Socrates 's Views On Philosophy

Socrates was a Western Ancient Athenian Greek philosopher who lived from 469 BCE until his death in 399 BCE. He was a student to another philosopher, Sophists, Socrates was different from most Greek philosophers he wanted to get at the truth and find out how one can truly be ‘good’ and moral in life. “To Socrates the soul is identified with the mind; it is the seat of reason and capable of finding the ethical truths, which will restore meaning and value of life” (ADD IN-TEXT CITATION SEMINAR). We continue to use many of Socrates teachings today, such as, ‘The Socratic method’, which is known as asking a question and within these questions you lead it to the answer you wanted to hear, many uses this as a teaching technique and is shown to be highly effective. A great number of Athenians looked up to Socrates and considered him the wise man of Athens, he had many followers whom would ask questions and seek answers. As popularity and following of Socrates grew so did accusations. The charges laid on Socrates by the Athenians were unjust and therefore his death was highly wrong in the eyes of true democracy that Athens was apparently known for. In this paper, I will discuss how Socrates was wrongfully convicted for the corruption of the youth despite having many young followers, introducing new Gods while still being considered an Atheist, and the main reason he was seen as a threat to Athens was that he brought change to the city.

Born in Athens in 437 B.C, Greek philosopher Plato is one of the most powerful thinkers in history. Coming from Greek aristocracy, Plato had political ambitions as a young man and appeared to follow the family tradition. However, Socrates and his dialectical method of inquiry, which was to question and answer everything to show ignorance, soon captivated Plato.

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

In 399 B.C., Socrates, a seventy year old man, was brought to trial. He faced several accusations of different sorts. Initially, the court had pronounced Socrates guilty. However, because the law had no penalty ordained for his offense, it was required of Socrates to propose his own penalty, or to take the one suggested by Meletos, the death penalty. When the time had come for Socrates to state his defense, he addressed each of the accusations made against him, one by one, in attempt to absolve himself from wrong doing. The first accusation Socrates chose to contest declared that he was a student of natural philosophy. This meant that Socrates was believed to be one who sought to replace mythical explanations of

Political and social theories between the two philosophers were very different. Plato had very Totalitarian or even communist views for state government. He in his novel The Republic, he describes in much detail his utopian society. He felt society should be organized into three groups: “rulers, auxiliaries and labourers.”(Gaarder 91) The rulers or guardian class would have reason; education and intelligence this would make them well suited for leadership. Plato called these rulers ‘Philosopher Kings’, they would rule for the good of all in the society. Philosopher

Socrates was a classical Greek philosopher who played a role in the rise of Western Philosophy. He had lived his entire life in Athens, where a polytheistic religion was well established. Despite the local religion, he made an effort to construct a moral philosophy established on logic rather than theology. Socrates challenged standard Greek knowledge, which angered those around him and felt that Socrates posed a threat to their way of life. One of these people brought Socrates to trial accusing him of impiety and corrupting the youth.

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

Socrates is a widely renowned teacher, who has taught and demonstrated a variety of lessons that regard how he views the world. Socrates has described his view on morality, purpose, death, and the ultimate. He has spoken about these views through multiple texts including The Last Days of Socrates and they have been interpreted through the text Socrates by George Rudebusch. Through these worldviews, Socrates has given people the opportunity to expand their wisdom and question the world around them.

Socrates was put to death in 399 B.C.E. for allegedly “corrupting the youth of Athens”, by questioning the nature of their beliefs. (Fiero)

Socrates taught his students by asking them questions to find truth. He developed the “Socratic Method” by asking all questions and people thought he was annoying. He thought that Athenian democracy was full of selfish people “who gained power and wealth by using speech-making tricks and flattery to gain the support of citizens.” Some Athenians saw Socrates as a threat. He went to trial that lasted one hour and was found guilty by the jury. He was sentenced to death by poison and he refused to escape because he believed that all citizens had to obey the state.

“Socrates, born in Athens in the 5th century BCE, marks a watershed in ancient Greek philosophy.” Compared to the others he had the greatest impact on Greek civilization. Socrates challenged and question the norm. He “taught that no one desires what is bad, and so if anyone does something that truly is bad, it must be unwillingly or out of ignorance; consequently, all virtue

Socrates is known in today’s world as one of the greatest philosophers in history. Born in 469 BC just outside of Athens, Socrates was properly brought up and thoroughly educated, he developed both physical and mental strengths. Socrates spent time with the philosopher Archelaus, where he studied astronomy, mathematics, and was introduced to philosophy. Archelaus taught with a scientific approach. Socrates turned from this approach and created his own. He decided instead of trying to understand the universe, he would try to understand himself. Socrates spent many days in the Athens marketplace where he became skilled in the art of arguing.

After reading each of the essays of this week it seemed pretty evident that they each were similar and different in many different ways. The difficult task is deciphering the older writings to get to the truth the author was trying to portray. It seems that the older of the two works, The Republic and Meditations on the First Philosophy seem to more of a reality that we are in this world just the world is not what we expect.

As an Athenian philosopher, Socrates spent his life in constant pursuit of insight. He loved engaging in conversations that helped him derive philosophical views on a number of different issues. The birth of ideas through critical reasoning can be credited back to his method of teaching, which is now known as the Socratic Method. Although widely respected today, many of his teachings were found controversial in Athenian times. Socrates was placed on trial and put to death soon after because of the disapproval of his ideas.

Throughout the late 400’s-300 B.C. Socrates was an Athenian from humble beginnings. He developed his philosophy from those that came before him known today as “Pre-Socratic Philosophers”. However, these ideas, which he shared with his fellow citizens, got him the attention of higher power in the democrat state. He battle hard for his life but to no avail the jury saw he was still guilty for “corrupting the youth” and “disproving of the Gods.” His beliefs were seen as radical and therefore the majority of Athenians believed he should be put to death. However his beliefs lived on through his close friends who tried very hard to have keep him alive. He was known for the ways in which he convinced his audience. The Socratic method is the deep questioning of something that a large majority believes to be the correct and sometimes only answer. Such as Justice it is a simple word that many know the meaning of, however, using the Socratic method we can dig deeper into “what really is justice?” Socrates had his audience questioning morals and had them thinking deeper than just the “well... justice is to give someone what they deserve”. But, he would question, if they are innocence is justice served, if a punishment is not what they deserve? To question this thinking ended with many of socrates talking would feel as though they have been humiliated.