Mohammad Shaker

Ancient Greek Philosophy

Interactive knowledge graph from Parmenides and Pythagoras through Plato, Aristotle, and the Roman Stoics

Philosophical Schools

Relationship Types

Teacher-Student
Influenced By
Opposed To
Built Upon

Timeline

Presocratic Period
600-400 BCE
Classical Athens
400-300 BCE
Hellenistic
300-100 BCE
Roman
100 BCE - 200 CE
Click on a philosopher to see details

Key Philosophical Lineages

The Great Athenian Chain

Socrates → Plato → Aristotle

Direct transmission of philosophical inquiry from ethics to Forms to empirical science. This lineage shaped all of Western philosophy.

The Great Debate: Flux vs Being

Heraclitus vs Parmenides

Change and flux versus eternal unchanging Being. Plato synthesized both: Forms are permanent, the physical world is in flux.

Stoic Continuity

Zeno of Citium → Chrysippus → Seneca → Epictetus → Marcus Aurelius

500+ years of Stoic philosophy from ancient Greece to Roman emperors. Focus evolved from logic to practical ethics.

Atomism's Journey

Democritus → Epicurus

Materialist philosophy of atoms and void. Epicurus modified Democritus' atomism with the 'swerve' and grounded it in ethics of pleasure and tranquility.