In this class on Ancient Greek Philosophy, your child will learn about a number of fun thinkers whose ideas preceded and influenced the Classical Greek Philosophy of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle (4th-5th c. BCE). Moving away from a belief in mythology, these early Greek philosophers tried to make sense of the world by looking for a “basic stuff,” originating source, or foundational principle from which the natural world and universe came to be and function. Students will learn about the historical contexts in which these philosophers lived, as well as about their ideas, which are available to us through different sources. These philosophers’ ideas are very accessible to children and provide for creative points of discussion, with some of the philosophers believing that everything in the world originated from water, from air, or from number, for example. No knowledge of philosophy, Greek, or history is necessary. With this lesson, my teaching style is to get students to think about the ideas of the Presocratic Philosophers by talking about them. I will show artwork, maps and other images from the Ancient world.

(Image for course: "File:Bust of an unknown Greek - Museo archeologico nazionale di Napoli.jpg" by Original uploader was Odysses is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0)