Flourishing in the 5th and 4th centuries BCE, Greek philosophy profoundly shaped the ethics, politics, and aesthetics of Western thought. The lineage begins with Socrates, who is universally hailed as the Father of Western Philosophy. His most radical contribution was shifting the philosophical focus away from the cosmos and natural sciences toward human conduct and ethics, constantly asking: how should humans live?

He developed the Socratic Method, a system of rigorous dialogic questioning designed to expose contradictions in human thought and force self-examination. Remarkably, Socrates left no writings of his own; his entire philosophy and method were preserved through the written dialogues of his greatest student, Plato.

Building upon Socratic ethics, Plato founded the Academy in Athens, which is considered the first higher learning institution in the Western world. His philosophical cornerstone is the Theory of Forms, which posits that our physical world is merely a flawed shadow of a higher, eternal, and perfect reality.

In his seminal work, The Republic, Plato explored the concepts of justice and the ideal state. He famously argued that a society should be ruled by a "philosopher-king" who governs with supreme wisdom rather than brute power. To illustrate the ascent of knowledge from ignorance to absolute truth, he formulated the Allegory of the Cave. Plato's philosophical framework not only dominated antiquity but also profoundly shaped later Christian theology and Renaissance thought.

Aristotle, Plato’s most brilliant student (and later the tutor to a young Alexander the Great), became the great systematizer of the ancient world. He rigorously studied and categorized logic, ethics, science, and politics.

For literature students, his most vital work is the Poetics, the earliest surviving dramatic treatise. In it, he defined mimesis (imitation) as the fundamental basis of all art. He also introduced the concept of catharsis, which is the purging of pity and fear experienced by the audience of a tragedy.

Aristotle systematically broke tragedy down into six essential elements: plot, character, thought, diction, melody, and spectacle. He also defined the trajectory of the tragic hero, whose catastrophic fall is triggered by hamartia (a tragic flaw or error in judgment). Aristotle’s dramatic theories established the blueprint for theatrical composition from Sophocles all the way to Shakespeare.

The philosophical inquiries of these men gave birth to Classical Criticism, the absolute cornerstone of Western literary thought originating in ancient Greece and Rome. While Plato questioned the ethical and truthful value of poetry (banishing poets from his Republic), Aristotle defended poetry in Poetics(Asked in Exam), arguing that poetry rooted in mimesis and catharsis(Asked in Exam) was socially and psychologically beneficial.

This foundational debate between Plato (art as illusion) and Aristotle (art as profound knowledge) set the stage for later critics. Horace would later emphasize balance, decorum, and proportion in his Ars Poetica (shaping Neoclassicism), while Longinus introduced the "sublime," exploring literature that lifts the soul beyond mere reason. During the Middle Ages and Renaissance, figures like Dante defended vernacular literature, and Boccaccio seamlessly merged humanism with classical heritage.