Socrates
Philosophy was both serious and dangerous, Socrates chose to ignore both. Ignoring the first made him one of the most engaging of all philosophers, ignoring the second was to cost him his life. He was born in a middle class home in Athens, in 470 BCE. His parents were Phaenarete and Sophroniscus. His mother had a reputation for her patient and intuitive skill in delivering babies in and around the neighborhood. The latter, his father was a craftsman, stonecutter by trade.
As a young boy, Socrates was teased in school about his appearance, and often would prey to the Gods to make him beautiful both inside as well as outside. He was known for asking many questions as a child, because he was very curious about things, what they were, what importance they had? Crito noticed that Socrates in a way was beginning to think as a philosopher, always looking for the meaning of things.
As Socrates gradually began to mature and grow older, he did not see much of his friends. They would always be down at the gymnasium working seriously at the outdoor exercises. He did not like to work out like his friends or be a stonecutter like his father because he knew that sort of thing was not for him. He thought about everything in a more abstract way.
The Gods during Socrates time seemed to be further away from humanity, they did not disguise themselves as humans to help or punish them anymore (1). He only knew of them from old stories, myths, and Homer. He had a voice in him that stopped him from doing certain things as he was about to, and he thought that that was gift from the gods. He knew that goodness was the very mark of the gods and that is why he tried his best to be just towards everything and everybody.
As a teen Socrates talked and studied with many other accomplished scientists and philosophers, whose names are not known. Later, from when he was eighteen to twenty-four he was in the military in the beginning of the Peloponnesian War. Along with, the rest of the army, he walked fourteen miles in one day to make it to Athens on time. In the tents, he always won the philosophical arguments between his friends, for he had pondered the subjects himself many times. If it had not been for Pythion, an experienced guide of Greece, they would probab...
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...its represent Socrates as the great ironist of philosophy. He knows but ironically denies that he knows. He teaches but ironically denies that he teaches. He claims that knowledge is identical to virtue, ironically disclaiming the one yet implying that he possesses the other. Even when he is on trial for his life, he is what he says he is not and is not what he says he is. He is perpetually masked in order to stir up in those he examines a fertile and productive search for virtue. (8)
ENDNOTES
1Cora Mason, Socrates: The Man Who Dared To Ask (Boston: The Beacon Press, 1957) 22-27.
2Plato, The Trial and Death of Socrates: Four Dialogues (New York: Dover Publications, 1992) 20-25.
3Plato 30-35.
4Plato 41.
5Leo Strauss, Socrates and Aristophanes (New York/London: Basic Books Inc., 1966) 311.
6Strauss 14.
7James W. Hulse, The Reputations of Socrates (New York: Peter Lang Publishing Inc., 1995) 0.
8C.D.C. Reeve, Socrates in the Apology: An Essay on Plato’s Apology of Socrates (Indianapolis/Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company, 1989) 184.
In his work Socrates’ Apology to the Jury, Xenophon produces an account of the Socratic deliberation –and indeed the logic that seemed to inform that deliberation- over his trial. Specifically, Xenophon, provides his readers with an ambivalent justification of Socrates’ chosen rhetoric during his trial, namely his “boastful manner of speaking” or megalegoria (Patch, footnote 2). Indeed, instead of choosing to deliver a speech that would gain him the jury’s sympathy and the city’s acquittal, Socrates proceeds to deliver a speech that is characterized mainly by its ironic arrogance. Xenophon goes so far as to provide his readers with a kind of statement of purpose that frames Socrates’ megalegoric speech; Socrates had, in the words of Xenophon,
“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.” (Socrates, Apology) “Either I do not corrupt the young or, if I do, it is unwillingly,” (Socrates, Apology) “Men of Athens, I honor and love you; but I shall obey God rather than you…” (Socrates, Apology) “I am that gadfly which God has attached to the state, and all day long…arousing and persuading and reproaching…you will not easily find another like me.” (Plato, Apology) “To fear death, gentlemen, is no other than to think oneself wise when one is not, to think one knows what one does not know.” (Socrates, Apology) “I go to die, you go to live. Which is better God only knows.” (Socrates,
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 Plato’s Apology, Socrates uses religious appeals, proof by contradictions and various examples to argue for his innocence in court. Socrates is forced to argue for the sake of his life to prove that he is not guilty. In Socrates’ speech, however, he is not apologizing for anything instead, the word comes from the Greek word “apologia,” that translates to a speech made in defense. In this paper, I will argue that Socrates’ decision to stay in Athens and to accept suicide was unethical, because he purposefully antagonized the people who control his fate and this ultimately led to the death penalty.
Plato, . The Trial and Death of Socrates, "The Apology". Trans. G.M.A. Grube. Third ed. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 2000. 34. Print.
Nails, Debra. “Socrates”. Stanford University. Jan 29, 2014. Web. Feb 16, 2014. Retrieved from: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/socrates/#SocStr
Plato was the author of the Apology of Socrates, which was one of the four major works of ancient Greek literature. Though the title was the Apology of Socrates, the text referred to the defense speeches of Socrates against the Athenian council. At the end, Socrates was found to be guilty and was sentenced to death. However, the Athenian council was not acting justly because Socrates did nothing wrong as he had successfully developed a reasonable logic against the charges. I will address this notion through the analysis of the arguments and the logic that Socrates used to conduct his defense.
Whether Socrates is portrayed correctly or not, he certainly was a great man. His contribution to western thought cannot be denied. For even if his teachings were different from what they are known to be at present, his influence on Plato is immense. And so, it is no small matter to describe the tragic passing of such a man as Socrates was and remains for philosophy today. Yet in all the indignation which is expected to arise at the death of Socrates, the panache with which he departs is captured excellently in Plato's “Apology.” Specifically, at the end of the "Apology," Socrates makes a very important statement that has had great impact on philosophy ever since its original proclamation. The Stoics in particular have taken this to be the cornerstone of their ideology. The statement made is that "you must regard one thing at least as certain—that no harm can come to a good man either in his life or after his death,” (Plato 100). The following examination focuses therefore on a brief explanation of the circumstances which lead to this statement being made by Socrates, as well as a closer look at why he thinks this to be the case. It is assumed that this statement is true, and validation for that assumption is to be sought as well.
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).
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"
For these two articles that we read in Crito and Apology by Plato, we could know Socrates is an enduring person with imagination, because he presents us with a mass of contradictions: Most eloquent men, yet he never wrote a word; ugliest yet most profoundly attractive; ignorant yet wise; wrongfully convicted, yet unwilling to avoid his unjust execution. Behind these conundrums is a contradiction less often explored: Socrates is at once the most Athenian, most local, citizenly, and patriotic of philosophers; and yet the most self-regarding of Athenians. Exploring that contradiction, between Socrates the loyal Athenian citizen and Socrates the philosophical critic of Athenian society, will help to position Plato's Socrates in an Athenian legal and historical context; it allows us to reunite Socrates the literary character and Athens the democratic city that tried and executed him. Moreover, those help us to understand Plato¡¦s presentation of the strange legal and ethical drama.
Smith, D. N., & Brickhouse C. T. (1989). Socrates On Trial. Princeton New Jersey: Princeton University Press
During this essay the trail of Socrates found in the Apology of Plato will be reviewed. What will be looked at during this review is how well Socrates rebuts the charges made against him. We will also talk about if Socrates made the right decision to not escape prison with Crito. Socrates was a very intelligent man; this is why this review is so critical.
Nails, Debra, N. (2005, September 16). Socrates. Stanford University. Retrieved November 11, 2013, from http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/socrates/
When Socrates was brought to trial for the corruption of the city’s youth he knew he had done nothing wrong. He had lived his life as it should be lead, and did what he ne...