Athenians should pay for a lifetime of retirement on a public pension. It ended badly.

Aristotle also formulated a system of logical thought called the syllogism. Qualities like "goodness" and "redness" are called universals. Those who believe with Plato that universals have real existence and that things in this world partake of those real qualities are called realists. Those who believe like Aristotle that universals are just names that we give to qualities that we see things have in common are called nominalists.

Answer 2

Ancient Greek Philosophy has some similarities with Western religions, yet this does not prove that it influenced all of the Western religions, so far as the doctrines are concerned. The Greek language and its dominance during the time of the early Patristic writers mean that they would have used terms in common with Ancient Greek philosophers, without necessarily ascribing the same meaning to the words. For instance the word hades is used in the Greek New Testament, but its meaning is not the same as in ancient Greek (just like hell is derived from a Germanic language). Some of the Ancient Writers would have been impressed by the Culture and thought of the Greek philosophers and as such affected their perspective of what the Bible teaches.

Answer 3

Ancient Greek Philosophy was concerned with reason and inquiry.
there are several philosophers known as the "pre-socratics", meaning they were around before Socrates was. Other than that, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle are the big names.
People became concerned about Socrates and his teachings because he was getting young people all riled up about Greece. he wanted people to think for themselves rather than just going along with the crowd. He taught that you should rebel or voice dissent if you disagreed with those "above" you.

He was sentanced to death. he had to drink Hemlock, a poison.

for details on what these philosophers thought, here is a link to wikipedia with short easy answers