Ancient Philosophy

How Ancient Philosophy has Influenced the Modern World

Philosophy is one of the many major influences on the modern world and the way our

world’s history has progressed. Throughout time since Ancient Greece, Greek philosophers have

created many principles that are still relevant today. Some of these philosophers, whose names

are renowned by many, like Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, have influenced the world greater than

the “modern thinkers” of our time.

For starters, philosophy has greatly influenced and changed the ideas people have on

forms of education and the role of the student and the role of the teacher. This was an idea that

was established by ancient philosophers, showing their beliefs on what position the student

should take on the gaining of knowledge. Before, students were regarded as tools, mindless and

ignorant, and were all taught the same ways by their private tutors. But in the modern age,

students are all taught differently in a way that they can gain relevant knowledge pertaining to

bettering themselves.

Not just the educational world was influenced by ancient philosophy. What most don’t

realize is that the political world was also influenced, as well as art and religion. But starting

with politics, the ideas of Ancient Greek philosophers were not taken too as well as they would

have hoped. To start, a main belief of philosophers is that people should be ruled by a

“philosopher king.” While this doesn’t directly pertain to the ancient philosophers, it was a

generally agreed upon topic between philosophers, although it was more common in the

Enlightenment Age. In modern times, philosophers are not as well regarded as they were in the

past. But the effect that these ideas had on modern politics is that philosophers based political

arguments on basic principles such as humanism and freedom of the people.

Another topic that philosophy has influenced in a major way is religion. Many religions,

such as Islam, were affected by the ideas of ancient philosophy. But the religion that was greatly

affected by ancient philosophy is Christianity, which was a religion that sprouted up around the

same time as these ancient philosophers. In Christianity, the New Testament was even based on

Greek Philosophies. Because of the New Testament being based on Greek philosophy, the

influence of these philosophical ideas have been a central idea in the religion of Christianity.

Lastly, while philosophy was regarded in a higher manner during ancient times, its

influence on our modern world has greatly shaped our ideas on education, politics, and most of

all, religion. These ancient influences on modern life show just how important and relevant

ancient philosophy is.

Works Cited Page

http://www.iep.utm.edu/greekphi/

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