Socrates & Plato:
Cornerstones of Western
Thought
Epistemology
• The theory of knowledge, especially with
regard to its methods, validity, and
scope. Epistemology is the investigation
of what distinguishes justified belief
from opinion
Socrates
• 470/469 – 399 BC Athens
• Teacher/ philosopher
• Wrote nothing but later his student,
Plato, recorded his teachings
• Famous for creating the Socratic Method
• Valued reason above all else
Plato
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q34MH
pBu0Oo
• 428/427 or 424/423 – 348/347 BCE
• Student of Socrates
• Wrote down what Socrates “said” after his
death
• There is no certain truth from perception,
only absolute truth
• Founded The Academy (which later
Aristotle was a student at)
Socratic Method
• Questioning Habit
• The goal of Socratic interrogation is to
help individuals to achieve genuine selfknowledge, even if it often turns out to
be negative in character.
• Using logical nit-picking to expose
(rather than to create) illusions about
reality.
Universality
• In philosophy, universalism is a
doctrine or school claiming universal
facts can be discovered and is therefore
understood as being in opposition
to relativism
• In certain religions, universality is the
quality ascribed to an entity whose
existence is consistent throughout the
universe
Truth is Universal
(according to Plato)
• Truth/Wisdom = morality (because truth is
universal)
• Devotion to Truth:
• Even after he has been convicted by the jury,
Socrates declines to abandon his pursuit of the
truth in all matters.
• Refusing to accept exile from Athens or a
commitment to silence as his penalty, he maintains
that public discussion of the great issues of life and
virtue is a necessary part of any valuable human
life. "The unexamined life is not worth living.”
• Socrates would rather die than give up philosophy,
and the jury seems happy to grant him that wish
Theory of Forms
• Heaven is the realm of forms, where “true”
things are
• What is on earth is just a copy of the real
form
• Therefore this idea later trickled down into
Western thought and we can see this
mindset especially in Christianity:
• Body is sinful (suffering in life is OK)
• Soul is real (eternal/ true form of the body)
Allegory of the Cave
Allegory: a story, poem, or picture that can be
interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a
moral or political one
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E13Jyi1C2m4
•
•
•
•
Explain:
a) people in chains & shadows
b) breaking chains and experiencing sunlight
c) coming back in and enlightening others
“The Apology: The Examined
Life”
• Because of his political associations with
an earlier regime, the Athenian democracy
put Socrates on trial, charging him with
undermining state religion and corrupting
young people
• The speech he offered in his own defense,
as reported in Plato's Apology provides us
with many reminders of the central
features of Socrates's approach to
philosophy and its relation to practical life
Ironic Modesty:
• Explaining his mission as a philosopher,
Socrates reports an oracular message
telling him that "No one is wiser than you."
• He proceeds through a series of ironic
descriptions of his efforts to disprove the
oracle by conversing with notable
Athenians who must surely be wiser. In
each case, however, Socrates concludes
that he has a kind of wisdom that each of
them lacks: namely, an open awareness of
his own ignorance
The Apology
• Dispassionate Reason:
• Even when the jury has sentenced him
to death, Socrates calmly delivers his
final public words, a speculation about
what the future holds
• He disclaims any certainty about the
fate of a human being after death, he
nevertheless expresses a continued
confidence in the power of reason
The Apology
• Plato's dramatic picture of a man willing to face
death rather than abandoning his commitment
to philosophical inquiry offers up Socrates as a
model for all future philosophers
• Perhaps few of us are presented with the same
stark choice between philosophy and death, but
all of us are daily faced with opportunities to
decide between convenient conventionality and
our devotion to truth and reason
• According to Socrates, how we choose
determines whether or not we assign value to
our lives, or let others