Socrates, a famous philosopher, once said, “I cannot teach anybody anything; I can only make them think.” This quote is interesting in the fact that in modern times it is mandatory to go to school for a certain length of time to be taught in order to learn. We have teachers that share their knowledge with their students so that the generations to come can continue to grow and develop. When a student is asked what their teachers do at school they will most likely respond with something along the lines of, “they teach.” This response is both true and false to an extent. While the teachers can provide their students with knowledge, it is important for the students to do their part by using their minds to understand it for themselves. Socrates …show more content…
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 …show more content…
By refusing to flee from his death sentence and drinking the hemlock without hesitation, Socrates displayed values and morals that we can still learn from today (Shivji). Some people even compare the life and death of Socrates to that of Jesus Christ. They both were unpaid teachers in their own way and they both accepted death with grace even though they were not criminals. Socrates not only continues to live on in a way that is influential in our personal lives, but his lessons have been adapted into our everyday life. Socrates’ Socratic method is used in a part of our modern day trials. It is the part of a trial where one side is able to ask the other questions in order to find out the truth, also known as cross-examination. Some psychotherapists also use it in order to determine the leading cause of their patient’s problem (Shivji). Lawyers and therapists, people we tend to go to for help, use this method of questioning exactly as Socrates did, but he was killed for it. Through the virtues, morals, and the Socratic method, Socrates was able to impact the daily lives of humans’ centuries after his
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.
Well-known for his significant impact on the philosophical world, Socrates was one of the first people to truly question individuals and take the average level of thinking to a much more elevated level. The Last Days of Socrates, specifically Euthyphro, Apology, and Crito, written by Plato demonstrates Socrates’ great use of the Socratic method as well as rhetoric, the art of persuasion. Many people looked down upon Socrates because they viewed his calling, as told by the Oracle of Delphi, to be impious. Although Socrates was put to death for living a life such as his, he was very extremely successful during his time alive. Socrates was successful in both the realm of philosophical truth and in the outside world because humans used rhetorical ways of thinking to find purpose and make decisions without the influence of other members in society.
What would happen if the Socrates of old came back to life to debate the issue of abortion in the modern world? Peter Kreeft tries to give us an idea in his book The Unaborted Socrates. In this book Socrates debates three different aspects of the abortion issue with three different people, an abortion doctor, a philosopher and a psychologist. With the Doctor, Socrates debates when human life begins. With the Philosopher it is debated whether we should legislate morality. With the psychologist he debates whether abortion is a woman's right. Unfortunately, they do not come up with reasonable answers to any of these questions. Without the answer to the question, "is the fetus a human being?" it is impossible to find the answer to the other two questions. In the end, all questions lead back to the first. In answer to whether or not the fetus is a human being, it is concluded as the doctor said, "We simply do not know when the fetus becomes a human person. Anyone who claims to know is a fool because he claims to know what he does not." Nevertheless, even if the debate provides no final answers, it does serve to show the logical reasons for why abortion is horrible. It does present thought provoking questions in the minds of both those who are for and those who are against abortion.
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.
1B. As Socrates takes the stand to defend himself against the Athenian government he began to explain why he should not be there and how he ended up at the stand in the first place. He cites an encounter with the oracle Delphi. He explains that he asked the oracle who was wisest of all men. The oracle replied that no man was wiser then Socrates (note this will be important later in describing his philosophy). Socrates knowing that he himself knew nothing and that there must be somebody out there with more knowledge than him set out on a journey. He went to many different kinds of people, poets, craftsmen, even politicians. All seemed to have much knowledge about many things. But Socrates found that even with all their knowledge of poetry, politics, and crafts none of it was true wisdom. When he would tell these people that they were in fact not wise, they wouldn’t take to kindly to Socrates.
Socrates is accused of impiety and for corrupting the lives of youths through his interactions with them and his teachings. Socrates defends his position on all charges believing he is doing just cause and in doing so is steadfastly abiding by his moral standards. Socrates believes that what matters is life and living it well. Socrates believes he should be rewarded rather than punished for his beliefs. He thinks he should be given free meals in the Prytaneum, where the Olympic athletes are celebrating or to pay a small sum of money which his friends raise to three times what Socrates proposes. In the end, Socrates accepts the judgment bestowed on him by the courts, the sentence of death. He accepts this verdict because he believes it is morally just to abide by the decision handed down by the state.
He was known throughout Athens for questioning the leadership of Athens and teaching radical views on religion, politics, and many other subjects, and often coming across as offensive and overbearing. He also challenged other scholars’ and philosophers’ ideas constantly and tried to prove their ideas wrong. During his apology before the court, he summarizes others’ negative accusations about him saying, “I will sum up their words in an affidavit, ‘Socrates is an evil-doer, and a curious person, who searches into things under the earth and in heaven, and he makes the worse appear the better cause; and he teaches the aforesaid doctrines to others’” (Plato, pg. 2). The passage demonstrates to what extent Socrates was an outcast in Athens. He was not seen as someone who was on the side of the government and the people. The leadership of Athens as well as many of the other citizens saw him as a rebel and a threat to the government. His role in society obviously differed completely from that of Pericles. Socrates was not a team player and that is what Pericles believed made Athens
Teachers help us expand and open our mind by giving us skills throughout students’ early life to help students when they are older. By learning information from teachers, students become better people, in a couple of ways. Besides inquiring knowledge from their teachers, students learn to work with one another, open their mind to other peoples’ thoughts and ideas, respect one another, and learn different techniques for life’s issues.
In a society where kids must go to school up to the collegiate level, teaching is an impactful career choice. Teachers help contour the minds of future leaders of the world. Furthermore, teachers play a crucial role in guiding students to the knowledge, skills, and abilities they need to succeed in life, and teachers lead students to make informed decisions on any topic the meet in the future. As a teacher, a person must relinquish their knowledge onto students. Finally, they must prepare their students for all the obstacles they will face later in life.
Socrates and Plato were some of the world’s most famous philosophers. Yet, they caused much trouble in the midst of their philosophizing. These philosophers, in the view of the political elites, were threatening the Athenian democracy with their philosophy. But why did they go against the status quo? What was their point in causing all of this turmoil? Plato and Socrates threatened the democracy as a wake-up call. They wanted the citizens to be active thinkers and improve society. This manifested itself in three main ways: Socrates’ life, his student Plato’s life, and their legacy in our modern age.
Smith, D. N., & Brickhouse C. T. (1989). Socrates On Trial. Princeton New Jersey: Princeton University Press
Socrates was a philosopher who set out to prove, to the gods, that he wasn't the wisest man. Since he could not afford a "good" Sophist teacher, surely a student of one had to be smarter than he. He decides to converse with the youth of Athens, but concludes that he actually is wiser than everyone he speaks with. He then realizes that their lack of intelligence is the fault of their teachers. Socrates understands that the practice of "sophism" leads to a lack of self-knowledge and moral values. Socrates was later accused of corrupting the youth of Athens and put on trial. In The Apology of Socrates he sta...
Socrates was a greek philosopher that lived from four-hundred-sixty-nine BCE to three-hundred-ninety-nine BCE. He is one of the most influential Greek philosophers. He created the socratic method which, is a method of thinking where a person asks a question in a circle. After the question is posed the rest of the circle goes around one by one answering the question. The way it works is it breaks big problems down into small and answerable questions. A key aspect of the method is the idea that there are no wrong ideas and all answers are accepted. This method causes people to think harder and more critically about the questions being asked. The questions must be more than a yes or no question. They must be a question that evokes thought and takes explaining to answer.
Education: a priceless and powerful commodity. The human race has attempted to understand the role of education and how we digest information for centuries. Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle devoted much of their lives to analyzing the foundations of education and how to teach subsequent generations. Socrates attempted to find the true meaning of education through a constant attempt to discover the truth in all aspects of life. Plato, on the other hand, viewed education as a way to attain the perfect society, hoping that educating the youth would improve future generations. Believing that education was necessary for intellectual virtue, Aristotle sought out a well-rounded education that created a balanced human being. Unfortunately, education
... generally accepted that a teacher’s main role is to facilitate learning rather than to be the source of all knowledge” (p.2).