What is a philosopher?/

Philosophers are deep thinkers who think about life on a regular basis.

Ancient Greek philosophers sometimes thought, all day without speaking to anyone.

They can be men or woman who like to study knowledge, and they usually either read books or

just daydream.

Socrates

• Socrates was born in Athens, Greece in 470 B.C.

• He was ALWAYS asking questions!

• Socrates studied drama, science, astronomy, math, and geometry.

Socrates

• When Socrates father died he inherited his property.

• Since Socrates was a property owner he had to fight in the army.

• Socrates was a very good warrior.

Socrates

• When Socrates returned from the war he became a teacher.

• He insisted his students learn by asking questions.

Socrates

• Socrates was arrested!

• He was accused of teaching his students to think dangerous thoughts!

• He was sentenced to death!

Socrates

• He refused to escape.

• He also refused to defend himself because he didn’t think he was guilty of doing anything wrong.

• Rather than letting someone else kill him Socrates drank some poison and killed himself.

Plato

• Plato was born in Athens in 429 BC

• His family was very rich.

• When Plato was a young man he used to go listen to Socrates.

Plato

• When Plato was 30 years old Socrates died.

• Plato decided to write down everything he could remember that Socrates had taught him.

Plato

• After a while Plato began writing down his own ideas about philosophy.

• He thought that most people were pretty dumb and he didn’t believe they should be able to make their own decisions.

• He felt that only a few of the smartest people should make all of the decisions!

• He even wrote a book about this called The Republic.

Plato

• Plato also thought about the natural world a lot.

• He felt that man did not understand the real world very well.

• Plato started a school in Athens called “The Academy.”

Aristotle

• When Aristotle was a young man he went to study at Plato’s school, “The Academy.”

• He was already pretty old when he started to study there.

Aristotle

• When Plato died Aristotle was not chosen to take over the school.

• He was probably mad about that.

• So he left Athens and became the tutor of Alexander the Great!

Aristotle

• Alexander the Great grew up and became a king.

• So Aristotle went back to Athens and opened up his own school called the Lyceum.

Aristotle

• Aristotle was more interested in science than Socrates or Plato, probably because his father was a doctor.

• He was especially interested in biology.

Aristotle

• Aristotle spent the last years of his life in the North, where he had been born.

• He died in 323 B.C.

Archimedes

• Archimedes was born in 287 B.C.

• His father was an astronomer.

• He lived on the island of Sicily, which used to be part of ancient Greece!

Archimedes

• Archimedes was an inventor!

• He invented lots of different machines.

• One of the machines he invented was a screw that helped lift water from one place to another.

Archimedes

• Archimedes was very interested in WHY things worked.

• He also wanted to know if things worked the same way every time.

Archimedes

• He explained how lever worked.

• He also worked on getting a more accurate number for “pi.”

Archimedes

• He is best known for discovering Archimedes' principle, which states that a body immersed in fluid loses weight equal to the weight of the amount of fluid it displaces. As the story goes, Archimedes made this discovery as he immersed himself in a full tub of water and watched the water overflow

Archimedes

• Archimedes died when the Romans conquered Syracuse.

• He was killed by a Roman soldier.

• Archimedes will always be remembered for his great ideas.