Philosophers like Socrates had a huge impact on philosophers during that time as well as the philosophers today. During the Periclean Age, he was in Athens teaching philosophy of life to the people on the streets who cared enough to listen. The philosophy of Socrates mainly was the responsibility of people's moral attitudes. The teachings of Socrates were found to be understanding of life, recognizing the truth and speaking of the components that were used to a successful life. The teachings of his philosophy weren't appreciated much by the public in which he was sent to the trial with charges against him for his teachings towards the youth. It is very shocking to learn that the charges against him were the interference with the youth and unbelieving …show more content…
His teachings toward to people were that "virtue is knowledge", that a good man should care for his soul by making himself as wise as possible. To become wise was to achieve knowledge. According to Socrates, virtue is same as knowledge and the wrongdoing is ignorance and it is always involuntary. Socrates arguments about the wrongdoing being involuntary, I think he means that when people do evil things, it is to gain goods for himself in use of evil. Socrates only questions himself for what people believed to be the truth where he created discussion called the Socratic Method. It could be classified as truth only if something passed that method, otherwise, it's not the truth. He would ask many questions and whenever he receives answers, he would ask the question again according to the answer and if the person's being asked doesn't give a good answer to the question, he was to admit he didn't know the answer to the very first question. Socrates didn't know answers to many questions but he kept on questioning over and over again until he found logical answers within the questions being discussed. Socrates knew that people didn't know the answers so he decided to make it open to discussion for everyone. He believed that actual knowledge came from the whole as …show more content…
By the following knowledge, we can find happiness and help us do the right things. The power of knowledge hasn't lost a bit of significance even today and still valued by the majority of people. The society we live in today, knowledge is accepted by each and every one of us. The strong beliefs bring out more people seeking higher education and aspire to get a degree in such a field they desire. In the knowledge-based society we live in today, it has widely come to be accepted. A knowledgeable person gets the job quickly in the field. Considering the fact that knowledge and information are the important part of our lives, a knowledge is to fully understand it can give you enough value throughout your
Socrates was wise men, who question everything, he was found to be the wise man in Athens by the oracle. Although he was consider of being the wises man alive in those days, Socrates never consider himself wise, therefore he question everything in order to learned more. Socrates lived a poor life, he used to go to the markets and preach in Athens he never harm anyone, or disobey any of the laws in Athens, yet he was found guilty of all charges and sentence to die.
Socrates lived such a private life that it lead to the most important revelation of his entire life. He would go about his life doing nothing but self-examination. In examining his life so strenuously others would come to him to be taught, or to have their children be taught by Socrates. They would offer him money and he would refuse. They would do whatever they could to learn anything Socrates had to teach. What they did not know is that Socrates was not teaching anyone he was simply going about his usual life and people just happened to learn from it. This was also why Socrates was put on trial. He was brought up on two charges, one of impiety and the other of corrupting the youth. These two charges set the course for the last month of his life.
Throughout Socrates’ life and after his heroic death, Socrates had great influence over many of his students. Some of his students included Alcibiades, Critias, Plato, Aristotle, and Antisthenes. These students began writing literature contributing to the Socratic Dialogue.
Socrates was a revolutionary thinker. He brought new ideas and processes of thought to Athenian society and his work still has its place in the world today. However during his time, his ideas were not always thought of as a good thing. Many viewed him as a corrupting influence on other people and accused him of forcing his ideas upon others. Perhaps most frequently the center of controversy was his thoughts on theocracy and piety as seen in the Plato’s Euthyphro. Socrates also appears at the butt end of Aristophanes’ comedy Clouds, where he is satirically ridiculed and seemingly corrupting the youth of Athens in his school, the Thinkery. Although virtually completely seen as a positive influence now, in ancient times, Socrates may have done more harm than good for his society.
In the last days of Socrates’ life while he awaits his death sentence, he examines and evaluates the facets of life and the morals that come as a part of human nature. He analyzes the concept of being, and what it means to be either living or deceased and through this analysis, Socrates particularly goes in depth with his examination of the human soul. In Phaedo, Plato meets with a follower who had been with Socrates on his last day, on which he talked much about the innermost qualities of being; life and death and how the soul constitutes those two entities. According to Socrates, there are four arguments that prove the existence of the soul: the Argument from Opposites, the Theory of Recollection, the Affinity Argument, and the Theory of Forms.
Socrates spent his time questioning people about things like virtue, justice, piety and truth. The people Socrates questioned are the people that condemned him to death. Socrates was sentenced to death because people did not like him and they wanted to shut him up for good. There was not any real evidence against Socrates to prove the accusations against him. Socrates was condemned for three major reasons: he told important people exactly what he thought of them, he questioned ideas that had long been the norm, the youth copied his style of questioning for fun, making Athenians think Socrates was teaching the youth to be rebellious. But these reasons were not the charges against him, he was charged with being an atheist and with corrupting the youth. The charge of being impious was completely absurd because Socrates talked about the gods quite frequently and never stated to anyone that he was an atheist so it would be impossible for him to be an atheist. The charge of corrupting the youth is unjust because Socrates did not tell the youth to copy him and he is not responsible for their actions. The charges against Socrates were merely excuses by his enemies to murder him in a legal way. Socrates made his enemies by going on a search to find someone wiser than he was. Socrates went on this search because the Oracle at Delphi said he was the wisest man there was but Socrates believed that to be false (5). This lead to a futile search for a person who did have wisdom so Socrates could prove the oracle wrong. Socrates went to people who had a reputation of wisdom and then he would question and talk to them to find out if they in fact were wise. When he met someone who thought they were wise, Socrates would come "to the ass...
There are times in every mans life where our actions and beliefs collide—these collisions are known as contradictions. There are endless instances in which we are so determined to make a point that we resort to using absurd overstatements, demeaning language, and false accusations in our arguments. This tendency to contradict ourselves often questions our character and morals. Similarly, in The Trial of Socrates (Plato’s Apology), Meletus’ fallacies in reason and his eventual mistake of contradicting himself will clear the accusations placed on Socrates. In this paper, I will argue that Socrates is not guilty of corrupting the youth with the idea of not believing in the Gods but of teaching the youth to think for themselves by looking to new divinities.
Back in Athenian time just as in the world today people hold age to wisdom. When a young man is preaching against the beliefs of many others it is brushed off to their age, or blamed on his teachers. When you are known as the teacher and a great teacher to some society will hold you accountable to up-keeping their views and laws. Right or wrong as an influence during Athenian time Socrates was expected to know what his associations and teachings would cause and maybe that is why is was so vocal with his views. He admits to his urge to be listened to. Socrates could have been just feeding his ego through the courts the almighty listeners or maybe he knew that if he didn 't change his opinion in front the courts and was put to death that he would be embedded into history forever, all press is good press! People now argue what they believe in when it comes to Socrates cause there is no actual proof which is what he pushed people to
(37) The problem is that many of the citizens of Athens who wanted Socrates dead, lacked that emotional intelligence and thought highly of themselves. So of course they become defensive when Socrates sheds light on the idea that they may be wrong. As someone who cared most about the improvement of the soul, Socrates would have made a constructive role model to the criminals of Athens, as he would go on saying, “virtue is not given by money, but that from virtue comes money and every other good of man…”(35) Socrates was able to benefit everyone alike as he had human wisdom- something that all the Athenians could relate
As Socrates continues his argument, he says that he would have been gone if he went into politics. Instead, he lived a private life where he talked with only a few people rather than the many. He does not want to be involved with the many, rather individuals. He then continues to restate that he never charged a fee to talk with people and has not refused to talk with someone. The reason why people want to talk to him is to find out what is just and unjust and finding if people have knowledge or not. Finally, Socrates says that he did not want to suck up to the court. He could have traditionally begged, cried, or mentioned family members to gain sympathy, but he did not. This would not be right for him because it would be embarrassing, this
Socrates Socrates was a Greek philosopher and teacher. His teachings, life and death have made him one of the most admired people in history. Although he wrote no books or developed a regular school of thought, his influence inspired others to. Socrates affected the entire course of Western thought. I believe Socrates to be one of the most important philosophers ever.
Socrates is the founding father of what is considered western philosophy. Socrates was the first person that one can identify as asking questions and pursuing answers to those questions. As a result, those questions and answers are now what we consider as one of the main aspects of philosophy. Those before Socrates, or the Pre-Socratics, asked questions and sought answers as well; however, their primary concern was based on mathematics and natural phenomenas. In contrast, Socrates primary focus was on that of the citizens of Athens. He focused on them by asking questions then debating their answers. Some of the questions that Socrates wanted answers to ideas and thoughts of what was goodness, what was morality, could virtue be taught and what was knowledge. These thoughts were totally different from those of the Pre-Socratics.
Socrates was a philosopher who set out to prove, to the gods, that he wasn't the wisest man. Since he could not afford a "good" Sophist teacher, surely a student of one had to be smarter than he. He decides to converse with the youth of Athens, but concludes that he actually is wiser than everyone he speaks with. He then realizes that their lack of intelligence is the fault of their teachers. Socrates understands that the practice of "sophism" leads to a lack of self-knowledge and moral values. Socrates was later accused of corrupting the youth of Athens and put on trial. In The Apology of Socrates he sta...
Socrates was known to be a philosopher in ancient Greece, specifically Athens, who laid down the foundations of western philosophy. He was born in 469-470 BC and died by execution in 399 BC for his philosophies. His ideologies are extremely appreciated today for many uses. His philosophies are guidelines on how we should live, but Socrates never once wrote his teachings down. The majority of his work was documented by Plato, who was one of Socrates followers. Many considered Plato as one of his students, but Socrates was documented to have not taught for money or opened his own academy of philosophy which suggests that Plato was not an actual student of his. The main source of information about Socrates and his work is not documented by him
Philosophy can be defined as the pursuit of wisdom or the love of knowledge. Socrates, as one of the most well-known of the early philosophers, epitomizes the idea of a pursuer of wisdom as he travels about Athens searching for the true meaning of the word. Throughout Plato’s early writings, he and Socrates search for meanings of previously undefined concepts, such as truth, wisdom, and beauty. As Socrates is often used as a mouthpiece for Plato’s ideas about the world, one cannot be sure that they had the same agenda, but it seems as though they would both agree that dialogue was the best way to go about obtaining the definitions they sought. If two people begin on common ground in a conversation, as Socrates often tries to do, they are far more likely to be able to civilly come to a conclusion about a particular topic, or at least further their original concept.