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Philosophy-1000-020
April 12 2012
Socrates: The Wise Man
http://mariyam.yolasite.com/
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Socrates was born in Athens and has been called the greatest of Greek
philosophers. He studied music, literature, geometry and was a gifted thinker of ancient
Athens, who helped the foundation of Western philosophy. He was a man of charm who
made many friends and loved attending symposiums. He would walk barefoot and not
care what people thought of him. Socrates was described as being extremely ugly, but
he had inner beauty, beauty of spirit and character. His parents were not so rich. His
father was a stonemason and his mother was a midwife. Socrates didn’t like being in
business but he did it for support. Socrates got married to Xanthippe at the age of 40
and they had three sons: Lamprocles, Sophroniscus, and Menexenus. He spent all his
time in the Agord (market place) teaching philosophy.
He taught and inspired one of the two most influential philosophers in Western
history. Although Socrates wrote no books, his philosophy is known through the writing
of historians and of his students. Plato, who was Socrates’s best student, wrote about
Socrates. Plato is now considered one of the greatest philosophers in the history of
civilized man. While Socrates used some of the debating techniques of the Sophists, he
turned down their relativism and wanted what he regarded as genuine truth and
knowledge (Soccio), and became very successful. Ultimately, Socrates didn’t like the
Sophists: he found them very stupid because they made claims that they had
knowledge and yet when Socrates asked them a question, they were unable to answer.
The Sophists did not end up liking Socrates either so they put him in prison. Plato
visited Socrates in jail. Plato told Socrates “I want to save you, whatever they do, they
will kill you. Let me help you.” Socrates said, “No, they want to kill me, let them do it.”
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Socrates was given a glass of hemlock and died at the age 70 and Plato took care of
his body.
February 15, 399 BC,
Socrates drank hemlock and
decided that it would be wrong for
him to escape from prison. He
chose to honor his commitment
to truth and morality even though
it cost him his life.
According to Socrates’s philosophy, He believed "Only God knows the absolute
truth, every truth is relative and somehow the truth is in each of us." Socrates taught
that there is no such thing as
weakness of will. He said “to know
the good is to do the good. Know
yourself and know what you’re
living for, by fighting against evil
and give more knowledge by
having good education” (qtd in Izrailevsky). Socrates was a man who can handle the
truth regardless of any circumstance. His style of thinking was not just accepting a fact
but telling the truth. He is a very open-minded philosopher by asking many questions
which makes his philosophy on life very effective
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To really know Socrates it’s important to know his philosophy. He said “Only God
knows the absolute truth.” The absolute truth only lies within God and the best we can
do is to follow. Here is an example between Socrates and Protagoras conversation.
IS TRUTH RELATIVE?
(A dialogue between Socrates and Protagoras)
Protagoras: Truth is relative. It is only a matter of opinion.
Socrates: You mean that truth is mere subjective opinion?
Protagoras: Exactly. What is true for you is true for you, and what is true
for me, is true for me. Truth is subjective.
Socrates: Do you really mean that? That my opinion is true by virtue of its
being my opinion?
Protagoras: Indeed I do.
Socrates: My opinion is: Truth is absolute, not opinion, and that you, Mr.
Protagoras, are absolutely in error. Since this is my opinion, then you must
grant that it is true according to your philosophy.
Protagoras: You are quite correct, Socrates (Cline)
In this conversation between Socrates and Protagoras, Socrates uses his
method and takes Protagoras position and turns it back on itself by backing up earlier
statement. Using specific methods to handle situations is a very intelligent thing to do.
Truth has a type of meaning whereas the state of being in agreement with reality, and
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having trustworthiness to an ideal. Socrates’ search for the Absolute Truth and found it
in the writing of Plato who developed it into a Theory of Ideals or Forms.
Another key concept is concerning the Weakness Of Will which is used for
someone’s action that they know is wrong even though they are capable of acting,
otherwise lack of self-control. Socrates doesn’t believe in weakness of will, he believes
that we can get some moral perfection using knowledge. Moral knowledge is knowledge
of what is morally good. He defended the view that moral knowledge is the same thing
as virtue, so that if you know what is good to do, than you should do it. For instance, if
you want to have good education, it is important to know what you want to accomplish
and gain the knowledge you need.
One way of understanding Socrates Weakness of Will is to look at Bad action as
due to ignorance on how one is taught to act. Accordingly, a person with knowledge
could not come to hold even for a moment that the action in question would be the thing
to do, and so they could never do it of their own accord. Socrates felt that good people
for him were virtuous people, people who had such qualities as wisdom. Having
knowledge as in the ability to make, use and choose good things and actions.
Socrates mentioned in his arguments “that if a person knows what is right he will do the
right thing, and the right thing is the one which will promote what is in that person's best
interest, namely the achieving of genuine 'happiness', that is, 'well-being' regardless of
worldly consequences” (qtd in Barbet). He assumes that anyone who has the mind will
always try to act in a way that is better for him or her because without knowledge it is
impossible to fulfill our desires and make us happy.
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Socrates believed that the most important of all knowledge is to learn how to live
and best way for people to live is to focus on self-development instead of trying to be
wealthy. He said “The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance.” (qtd in
Jaira) He advises that this is not easily answered, and how most people that live in
ignorance world regarding matters of ethics and morals. Socrates is a man who couldn’t
accept ignorance especially while he taught philosophy.
Socrates also talked about facing the truth in The Allegory of the Cave.
Most people, including ourselves, live in a world of relative ignorance. We
are even comfortable with that ignorance, because it is all we know. When
we first start facing truth, the process may be frightening, and many
people run back to their old lives. But if you continue to seek truth, you will
eventually be able to handle it better. In fact, you want more! It's true that
many people around you now may think you are weird or even a danger to
society, but you don't care. Once you've tasted the truth, you won't ever
want to go back to being ignorant. (Kendra)
Sometimes people do not want to acknowledge the truth because we’re afraid of the
truth. So they end up being comfortable with living the lies. Lying usually has
consequences, hurting people and losing someone’s trust. We need to learn how to tell
the truth regardless of any circumstances. If we lie often, we will at the end be confused
about ourselves thinking whether what we said is the truth or not
If you don’t know your limitations you can hurt yourself or your loved ones. So it’s
important to know your limitations and to work with what you have. Education is a great
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tool to open our eyes. We need to gain knowledge of the many things that we’re not
familiar with. You can obviously see that Socrates was a man of his words. He was also
very confident, smart, and always has a statement to back up his opinions. Socrates
quoted “I know that I am intelligent, because I know that I know nothing.” (qtd in Zaady)
We have discussed his philosophy and it’s also interesting to know his method of
what he taught. He used and projected along with his courageous defense of his ideas
against his enemies and very much influenced the philosophical and moral society of
foundation in the western philosophy over the centuries.
Socrates led to the greatest minds after him, He taught Plato and Plato taught
Aristotle and Aristotle taught Alexander, so if it wasn’t for Socrates we wouldn’t have
this other great philosophers. His philosophical theories are also the base and root for
all philosophers as he was one of the early great of his time.
It is important that we learn about our philosophers because they are really intelligent
people who experienced so much. It is only beneficial for us to learn about them so we
can gain knowledge. I really admire Socrates because he is a great inspiration to me,
and the fact that he didn’t care of what people thought of him. He always fought for the
truth, and wasn’t afraid to speak up. I enjoyed learning about Socrates because I can
relate to his teachings. My motto is always telling the truth even if it will get me in
trouble. He is one of the greatest men who lived by his principles even though at the
end it cost him his life. After his death many people still follow his principles.
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Work Cited
Socrates." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 04 Sept. 2012. Web. 11 Apr. 2012.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socrates>.
"Plato, "The Allegory of the Cave"" The History Guide. Web. 11 Apr. 2012.
<http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/allegory.html>.
"Socrates." Quotes by. An Quote Library. Web. 11 Apr. 2012.
<http://blog.gaiam.com/quotes/authors/socrates>.