W. Lindsay Wheeler

Believe it or not, there is such a thing as “Doric Philosophy”. The Doric Greeks of Crete and Laconia did practice philosophy and may be the founders of Greek philosophy. First, this article is about doing forensics; rediscovering Doric philosophy. It is about restoring some things that have been lost or obscured. Second, this is a “general overview” article. This article doesn’t go into detail but covers rapidly many points and ties them together into a coherent whole. This article is about generating interest and further research and speculation. This article shows that the Dorians were real philosophers and that their societies had the prerequisites for philosophy. Their ethnic character and their warrior culture formed the basis of philosophy. And it sets out some of their effects upon other philosophers such as Xenophon, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Pythagoras and its impact on Western Culture. It should be noted that for the Doric Greeks, the divine, hence, divine truth, can not be separated from the physical, the secular materialist truth. The Doric Greeks believed in gods, in divine providence, to a Mind. One can not write on the Doric Greeks nor understand them without the big picture, both metaphorically and in essence; in other words one can not separate God from philosophy nor from Sparta. This paper is not constructed in a secularized manner nor abides in thinking that the Divine must have no presence in the pursuit of knowledge. Western culture and civilization were built on the fundamental truths of a natural theology that segues into Christianity and this article continues this tradition.

This article is about a very important metaphysical concept, macrocosm/microcosm and its appearance in Doric thought which in turn influenced Socrates and Plato. But since this concept has been gainsaid and negated in recent articles and distorted by some ancient thinkers it will be necessary to conduct reconstructive surgery to restore it to its pristine condition. Hopefully, this paper will illustrate how metaphysics is done with the use of the Mind's eye, in the reading of reality that was part and parcel of the Greek mind but also in understanding the ancient Greeks themselves and their culture especially in the creation of the classical republican form of government. This account will discuss what macrocosm/microcosm is, its part in the Cosmos and hence its centrality in the Natural Law and in philosophy (wisdom). Second, it will prove the concept thru another natural law principle, righteousness. Third, point out it's provenance in Doric thought. In a corollary, it points to what the impact macrocosm/microcosm has on the true meaning "to be a lover of wisdom" and its importance in the concept of theosis. More than a research/academic article, this paper is also an exposition in which it will attempt to demonstrate the use and the mechanics of this principle by using a saying of Homer and the tripartite paradigm of the family.