Socrates : This Self-Made Fable In The Ph�do

what career he wants to do. Since he’s been finishing up college him and Linda have

Even though Socrates was on his deathbed, he was still teaching and arguing with his students. He wanted his students and friends to understand that it was for the good of society that he dies. I believe Socrates was thinking about the future and how his death would be a lesson for someone else. Socrates was also telling his students that he was not going to disobey the law. Socrates’ students and friends could have taken him to another city. That would have made Socrates a liar about what he was teaching all along. Even though the students and friends were crying and grieving over Socrates’ death, Socrates was not comforting them or fleeing to another city. Socrates was just teaching them his strong belief in justice and loyalty to the government. This was very devastating to his friends.

Through several dialogues Plato gives readers accounts of Socrates’ interactions with other Athenians. While some may think of him as a teacher of sorts, Socrates is adamant in rejecting any such claim (Plato, Apology 33a-b). He insists that he is not a teacher because he is not transferring any knowledge from himself to others, but rather assisting those he interacts with in reaching the truth. This assistance is the reason Socrates walks around Athens, engaging in conversation with anyone that he can convince to converse with him. An assertion he makes at his trial in Plato’s Apology is at the center of what drives Socrates in his abnormal ways, “the unexamined life is not worth living for a human being” (38a). Socrates, through aporia, looks to lead an examined life to perfect his soul and live as the best person he can be. This paper looks to examine the ‘unexamined life’ and the implications rooted in living a life like Socrates’.

The portrayal of Socrates, through the book “the trial and death of Socrates” is one that has created a fairly controversial character in Western history. In many ways, Socrates changed the idea of common philosophy in ancient Greece; he transformed their view on philosophy from a study of why the way things are, into a consideration man. Specifically, he analyzed the virtue and health of the human soul. Along side commending Socrates for his strong beliefs, and having the courage to stand by those convictions, Socrates can be commended for many other desirable characteristics. Some of those can include being the first martyr to die for his philosophical beliefs and having the courage to challenge indoctrinated cultural norms is part of

I support this idea of achieving absolute pleasure from the removal of all pain due to a series of corresponding reasons. The first factor addressed in support of this claim is the tendency of human nature to focus on the negative. This observation will lead to the second supporting idea that these distresses which culminate towards the feeling of pain often block out the feeling of the pleasure desired. This secondary notion results in a comparison between the subsequent uplifting experiences from the removal of pain as opposed to the effect of a simple everyday pleasure on the mind. I

Knowing he could receive the penalty of execution, Socrates did not fear death due to his belief of his old age and his views on death. Socrates views death like sleep in which the sleeper does not even dream at all and like a trip from here to another place that all of the dead do indeed exist in another place (Cooper 35). Despite Socrates’ fatherly love for his sons, he self-assuredly requests his friends to look after sons hoping the truth of pursuing goodness above money and earthly may be passed on to his children. Socrates’ optimistic views on death and his sons overshadow any limitations for the spread of his philosophical ideas, revealing the gravity of the truth in Socrates’

therefore, should comply with the laws of the state. Speaking for the laws, Socrates says the proof of his love for the state lies in the facts that he raised his children there, never left the city, did not show interest in visiting any other city states, and most importantly, shunned the idea of exile in exchange for his life during his trial, saying he would rather die than leave Athens. By these arguments, Socrates shows that from the state’s POV, he is a loyal citizen who has chosen to live under its rules and to disobey the rules which have been accepted and instilled in him since birth, would be changing his own belief system, to benefit him in a time of need.

In this selection from The Phaedo, Plato writes about final moments of Socrates; specifically a conversation between Socrates and his numerous friends on the day of his execution (Socrates was on trial for not recognizing the Gods as the stated viewed them and corrupting the youth of Athens; he was to be executed by drinking poison). The conversation is recalled by Phaedo in his conversation with Echecrates. Phaedo was amazed at how calm Socrates remained while spending a long time in jail awaiting his execution as the holy days prevented the act from taking place.

The Athenian way of life is based on Homeric values. Up to this point in Greek history all of Greek culture has culminated in the form of democratic government. The culmination of Greek history reaches its peak during this time: from the values outlined by Homer in the Iliad and Odyssey to the life of Socrates during which the epitome of Greek culture has been met in the form of a democratic government. But Socrates undermines Greek culture and is therefore put to death. Socrates may be a hero in the philosophical movement but he is the worst of villains to the Athenians. According to ancient Athenian standards. justice is served when Socrates is killed. The three accusations made against Socrates exhibit the way in which he undermines Greek culture and the valid reasons for which he was put to death.

Philosophy can be defined as the pursuit of wisdom or the love of knowledge. Socrates, as one of the most well-known of the early philosophers, epitomizes the idea of a pursuer of wisdom as he travels about Athens searching for the true meaning of the word. Throughout Plato’s early writings, he and Socrates search for meanings of previously undefined concepts, such as truth, wisdom, and beauty. As Socrates is often used as a mouthpiece for Plato’s ideas about the world, one cannot be sure that they had the same agenda, but it seems as though they would both agree that dialogue was the best way to go about obtaining the definitions they sought. If two people begin on common ground in a conversation, as Socrates often tries to do, they are

Of all influential people in the history of the human race, there is one that stands out from the rest. It is not because of his heroic acts or physical prowess, but because of his unique perspective on the world. This person is Socrates, an ancient Greek philosopher, who changed the world with his ideas and teachings. His influence is still visible to this very day. Socrates had many influential ideas that not only affected his time, but also the current day world.

Socrates spent his time questioning people about things like virtue, justice, piety and truth. The people Socrates questioned are the people that condemned him to death. Socrates was sentenced to death because people did not like him and they wanted to shut him up for good. There was not any real evidence against Socrates to prove the accusations against him. Socrates was condemned for three major reasons: he told important people exactly what he thought of them, he questioned ideas that had long been the norm, the youth copied his style of questioning for fun, making Athenians think Socrates was teaching the youth to be rebellious. But these reasons were not the charges against him, he was charged with being an atheist and

Look into the eyes of the bust of Socrates and you can almost see what he saw in the universe. It looks as though his wisdom is unsurmountable, as he did believe himself to be the most brilliant man in the universe, while also knowing for sure: the only thing he knows is that he doesn’t know anything. Unlike the famous Kouros statues that were all alike and used for a certain purpose of a grave maker, or shrine to the gods, the portrait of Socrates shows depth and importance. During the classical period it became increasingly common for Greek sculptures to depict more realistic forms. The portrait of Socrates details a man who was not afraid to ask hard questions, it also puts across the point that he may

For Nietzsche, the dying Socrates symbolizes an ideal, in which the fear of death is conquered through reason. This ideal is problematic to Nietzsche in 3 ways: 1) it overlooks the importance of instinct and distorts the relationship between instinct and consciousness; 2) its heavy emphasis on knowledge destroys the possibility of a true tragic hero and in turn, tragedy; 3) its false belief that “thought, using the thread of causality, can penetrate the deepest abysses of being, and that thought is capable not only of knowing being but even of correcting it.”

For these reasons he see’s death as an end to all his troubles. He believes evil can do no harm to a good man, rather it be in this world or the external realm of another. Socrates comes to the realization his life has ended and theirs to be lived. Although, he does not know which would be the better selection, for that is what only God may know.