The Use Of Simply Asking Questions: A Useful Strategy For Socrates

The goal of Socrates never ending questions, it appears, is to help the common person achieve the self knowledge that he had acquired, even if it ended up hurting himself in the end. He attempts to use his Sophist thinking in his defense, not understanding himself that this way of logically thinking rarely if ever is successful unless you are speaking with, or arguing against shares your way of thinking and philosophy. Although, I truly believe that the death sentence was barbaric and unnecessary, it really was Socrates who determined his own fate. Even after his conviction he refused to sway from his philosophical ideologies and belief system. Given the choice of being exiled from Athens or committing himself to abandon his techniques of talking with and questioning others openly, he maintained that and "unexamined life is not worth living," (Apology 38a) and would rather die that not practice and teach his Philosophy to others.

Socrates was a Greek philosopher who is known for his method of questioning referred to as the “Socratic method”. He is considered a very wise philosopher and that can be attributed to his views of knowledge and ignorance. He searches for a deeper understanding of the topics by questioning. The view that Socrates is wise contrasts his own view of himself as he does not believe that he has all the answers because his methods search for a deeper comprehensive truth of a topic but does not always provide answers. Although Socrates’ method has limitations in increasing knowledge, his method of questioning effectively combat ignorance by providing boundaries for his knowledge along with the knowledge of others.

Thus these could be the early influences to young Socrates and used their teachings as a basis to establish his own set of principles and moral philosophies. Although these philosophers did not live in the same time period as Socrates, he responded to their ideas and challenged them later on. Particularly, he challenged people to think about different things such as : what is virtue? what is justice? what do you mean by piety? Unlike other philosophers, he wanted people to consider the true meaning of qualities such as justice and courage, and therefore also challenged the Greeks conventional idea of wisdom. Socrates challenged philosophers by insisting that they must question conventional wisdom and challenge the traditional beliefs. He did this through the Socratic method, where it served to reveal the disputers lack of knowledge and ignorance. Ultimately by challenging Athenian people to think about the beliefs eventually earned him many enemies from different sectors of the society. While many Athenians admired Socrates challenges, an equal number grew resentment and felt he threatened their way of life and uncertain future. The effect of Socrates investigations had therefore aroused “a great deal of hostility” and this lead to this trial in the Athenian court of being a

The use of Socrates’ inquiry in the Meno is a perfect example to show how Socrates pushed his listeners to question their own knowledge. Socrates never told Meno his definitions were wrong and his own were right, rather continued to question Meno’s conclusions to show him that he did not know the true meaning of virtue. The people of Athens were unable to accept the fact that many of them were ignorant on topics such as the definition of virtue, whereas Socrates himself was able to admit it. The Athenians disguised Socrates’ true desire to teach people for corruption and impiety because they believed he was trying to humiliate them. Although the people of Athens were blind of Socrates’ true intentions, his method of inquiry did in fact benefit the city of Athens. Socrates’ methods eliminated ignorance and increased proper knowledge on important things such as virtue and knowledge within the city of Athens, which is what he meant when he said he was “a gift of the gods to the city of Athens.”

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 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.

Commonly the most widely renowned teachers in history often are remembered as the most intriguing teachers in history. Scholars often ask, what made their teaching style so different, or what was so unique about this educator? Perhaps the most investigated teachers of the world often left the smallest written mark on the world. No exception to this, is the philosopher, Socrates. Widely known as one of the greatest Athenian philosophers, he never wrote anything down, and is theorized as illiterate. The only record of this man lies in his student, Plato’s Dialogues, as well as references from other writers of the

Socrates is one of the greatest philosopher’s known thus far. Born around 469 B.C., he endowed with philosophical questioning of the Athens government and leaders. Socrates had a lot to say about the régime of the Athenians, plus the authority. However, it caused a lot of trouble for him because he would basically speak on how he felt about the government or how it could be managed better. To the Athenians he was spoiling the folks in Athens. Eventually, Socrates was on trial for doing this and ended with the death sentence in which he drank poison. Socrates had many strategies he used in debates, Socrates would blow the minds of people due to the fact that Socrates was extremely witty, a great thinker, and was quick with words.

Being the father of philosophy and one of the most known figures in history, Socrates is presented in many forms throughout the arts. Socrates’ thoughts and ideas are documented in Plato’s various dialogues and monologues, including The Republic, The Apology, and Gorgias. We see the image of Socrates through the eyes of Jacques-Louis David’s painting The Death of Socrates inspired by Plato's Phaedo Death Scene. Lastly, in Frederich Nietzsche critiques on Socrates. Each work of art gives a unique narrative and portrayal to who Socrates was as a dialectic and as a philosopher.

Socrates was a great thinker and debater dedicated to truth. He spent his golden years walking the streets of Athens in pursuit of wisdom. Socrates lived the destiny that was revealed to him in the Oracle. He created and perfected his own cross-examination technique; we today know it as the Socratic Method. He was thorough and unrelenting. His subjects were often humiliated. Socrates would methodically disprove anyone he thought was wrong. In his eyes, most of the people he interviewed were blind. It did not matter if one was wealthy and influential or if they were young and impressionable. Socrates could question anyone and turn him or her inside out. Unfortunately, he did so without regard to the

The skepticism found within Socrates' logic leads us to realize that he has no claims that he has answers, yet he is living and dying for the ideal that "an unexamined life is not worth living." There is no point at which Socrates is looking for followers, much like a prophet would look for disciples, for his ideals appeal to reason, not faith. Although this may be the case, he has left his contemporaries, ancient and modern day philosophers, as well as any other students of his teachings in a complete paradox. For centuries, many have attempted to carve out a middle path between the severity of his claim on the examined life, and the predestined state of doubt that surfaces with the search for justice and virtue.

On the other hand, Socrates unlike Antigone had a strategy that was effective in reaching his aim in order to improve the health of the city. Socrates strategy unlike Antigone’s was actually well conceived and because of that was far more effective. According, to the book The Trial and Death of Socrates by Plato, Socrates tells the jury that he was able to in fact able to accomplish his goal by living a private life instead of a public life in order to give himself more time to accomplish his goal (Apology pg. 34). This strategy is not only very thought through but is effective for three reasons. First, by trying to accomplish his goal privately instead of publicly he granted himself more time to reach his goal since if he tried to do this publicly the Athenian council would have silenced him long ago. Second, by trying to reach his goal privately he was able to reach a larger audience since anyone could have heard him speak about various topics and debate those who claimed to be wise. As a result,of this Socrates gained many followers like Crito and Plato, who helped him spread his message in order to reach his goal. Third, by initiating this strategy Socrates unlike Antigone was able to directly improve the health of the city by successfully providing a service that the people of Athens clearly needed.

Socrates put one’s quest for wisdom and the instruction of others above everything else in life. A simple man both in the way he talked and the wealth he owned, he believed that simplicity in whatever one did was the best way of acquiring knowledge and passing it unto others. He is famous for saying that “the unexplained life is not worth living.” He endeavored therefore to break down the arguments of those who talked with a flowery language and boasted of being experts in given subjects (Rhees 30). His aim was to show that the person making a claim on wisdom and knowledge was in fact a confused one whose clarity about a given subject was far from what they claimed. Socrates, in all his simplicity never advanced any theories of his own

He talked to ordinary people about ordinary subjects. He talked about how to make friends, how to treat children, how to support female relations in bad times, how to receive the greatness of his country, the evidence for the existence of God, what knowledge is, and whether goodness can be taught. He had all the right intentions and all he wanted was to make people realize was their capacity of logical solutions to the level of their capacity. All the cross-questioning, which seemed so tiresome, so negative, had a positive purpose. Here is his own description of it: "I spend my whole life in going about and persuading you all to give your first and chiefest care to the perfection of your souls, and not till you have done that to think of your bodies, or your wealth; and telling you that virtue does not come from wealth, but that wealth and every other good thing which men have, whether in public or in private, comes from virtue. " (Portrait of Socrates, 1979) Socrates, he is the questioner, the tester, the man who finds it intolerable to lead an uncritisized life or disillusionment or annoyance with human stupidity but from positive beliefs.

Socrates was a philosopher in c. 470 BCE-c. 399 BCE. He was a pioneer in an education method, which focused on discovering answers by asking question from his students. Charleston College, 2018 pointed out that Socrates believed that “the disciplined practice of thoughtful questioning enable the student/scholar to examine ideas and be able to determine the validity of those ideas” The focus point of the Socratic Thought, is to challenges student to feel confident and worth of question what is validated and accepted as norms. One of the strength of Socratic Thought was and as is today, in not just accepted what is stablished, is to go deeply under the surface and analyzing reasons, consequences and the impact that those assumption make to group and individuals (Alain de Bottom 2013).