Evil And Ignorance In Socrates '

352 Words1 Page
bulb-icon

Recommended: The relevance of logic

And you also said that the just is like the wise and good, and the unjust like the evil and ignorant?
That is the inference.
And each of them is such as his like is?
That was admitted.
Then the just has turned out to be wise and good and the unjust evil and ignorant. (37)

Here, Socrates asks question after question, asking Thrasymachus to define what it is exactly that one word means in reference to another word, and enforcing those definitions throughout the dialogue. Socrates is able to pick out the flaw he detects within the claim and use then use the words of his opponents against them. He over analyzes word choice and nitpicks the structure of other people’s statements in order to reveal to them that what they thought was the truth is

Show More
Related

  • Who Is Pericles Wise

    813 Words  | 2 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Aristophanes Clouds And Plato's Apology

    1076 Words  | 3 Pages

    When Strepsiades first arrives at the thinkery, he is met by the student who tells him the sort of things pondered in the thinkery. He told Strepsiades, “Just now Socrates was asking Chaerephon how many of its own feet a flea could leap” (Aristophanes, 144-145). Aristophanes’ goal is to mock Socrates and his followers, but he knows that a true philosopher is constantly pondering new things and questioning everything he examines. One of Socrates’ friends went to the Oracle, and “he asked if there was anyone wiser than I. The Pythia replied that no one was wiser” (Plato, 21a). Due to his knack of questioning everything, Socrates wonders what it could mean since so many people throughout Athens were considered to be wiser than he was. He tells his jury that “when I heard these things, I pondered them like this: ‘What ever is the god saying, and what riddle is he posing?’” (Plato, 21b). A philosopher believes nothing from faith, but only through reason. Therefore, Socrates had to figure out the meaning of what the Oracle said by his

    Read More

  • Socrates and His Innocence

    907 Words  | 2 Pages

    Socrates starts by speaking of his first accusers. He speaks of the men that they talked to about his impiety and says that those that they persuaded in that Socrates is impious, that they themselves do not believe in gods (18c2). He tells the court of how long they have been accusing him of impiety. He states that they spoke to others when they were at an impressionable age (18c5). These two reasons alone should have been good enough to refute the first accusers of how they were wrong about him but Socrates went on. He leaves the first accusers alone because since they accused him a long time ago it was not relevant in the current case and began to refute the second accusers. Socrates vindicates his innocence by stating that the many have heard what he has taught in public and that many of those that he taught were present in the court that day.

    Read More

  • Point Of View In Grendel And Beowulf

    1236 Words  | 3 Pages

    Good, is portrayed by God, and evil seems to be what fate has in store for the

    Read More

  • Lord of the Flies: The Beast Within Us All

    863 Words  | 2 Pages

    "Everybody has good and evil within them. All we're trying to say is that people are not all good or all bad. People are more complicated than you think, and one has to be more knowledgeable about the complexities.." Everybody has good and evil within them. All we're trying to say is that people are not all good or all... N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Jan. 2014. .

    Read More

  • The Trail Of Socrates And The Apology Of Plato

    1011 Words  | 3 Pages

    The accuser believes that Socrates corrupted the minds of the children by introducing new concepts. Socrates is trying to teach and involve the minds of the youth by getting them to ask questions. It is very important that people are always asking questions about why things are happening. The next question that needs to be addressed is what does not believe in the gods mean? Socrates believes in God, but that is one God that rules the world, not multiple gods who together rule.

    Read More

  • Good vs Evil in Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game

    1037 Words  | 3 Pages

    The lines that define good and evil are not written in black and white; these lines tend to blur allowing good and evil to intermingle with each another in a single human being.

    Read More

  • An Apology From Socrates

    1717 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Apology is Socrates' defense at his trial. As the dialogue begins, Socrates notes that his accusers have cautioned the jury against Socrates' eloquence, according to Socrates, the difference between him and his accusers is that Socrates speaks the truth. Socrates distinguished two groups of accusers: the earlier and the later accusers. The earlier group is the hardest to defend against, since they do not appear in court. He is all so accused of being a Sophist: that he is a teacher and takes money for his teaching. He attempts to explain why he has attracted such a reputation. The oracle was asked if anyone was wiser than Socrates was. The answer was no, there was no man wiser. Socrates cannot believe this oracle, so he sets out to disprove it by finding someone who is wiser. He goes to a politician, who is thought wise by him self and others. Socrates does not think this man to be wise and tells him so. As a consequence, the politician hated Socrates, as did others who heard the questioning. "I am better off, because while he knows nothing but thinks that he knows, I neither know nor think that I know" (Socrates). He questioned politicians, poets, and artisans. He finds that the poets do not write from wisdom, but by genius and inspiration. Meletus charges Socrates with being "a doer of evil, and corrupter of the youth, and he does not believe in the gods of the State, and has other new divinities of his own."

    Read More

  • Analysis of Thrasymachus' Argument in The Republic

    651 Words  | 2 Pages

    Thrasymachus, tired of holding his tongue back, barges into the argument and asks Socrates exactly what justice is; since Socrates cannot answer Thrasymachus offers his perception:

    Read More

  • Socrates was a Wise and Harmless Man

    1122 Words  | 3 Pages

    Socrates and the Apology Some of the best sources of information about Socrates' philosophical views are the early dialogues of his student Plato, who tried to provide a faithful picture of the methods and teachings of the great master. The Apology is one of the many recorded dialogues about Socrates. It is about how Socrates was arrested and charged with corrupting the youth, believing in no god(s) (Atheism) and for being a Sophist. He attended his trial and put up a good argument. I believe that Socrates was wrongfully accused and should not have been sentenced to death.

    Read More

  • The Importance Of People Living A Just Life

    1428 Words  | 3 Pages

    People guided by cardinal virtues that were just were regarded as wise because their rational attitudes functioned well. Being referred to as wise enabled a person to have psychological comfort, which prepared him or her for a good life in the afterlife. Unwise persons had faulty conception about what was good for them. People created personal courage when their spirited attitudes remained fearless in times of pain and pleasure and managed to stay on rationally. When faced by prospective pains, coward people were not able to bear the rationale. Being just helped people avoid situations that determine their courage. In addition, being just made an individual temperate or moderate when the different parts of the individuals’ soul agree. People were just when all the three parts of their soul was functioning as required. Justice brought virtue to just people before everyone while unjust people failed to be moderate, wise and

    Read More

  • What It Means to be a Just Man

    876 Words  | 2 Pages

    For many years, dating back to the first birth of man there has been the ultimate question of what makes a man just. This question has been pondered by numerous great philosophers. The question is varied to answer because of a multitude of opinions due to the nature of human diversity. Whether or not there is an objective answer to the question still remains a mystery. Plato and Epicurus have both given their detailed opinions of what makes one just. Plato believes that justness is something that comes from a more internal location dealing with the soul this disagrees with the idea that Epicurus holds which is justness is more of a physical or external matter. In this paper I will prove that Plato's ideas on this subject are the more appropriate and more truthful.

    Read More

  • The Charges Against Socrates

    634 Words  | 2 Pages

    Socrates starts his defense by addressing the jury and telling them that his accusers had a prepared speech, while Socrates' speech will be completely improvised. Socrates continued to further disassociate himself from the opponents by telling the jury to forgive him for his conversational tone in his speech, for that's how he best speaks. He also asks the jury to keep an open mind and not concentrate on how his defense is delivered, but the substance of his defense. Socrates tells the jury that he is not a sophist. Sophists were known for charging fees for their work, and Socrates does not charge a fee for his words. His next decides to cross-examine Meletus. Basically Socrates turns the tables on his accuser and accuses Meletus of "dealing frivolously with serious matters." Socrates says that the youth he supposedly corrupts follows him around on their own free will, because the young men enjoy hearing people and things being questioned. In this line of questioning of Meletus, Socrates makes him look very contradictory to his statements in his affidavit. Socrates then moves on to the second part of his defense. Moving on to the second charge that he does not believe in the Gods accepted ...

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Socrates: No Evil Can Happen To A Good Man

    1052 Words  | 3 Pages

    Socrates states to the jurors in his trail, “No evil can happen to a good man” (48). Socrates is examining the moral center of the man. Evil can occur to an individual from the outside. Socrates a good, even innocent, man was sentenced to death. Other characters in history and even today are identified as good, but they still have evil occur to them. Socrates is not talking about an outside evil or harm occurring to a good person. He is examining the soul and what is morally evil and morally good.

    Read More

  • Socrates' Pursuit of Wisdom

    1155 Words  | 3 Pages

    Philosophy can be defined as the pursuit of wisdom or the love of knowledge. Socrates, as one of the most well-known of the early philosophers, epitomizes the idea of a pursuer of wisdom as he travels about Athens searching for the true meaning of the word. Throughout Plato’s early writings, he and Socrates search for meanings of previously undefined concepts, such as truth, wisdom, and beauty. As Socrates is often used as a mouthpiece for Plato’s ideas about the world, one cannot be sure that they had the same agenda, but it seems as though they would both agree that dialogue was the best way to go about obtaining the definitions they sought. If two people begin on common ground in a conversation, as Socrates often tries to do, they are far more likely to be able to civilly come to a conclusion about a particular topic, or at least further their original concept.

    Read More

More about Evil And Ignorance In Socrates '

Open Document