Essay about Socrates: Much More Than A Legend

Blanchard, is a professor political science professor at Northern State University. He is also the author of many author book and articles. In his article, “The Enemies of Socrates: Piety and Sophism in the Socratic Drama,” he portrays the collision between the philosopher and his fellow citizens is the central dramatic event. These collisions between the philosophers’, tie the paper to the ideas of Socrates. In the article he mentions that Socrates dies because he arouses pious indignation. He makes his journal stronger by

Socrates was a man that was on a mission is search of the truth about wisdom. As a philosopher he would never settle for one simple answer, he would take every angel of an argument therefore even a simple idea would be argued until his opponent would be frustrated enough to quit.

Socrates believed that he was sent to Athens by the gods to wake them from their intellectual slumber. He describes himself as a gadfly stinging a horse. He is trying to pester the Athenian people into think about the truth. This quote depicts a scene of Socrates talking to Crito and his students about why he is not going to escape. “You would have me act on blind impulse? This is not what I have taught you. Reason must rule our every action. I can't run from my fate. My life was here in Athens. My purpose was to protect this city from herself. I will not live without her” (Trial ).

In Plato’s Symposium, seven friends gather at a banquet to honor their comrade Agathon, who has just written his first successful tragedy. The men agree to entertain themselves through speeches rather than drunkenness. They dedicate these speeches to Eros, god of love, for whom no odes or hymns have been written. As in Plato’s other works, Socrates is one of the main characters featured throughout the dialogue. Plato is able to distinguish Socrates from his fellow comrades as an outsider, or someone who strays from social norms, by calling attention to Socrates’ unusual behavior. The content of Socrates’ speech, as well as his friends’ opinions of him, serve to further illustrate that Socrates is an outsider.

Liberation here in the visible realm comes from recognizing the hindering function of the body in the soul's search for knowledge. Socrates comments that a soul associated too closely with the

Throughout the world’s history, there have been civilizations that have come and gone. These civilizations are represented to the world today by leaders and their ideals of those times. One such leader was a person of thought from the city-state Athens in Greece. (7) This person was Socrates, “the quintessential philosopher, the seeker and conveyor of wisdom.” (8) Paul Johnson states, “Such a man is well worth knowing about, and for 2,500 years the learned and intellectually enterprising in all countries have sought to know him.” (8) But what is really known about a man who lived thousands of years ago and who left no written record of himself. The starting point to understand Socrates and his thoughts are through the words of his pupils. (8-9) Socrates was a philosopher whose ideals changed the world around him and have an effect the world today.

A little bit of background behind the dialogue, it primarily focuses on the exchange between Socrates and a man known as Euthyphro. Euthyphro is tired of being looked down upon by his family and Athens for his divine excesses. “Whenever I speak in the assembly concerning the divine things…they laugh at me as if I were mad” (Euthyphro 3c). When his manservant murdered a family slave of Naxos, it did not occur to his father to seek the advice of Euthyphro, the family theologian. Instead, he dispatched a man all the way to Athens to ascertain from the exegete what should be done to the murderer. In the intervening time, Euthyphro’s man died of neglect and exposure. Euthyphro had to suffer the double humiliation of being both disregarded

It goes unquestioned that a spectrum of values is a solid foundation for any man to build on. One’s values are both an influence of the present surrounding and reflection of one’s character. However, when those values start portraying themselves as binary opposites under comparison, it can undermine the credentials of that man. Contradictions, for the most part, give little value to a man's word; What man would be taken into respect or believed if he is not at consensus with his own ideas? These are questions that can be explored in the trial and life of Socrates, as recorded by Plato. Socrates makes both literal and indirect statements that either contradict an earlier statement or shows him under an undesired light.

Socrates viewpoints were never documented; however he remains an icon of wisdom in the history of Western thought (Bramann, 1998). The thinker’s concepts of Socratic irony and the Socratic Method made him a pioneer in philosophy, and he is principally recognized for his methods of inquiry (AUEB, 2010). One of his best known statements is the claim that “the unexamined life is not worth living,” those who wish to live their lives in an intelligent way according to Socrates must examine and question to deepen their understanding (Bramann 1998). His lasting contributions to the fields of epistemology and logic, along with his ideas and different perspectives, remain strong in providing a foundation for much of Western philosophy (AUEB,

     “The Unexamined Life is not Worth Living.” This is the famous quote proclaimed by Socrates, a controversial philosopher of ancient Athens. He believed that anyone could lead a significant and meaningful existence by examining his or her own life and ideas very thoroughly. (Soccio)

The trial of Socrates took place in 399 B.C.E., five years after the Peloponnesian War ended and at a time of great turmoil in Athens. A scapegoat for the loss in war was needed and Socrates was the prime candidate. However, Socrates’ “apology” is far from apologetic, rather; he defends his actions. At one point, Socrates even implies that he is a better person than most because he possesses self-knowledge, whereas many of the high-ranking members of society do not. Socrates believes self-knowledge makes him a better because he neither ignorant nor arrogant when having self-knowledge and he is also serving the gods when he attempts to have others see their lack of self-knowledge.

Brian Frias Professor Pereira Philosophy 100 M/W 8-9:15 9 February 2015 Socrates’ Death Arguments Socrates was an ancient philosopher set in Athens, Greece.

Plato was one the Socrates’ greatest admirers. Socrates was a brilliant Greek philosopher at that time, whose philosophical works stand at the foundation of modern Western philosophy. Unfortunately, he never recorded his works. Nevertheless, most of our current knowledge about Socrates stems from Plato’s work. We find Plato’s thought mostly in the form of fictional dialogues, a very common literary style in ancient Greece. Most of these dialogues have Socrates as the protagonist, and primary interlocutor. Plato uses Socrates as a mouthpiece of his own views, and philosophical ideals.

Socrates faces a lot of opposition from the public because of the nature of his teachings as he attempts to demonstrate the value of knowledge and justice. In his apologia, having been charged with “corrupting the young” (Aen. 24b), Socrates questions Meletus mercilessly, forcing him into contradicting himself and leaving him speechless with “nothing to say” (Apo. 24d). Much of Socrates’ teachings revolve around making others aware of their own ignorance, as he does with the politician, “[trying] to show him that he supposed he was wise, but was not” (Apo. 21c). Plato’s Symposium recounts the speech of Alcibiades in which Alcibiades describes “what an extraordinary effect [Socrates’] words always had” (Sym. 215d). According to Alcibiades, Socrates “makes it seems that his life isn’t worth living” (Sym. 216a). These kinds of lessons

Furthermore, considered to be the most revolutionary thinker of the ancient world, Socrates’ life marked a watershed in Greek thought (Matthews, Noble, & Platt, 2014). Socrates’ belief in the overall goodness of human nature and of