Socrate and His Teachings

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If you have ever questioned the way you are living your life and decided to challenge natural conventions, than you may have gotten along quite well with an ancient philosopher named Socrates. Socrates lived from 469 BC to 399 BC when he was sentenced to death by the Athenian government, which he accepted. Socrates was one of the most influential philosophers in history, yet he did not write anything down. Therefore, all of the literature about Socrates was written by other people, principally by Plato, his most important student. Plato wrote many books about Socrates including Alcibiades, The Apology, and The Allegory of the Cave. These texts express Socrates’ beliefs that authority should be questioned and people should develop their own set of morals and gain knowledge by asking questions using the Socratic method. Having no purpose in life and never questioning anything is not an effective way to live, but questioning everything and disregarding all types of authority is not an effective way to live either. Socrates advocates for us to question everything, and while questioning life is good, we still need structure and discipline, which is not accounted for by Socrates.
“The unexamined life is not worth living,” this is a very famous quote by Socrates, and it means that if you are not examining your life and asking questions about the life of yourself and others than you should not be living at all. Socrates was willing to go up to complete strangers and ask them why they were living their life a certain way (De Botton). Asking questions and the use of dialogue was the primary way that Socrates gained knowledge and exposed the ignorance of others. This idea can be seen throughout Alcibiades, when Socrates uses his ...

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...king the question “Why?”, but this does not seem like a way to find true happiness. Calling everything we know into question does not seem like a logical solution to our problems. However, examining our conscience and trying to find direction in our lives seems like a scaled down way to apply Socrates’ philosophy. We do not have the answers to our existence, and we may never find them, so instead of living alone and in fear of everything we know or do not know, we should make the most of our lives and try to find happiness through ourselves and along with other people. The way to reach happiness is by developing great friendships and loving relationships with the people around us, and working together to make the world a better place. Socrates and his ideas have been very influential throughout history, but his teachings no longer seem practical in today’s world.

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