8th C. BC

Homer and Hesiod

May 28th, 585 BC

Thales' prediction of  a solar eclipse comes true, marking the birth of natural philosophy.

469 BC

Socrates is born (Athens)

461 BC

Peloponnesian War (between Athens and Sparta)

450 BC

Herodotus

Writes: Histories

443-429 BC

• Period of Pericles' rule in Athens, called the Golden Age
• The Parthenon is built
• Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripedes, and Socrates are active

The Golden Age

Athens reaches the height

of its cultural and intellectual greatness

Second Peloponnesian War

(what does it do?)

Ends Athens' Golden Age

427 BC

Plato born to an aristocratic family (Athens)

History of the Peloponnesian War

Thucydides' greatest work of ancient history credited with launching history as a scholarly discipline.

399 BC

•  Socrates dies, condemned to death by the Athenians.
  His crimes:

• Preaching strange gods
• Corrupting the young
• Plato leaves Athens, disgusted by the Athenians' treatment of Socrates

Early Period

(Socratic dialogues: the real views and conversations of Socrates. They are also aporetic b/c they are inconclusive) 

• Apology
• Crito
• Euthyphro
• Protagoras
• Gorgias
• Republic 

What was Plato greatly influenced by?

Pythagorean thought

385 BC

Plato establishes the Academy

Middle Period

(sets forth his own original system of thought: 'Platonism')

Late Period

(questions, critiques, and develops his middle-period ideas)

• Critias
• Laws
• Sophist
• Timaeus

Aristotle

Joins the court of Philip of Macedon as tutor to Philip's son, Alexander.

336 BC

Alexander becomes king of Macedon

(aka Alexander the Great)

335 BC

Aristotle back in Athens,

founds the Lyceum aka the Peripatos.

Logical Works

(Organon/Organum-latin)

• Categories                                                 
• On Interpretation
• Posterior Analytics
• Prior Analytics
• Sophistical Refutations
• Topics

Other Works

(Aristotle)

• Metaphysics
• Ethics
• On the Soul (De Anima)
• Physics
• Poetics
• Politics
• Rhetoric

323 BC

• Death of Alexander 
• Beginning of the Hellenistic period

Hellenistic Schools

1. Cynicism
2. Stoicism
3. Epicureanism
4. Skepticism: more of a tendency than a school
1. Academic Skepticism: based on the Academy 'those who suspend judgment'
2. Pyrrhonism
5. The Peripatetics (Aristotelians)

Founder of Cynicism 

Antisthenes

Founder of Stoicism 

Zeno of Citium

Founder of Epicureanism

and 'the Garden'

Epicurus