Socrates (470-399 BC)
Socrates was born to a poor Athenian family in 470 BC He spent most of
his time teaching others. One of his pupils was Plato. Socrates was a believer in
absolute truth rather than relative truth. His main interest was the process by
which people learned how to think for themselves.
He would usually talk to whoever would take the time to listen. He asked
many questions and criticized answers. His style of conversation has been given the
name Socratic dialogue. Socrates would often ask students questions without giving
them answers. When the students did give answers, he opposed them with clear
logical arguments. This method forced his students to defend their statements and
to clarify their thinking.
Socrates was the wisest philosopher of his time. He was one of three great
teachers of ancient Greece. Socrates was short and fat, with a snub nose and wide
mouth. Despite his ugly appearance, many said he was a very moral teacher and a
pleasant man to be around. Socrates married a lady named Xanthippe. She was
notorious for her sharp tongue and quick temper.
The Athenian mob and its self-serving leaders did not appreciate Socrates
and his teachings. In 399 BC, they accused him of “corrupting the young” and of
“not worshipping the gods worshipped by the state.” These men took Socrates to
trial and brought hi...
In Walter Mosley’s Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned, the reader is introduced to Socrates Fortlow, an ex-convict who served twenty-seven years for murder and rape. Fortlow is plagued by guilt and, seeing the chaos in his town, feels a need to improve not only his own standards of living, but also those of others in Watts. He attempts this by teaching the people in Watts the lessons he feels will resolve the many challenges the neighbourhood faces. The lessons Fortlow teaches and the methods by which he teaches them are very similar to those of the ancient Greek philosopher for whom Fortlow was named: “‘We was poor and country. My mother couldn’t afford school so she figured that if she named me after somebody smart then maybe I’d get smart’” (Mosley, 44). Though the ancient Greek was born to be a philosopher and Fortlow assumed the philosopher role as a response to the poor state of his life and Watts, both resulted in the same required instruction to their populations. The two Socrates’ both utilize a form of teaching that requires their pupil to become engaged in the lesson. They emphasize ethics, logic, and knowledge in their instruction, and place importance on epistemology and definitions because they feel a problem cannot be solved if one does not first know what it is. Socrates was essential in first introducing these concepts to the world and seemed to be born with them inherent to his being, Fortlow has learned the ideals through life experience and is a real-world application in an area that needs the teachings to get on track. While the two men bear many similarities, their differences they are attributed primarily as a result of their circumstances provide the basis of Fortlow’s importance in Watts and as a modern-...
Writing and speaking are two very different, yet extremely important activities to any educated person. Socrates, from Phaedrus and Letters VII and VIII, seems to think that spoken word holds great precedence over writing. His explanation of choosing speech over text is two fold. Through the breakdown of real knowledge and wisdom, Socrates proclaims that the only true teaching is done through speech. And through the way that he speaks with others, Socrates demonstrates how speech is the way to interact, teach, and learn from one another. Socrates is a firm believer of the notion that knowledge and wisdom can't be derived from written word. Memory is lost easily in his quote from the king Thamus, "those who acquire it [written word] will cease to exercise their memory and become forgetful"(Plato 96). He is using the story as an example of how the improper use of memory makes people scatterbrained. In this state people are therefore unable to interact with one another due to a lack of information. As for wisdom, "they [writers] will receive a quantity of information without proper instruction, and in consequence be thought very knowledgeable when they are for the most part very ignorant" (Plato, 96). Socrates is saying that words on paper cannot teach in a proper manner. Teaching is a method in which you act together with a person, using your mind and voice. If the teaching process is not properly carried out with speech, than there is no way that the learning by a student can take place. Through text both teaching and learning are incapacitated. Socrates lives the words that he speaks by trying to interact in a way that demonstrates his strong feelings for the uprising of spoken word. Issuing compliments on other known, intelligent philosophers by quoting is constant in his dialogue with Phaedrus. He uses descriptive words and the full scope of the language to get much out of people.
Socrate's First Accusers and Athenian Law Of all confrontations in political philosophy, the biggest is the conflict between philosophy and politics. The problem remains making philosophy friendly to politics. The questioning of authoritative opinions is not easily accomplished nor is that realm of philosophy - the pursuit of wisdom. Socrates was the instigator of the conflict. While the political element takes place within opinions about political life, Socrates asks the question "What is the best regime and how should I live?
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.
In Plato's account of the death of Socrates, The Apology, the Greek philosopher and gadfly explains to his disciples why and how it is that he is able to accept his death sentence without fear or regret. The main thrust of Socrates position is that he prefers death to abandoning his principles, by which he means the right to speak and act freely and according to his convictions. Socrates is not entirely idealistic or irrational in his preference for death; he admits that he is old, that he has no irreplaceable attachments or obligations, and that he has accomplished most of what he set out to do in life. But at the same time, he offers compelling reasons why he should follow his convictions rather than obey his instinct for self-preservation: 1) he would "never give way to anyone, contrary to right, for fear of death, but rather... be read to perish at once; 2) he does not think it right "to entreat the judge, or to be acquitted by entreating; one should instruct and persuade him" (Plato, 1956:441); and finally 3) death is only a "migration from this world into another place," and is mostly likely a good thing which should be received as a blessing. Against these arguments, Socrates sees only the vain hope of preserving his life amid the likes of his judges, or fleeing ignominiously to some other land, losing his only home, his friends and the respect of those who admire the strength of his principles. In this essay, I will examine Socrates' decision to accept death rather than abandon his principles, and show why it is better to live and die according to one's convictions, than to take the easy way out.
Socrates spent his life wandering the streets of Athens questioning the citizens he encountered about their ideas and ideals. Because he questioned the ideas of the elders, and because some of his acquaintances had warred against Athens he was not liked by city powers, who brought him to trial"
Socrates, Guilty Or Not? Ancient Athens was the site of a growing culture. Philosophy was among the many improvements and discoveries being made. With these improvements and discoveries, great thinkers were able to stretch their knowledge to new heights.
There are times in every mans life where our actions and beliefs collide—these collisions are known as contradictions. There are endless instances in which we are so determined to make a point that we resort to using absurd overstatements, demeaning language, and false accusations in our arguments. This tendency to contradict ourselves often questions our character and morals. Similarly, in The Trial of Socrates (Plato’s Apology), Meletus’ fallacies in reason and his eventual mistake of contradicting himself will clear the accusations placed on Socrates. In this paper, I will argue that Socrates is not guilty of corrupting the youth with the idea of not believing in the Gods but of teaching the youth to think for themselves by looking to new divinities.
About the year of 470 B.C, a man was born in Athens and his name was Socrates. He was a son of a working sculptor and a midwife. Socrates lived in the greatest and most exciting period of his country's history, when Athens developed from a mere city-state to be the head of an empire. He studied problems of Physics, Biology, and other sciences, and learned the art of making the worse argument appear the better. He could easily be involved in public decisions but he did not enjoy politics so he stuck to his interests and life that consisted the qualities of a thinker. He would constantly be thinking about the "ordinary man" and the interests of an "ordinary man". He had many companions, men of all ages and from all parts of the Greek world. This already tells us that he is very pre-occupied with how other people's minds worked and if he could figure out how to teach them rational thinking. Easily most of his ideas would come from talking to other people
Plato’s “Defense of Socrates” follows the trial of Socrates for charges of corruption of the youth. His accuser, Meletus, claims he is doing so by teaching the youth of Athens of a separate spirituality from that which was widely accepted.
Socrates was born in 469 BCE and died in 399 BCE. In fact, because Socrates kept no writings of his own, his students are the lenses in which we
Plato came from a wealthy family and was very profitable at the educational facilities wealthy families were able to afford in Athens. Plato met Socrates around the age of twenty and their teacher-pupil relationship lasted between eight and ten years. He had quite an interest in other philosophers, but only before he met Socrates. In Plato's early career he was commited to poetry. These interests were all apart of his search of wisdom, and whom under Socrates his devotion came deeper in. Socrates' death gave Plato the courage to travel to Egypt, Magna Graecia, and Sicily. These trips were to influence the Dionysius' in approval to his ideal system of government. He did not succeed in his efforts to influence the two rulers, causing him to be thrown into prison. However, a friend came to free him and he returned to his school, the Platonic Academy, in Athens. At his school there was more attention given to literary form and less use of the method of illustration that depicted the Socratic manner of display. Among his some of his works the more genuine incl...
“Pyramus was the most handsome of young men and Thisbe was the fairest beauty of the East.” ~Ovid in Metamorphoses
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
Among the most revered philosophers of all time was Socrates. Living around the 5th century B.C.,