Socrates Report

FUTTER, DYLAN. “Socrates Human Wisdom.” Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review 52.1 (2013): 61-79. Humanities International Complete. Print.

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’.

Interpersonal communication can vary from personal relationships, professional relationships, and on to family relationships. Dan and Ann-Marie show the signs of the romantic relationship stages, however, Ann-Marie and Mitch also show these signs. Stage one, whenever, Ann-Marie ask about the books at the bookstore is initiating. Stage two, when they begin to discuss about what like to do would relate to the experimenting stage. Stage three, would be whenever they go and have lunch together and just spend the evening together, this would be intensifying. The rest of the stages they shuffle through and aren’t particularly in order, however, they still end up going through them. Another relationship that is shown is the relationship between Dan and his children. They show a nuclear family, which is the Dan, Jane, Cara, and Lilly. This relationship goes on to change whenever Dan and Ann-Marie get married, it creates a stepfamily. We can also relate the four different panes to Dan’s life. The open area of Dan’s life is whenever he is using his own intellect to give others advice in his columns. The hidden area of his life could be whenever the people from the newspaper come to his house and he doesn’t tell them completely about his life. The blind area would be whenever his family and everyone around him knows that he is lonely, however he thinks he is content by himself, but his actions speak differently. The last area, is the unknown area, which could relate to the scene where he is playing the guitar, Ann-Marie didn’t know he could play, and I think he forgot he

The problem with Socrates concerns the problem with the role of value and reason. Nietzsche believes that the bulk of philosophers claim that life is a corrupt grievance for mankind. Nietzsche reasoned that these life deniers were decadents of Hellenism, as a symptom of some underlying melancholy. For someone to paint life in such a negative light they must have suffered a great deal through the course of their own life. Furthermore, these no-sayers agreed in various physiological ways and thus adopted the same pessimistic attitudes towards life. Socrates was ugly, alike decadent criminals and by ways of these similarities was decadent as well. Nietzsche also claims ugliness as a physiological symptom of life in its decline supported by studies in phenology.

when the girl came in to tell him how happy she was that he was leaving. “Then she

In 469 B.C. a man by the name of Socrates was born. Socrates was a very wise man that cared about doing the right thing. He believed that the best ways to develop ideas was in the give and take of conversation, and that the best way to educate people was to ask them a series of questions leading in a particular direction (now named “Socrates method). Socrates had been quick to identify the drawbacks of democracy, and he had also been the teacher of two men who in different ways harmed Athens: Alcibiades and Critias. Which made the parents of the children that Socrates had taught very upset and angry. Granting all this, it lead to the Trial of Socrates 399 B.C. During this trial Socrates expressed his view of death by using his question-and-answer method, for which he was famous for and what seemed to have gotten him in trouble. Socrates did not write so we have to depend on on what others wrote, and by doing that we now get to see the diverse ways people read and understand what was written about his speech. My chosen primary source, Socrates View on Death, is important, because it gives one view of Socrates speech while my outside source, Ancient Greece, gives a slightly more in depth view.

stuff. He plans a surprise trip to where she states she lives to get to the bottom of it. After meeting with

He told his wife that he had already started telling the truth and he didn’t want her to lie anymore

in the past. He will tell her that he will be a great dad if she returns.

In addition to a strategic approach to his teaching, Socrates also had very high expectations for successful students of his, and their thought processes. Not only were his questions intentional, he had specific expectations from each of his students. “Socrates wasn't after brainless disciples. He was trying to create a new breed of thinkers, ones who explored the world with their mind,” (MythologyTeacher.com). Socrates expected students to pick up on his teaching approach and be courageous enough to propel his discussions forward with their own questions. An example of a model student,

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

He goes on to tell the story of why he began to challenge the intellectuals of society in the first place. Socrates tells of a deceased friend by the name of Chaerephon who “… went to Delphi and boldly asked the oracle to tell him whether… there was anyone wiser than I [Socrates] was, and the Pythian prophetess answered that there was no man wiser.” This troubles Socrates, and he contemplates what this statement really means. Unable to come to a sound conclusion, he devises a plan to get the answer he seeks: “I reflected that if I could only find a man wiser than myself, then I might go to the god with a refutation in my hand. I should say to him, ‘Here is a man who is wiser than I am; but you said that I was the wisest.’” After meeting with a man who had a reputation for being wise, however, Socrates departed without the man wiser than he. He left the man, thinking to himself: “Well, although I do not suppose that either of us knows anything really beautiful and good, I am better off than he is – for he knows nothing, and thinks that he knows.” After encounters with multiple men who possess supposed wisdom, Socrates realizes the prophecy must be correct: “… but the truth is, O men of Athens, that God only is wise; and in this oracle he means to say that the wisdom of men is little or nothing…” Socrates proceeds to question Meletus in front of the councilmen. He questions Meletus about the charges he has brought against him and his reasons

he has ideas that he did not know he had before the encounter with Socrates.

Socrates continues the conversation with Glaucon and now focuses on the obligation of the guardians and philosophers to serve the people as a result of their education.

Dan did not realize that he had been living in the future and in the past, but when he did, he started succeeding in sports and started building more meaningful relationships. This was an impactful way of showing people how focusing on the present can positively impact one’s life. The story is packed with advice on how to live life and how to succeed in life. Dan was taught to focus on every moment. At one point in the story an old man Dan met told Dan, “You’re missing out on everything that’s going on… The only thing that matters is this moment, here,now.”(Millman,2006) After the talk, Dan started to focus on the present and began to improve in his sport, gymnastics. The story has an effect on many people’s emotions because Dan shatters the bone in his leg and is unable to practice and compete for months in his favorite sport. Countless people can connect to this because they are athletes or people who have jobs they cannot do anymore due to an injury or a medical condition they have. This story shows those people that while they are not able to do some of the things they love, they can still succeed and be happy. By focusing on their present feelings they will not dwell on what they used to love, but find a new love they can do or practice recovering so they can get back to where they used to be. The old man shows Dan how to succeed and not only focus on gymnastics. He