Socrates

Plato’s dialogue “Crito” starts off with Socrates being visited in his jail cell by a long time friend, Crito. Socrates is in jail because he was sentenced to death for a few reasons. One include engaging in inquiries into things beneath the Earth and in the heavens, and of making the weaker argument appear stronger and teaching it to others. They were accusing him of being sophist, in other words, a teacher of the higher. For these charges he was sentenced to death, but had a chance to rebuttal…

“I do not know” is the go to answer for a question that cannot be answered, but to one man it means more. That man is Socrates and his philosophy is based on that wisdom is based on how much a person knows. Since Socrates knew he did not know much, he was very wise according to his daemon because he did not claim to know more than he did. Many people today see Socrates 6as an icon to be cherished forever because of his “wisdom”, but people forget to ask where his moral philosophy comes from.…

on a conversation between Socrates and his friend, Crito. The conversation is centered on the idea of justice, injustice and the appropriate response to injustice. Socrates, who has been imprisoned and sentenced to death based on false charges, believes that one should not respond to injustice with more injustice. So, while Socrates’ imprisonment was unjust, escaping would be unjust as well, because, by escaping, Socrates would be breaking the law. Crito presents Socrates with multiple reasons…

imprisonment for fifteen years was better than the death penalty. Like Socrates in Plato’s Crito the lawyer was trying to contest society’s beliefs. While in confinement the lawyer reads many books, whose topics ranged from languages to philosophy. After fifteen years of solitary confinement the lawyer rejects his prize money and defaults on the bet, just hours before winning. I wonder if the man had read the Crito. We can reason that Socrates’ philosophy could have inspired the man to decide…

Republic. The platonic Socrates is a strong advocate for the power of philosophy over poetry, especially when promoting justice among citizens in a community. Ultimately the Republic has often been regarded as “an attack on poetry,” while noting that there is definitely “a quarrel between philosophy and poetry” (Griswold). While this is the common belief, Socrates actually has the same beliefs that align with some of those that Homer presents in his epic poetry. Platonic Socrates also argues…

The Argument for the Immortality of the Soul When Socrates and Meno are halted in their argument by a paradox, Socrates proposes a new idea that will solve the paradox and continue their conversation. He states that the soul is immortal and it has learned everything in past lives. Thus, what men call learning is actually a process of recollection. I will first be giving context as to how this idea came into the dialogue with Meno. Next, I will explain how he puts the same idea forward in Phaedo…

In both the Apology and the Crito, Socrates engages in a critique of the Athenian government and society. Socrates’ main criticism stems from the fact that Athens is a democracy. In doing so, Socrates rails against the Athenian way of life that democracy fostered. Through his arguments, Socrates delineates how he believes that a person and a society should act, i.e. justly, and how they should not. While neither the Apology nor the Crito offer a solution to these problems, Plato attempts to…

Socrates’ Rejection of Machiavellian Political Immorality The people and principles around which a state should be formed has concerned political philosophers for centuries. Leaders must possess certain qualities and skills to create a solidified political entity. Certain principles provide a standard from which a state exercises its authority. For Machiavelli, the ideal leader possesses virtù and is not bound by traditional morality. Socrates, in contrast, values a leader who is just, honest,…

Socrates has the capability to reverse roles in his own trial in order to further prove himself as a paradigm of virtue. Plato creates this Socratic irony through the image of Socrates as a gadfly on the rear of a horse, which represents Athens. Socrates begins this metaphor by saying that he is “far from making a defense speech on my [his] own behalf, as someone might suppose. I [Socrates] do it rather on your behalf, so that you do not do something wrong concerning the gift of the god” by…

Aristophanes’ comedy the Clouds, Socrates is charged with the corruption of the youth, by teaching them to disregard the traditional values of piety, and the authority of the laws of Athens. Plato, one of the primary advocates and followers of Socrates attempts to defend Socrates from these charges in his dialogues Euthyphro and the Apology by characterizing him as a martyr of justice against a city corrupted by fear in realizing its own fragility. Plato’s depiction of Socrates’ defense in both…