The Dominant Paradigm of the Hellenistic Philosophical Triad

The Dominant Paradigm

The Hellenistic Philosophical Triad

Socrates undermined traditional teachings as valid sources of facts using his famous inquisitive dialectic system. He confronted any form of traditional knowledge and demonstrated the refutability of any traditional claim (Overholser 1993). By negating the so called "divine truth" of his society, Socrates showed its failure to represent perfection. By doing so he inevitably posed a threat of Nihilism on society. He was sentenced to death by the Athenians, for destabilizing the foundation of society, undermining the dominant authority and corrupting the youth. In fact, from his accusers perspective, the allegations were accurate. Socrates tried to breach the limitations imposed by tradition over the path of knowledge development and thus preventing any intellectual understanding from ascending to the ultimate status of religious truth. Accepting a claim for absolute knowledge leads to mental stagnation and restricts human development. Socrates has proven that the dominant world view, which claimed for universal truth, was not at all universal and infallible. This created a serious void, and the foundations of social order began collapsing. Failure to believe in any possible social order was potentially leading society to anarchy (Linder 2002; Kraut 2012).

The difficulty to distinguish between real and imaginary phenomena lead to the development of the philosophical Metaphysics, regarding the difference between what is, what truly exists, and what is represented to the human mind through perception of the senses. To some extent, Plato managed to ease the Socratic nihilism and fill the void it created. He did so by placing the concept of "ultimate truth" out of human reach, in the ideal realm. In a way, by doing so Plato has liberated human knowledge from the grip of religion (Laudan et. al. 1986; Russell 1986; Schmidt-Biggemann 2004).

Plato noted that humans constantly try to reach the ideal, on an endless perfection course. This constant search is what leads to human progress and development. On the other hand, acknowledging the unbridgeable gap between our epistemic ability and the ontological true nature of reality creates a Cartesian anxiety (Overton, 2006; Wallis, 2010). The solution to the paradox of nihilism was essentially accepting that the worldviews we now have are temporary and limited, and thus constantly seeking to improve them. Plato's compromise set the foundations of modern science. The concept of the Ideal realm, out of human reach, allowed the temporary creation of a "best possible theory" for the time being (Russell 1986).

Aristotle rose to the challenge and formed the next attempt at a coherent philosophical worldview. He laid the foundations to the scientific worldview by defining a set of categories by which the world should be examined. He divided the world to physical and metaphysical realms, in fact distinguishing between the material and the insubstantial. He defined Theology as the science of the metaphysical realm. Additionally, he described a cosmological model, including the famous notion that Earth is the center of the universe. These views were the main appeal for the late embrace by the monotheistic religions. The dominance of the Aristotelian world views as perceived by the Church and other monotheistic establishments stayed strong until the late medieval ages (Fuchs 2001; Gholson and Barker 1985; Schmidt-Biggemann 2004).