Contemporary Thinkers: Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Aguinas

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chosen from the Council of 500. The second class
of people in the city-states was the Metics. This class was made up of people
that were not citizens, either because they were not born in the city-state, or
they were prevented from being citizens. The third class were the slaves.
These people were captured from wars and subject to serve the city-state without
pay. The interesting observation in the organization of the Greek city-state is
that only one-third the population had any power. The other two thirds (made up
of metics and slaves) were subject to the decisions derived by the citizens, and
contained no power nor voice in the political system. Athenian Democracy had
such a division of classes. This democracy had a minority who ruled over the
majority, each citizen participated directly in the affairs of the city. The
Greek city-state contained a body of up to 500 jurors who would try cases.
There also existed a body of ten elected generals who would oversee
foreign ...

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by asking
questions (the Socratic method), pioneered the search for definitions, and
turned philosophy away from a study of the way things are toward a
consideration of virtue and the health of the human soul. Socrates believed that
to do wrong is to damage one's soul, and that this is the worst thing one can do.
From this it follows that it is always worse to do wrong than to be wronged, and
that one must never return wrong for wrong. He was born in Athens and lived all
his life there, leaving only to serve as a soldier in the Peloponnesian War. He
attracted a number of prominent disciples in his role as a teacher of wisdom.
One such disciple was Plato.
Plato was born in Athens ...

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