Prodicus

Frustrated of the status quo, humans have been attempting to alter the circumstance for their favor or overcome adversity by modifying customs and laws, whether it is for a noble cause, such as the American Revolution; or for a selfish purpose, like Strepsides does to avoid the debts in the Clouds. Aristophanes depicts the bizarre logic of characters like Socrates and Strepsides in the Clouds, a satirical comedy, to convey his animosity toward the new education along with its “Inferior Argument”, furthermore advocating an elimination of the new education. Some may assert that the issue might be solved by removing ridiculous educators like Socrates, as what Strepsiades commits in the end of the play, since the so called “philosophy” would not spread without its origin. However, such action inevitably fails to solve the issue due to the human nature of selfishness and its lack of justification. Since Pheidippides and Strepsiades had already been selfish, even lazy, before they encounter Socrates, Socrates appears as an advocate of sophistry and selfishness instead of their creator. At the beginning of the play, Strepsiades has been “up all night trying to concoct a plan to get [Strepsiades] out of this mess” and found “one drastic course, an extraordinary supernatural trail” (line 76, 77), which is making Pheidippides master Inferior Argument. Strepsiades is actually foolish and selfish enough to believe that “Inferior Argument can debate an ‘unjust’ case and win” (line 115)…

One of these playwrights is Euripides. He was the tragedian of Athens, which means that he wrote the tragic plays, such as Medea. He was born on Salamis Island in around 480BC. His parents were Cleito (his mother) and Mnesarchus (his father) was a retailer who lived in a village near Athens. When an Oracle said that his son was destined to win "crowns of victory", Mnesarchus insisted that Euripides should train for a job in athletics, but Euripedes was destined to be a playwright, even though he…

He was mentored by Anaxagoras, Protagoras, and Prodicus and was also a close friend to Socrates (Lefkowitz 89). In Aristophanes’ later works, the poet provides the character of Euripides with most likely exaggerated religious views. In The Frogs, Euripides’ character is said to pray to different gods than everyone else, and in Thesmophoriazusae, a woman accuses Euripides of “persuading people that the gods do not exist.” (Lefkowitz 93) While Aristophanes and the comic poets did not say anything…

Aristotle understand to be the “science of being qua being?” How is the theory of axioms related to this? What is the most fundamental of all axioms? How does he go about establishing this? Is he successful in this regard? Why or why not? Aristotle understands the “science of being qua being” to be primary being, or what is real in the most fundamental sense that everything else must come from. This means that philosophy is investigating the state of being itself, and must find primary being in…

secondly, the most powerful men in Athens began to hate him for making them look foolish. Socrates explains, “From this examination, men of Athens, much hostility has arisen against me of a sort that is harshest and most onerous. This has resulted in many slanders, including that reputation I mentioned of being ‘wise’” . Socrates’ skillful cross examinations have led people to believe he is a sophist when in reality he believes he has no knowledge at all. Socrates is accused of being a sophist…

of the three great Athenians writers of tragedy. Aristotle often called Euripides the most tragic poet of all. It is debatable what Euripides exact birth year is, but it is known that it is somewhere between 485 and 480. Euripides parents, although not as high up as Aeschylus, were respectable people. Even though they owned land on the island of Salamis, his father was often called a peddler and his mother was called a market women. Euripides had two known wives named Melito and Choirile. He…

asking Medea – inflicting rage and grief. The plays of Euripides and Seneca and their translations show the differences amongst the societies in the periods of these authors and how Medea’s story would have been interpreted through various comparisons and contrasts. Rising in very different times and in cities that were historically enemies, Euripides was the first to give his rendition of the story of Medea, but Seneca’s version is considered just as popular although the two conflict in…