Do we know, or do we not know? That is the question.
First Paper: Socrates and Teaching
Socrates’ Teaching Method: Euthyphro In Euthyphro, Socrates and Euthyphro are discussing the topic of piety. Namely what is in fact piety, and once one knows that, how he can regard himself to be 'pious'. According to Euthyphro, there are three definitions of piety: doing what Euthyphro is currently doing; but this needs an essence, which is basically a refutation agreement between the gods. On the topic of gods, Euthyphro's second definition is that piety is what the gods love, and thirdly that piety is what all the gods love. Based off of Euthyphro's definitions, one must ask if something is pious because the gods love it? Or do the gods love it because
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This paradox is seen in Socrates's discussions with Meno over the concept of virtue. Meno defines virtue as being relative to a person, the ability to rule over others, justice, and the desire or ability to acquire all that is beautiful. With each definition that Meno gives, Socrates refutes it. After some time Meno becomes frustrated with Socrates because Socrates claims he doesn't know what virtue is. According to Meno, we either know something or we do not. If something is known, there is no need to dwell into it any further; if something is unknown we cannot investigate any further simply because we do not know what we are looking for and will be unable to recognize it even if we do find it. This is where the paradox comes into play. Condensed, the paradox involves the following question: how can you refute definitions of "X", and claim not to know what "X" is? Socrates tells Meno that while he does not know what virtue is, maybe Meno could have known before he talked with Socrates, but now Meno does not know what virtue is either. Socrates wants to change Meno's opinion, but in order to do that, he must first admit his own ignorance. Because he never wrote anything down, all of Socrates's teaching methods were verbal. This method of teaching relied on the fact that as a teacher himself, Socrates knows nothing; his knowledge is gained through verbal communication with his students. The back and forth of question and "answer" combined with the refutation of all the "answers" by Socrates is what allows him to be considered to be as wise as he is. This method of teaching allows for a deeper level of critical thinking. Learning is no longer about getting the answer, but about the thought process that gets you to that answer. What questions need to be asked that have never been asked before and if they have been asked, why a resolution has not yet been
Socrates a classical Greek philosopher and character of Plato’s book Phaedo, defines a philosopher as one who has the greatest desire of acquiring knowledge and does not fear death or the separation of the body from the soul but should welcome it. Even in his last days Socrates was in pursuit of knowledge, he presents theories to strengthen his argument that the soul is immortal. His attempts to argue his point can’t necessarily be considered as convincing evidence to support the existence of an immortal soul.
According to the notes from class, true paradox is defined as two ideas or principles that seem irreconcilable with each other, but prove on closer scrutiny, simultaneously valid. The theory of paradox is recommended to address and remove the ineffectiveness of opposing viewpoints. The benefit of the theory of paradox is that it seeks to recognize and value all perspectives. It also encourages using the effective aspects of all perspectives.
During the dialogue, Euthyphro defines, “Piety means prosecuting the unjust individual who has committed murder or sacrilege, or any other such crime, as I am doing now, whether he is your father or mother or whoever he is.” Given this Euthyphro overarching principles can be summarized as divine law requires to prosecute the offender no matter who she or he is. Also, the ideology should be what befits humans as well. Socrates is fine with how Euthyphro accounts the factual evidence of his father’s misguided acts. What Socrates takes problem is how Euthyphro uses greek mythology to highlight that taking action against your parents is the correct direction of action. Due to the fact that mythology isn’t confirmed to be true in any sense, socrates feels as though this is extremely inappropriate. Euthyphro actions should be based on divine law with results in him being impious. Socrates ultimate principles can be summarized as respect for parents should be the ultimate law combined with whatever does not befit the gods shouldn’t befit everyone else. Insert another
Euthyphro by asking “whether the pious or holy is beloved by the gods because it is holy,
Right after Socrates comments how they can both look for virtue, Meno gives him these questions: “How will you look for it, Socrates, when you do not know at all what it is? How will you aim to search for something you do not know at all? If you should meet with it, how will you know that this is the thing you did not know (80d)?” This is Meno’s paradox which explains the discovery of knowledge is impossible and if you do not know what you are learning, and that you cannot discover it either. Meno states in his first premise that you either know what knowledge is or you don’t, and whether you do know it or not, you cannot discover what that piece of knowledge is. This,
When discussing specific knowledge, it is often hard to pin down an exact definition of what it is you are discussing. Often a concept or word will get thrown around so often that it will begin to be taken for granted and when pressed, a person may struggle to pin down specifically what it is they mean. Realizing this, Socrates often went out and attempted to fix these kinds of problems and find out what people actually knew, compared to what they just thought they knew. In the dialogues Euthyphro and Meno, Socrates attempts to pin down definitions for piety and virtue, respectively. In doing so, we are shown that the thinkers in question struggle to define these terms, and attempt to do so in vague terms that may vary heavily under different circumstances. What Socrates is attempting to find is one definitive definition of piety and virtue, what is called his One Form Requirement. Rather than defining something by classifying different parts that make it up, Socrates maintains the belief that piety and virtue both can be simplified into one specific form that describes exactly what makes all F actions F.
Euthyphro’s second definition of piety is “the pious is what the gods love”. Socrates takes this idea and
In the Euthyphro, Socrates is making his way into the courthouse; however, prior to entering he had a discussion with a young priest of Athens, Euthyphro. This dialogue relates religion and justice to one another and the manner in which they correlate. Euthyphro feels as though justice necessitates religion and Socrates feels the opposite, religion necessitates justice. Euthyphro claims that religion is everything, justice, habits, traditions, customs, cultures, etc. all are derived from religion. Socrates went on to question what exactly would be the definition of pious. Euthyphro offered Socrates three definitions of pious and in all three Socrates was able to successfully find fault...
Socrates: A Gift To The Athenians As Socrates said in Apology by Plato, “...the envy and detraction of the world, which has been the death of many good men, and will probably be the death of many more…”(Philosophical Texts, 34) Throughout history, many leaders have been put to death for their knowledge. In Apology, Socrates- soon to be put to death- says he was placed in Athens by a god to render a service to the city and its citizens. Yet he will not venture out to come forward and advise the state and says this abstention is a condition on his usefulness to the city.
The paradox arises due to a number of assumptions concerning knowledge, inquiry and definition made by both Socrates and Meno. The assumptions of Socrates are:
Keeping true to Socratic/Platonic methodology, questions are raised in the Euthyphro by conversation; specifically “What is holiness?” After some useless deliberation, the discussion between Socrates and Euthyphro ends inconclusively. Euthyphro varying definitions of piety include “What I do is pious to the gods,” and, “What is pleasing to the gods is pious.” Socrates proves these definitions to be insufficient, which leads us to the Apology.
Euthyphro was arguing that by doing what the gods believe is holy and pious you are making them better, in other words you are taking care of them and it is like a kind of service that you are doing towards the gods. Euthyphro said, “The kind of care, Socrates, that slaves take of their masters” which meant that you are taking care of them in the sense that you are making them better and not actually caring for them (17, 13d). In other words, you are helping improve them and this is a service that the gods appreciate and want you to do. He believed that this service is improving the gods and that they like this service. The gods believe that being holy is a service towards them, therefore there should be a reason on why the gods use us and want to reward our holiness. He believes that the gods choose what is holy for a reason and should be approved by
In The Euthyphro, Socrates uses his Socratic Method to disprove the Divine Command theory to his friend, Euthyphro. According to the textbook, the Socratic Method is a method that Socrates would use to get to the foundation of his students beliefs. He would ask continual questions about a student’s belief or assumption until a contradiction was raised. By doing so, Socrates would force his students to question their own beliefs and truly discern why they believed them. Socrates applied this method to Euthyphro when Socrates and Euthyphro had a conversation in regards to the definition of holiness. During this conversation, Euthyphro states that holiness is what is agreeable to the gods. However, Socrates disputes this idea by stating that gods quarrel just as humans quarrel in regards to issues such as right and wrong, holy and unholy, and justice and injustice. With this reasoning, Socrates argues that what one god may view as right or moral, another god may view as wrong or immoral. Thus, an action may be acceptable and moral to one god and unacceptable and immoral to another, and what is considered to
Plato is one of the most famous Greek philosophers who has many published works that contributes to the field of ethics. In many of his philosophical debates, Plato claims that the soul never perishes after death and only the body dies. One of Plato 's famous works that argues for the immortality of the soul is the Socratic dialogue, The Phaedo. In this dialogue, Phaedo is telling the story of Socrates ' death, who appears as the main character in the dialogue. Socrates was executed by drinking poison hemlock after the state of Athens accused him of corrupting the youth. The dialogue depicts Socrates as a great philosopher who does not fear death and remains calm while practicing philosophical debates with his students during his last few hours
The interesting dialogue between Socrates and Euthyphro demonstrates this Socratic method of questioning in order to gain a succinct definition of a particular idea, such as piety. Though the two men do not come to a conclusion about the topic in the conversation seen in Euthyphro, they do discover that piety is a form of justice, which is more of a definition than their previous one. Their conversation also helps the reader to decipher what makes a good definition. Whenever Euthyphro attempts to define piety, Socrates seems to have some argument against the idea. Each definition offered, therefore, becomes more succinct and comes closer to the actual concept of piety, rather than just giving an example or characteristic of it. To be able to distinguish between a good definition and a bad one is the first step to defining what Socrates so desperately wished to define: w...