Last Days of Socrates Essay The trail of Socrates is one of the most famous trails in human history. Socrates lived from 470 BC to 399 BC in Athens, Greece. Much of his life is known through writings of his students. Considered the founding figure of Western Philosophy, Socrates lives through the transition of his city of Athens from a dominant or hegemony period to a downturn after their difficult loss to Sparta in the Peloponnesian War. His teachings led to much uproar among politicians in Athens. As a result Socrates goes to trail and is sentenced to death by hemlock poisoning. Plato writes about Socrates in his book “The Last Days of Socrates”. Plato lived from 427 BC to 347 BC in Athens, Greece. Also a Greek philosopher Plato becomes a student of Socrates in 407 BC. It is because of Plato we know much about Socrates and his trail. In 387 BC Plato founded the Academy, the most important school of the ancient world. Penguin’s classic published “The Last Days of Socrates” in 2011. Penguin books is a publishing company based in the …show more content…
Many of the prominent religions such as Christianity, Judaism, and Muslim believe in only one god. Classical Greece religion was quite different. Ancient Greeks believed in many different gods. Just like now however religion played a key role in their culture. The ancient Greeks lived their lives to please the gods. In” Euthyphro” in the “Last Days of Socrates” Socrates seems to disbelieve in pieces of the classical Greek Religion. Later on however in “Phadeo” Socrates seems more accepting of classical Greek religion perhaps knowing he is on the verge of death. As Socrates says “And those who have chosen the portion of injustice, and tyranny, and violence, will pass into wolves, or into hawks and kites; whither else can we suppose them to go?” (Phadeo 2734). Socrates leans towards his acceptance of the afterlife giving us a better understanding of religion in Classical
As Socrates awaits his upcoming execution; he is visited before dawn by a close old friend Crito. Crito has made arrangements to help Socrates escape from prison. Socrates is grateful to his old friend for his willing to help aide him in the escape. However, Socrates is quite willing to await his execution. Crito tries to change Socrates mind about escaping by presenting him with several arguments. The first is that if Socrates choices to stay, his death will reflect poorly on Crito. The people will think that Crito did nothing to save his friend. If Socrates is worried about the risk or the financial cost to Crito; it’s an expense that he is willing to pay, and that he made arrangements for Socrates to live a life of exile in a pleasant manner. The next argument that Crito pleads to Socrates is that, if he stays, he would be helping his enemies in their injustices, and in turn would make Socrates act in an unjustly manner himself. Also, that Socrates would be abandoning his sons and leave them without a father.
Plato’s “Defense of Socrates” follows the trial of Socrates for charges of corruption of the youth. His accuser, Meletus, claims he is doing so by teaching the youth of Athens of a separate spirituality from that which was widely accepted.
Socrates is one of the greatest logicians humankind has ever produced. All the scholars before him engaged in different trivial matters regarding more concrete aspects of our reality, such as mathematics or natural phenomenon, but Socrates was different. Socrates sought out more intrapersonal questions, he devoted his entire life seeking out answers to these questions. Eventually this ambition led him to a notorious standing within his city of Athens, eventually leading to his trial and execution. The rebounding question that comes from this is “Should Socrates have stayed in prison and faced his execution?”. This is controversial because Socrates was wrongly convicted in his trial, but disregarding that he
Here, I would like to ask you, the men of Athens, firstly, why at all should Socrates have mentioned everything I just said, if he really does not believe in god as some of you accused? Moreover, how dare you to accuse such a man, who serves the gods at all expenses and even risks his life for it? Doesn’t such a man deserve our respect? Furthermore, as we believe in our gods, how dare we put such terrible charges upon the wisest man of Athens, who is sent by the gods to awake us Athenians?
Many people would blatantly state that the importance of the gods in Greek society derives from the fact that Gods in any society are usually used to explain phenomenon that people cannot logically comprehend, but in ancient Greece gods were actually entities that took part in the workings of society itself. Even simple aspects of day-to-day life such as sex and disputes between mortals were supposedly influenced by godly workings. Unlike modern religions such as Catholicism, Buddhism, and Hinduism, where an omnipotent force supposedly controls the workings of the world, a hierarchy of Gods characterized religion in ancient Greece. Working as one big family, which they actually were, each one of the Greek gods governed a certain aspect of the world in a way that usually reflected their own humanlike personalities. These unique personalities also contained many human flaws such as envy and greed, and were where the Greek God’s importance lay. Greek religion was more concentrated on the way an individual dealt with situations that popped up in the world around him than on understanding the world itself. In other words the Greeks were more interested in the workings of the mind than in the workings of the environment around them.
Ancient Greek religion was a polytheistic religion that believed in many gods and goddesses. To Greeks, these gods and goddesses would be able to control everything. Each god or goddess had his or her own distinct personality and territory. “Greek myths explained the origins of the gods and their individual relations with mankind” (Hemingway). Unlike current religions, like Christianity and Judaism, Greek gods were not known for being moral or being truly good or evil. Many of the Greek gods and goddesses were disorganized and self-contradicting. Although this was apparent to the Greeks, the Greeks believed that their religion was to brighten their own lives, rather than give them godlike guidance. The best example of a self-contradicting Greek god is Zeus – father of all gods and humans (Cunningham and Reich 32-33).
Now that there is an understanding of the paintings and their history we will compare and contrast the elements of design of each painting. The first element of design that will be looked at is line. Line has two characteristics, one is direction and the other is linear quality. Direction of line is “related to our experience of gravity” (Notes). These lines can be either horizontal or vertical. Horizontal lines are calm and balanced lines as seen in “The Death of Socrates”. Vertical lines “defy gravity” (Notes) and contain dynamic lines. Dynamic lines are diagonal lines that give art work a sense of movement, implied action. They use of vertical lines is best seen in “The Death of Sardanapalus” because of the dynamic use of lines in the painting
In Ancient Greece, the lives of the multi-religious yet cognitive people were structured accordingly to their religious practices. Althought there was no dominant set of religious beliefs or dieties, the Greeks believed in what rather seems to be a pantheon of gods all similar in each definitive culture that seem to come together and reign supreme as the polytheistic religion of the Greek people. These beliefs came about from cultural diffusion between different religions and are reflected majorly in Roman polytheistic beliefs which transpired into the beliefs of many other cultures. It is believed that the Ancient Greek religion was comprised of ideologies from philosphers such as Aristotle, Plato, and Socrates, and that it became significant through the poetry of the epic writer Homer. The Greek beliefs influenced the cultures and minds of people in many city states throughout Ancient Greece especially Athens, Sparta, and the Minoan civilization and served as a foundation for the culture of these civilizations.
Socrates discusses that people should not fear death because we do not know the qualities of death. Even though we do not know what death is, he makes some suggestions for the possibilities after death. He suggests that maybe death is just an endless sleep without dreaming, it is where we can finally come to peace with ourselves. He also suggest that maybe in the afterlife he will be able to meet heroic people in the past, where he can share his experience and question people to see whether they are wise. Even in death Socrates is still going to practice philosophy even if the place is bad. Even if he did not live a just life that he thought he did, he can examine what he did wrong and fix the problems in the after life. I agree with Socrates
An Examination of Socrates' Attitude Towards Death and Dying When presented with a problem or argument Socrates, the philosopher, attacked most issues with a relatively disingenuous attitude. A question or idea would be presented and he would automatically respond with either another question or a new philosophy for his opposite party to ponder. These were the ways of Socrates, an intelligent yet humble man who knew the limits of his knowledge. And through his passion for knowledge and quest for the meaning of life, Socrates often stumbled across the theme of death and dying.
"Socrates Biography - Life, Name, Story, Death, History, School, Young, Son, Information, Born, Time." Encyclopedia of World Biography. Web. 05 July 2011. .
SOCRATES Socrates was a Greek philosopher who lived between 470-399 B.C. He turned Greek attention toward questions of ethics and virtue and away from those of the heavenly bodies. Socrates spent much time in the Agora (marketplace) where he held conversations with townspeople. Socrates believed that real truth could be found out through thought and collaboration with others. He was known for exposing ignorance, hypocrisy, and conceit. Despite having many followers, Socrates was disliked by most Athenians. At the age of 70, he was convicted of atheism, treason and corruption of the young. He was originally ordered to leave Athens, but chose to drink poison instead. This great man valued the law over his life, and so he chose to drank hemlock over leaving. Socrates is best remembered for his courage and strong moral beliefs which manifested themselves in his lifestyle. Although Socrates did not dwell much on the heavenly bodies, his beliefs that searching could bring about understanding of the world and humans in it laid a foundation that is still very much a part of modern science. In the course of Western Civilization, there have been two trials ending in a sentence of death imposed upon two individuals later deemed grossly unfair and unjust by the verdict of history. One trial was that of Jesus Christ, the other that of Socrates it was Jesus' destiny, and It was Socrates' choice. Both philosophers and theologians, carry a political message, a message apt to rub the ruling power structure's nose in its own mess. Christ defined and built a new moral order. All Socrates ever accomplished was questioning and probing the democratic beliefs of his day. He refused to define proper behavior and what should be done by government. Socrates did not build anything or write nothing; instead he strove to destroy the legitimacy of free men ruling themselves, Both Christ and Socrates were killed at the orders of lesser men for what they said. The story of Jesus Christ and the world in which he lived are well known. Now let us look at Socrates, the world's first "intellectual" and the stage he acted upon. Socrates was the town character. While a member of the middle class, he was on good terms with Pericles, the ruling aristocrat voted the first strategos (general) for over 30 years. Socrates, the perfect snob, surrounded himself with the gilded aristocratic yo...
Socrates was an insightful philosopher who had an opinion on all the basic fundamental questions. He had very strong beliefs that he willed others into believing through questioning and proving ignorance in others beliefs. He has particular views on every fundamental question and particular views on how people should live their lives. He says God has spoken to him about philosophy and says that it is his destiny and it is his calling in life. Through philosophy he searches for answers to the fundamental questions and gains wisdom and knowledge. The fundamental question of condition is the question of what, if anything, has gone wrong with the world? The question of solution is what can fix the problem? Then there is Death which asks what happens
... to be true. Socrates did not fear death as stated earlier, and that might have also stemmed from his belief in an all mighty creator. The records that Plato recorded of Socrates say that he did not acknowledge the many gods of Athens and many times referred to one God. It may seem that one of the reasons that Socrates did not try to refuse his own death was that he knew that he would go to a better place after his time here was through. Socrates was truly a man that helped Athens through his philosophy. He encouraged the people to practice correct conduct and behavior and to closely examine the differences between right and wrong.
Plato who lived from 427 BCE – 347 BCE was one of the world’s best known and greatly read philosophers. He was a student of Socrates and the Dialogues of Plato are thought to be the recorded teachings of Socrates. In the beginning of the Dialogues Plato tried to preserve some of his master’s teachings and views and in the later parts it is thought that Plato used Socrates as an advertiser for his own views. Some of Plato’s works include the Apology, one of three works that recount Socrates’ last days, the Crito, which is about prison and why Socrates refuses to escape, and the Phaedo, which relays his last day with friends spent discussing the immortality of the soul and his death. After Socrates’ death Plato, horrified, left Athens only to return in 387 BCE to found the Academy. The Academy was the first permanent institution in Western civilization and was mainly focused on mathematics, law and political theory. Twenty years later Plato was invited to Sicily in 368 BCE where he was asked to put his political theories into action by turning Syracuse into a model kingdom. Plato failed and by 366 BCE he was back in Athens. Where, besides another unsuccessful trip to Syracuse in 362 BCE, he spent the rest of his life, teaching and writing, until his death. Plato believed that there is a reality and real things ‘beyond’ our senses that lead to interpretations about what