The study of philosophy has been around for more years than I could ever think of. Philosophy is the study of the existence of things and why different events fold out the way that they do. When we separate the word philosophy we get “phil-”, meaning love, and “-sophy”, meaning wisdom. The word philosophy simply means the “love of wisdom”. Some of the great philosophers are Plato, Alexander the Great, Aristotle and of course Socrates. Socrates can probably be credited with founding western philosophy. Western philosophy is the study of western culture and things of the sort. Socrates was a man despised by many but also admired by others. Socrates was always willing to talk to people throughout the city. Instead of him teaching these …show more content…
Throughout the Apology and book seven of The Republic of Plato Socrates strongly believes in Socratic wisdom. Socrates believes that being wise is not portraying to know everything when you don’t, but to accept the fact that you may not know everything and learn the truth so that you may truly become wise.
Socrates views of wisdom are first seen in The Apology during his trial. Socrates is being prosecuted by a few men of Athens: Meletus, Anytus, and Lycon. These three accusers say that Socrates has been corrupting the youth with his false teachings, publicly ridiculing the “wise” people of the city, gaining monetary profits from teaching people the things he knows, making the weaker argument the stronger one and also having the wrong belief of the gods. Is Socrates really doing any wrong or is he just speaking the truth to the people of Athens? Socrates is deemed an “accomplished speaker” and the accusers of Socrates find this to be very dangerous. Socrates feels otherwise and says “I show myself not to be an accomplished speaker…unless indeed they call an accomplished speaker the man who speaks the truth” (Plato’s Apology. 17b). You could infer that Socrates believes
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Socrates had come across many people who thought that they may have been the wisest. To one of the public men, whom many thought was wise, Socrates simply showed him that he was not as wise as he thought he was. Socrates then thought to himself “I am wiser than this man; it is likely that neither of us knows anything worthwhile, but he thinks he knows something when he does not, whereas when I do not know, neither do I think I know” (Plato’s Apology. 21d). Here Socrates shows that simply a sense of humility and admittance can make one seem wiser than others. Socrates already knows he is wise because the oracle at Delphi prophesizes to Chaerephon in The Apology “that no one was wiser.” Throughout The Apology Socrates felt that he needed to prove that the oracle was “irrefutable”. Socrates once again proved that he was wiser than
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
Many judges and civilians questioned the intentions of Socrates. They believed he was corrupting their youth and making them go against the beliefs they had been taught by the law, their state and their parents. The intent of questioning and cross-examination, which Socrates often did, was not to make people feel inferior but to make them understand the shallowness of their knowledge. Being skilled in one area, Socrates believed, does not make you wise in all tings. You must be willing to explore and desire a deeper understanding of all things. Socrates wanted Meletus to understand that he was not trying to corrupt the youth or make them deny the gods of the state, but rather, “believe in divine and spiritual agencies” that encourage virtue and doing good to all men. Socrates believed that one should not fear death and punishment if they are doing what they believe to be good, and a person cannot make themselves better by accusing, punishing, or killing a person who questions their knowledge and beliefs. They only way to improve ourselves is by taking what our accusers say about us and digging into the meaning of it. By doing this we can search for understanding and try to make ourselves better. As Socrates says, “the life which is unexamined is not worth living.”
Consequently, In Plato's Euthyphro, our acquaintance with Socrates is immensely beneficial to society, as we obtain awareness on such an innovative method of achieving intuition. The Socratic approach is now a fundamental approach implemented in daily conversation in society Furthermore, not only is Socrates is able to verify that the true seekers are the wise; he also validates the notion that the answers to many questions are merely questions. Simply because, life is so debate that certain subjects begin to intertwine. To sum up, Plato's Euthyphro is extremely indicative of this Socratic irony, for the reason being that: Socrates's portrays a sense of intellectual humility.
Strepsiades says, “It is said that they have two speeches, the stronger, whatever it may be, and the weaker. One of these speeches, the weaker, wins, they say, although it speaks the more unjust things” (Aristophanes, 111-115). This is very similar to the first charge brought against him in The Apology, for challenging the orthodox beliefs and being “a thinker on things aloft, who has investigated all things under earth, and who makes the weaker speech the stronger” (Plato, 18b). All of Athens held the belief that Socrates questioned things that should not be questioned. But both Socrates and Aristophanes know that a philosopher questions everything, from the mundane to the
Socrates put one’s quest for wisdom and the instruction of others above everything else in life. A simple man both in the way he talked and the wealth he owned, he believed that simplicity in whatever one did was the best way of acquiring knowledge and passing it unto others. He is famous for saying that “the unexplained life is not worth living.” He endeavored therefore to break down the arguments of those who talked with a flowery language and boasted of being experts in given subjects (Rhees 30). His aim was to show that the person making a claim on wisdom and knowledge was in fact a confused one whose clarity about a given subject was far from what they claimed. Socrates, in all his simplicity never advanced any theories of his own but rather aimed at bringing out the worst in his interlocutors.
In “The Apology of Socrates,” Socrates shares his view of his fellow Athenian citizens; he accuses these citizens of caring more about their wealth and reputation than about wisdom, truth, and the state of their souls. Socrates deems “wisdom, truth, or the best possible state of your souls” to be more important to a meaningful life. One of the reasons Socrates is on trial is because he is accused of corrupting the youth. When roaming the streets, after being called the man with the most wisdom, he begins to ask all the smartest people he can find to ask them questions. He begins to realize that the people in power are not that smart after all. Socrates comes to the conclusion that the people with power and reputation have essentially denied to themselves that they do not know, and pretended that they do. This led to the idea of Socratic Wisdom, which is basically knowing that you do not know. This idea of putting reputation over truth and wisdom is very much still prevalent today, and could even be considered human nature.
He set out to “go to all those who had any reputation for knowledge to examine its meaning. And by the dog, men of Athens – for I must tell you the truth – I experienced something like this: In my investigation in the service of the god I found that those who had the highest reputation were nearly the most deficient, while those who were thought to be inferior were more knowledgeable”(22a). This conclusion of his investigation helps his appeal to the audience men who are less reputable than others, but provokes those of highest reputation such at Meletus, Anytus and Lycon. Socrates is aware that speaking out in this form makes him “unpopular”, but he continues to say it regardless. He is convinced that he is not going to hold back his thoughts and speak the truth to the jury. The issue with these statements is that ultimately the people of greater power and more authority are the people that he is insulting by calling them less wise that the rest of the citizens. Since he acknowledges that what he is doing makes him unpopular then, he knows he in aggravating those who are listening to him but he continues to do regardless. This is worse because now his audience knows it is intentional and he is willingly choosing to behave in this manner. This is clearly unethical because if Socrates is aware that he is aggravating those around him then why would he
In “Apology” by Plato, Socrates stated, “… there are plenty of persons, as soon as enough discover, who think that they know anything, but really know little or nothing” (Plato 32). In other words, humans are imperfect and this explains the limited nature of human knowing. Even when we consider things for a while and in our best operation, we can still make mistakes because we are imperfect. At the same time, the student must know his/her purpose for doing something. “God orders me to fulfill the philosopher’s mission of searching into myself and other men….” (Plato 35), stated Socrates. He knows that his job was to teach the young men to follow his footsteps and live a good and virtuous life. Just like Socrates, our modern education system should be concerned with making sure that students are learning what is truly important. There will be different levels of education as one goes through his or her life cycle. The modern model represents the way of growing through education and continues to change. If one is motivated, he or she will be successful in his or her life and become a better educated person. In the “Apology,” Socrates visited the politicians, poets and artisans to see which group was wiser than him. He realized that all three groups lacked knowledge in some type of way. Socrates stated that the politician “knows nothing, and thinks that he knows” (Plato 31). Both the
According to Pierre Hadot, “Thus philosophy was a way of life, both in its exercise and effort to achieve wisdom, and its goal, wisdom itself. For real wisdom does not merely cause us to know: it makes us “be” in a different way” ( Pierre 265) This explanation of a philosophical way of life is in all ways the definition of Socrates’ life. Socrates made his way through his entire life living in this way, seeking out wisdom, seeking out answers and never once got in trouble with the court until the age of seventy years old. He believed that by telling people about ignorance and wisdom, that he was only doing so for the good of the people. Socrates even goes as far as saying, “I am that Gadfly which God has attached to the state, and all day long and in all places am always fastening upon you, arousing and persuading and reproaching you”(Plato 9). Socrates believes that he was sent from God to show people a different way of life, a life of questioning and reason to which he should teach to all people. When asked if he was ashamed of a course of life of which would likely bring him to an untimely end Socrates says, “you are mistaken: a man who is good for anything ought not to calculate the chance of living or dying; he ought only to consider whether in doing anything he is doing right or wrong” (Plato 7).
In his defense, Socrates claims over and again that he is innocent and is not at all wise, “…for I know that I have no wisdom, small or great.” Throughout the rest of his oration he seems to act the opposite as if he is better than every man, and later he even claims that, “At any rate, the world has decided that Socrates is in some way superior to other men.” This seems to be his greatest mistake, claiming to be greater than even the jury.
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.
In the Apology, Socrates was told by the Delphic Oracle that there was nobody wiser than him. With ancient Greece having been a prominent home of philosophy and art since before Socrates' time, the Athenian court found his proclamation both insulting and hard to believe. Socrates goes through great lengths to find the wisest of men and seeing if their reputations are in fact true. He hoped to find a man wiser than him to prove the oracles prediction was false, even Socrates failed to believe he was the wisest man. He first went to a man that seemed wise. After he spoke with him Plato quotes "I came to see that, though many persons, and chiefly himself, thought that he was wise, yet he was not wise."(77) With his certainty that Socrates was wiser, the man was insulted and hated Socrates for derailing his intelligence. Socrates then goes to another wise man, but is again let down. He still believes he is wiser. Convinced that he would not find a more intelligent man amongst wise men, he then questioned the more "educated people", such as poets and artisans. According to Plato, Socrates says "I imagine, they find a great abundance of men who think that they know a great...
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.
Socrates’ argument was unique in that he tried to convince the jury he was just an average man and not to be feared, but in actuality demonstrated how clever and tenacious he was. He begins with an anecdote of his visit to the Oracle of Delphi, which told him that there was no man smarter than he. He, being as humble as he is, could not take the Oracle’s answer for granted and went about questioning Athenians he felt surpassed his intelligence. However, in questioning politicians, poets, and artisans, he found that they claimed to know of matters they did not know about. Socrates considered this to be a serious flaw, and, as Bill S. Preston, Esq. put it: that “true wisdom consists in knowing that you know nothing.”
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...