Socrates

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…

well-known figure in the future. The setting for this epic begins in 399 B.C.E in Athens, Greece, where Socrates, a man who considers himself a gadfly, is being accused of corrupting the youth, of inventing new deities, and of not recognizing the Gods. The second setting occurs in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963 with a man named Martin Luther King Jr who is also jailed unfairly, which is similar to Socrates’ situation. It is an epic about the fight for justice and the fight to change the views of…

teachings of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. When asking who the most overrated philosopher was/is, one should analyze the amount of time that is spent on the philosophers work and if the ideas are discussed more than they need to be. In this case, I would argue that Plato is the most overrated philosopher. For one, some of his dialogues do not feature himself as a character. Socrates is the main character who is debating with opponents. One can argue that Plato may have been using Socrates as a…

Socrates’s form of philosophical discussion forced the burden of the conversation upon his opponents though this questioning. In the Republic, Socrates provides an apt example of the Socratic practice as he argues against Thrasymachus. The first and foremost aspect of Socrates’s rhetoric is that he claims to speak only the truth. In the Apology, Socrates begins his speech by saying to his fellow Athenians that “From me you will hear the whole truth,…

In order to discern the personas of Socrates, one can create an image of him and his scope using the works of Aristophanes and Plato; specifically Clouds, Ion and The Republic. Even though Socrates’ thoughts and ideas were never personally composed, one can dissect the works of these authors in order to adequately gain an understanding of Socrates’ convictions as a philosopher. There is a solid distinction between the two authors; Plato wrote mostly philosophical dialogues, whereas Aristophanes…