Socrates Was Wise About God

2684 Words6 Pages

Samantha Austin
Phil 120
October 29, 201
Socrates was Wise About God
“Wisdom” is from an Indo-European root, woid, weid, wid, which means to see. Seeing is a metaphor (a figure of speech in which a word or phrase literally referring to one kind of object or idea is used in place of another to suggest likeness between them) for knowledge (Mohr, p.3). Seeing is the union between a seer and a thing seen by means of an image. The definition of knowledge is a union of a consciousness of a subject, the knower, and an object, the thing known by means of an idea (what different things of the same kind have in common that allow them to be called by the same name). Thus, knowing is like that of seeing as the seer is united with the thing seen by means …show more content…

Socrates willingly submits himself to the mercy of his accusers for punishment at the end of his appeal: “For I do believe that there are gods and in a far higher sense than any of my accusers believe in them. And to you and to God I commit my cause, to be determined by you as is best for you and me" (Apology, 35d). He commits himself to the mercy of the jury as he knows gods plan will be followed and that no harm will come in death to a good man such as he. Socrates also had the opportunity to appeal to the emotions of the jury by bringing in his wife and children but did not as that would be an attempt to thwart Gods …show more content…

They are one in the same. This is seen clearly as we judge others based on how well we share and communicate. In communicating, we are one with God. Thus the idea of the good is sharing which is communication, which is God. Socrates is united to God in knowledge and communication as symbolized by the analogy.
Socrates’s idea of God is of the notion that there is only one. He adamantly disagrees with the idea of many Gods, the Gods of the state. It is evident that he believes in the presence of one all mighty being in his belief that he communicates with God. Communication is the act of becoming one self with another self. Thus if he communicated with God, he became one with God. Thus there can only be one God for Socrates.
As the idea of the good is the idea of sharing which literally means communication, the idea of the good is Socrates’s idea of God. Socrates must have been wise about God as wisdom is union of God and us in communication. The cave analogy is evidence of this as it embodies the essence of the idea of ideas, of how knowing is like seeing, the idea of good, communication, and thus

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