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Plato republic education
Plato republic education
Education in plato's republic
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Is Meno a pompous jerk or is he actually willing to learn? That is the question on my mind at the start of Plato’s dialogue Meno. The truth of it, as it seems, appears to be both. In the dialogue, Meno could be described as rude and abrasive but then later described as inquisitive--searching himself for an answer or answers to the biggest question of his time. Socrates tries his best with his art of conversational thinking and inquiry to push Meno in the direction of self learning. He, in my opinion, falls just short of that place. The method that Socrates uses to teach Meno is both effective and ineffective as Meno begins to learn but fails to grasp the bar of knowledge that Socrates was hoping to reach and falling back into his ignorance. …show more content…
Meno tries to imply that Socrates is in fact the ignorant one and threatens to tell everyone about it. (71c) This implies that Meno did not ask Socrates because he wanted to learn but that he just wanted to know in an attempt to show off at a later time. He then goes on in 71e to flourish his account of what virtue is/isn’t. He begins his statement by telling Socrates that “First, if you want the virtue of a man, it is easy to say that a man’s virtue consists of being able to manage public affairs...” The language that he uses here is pretentious and pompous. He utterly believes that he knows what virtue is and thinks that he is doing Socrates a favor by telling him …show more content…
Meno confidently replies that that is so and that he would be able to explain it to Socrates. (72c) But we can tell Meno’s confusion after Socrates asks him whether or not he fully understands what the base commonality of virtues are. (72d) Meno tries to say that he does slightly understand but he’s just not grasping what it is Socrates is trying to get him to grab. This overly exaggerated answer by Meno shows that he wants to sound intelligent like he was trained, but he really has no idea what Socrates is saying. Here he’s trying to keep up his appearances while only halfheartedly admitting that he doesn’t know anything.
This begins Socrates’ rapid firing of questions that ultimately confuse Meno. (72e-74b) His answers to each question show his confusion more and more. When Socrates asks him if justice [was] a virtue or is virtue, Meno could not immediately answer. (73e) When he does answer, however, he admits that justice is in fact a virtue, he begins to list many other virtues as well. This causes Socrates to explain that Meno may know what some virtues are but he has yet to explain the meaning of what virtue is.
Throughout all the years, he never could find anyone as wise as himself, and all he did was make enemies searching. These enemies are now his accusers, and they accuse him of spreading evil doctrines, corrupting the youth, and not believing in the Gods. Throughout the speech, Socrates continues to shoot down every accuser and it is evident that he has done no wrong. Eventually, one of his accusers states that he must be doing something strange and that he wouldnt be that famous if he were like other men. Socrates did not live a very public life unlike most people at that time. His thoughts of being virteous had more to do with examining yourself and becoming a better person and in that way, you benifit society. He did not believe Athens to be virtuos at all, and that they relied on materail things and reputation rather than finding happiness by searching for it deep within
As always happens in Socratic dialog, Socrates is left without an answer to his original question. Socrates wished to know what characteristic all pious actions have in common (that is to say what is both necessary and sufficient for an action to be pious), but Euthyphro, the so-called expert on piety, was shown to not know himself. This is what is common to most other Socratic dialogs. Socrates asks an expert for a practical definition of some virtue, and the supposed expert being asked is shown to not have a coherent and consistent answer.
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.
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,
Socrates put one’s quest for wisdom and the instruction of others above everything else in life. A simple man both in the way he talked and the wealth he owned, he believed that simplicity in whatever one did was the best way of acquiring knowledge and passing it unto others. He is famous for saying that “the unexplained life is not worth living.” He endeavored therefore to break down the arguments of those who talked with a flowery language and boasted of being experts in given subjects (Rhees 30). His aim was to show that the person making a claim on wisdom and knowledge was in fact a confused one whose clarity about a given subject was far from what they claimed. Socrates, in all his simplicity never advanced any theories of his own but rather aimed at bringing out the worst in his interlocutors.
This quote can be used to argue what kind things he would say to our society by providing an example of what his beliefs are. He is saying that once we can only become philosophers we will be able to stop indulging ourselves with our senses and only use them when necessary. Socrates point view of philosophy is when one wants to acquire prudence and irrefutable truth, which was discussed in a classroom community among classmates, simply when wants continuously want to learn and can never be satisfied with what they know. By learning, what Socrates means is our soul 's recollecting knowledge that body hinders the soul from remembering. This is seen in Meno where Socrates shows Meno how a boy figuring out the answers to a question is actually recollecting the knowledge instead of learning something new. He would make a statement about our education system and what we currently see as knowledge what was we should see as knowledge. The way we should learn by his definition would be to have classroom discussions sessions as agreed upon by critical think by my classmates and myself in a philosophy course. Socrates would tell us how we would need to focus on recollecting and focus on feeding our soul instead of our bodies, how we would need to make major changes such as our use of technology for only necessary uses and not merely for mindless entertainment much like how we all use laptops, phones, and the
He set out to “go to all those who had any reputation for knowledge to examine its meaning. And by the dog, men of Athens – for I must tell you the truth – I experienced something like this: In my investigation in the service of the god I found that those who had the highest reputation were nearly the most deficient, while those who were thought to be inferior were more knowledgeable”(22a). This conclusion of his investigation helps his appeal to the audience men who are less reputable than others, but provokes those of highest reputation such at Meletus, Anytus and Lycon. Socrates is aware that speaking out in this form makes him “unpopular”, but he continues to say it regardless. He is convinced that he is not going to hold back his thoughts and speak the truth to the jury. The issue with these statements is that ultimately the people of greater power and more authority are the people that he is insulting by calling them less wise that the rest of the citizens. Since he acknowledges that what he is doing makes him unpopular then, he knows he in aggravating those who are listening to him but he continues to do regardless. This is worse because now his audience knows it is intentional and he is willingly choosing to behave in this manner. This is clearly unethical because if Socrates is aware that he is aggravating those around him then why would he
Socrates attempts to make other people reason well and therefore be virtuous by performing their human function; I believe that this action inwardly reflects Socrates’s own virtue. For example, if a professor can effectively teach mathematics to his students, then he most likely holds knowledge of the subject within himself. In a similar way, Socrates instills virtue in other people, which shows that he himself is a virtuous being. Although some people criticize him, evidence of his positive impact is reinforced by the approval and support of his friends in the Apology. While promoting virtue when alive, Socrates wishes to continue to encourage virtue even after death. For example, at the onset of his death, Socrates asks the jurors to ensure that his sons are given grief if they care for anything else more than virtue (Plato and Grube 44). While Socrates could have been thinking about himself or other things at that moment, he is thinking of how to guide people towards living virtuously. Both his actions while living and his intentions after death reveal that Socrates wished to aid people in living virtuous lives, which highlight his own state of
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:
I totally agree that Socrates found it important to research about life’s morality and not just think the same way others do. That is a way of proving the knowledge of men. Ones sitting quiet in the corner usually have more knowledge than others that talk so much about what they know. Many men with a high position in life do not always have the most knowledge.
In the Apology, Socrates was told by the Delphic Oracle that there was nobody wiser than him. With ancient Greece having been a prominent home of philosophy and art since before Socrates' time, the Athenian court found his proclamation both insulting and hard to believe. Socrates goes through great lengths to find the wisest of men and seeing if their reputations are in fact true. He hoped to find a man wiser than him to prove the oracles prediction was false, even Socrates failed to believe he was the wisest man. He first went to a man that seemed wise. After he spoke with him Plato quotes "I came to see that, though many persons, and chiefly himself, thought that he was wise, yet he was not wise."(77) With his certainty that Socrates was wiser, the man was insulted and hated Socrates for derailing his intelligence. Socrates then goes to another wise man, but is again let down. He still believes he is wiser. Convinced that he would not find a more intelligent man amongst wise men, he then questioned the more "educated people", such as poets and artisans. According to Plato, Socrates says "I imagine, they find a great abundance of men who think that they know a great...
In his defense, Socrates claims over and again that he is innocent and is not at all wise, “…for I know that I have no wisdom, small or great.” Throughout the rest of his oration he seems to act the opposite as if he is better than every man, and later he even claims that, “At any rate, the world has decided that Socrates is in some way superior to other men.” This seems to be his greatest mistake, claiming to be greater than even the jury.
Traditionally justice was regarded as one of the cardinal virtues; to avoid injustices and to deal equitable with both equals and inferiors was seen as what was expected of the good man, but it was not clear how the benefits of justice were to be reaped. Socrates wants to persuade from his audience to adopt a way of estimating the benefits of this virtue. From his perspective, it is the quality of the mind, the psyche organization which enables a person to act virtuously. It is this opposition between the two types of assessment of virtue that is the major theme explored in Socrates’ examination of the various positions towards justice. Thus the role of Book I is to turn the minds from the customary evaluation of justice towards this new vision. Through the discourse between Cephalus, Polemarchus and Thrasymachus, Socaretes’ thoughts and actions towards justice are exemplified. Though their views are different and even opposed, the way all three discourse about justice and power reveal that they assume the relation between the two to be separate. They find it impossible to understand the idea that being just is an exercise of power and that true human power must include the ability to act justly. And that is exactly what Socrates seeks to refute.
Socrates challenges Protagoras if virtue is really something that can be taught and he continues to argue with Protagoras because he simply wants to understand the truth about virtue. He knows that Protagoras has the reputation as being the best and he wants to know the answer. Socrates wants to know if all parts of virtue are separate and distinct or all one and the same. As the argument progresses Protagoras does not give Socrates clear answers to his questions, and the conversation is not going where Socrates wished it would. Socrates continued to ask Protagoras questions, that was until Protagoras could no longer answer the questions, he gave up and realized that in the argument he turned into the answerer. This is probably due to the fact that Socrates wanted the answers, and who else go to for those answers than
Justice is generally regarded as an important virtue. It is seen as the hallmark of a truly free and fair society, as well as one with a good sense of morality. The average person might see justice as a state where crime is not prevalent, and where individuals are fair and understanding towards one another. However, in order to reach a working definition for justice, one must consider its value and understand the components that make up a greater virtue. Throughout The Apology and Republic, Plato uses Socrates as a mouthpiece, attempting to explore find the true meaning of justice. Throughout The Apology, Socrates dispels commonly held views on the nature of justice and discusses how individuals