Socrates Live By What He Taught Analysis

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Socrates is one of the most widely known philosopher of the past and he is also considered the greatest philosopher. However many people debate on whether or not he had any philosophical relevance of his life to his teachings. Nonetheless, I am on the side that says Socrates’ life does line up with his teachings. I believe he shows it by living by many of his teachings. There will be multiple examples and evidence to support why I think Socrates did live by what he taught. In other words, the reasons behind my feelings about Socrates’ actions not contradicting his words. One of the ideas Socrates taught is that true beauty lies within a person and that it comes with how well something function. In fact the book states, “If, as he taught, the …show more content…

Socrates believes that temperance means indifference to both the presence and abstinence of material pleasures but not the total abstinence from pleasure or extreme asceticism. In the book Socrates mentions, “my belief is that to have no wants is divine; to have as few as possible comes next to divine…”(90). In other words humans cannot just live life with out desires because that is a God or supreme being like characteristic. In Plato’s Symposium it shows that Socrates does live by the thought of temperance because in the symposium Alcibiades, a handsome young man, made advances to Socrates that he did not give in to. In this symposium Alcibiades declares words about Socrates and he states, “Externally he adopts an erotic attitude towards beautiful youths: but internally he despises beauty and wealth, as I know from experience. For I tried to bribe him with my beauty, but all my many attempts came to nothing… Against my battery of charms he was armed (by his temperance) in “complete steel”; and I charge him now before you with the crime of ὕβρις”(PowerPoint 219-221). This quotation displays evidence that Socrates lived by his teachings of temperance because he did not comply with the handsome young men throwing themselves at

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