Socrates is well known as a Greek philosopher and the main source of Western thought. Socrates is believed to have been born in 470 BC, in Athens. Not much is known about his life except for what his students wrote about him. His most promising students were Plato and Xenophon. He was not born into a noble family. Socrates had two sons, but from the information recorded on his personal life, he didn’t care for them much. Socrates attempted to establish an ethical system based on human reason rather than theological doctrine. Socrates said human choice was motivated by the desire for happiness. He believed the best government to have is neither a tyranny nor a democracy, but that a government worked best when it was ruled by the people, who had the greatest ability, knowledge, and virtue. Socrates viewed Athens as a classroom. …show more content…
Socratic method is the method of good and justice. Socrates said if you have a problem, to break it down to a series of questions, and the answer will be found in those responses. The Socratic method was designed to help examine one’s own beliefs and evaluate their worth. Socratic irony is the admitting of your own ignorance and willingness to learn while exposing someone else's weaknesses by close questioning. Socrates was well known for testing his irony on other people. He would play dumb as a way to trick the other person into revealing the other person's own lack of knowledge. People mainly interpret that Socrates’s main focus was on how to live a good and virtuous life, rather than following society and blindly following the gods on how one should behave. Socrates saw everybody as an equal, nobody was higher than anyone
In Walter Mosley’s Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned, the reader is introduced to Socrates Fortlow, an ex-convict who served twenty-seven years for murder and rape. Fortlow is plagued by guilt and, seeing the chaos in his town, feels a need to improve not only his own standards of living, but also those of others in Watts. He attempts this by teaching the people in Watts the lessons he feels will resolve the many challenges the neighbourhood faces. The lessons Fortlow teaches and the methods by which he teaches them are very similar to those of the ancient Greek philosopher for whom Fortlow was named: “‘We was poor and country. My mother couldn’t afford school so she figured that if she named me after somebody smart then maybe I’d get smart’” (Mosley, 44). Though the ancient Greek was born to be a philosopher and Fortlow assumed the philosopher role as a response to the poor state of his life and Watts, both resulted in the same required instruction to their populations. The two Socrates’ both utilize a form of teaching that requires their pupil to become engaged in the lesson. They emphasize ethics, logic, and knowledge in their instruction, and place importance on epistemology and definitions because they feel a problem cannot be solved if one does not first know what it is. Socrates was essential in first introducing these concepts to the world and seemed to be born with them inherent to his being, Fortlow has learned the ideals through life experience and is a real-world application in an area that needs the teachings to get on track. While the two men bear many similarities, their differences they are attributed primarily as a result of their circumstances provide the basis of Fortlow’s importance in Watts and as a modern-...
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.
Socrates lived such a private life that it lead to the most important revelation of his entire life. He would go about his life doing nothing but self-examination. In examining his life so strenuously others would come to him to be taught, or to have their children be taught by Socrates. They would offer him money and he would refuse. They would do whatever they could to learn anything Socrates had to teach. What they did not know is that Socrates was not teaching anyone he was simply going about his usual life and people just happened to learn from it. This was also why Socrates was put on trial. He was brought up on two charges, one of impiety and the other of corrupting the youth. These two charges set the course for the last month of his life.
There are times in every mans life where our actions and beliefs collide—these collisions are known as contradictions. There are endless instances in which we are so determined to make a point that we resort to using absurd overstatements, demeaning language, and false accusations in our arguments. This tendency to contradict ourselves often questions our character and morals. Similarly, in The Trial of Socrates (Plato’s Apology), Meletus’ fallacies in reason and his eventual mistake of contradicting himself will clear the accusations placed on Socrates. In this paper, I will argue that Socrates is not guilty of corrupting the youth with the idea of not believing in the Gods but of teaching the youth to think for themselves by looking to new divinities.
(37) The problem is that many of the citizens of Athens who wanted Socrates dead, lacked that emotional intelligence and thought highly of themselves. So of course they become defensive when Socrates sheds light on the idea that they may be wrong. As someone who cared most about the improvement of the soul, Socrates would have made a constructive role model to the criminals of Athens, as he would go on saying, “virtue is not given by money, but that from virtue comes money and every other good of man…”(35) Socrates was able to benefit everyone alike as he had human wisdom- something that all the Athenians could relate
"Socrates Biography - Life, Name, Story, Death, History, School, Young, Son, Information, Born, Time." Encyclopedia of World Biography. Web. 05 July 2011. .
Socrates’ philosophical beliefs and life isn’t accurately represented in the modern world. Since there aren’t any writings from Socrates himself, his life, beliefs, and philosophy has to be depicted through the writings of Plato, Aristophanes, Aristotle and Xenophon, with Plato being the most informational and dependable source. These writers that do mention Socrates in their writings aren’t always accurate and are sometimes very contradicting and inconsistent. In Plato’s writing, it is difficult to distinguish the ideas and beliefs of Socrates from Plato’s. Some historians believe that the beliefs of Plato were based upon Socrates. Some believe that the beliefs of Socrates were interpreted by Plato in his writings. Others believe Socrates didn’t have any ideas of his own. This unclear representation of Socrates is known as the Socratic Problem. Due to the S...
Socrates focuses his philosophy on life entirely on the discovery of knowledge and wisdom, ethics, and the soul. He was obsessed with seeking of knowledge and wisdom: he believed that they are the key to a good life. He went on to state that, “an unexamined life, is a life not worth living.” According to him, knowledge and wisdom correlate to ethical actions, ultimately resulting in a life of happiness, by
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.
He portrays Socrates as an epic hero. We see this most clearly in Plato’s Apology in his intellectual battle with Meletus. It is also transparent throughout the Republic of Plato’s hero status. His students are a significant factor in Socrates’s profile. The way they revere him helps us understand and see who this man was. It is really the only visual we have of Socrates’s teachings and actions. This persona is slated through a weighted perspective, but we have other’s view of Socrates because of the people who went after him. We see two views of Socrates even though; we are swayed by Plato to the positive side. However, we still see the negative through the accusations of Meletus and others in Apology. They accuse him of being an Atheist and corrupting the youth of Athens. You can see where these men get these accusations. Although Socrates attends many religious activities he doesn’t hold any real religious views. Also the young men of Athens cling to his every word. He is highly influential for these young men, so he could be viewed as corrupting them. Gerd Van Riel addresses the inability to capture Socrates’s beliefs in his article, Socrates’ Daemon: Internalization of the Divine and Knowledge of the Self, “Socrates’ religiosity remains very difficult to appreciate. Our knowledge of Socrates’ religious convictions depends entirely on the information provided by Socratic literature.”
Socrates, which is synonymous with wisdom and the philosophical life, was a teacher without a school. His goal was to help others find the truths that lie within their own minds. He helped his students reach deeper, clearer ideas by questioning, disproving, and testing the thoughts of his pupils. His teachings offended many of the powerful people of his time. They believed he was corrupting the youth in Athens. Since he believed and taught in this way, he was executed.
Socrates was born in 469 BCE and died in 399 BCE. In fact, because Socrates kept no writings of his own, his students are the lenses in which we
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
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...
Socrates felt that, above all, one should be a good citizen and always do the right thing (Plato 18). However, many in his time did not worry about doing what was correct. Socrates realized this, and understood that they did not care to look into their actions and beliefs. Their first thoughts were on the goals that they had, such as money and pleasure, rather than the thought of whether or not the goals they held were actually what should have been considered important and right (Plato 26). Socrates knew that, unless they took the time to question their lifestyles, they would never do the right thing. By living a life that was being examined, the citizens would be living a life that was, for the most part, also right. Socrates believed that a life that was not right was not worth living, which is why he also felt as though an unexamined life would also be not worth living.