Socrates was one of the most influential thinkers in the West, even though he left no writings of himself, it was possible to reconstruct an accurate account of his life from the writings of his Greek students because he always engaged them. He was a man with a very strong conviction because he lived his life for the pursuit of knowledge, true wisdom, God’s will, and piety. Though he never wrote anything, his soul source of knowledge about him came from one of his students, Plato. Socrates was born in 469 B.C. in a village on the slopes of Mount Lycabettus, where his father was a sculptor and his mother a midwife. He soon became an apprentice and aid to his father and he continued it throughout a brief period of time until he volunteered to be a soldier in the Peloponnesian War.
After his retirement of the army, most of his time and energy in his adult life was spent in pursuing wisdom. Plato was Socrates’ most famous student because of his devotion that he had with philosophy. “Philosophy, the love of wisdom, was for Socrates itself a sacred path, a holy quest -- not a game to be taken lightly. He believed -- or at least said he did in the dialog Meno -- in the reincarnation of an eternal soul, which contained all knowledge. We unfortunately lose touch with that knowledge at every birth, and so we need to be reminded of what we already know (rather than learning something new)” (Boeree, “The Ancient Greeks, Part Two: Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle”). Socrates had discussions in a wide range of subjects, for example marriage, love, war, politics, religion, science, and morals. Most of his discussions were known as dialectic meaning they consisted of conversations at which it would bring the different point of vi...
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...scaping from prison, Socrates used his death as a final lesson for his pupils with his last words meaning that death is the cure and the freedom of the soul from the body. What he left was his teachings to his students and the achievements and beliefs that are still being used today. From building the tower of Harnesses to his different beliefs of always trying to expose ignorance because he always believed that the mind and soul was more important than the body because it was immortal.
Works Cited
Dr. C. George Boeree. “The Ancient Greeks, Part Two: Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.” http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/athenians.html.
Luis E. Navia. Socrates A Life Examined New York: Prometheus Books, 2007.
Paul Strathern. Socrates In 90 Minutes Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 1997.
Shane Weller. The Trial And Death Of Socrates Canada: Dover Publications, 1992.
...Socrates scolded his condemners, reminding them that he is "advanced in years and close to death." "If you had waited but a little while, this would have happened of its own accord"(14). Why did Socrates not flee, to avoid this penalty that he himself had predicted, and live out what remaining years he had in peace. He did it to show the point of what kind of man he was. Socrates embarrassed people, he made people think, he spoke his mind to people and he might have been even rude to people. But was that any reason to try him on bogus charges and to condemn him to death. Socrates was like a rebel for his times because he did not keep quiet he spoke his mind and asked others to do the same, without thinking of the consequences. Socrates death should have been expected because most people who advocate change are murdered. But his death definitely was not deserved.
Socrates was a classical Greek philosopher that was born in Athens, Greece around 470/469 BC. He served in the Athenian army and fought in many battles. When Socrates retired from fighting in the army, he began focusing on expressing his beliefs. He wasn’t the typical “teacher” or “preacher”; he was a very critical and analytical thinker that helped guide his students and the Athenians during his time. Through his teachings and beliefs, Socrates had positive and negative influence on the people during his time and modern time. Although he is credited as one of the founders of Western Philosophy, Political Philosophy, and Ethics, his teachings was in disagreement with the teachings of the democracy of Athens, which led to him being put to death. Along with his philosophical beliefs, Socrates’ great thinking led to the creation of the Socratic Method and the Socratic Paradoxes.
Socrates was a revolutionary thinker. He brought new ideas and processes of thought to Athenian society and his work still has its place in the world today. However during his time, his ideas were not always thought of as a good thing. Many viewed him as a corrupting influence on other people and accused him of forcing his ideas upon others. Perhaps most frequently the center of controversy was his thoughts on theocracy and piety as seen in the Plato’s Euthyphro. Socrates also appears at the butt end of Aristophanes’ comedy Clouds, where he is satirically ridiculed and seemingly corrupting the youth of Athens in his school, the Thinkery. Although virtually completely seen as a positive influence now, in ancient times, Socrates may have done more harm than good for his society.
In today’s society, no man can be sentence to die because he speaks out his mind, everyone is entitle to freedom of speech. If Socrates were alive today, he would have being able to express his mind with out being 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.
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
About the year of 470 B.C, a man was born in Athens and his name was Socrates. He was a son of a working sculptor and a midwife. Socrates lived in the greatest and most exciting period of his country's history, when Athens developed from a mere city-state to be the head of an empire. He studied problems of Physics, Biology, and other sciences, and learned the art of making the worse argument appear the better. He could easily be involved in public decisions but he did not enjoy politics so he stuck to his interests and life that consisted the qualities of a thinker. He would constantly be thinking about the "ordinary man" and the interests of an "ordinary man". He had many companions, men of all ages and from all parts of the Greek world. This already tells us that he is very pre-occupied with how other people's minds worked and if he could figure out how to teach them rational thinking. Easily most of his ideas would come from talking to other people
Socrates was a man that was in search of the truth about wisdom. However, it became more than just a simple search, rather it tuned into a complex assignment where the answer of true wisdom leads Socrates to be brought up on charges of corrupting society. As a philosopher Socrates is known to take every angle of an argument and to never put belief into one idea. Therefore Socrates was known to perplex even simple ideas and to frustrate his opponent. People who have experienced this accuse Socrates of making his own truths about the natural and unnatural world when in actuality he his still in search of a better meaning. This becomes a key factor in the "Apology" where Socrates is brought up on charges for corrupting the mind of the youths and the people that attended to his lectures. His best defence comes about when he tells the Athenian jury about his account of a confrontation of his friend Chairephon and the Oracle of Delphi.
"As for me, all I know is that I know nothing" is a famous quote from Socrates, that describes him very well as the intelligent, humble person that he was. Socrates was born on 469 B.C. in Athens, Greece. He was well known throughout the world for his dialogues and the work of his followers and students such as Xenophon and Plato. He built the foundation for the Socratic Method as well as Socratic Irony. Although everything known about him is second-hand, and we do not have any of his philosophical writings, he is still known as one of the most important philosophers who changed the world. Socrates is often seen as the person who created the foundation for philosophy in the West. The influence of Socrates views can be seen during the time of Renaissance, where his works were often reflected in paintings and other works of art, he is often represented as a great Saint, because of all of his exemplary accomplishments.
Socrates was a very important philosopher. He usually questioned a lot about traditions, religion and government. One of his ideas, now used at school, is the Socratic Method. This is that a person asks questions to the pupil, and while the pupil responds, the answer is becoming clearer. Socrates did not like to write any books. He always preferred staying at the market talking and questioning people, than staying at home writing books. He was very controversial, an...
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 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
Socrates was considered by many to be the wisest man in ancient Greece. While he was eventually condemned for his wisdom, his spoken words are still listened to and followed today. When, during his trial, Socrates stated that, “the unexamined life is not worth living” (Plato 45), people began to question his theory. They began to wonder what Socrates meant with his statement, why he would feel that a life would not be worth living. To them, life was above all else, and choosing to give up life would be out of the picture. They did not understand how one would choose not to live life just because he would be unable to examine it.
While he was growing up he received a very typical education, no different than any other average child living in Athens at the time. As he got older he became very muscular, although was quite short according to Plato’s, Symposium. After his education he went on to become a hoplite, an Athenian soldier (Twardowski, 353). Following his career as a hoplite, he started his philosophical journey and never worked for money again (“Socrates”). Socrates would go around and help people develop their ideas. Instead of telling people what to think, which is what their government and elders did, he challenged the people to think for themselves. He would question people as to why they believe what they did in more of a dialect than a teaching or lecturing (Twardowski, 354). This is where the Method of Elenchus originated, more commonly known as the Socratic method, and is still well known thanks to a text written by a student of Socrates named Plato. The Socratic method eventually led the young adults to change the way they see the world. Instead of having the same thoughts as their parents and government, they began to think for themselves (“Socrates”). As one can imagine the older Athenian people were furious. The younger generation was now questioning their beliefs and thinking in a way people had never considered before. People speculated that Socrates was a sophist. The
life. On that last day of his life, Socrates made a quite powerful claim. He claimed that philosophy was