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Philosophers as well as ordinary people have different ideals and morals. They sometimes agree on things, but most of the time they contradict each other on certain ideas or principles. Both Pericles and Aristophanes were wise men that analyzed certain aspects of life that are essential for a thriving society. Although Pericles has a point on democracy being the essential way to rule Athens, through seeing Aristophanes’ evidence I argue that unjust speech can corrupt the society because it makes people engage in selfish behavior and make bad decisions that affect everyone.
First, I will explain Pericles view on a perfect community and how it is later affected by unjust speech. A successful society requires the commitment of the whole community to engage in politics and support each other. In “Pericles Funeral Oration” by Pericles, he states how the Athenian society makes its decisions through a democratic government. This passage asserts that a democracy is a system of government that places its power on a group of people that have been
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He asserts that Socrates has taught them to forget the true moral of just speech and its significance. The young ones are using unjust speech to their advantage to be able to get away from things or do things they want to without taking into consideration the well being of others. They are being impulsive and careless. As a result, unjust speech is a danger to democracy and it will only produce bad outcomes. It gives the smart people an advantage over ordinary people who have no knowledge of the difference “just” and “unjust speech”. For example, if a member of the Athenians decides to persuade his peers to engage in a war most of them are going to accept without actually taking into consideration the consequence. Unjust speech is rhetorically superior from just speech because it proves to be more
In this essay I argue that it is Michel Foucault Cynic parrhesia that is more adept or able to create an atmosphere where we are only forced to ask ourselves to reexamine our political responsibility within our society. In Foucault’s Freedom of Speech given at the University of California he discusses this topic of parrhesia in great length describing what it meant to the Greeks and how they interpreted it using examples from them when used in such little texts. After describing this in detail with examples Foucault later describes that it can lead to more than just that that we can see two forms of parrhesia in Cynic and Socratic the second coming from excerpts in Socrates however it is the Cynic for me that is more interesting and riskier form that can help us understand this further.
The debate between Just and Unjust Speech highlights the ongoing debate between old and new traditions. These traditions can range from how to interpret laws to family values and the struggle between them is highlighted in Aristophanes Clouds. The battle between old and new is seen in argument between Just and Unjust Speech and the arguments between father Strepsiades and son Pheidippides. The constant battle between old and new is seen in many different areas throughout the Clouds such as justice, piety and issues of law.
Athens government and military is considerably different from their neighbors. According to Pericles, Athens government is not a copy of our neighbors...
There is an ethical theory that we covered this quarter that I strongly agree with which is the theory of justice. There is a specific thinker that surprised me at and made me think about moral issues in a new way. That thinker was Socrates who surprised me and made me think about moral issues in a new way. I feel that socrates is someone who challenged what you thought or believed about ethics before taking this class. Those dialog investigates two vital inquiries. Those 1st inquiry may be “what will be justice?” socrates addresses this address both As far as political groups and As far as those unique man alternately souk. He does this to address those second Furthermore driving inquiry of the dialogue: “is those simply persnickety happier
During the time period of The Republic, the problems and challenges that each community was faced with were all dealt with in a different way. In the world today, a lot of people care about themselves. For many people, the word justice can mean many different things, but because some only look out for themselves, many of these people do not think about everyone else’s role in the world of society. The struggle for justice is still demonstrated in contemporary culture today. One particular concept from Plato’s The Republic, which relates to contemporary culture is this concept of justice. In the beginning of The Republic, Socrates listeners, Cephalus, Polemarchus, and Thrasymachus, ask Socrates whether justice is stronger than injustice, and
Though perfection often seems distant, in Plato’s Republic Socrates builds an argument claiming that justice overall is better than injustice. Though ideal, but nearly impossible, Socrates claims that the perfectly just contains a duality between political and individual justice. Furthermore, the perfectly just city contains different caste systems, different types of rulers, and a different societal setting. Socrates deepens his argument in Book V by presenting three reforms that contain elements of seriousness and ridiculousness however; these reforms reveal juxtaposition as they present permanent problems that could only be overcome by changing human nature.
In Plato’s The Republic, we, the readers, are presented with two characters that have opposing views on a simple, yet elusive question: what is justice? In this paper, I will explain Thrasymachus’ definition of justice, as well as Socrates’s rebuttals and differences in opinion. In addition, I will comment on the different arguments made by both Socrates and Thrasymachus, and offer critical commentary and examples to illustrate my agreement or disagreement with the particular argument at hand.
This paper highlights a few fallacies that surround Socrates’ ideas about acting against unjust government.
“Authority cannot afford to connive at disobedience” writes Sophocles in Antigone. This is also a central concern to Aristotle who establishes the importance of ‘Authority’ in the opening lines of his treatise Poltics:
The Athenians claimed to have values proving that they were a Democracy and that they were ruled by all citizens, who had equal power. Pericles, one of Athenians most valued citizens, stated, "It is true that we are called a Democracy, for the
He considered that thinking logically about life is a path to freedom of unrighteousness, explaining to the court, “The difficulty my friends is not to avoid death, but to avoid unrighteousness” (pg. 8) Even though Socrates was sentenced to death, he was not afraid, he did not care whether his accusers thought his beliefs were correct or incorrect, but rather wished to discuss his matter, and prove his ideas right. This represents his hatred and opposition towards unjustness, as he only wished to prove his accusers wrong. To prove his accuser’s accusations fraudulent, Socrates remarks, “My accusers keen and quick, and the faster runner, who is unrighteousness has over taken them” (pg. 8). Socrates explains that his accusers, who are unrighteous and unjust, are trying to prove him guilty in the court of law, his metaphor exemplifies that unrighteousness has taken his accusers over, and all they wish is to prove Socrates guilty, no matter how fraudulent the accusation is. Essentially, Socrates strongly opposed unrighteousness, and discouraged whom who makes use of it.
In the beginning, his two listeners ask the question of whether justice is stronger than injustice, the consequences of the two, and what makes the first right and the second wrong. As a response, Socrates deals directly with the concept of the individual's inner goodness and decency, but also ties it to his idea of the perfect state, which is a republic of three classes of people with a developed social structure and little in the way of recreation.
Traditionally justice was regarded as one of the cardinal virtues; to avoid injustices and to deal equitable with both equals and inferiors was seen as what was expected of the good man, but it was not clear how the benefits of justice were to be reaped. Socrates wants to persuade from his audience to adopt a way of estimating the benefits of this virtue. From his perspective, it is the quality of the mind, the psyche organization which enables a person to act virtuously. It is this opposition between the two types of assessment of virtue that is the major theme explored in Socrates’ examination of the various positions towards justice. Thus the role of Book I is to turn the minds from the customary evaluation of justice towards this new vision. Through the discourse between Cephalus, Polemarchus and Thrasymachus, Socaretes’ thoughts and actions towards justice are exemplified. Though their views are different and even opposed, the way all three discourse about justice and power reveal that they assume the relation between the two to be separate. They find it impossible to understand the idea that being just is an exercise of power and that true human power must include the ability to act justly. And that is exactly what Socrates seeks to refute.
Plato’s Republic is a dialogue set in Athens, which at the time of documentation was the center of the democratic world. Despite the city’s knowledge and construction of political structures ahead of its time, the main question addressed in the Republic is that of justice. What is justice, and why should we want to be just? Many competing thoughts are outlined within the Republic, notably that of a Sophist named Thrasymachus, who stated that justice is “nothing other than what is advantageous for the stronger” (Plato, p. 15, 5c). Socrates, the main philosopher in this dialogue who claims that he “knows nothing” (Plato, p. 35, 354c) disagrees with Thrasymachus and spends the entire book trying to disprove the argument that the unjust person
In 451 BCE, a growing population prompted Pericles to introduce and pass the proposal wherein citizenship should only be granted to a person whose parents were both citizens (AP, 26.4.) While Pericles never served as an Archon, he served as a popular stategos and won the ear of the people. Pericles enacted many measures popular with the public; he provided for allotments of lands to Athenian citizens that once belonged to those conquered and subjected by Athens, provided public funds for the people to attend the theater, and introduced payment for serving on a jury. Pericles’ policies arose in response to the generosity of his rival, Cimon, who gained popularity by using his wealth to regularly feed the poor in his deme and by opening his orchards for them to pick fruit (Plutarch, Cimon 9.) In response, Pericles created projects paid with public funds for the improvement and the glory of Athens, including the building of the Parthenon, which employed many citizens and tradesmen (Plutarch, Pericles 12.) In 463 BCE, Pericles charged Cimon with being pro-Spartan, and Cimon was ostracized (Plutarch, Pericles 9.) His rival gone, Pericles united the parties and became the leader and champion for democracy in Athens (Plutarch, Pericles15) and gained an even greater influence. Pericles was instrumental not only in the direction of democracy within Athens, but the direction of all aspects