Skip to content
Home » Blog » On the Modern Use of Ancient Philosophy

On the Modern Use of Ancient Philosophy

Ancient philosophical schools that I find more appealing are ones that assess ethics (axiology). Much of what is professed on grounds of axiology in the schools of Stoicism and Cynicism, for example, can be of use regardless of the age of these philosophies. In particular, when one explores the life of Diogenes, one can see that his Cynicism reveals the absurdity of normalcy and blind conventions. Too, if one reads the works of Marcus Aurelius, his Stoic-like meditations of indifference and self-reflection, one can get closer to inner peace and a more therapeutic existence.

Principles from ancient schools of thought offer unconventional insights into how to live, or at least, how to infer what ‘living’ implies in the societal and existential sense. However, as with any set of principles, no school of thought should go unquestioned. It would be dogmatic to submit to one set of ideas; and with dogma arises a distortion of nuance.

Indeed, it is truly fascinating to learn of what ancient philosophers thought about the nature of the universe and many of these natural philosophers laid the foundation to what scientists have now adapted in modern physics (such as Leucippus’ and Democritus’ atom) or mathematics (such as Pythagoras’ geometry). However, many aspects of metaphysics that were idealised in Ancient Greece are no longer applicable as explorations into naturalism are now a more reliable endeavour of modern science – a field that can be relied upon for its empirical and logical methods.

Tags: