Socrates: One of the Greatest Minds the World Has Ever Known

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Inspiring. Enigmatic. Stubborn. Insightful. Truly one of the greatest minds the world has ever known was the philosopher, Socrates. Yet next to nothing is known for certain about him. This is because he didn’t bother to write any of his musings or teachings. However, most of what we know about Socrates today comes to us from the works of Socrates’ student, Plato. It is through many of his works that the ethical theories of Socrates can be learned and his methods known.

WHO WAS HE?

Socrates was a devoted student of human nature and human motives. As such, he was a passionate political commentator. The problem with this, of course, was that during that time, it could land one in jail, or worse, yet, dead. “The States are as the men are; they grow out of human characters (Plato, 543a). This philosophy of Socrates is what presumably had him arrested, tried and executed. Socrates, according to Plato, analyzed the various types of governments that were attempted during a very chaotic time in Athens. As such, corruption was widespread and Socrates spoke out against it. In Book Eight of Plato’s Republic, Socrates explains the four types of corrupt governments, the kind of men that make each type of government run and says that as the individual’s personality is, so there to, is the government’s personality. In other words, if the person is corrupt or possesses some sort of graft then the government will also.

Socrates, if one reads any of Plato’s works, seems to be a man of intense and never satisfied curiosity. He employed the same logical actions developed by the Sophists to a new purpose, the pursuit of truth. Many credit Socrates with the birth of critical philosophy in that he would accept nothing less than a full account of h...

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...l of philosophers. That mankind is a constant source of amazement and discovery, none would have argued. And in the end, the soul of mankind is the last great frontier, is it not? This largely undiscovered frontier was a source of constant contemplation by Socrates, and in turn, those future philosophers who would come after him.

Works Cited

The Death of Socrates (2002, November 25) Citro (online) Available:

http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~wldciv/world_civ_reader/world_civ_reader_1/phaedo.html

Plato, Lee, Desmond (Translator) Plato : The Republic 1979

Plato, Five Dialogues, Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Meno, Phaedo, Hackett Publishing Company,

1981, pp. 6-22

Plato (2002, November 25) (online) Available: http://plato-dialogues.org/plato.htm

Socrates: The Examiner (2002, November 25) (online) Available:

http://www.creatorix.com.au/philosophy/03/03f05.html

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