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Commentary on Plato's Apology of Socrates

people who have experienced this accuse socrates of making his own truths about the natural and unnatural world when in actuality he his still in search of a better meaning. at this point, if socrates does not actually believe in the gods, this is no longer simply irony:  it would be an outright lie. every attempt that was made to prove thrasymuchus wrong was badgered by bad comments of socrates trying to manipulate him and the others. it is also noteworthy that, again, socrates credits his accusers with an evil intention that otherwise he finds hard to credit to anyone, since he thinks that no one knowingly does wrong. one, socrates corrupted the youth and two, socrates believed in ‘false gods’. competition between the greek cities was intense, and an olympic victor could expect a hero's welcome at home, receive a pension or other privileges, mentioned by socrates in the apology itself at 36d, or have some landmark named after him, like the grove and gymnasium of akadêmos, later chosen by plato as the site for his school, the academy (, akadémeia). as this is an account by plato of socrates,how much do we know is true or not about the beliefs of socrates -> hence the socratic problem. instead of a rather disturbing pitch for obedience, here socrates' gives prudential reasons:  in exile, either he will talk as he usually does, or he won't. fortunately, prosecuting socrates probably required another vote of the prytanes, so that was not going to happen while he was present. although socrates’ ideology set the basis for western thought, his dedication to his beliefs brought him about as a polarizing figure in athens. this bears keeping in mind as a question about socrates, but meletus is too slow to pick up on it here and belabor socrates with the inconsistency. therefore, socrates was not clearly right in escaping and would have violated his principles." since the phrase daimónia kainá leaves it so vague about what socrates is supposed to have been teaching, he now wants to clarify the matter." socrates' examination on the first charge is directed to showing that meletus doesn't have any ideas about education and so really hasn't thought about it." socrates gave up the ordinary goods of city life to pursue his investigation." while the greek word can just mean "to dissemble," we can tell from this that the modern, subtle meaning of "irony" (, eirôneía) in fact goes back to socrates himself, who here uses the word about himself." in a modern court, the whole case of meletus, anytus, and lycon would be thrown out because they do not have standing, they are not personally "victims" of socrates and, evidently, don't have any relatives who are -- they can't even get "victims" to testify by a public solicitation of them (as in a "class action" lawsuit). they didn't; but then socrates gets down to the craftsmen, who do know something, but have neither the reputation nor the actual knowledge of "political virtue" either." socrates has already said that he questions "citizen and stranger," so we have a pretty complete catalogue of who he is likely to meet on the street, except women. so, not knowing which, socrates is just not going to worry about it." socrates may be a source, not just of blessings to the city, but of evils, though only by being mistreated. the answer lies in socrates realization that taking the right course of action is more important than one that will save him. the following essay will analyze three quotes from apology and crito, find the correlation between them, and reveal any flaws that may exsist inside these arguments made by socrates." such an ironic request at least rubs it in that socrates wasn't doing anything wrong. since a great many people, even in the jury, have actually heard socrates talking at one time or another (since he does so publicly), he confidently calls on them to inform everyone else if socrates has ever talked much about any of the subjects imputed to him. unfortunately, xenophon was not a philosopher, did not, i expect, understand socrates very well, also, as he admits, was not at the trial, and did not try to reproduce the whole speech. we are from the formation of this completely just city introduced us to the minds of the “philosopher-kings” who are to be the rulers of socrates’ city.- in the symposium, written by plato, socrates and others engage in a dialogue in the home of agathon on love. peace; in the platonic dialogues they play a crucial role in the apology of socrates and the crito. on the apology of socrates, note 2;the rivers of hades." so now we get the definition of the "human wisdom" that socrates mentioned earlier." although socrates avoids mentioning him by name here, he does mention him, namely aristophanes, shortly." this is a rather strong rejection by socrates of any association with the presocratics or sophists, their projects or their reputations. socrates' technique, as we see in the euthyphro, is simply to ask questions." we are reminded of the detailed comparison of socrates' situation to battle. similarly, in the trial of socrates (plato’s apology), meletus’ fallacies in reason and his eventual mistake of contradicting himself will clear the accusations placed on socrates. what socrates says gets him in trouble with his jury, but anyone saying similar things today -- on the "excellence (virtue, , areté) of a judge" -- would receive summary jail sentences for "contempt of court" from modern judges suffering from the "insolence of office. by the time of socrates' trial, twenty-four years had passed since the first performance of the play, and, as socrates says, some people have grown up knowing socrates more from the play than from life. crito tries to change socrates mind about escaping by presenting him with several arguments. on the analogy of battle, socrates is bound to obey his commanders, about real ones he will shortly remind us. many scholars believe that socrates earned his living as a stone mason and then later on abandoned this trade to pursue enlightenment. but, as these things go, socrates' voice is pretty unusual. socrates’ philosophy was based on discovering the truth, understanding moral life and talking about the elements that make up a good life." this gives the impression that there is a lot more to this than socrates has detailed." socrates' irony at new heights, since it is unlikely that the jury would ever consider trying to find another like socrates.- in walter mosley’s always outnumbered, always outgunned, the reader is introduced to socrates fortlow, an ex-convict who served twenty-seven years for murder and rape." while socrates has now claimed to be a great benefit, indeed a gift of the god, to the city, he has nevertheless not bestowed this gift in the customary and expected way, through political action. a modern interpretation that he was really an atheist is relying on some other inspiration, like modern secular humanism, and not on classical authors or the context of socrates' own arguments. is the point to discuss this problem, since socrates will mention these young men shortly (23c), but he doesn't do a very good job of explaining why people are angry about them. we do not know if socrates was an initiate or not."socrates is a doer of evil and corrupter of the youth, and he does not believe in the gods of the state. this would make perfect sense for plato, since suffering evil merely harms the body, while doing evil harms the soul. the trial for his life in 399 bc, socrates, , astonished his listeners by appearing, despite his vigorous defense, to deliberately provoke the jury and get himself found guilty and condemned to death. jury votes to put socrates to death, evidently by a larger margin than they had to find him guilty.

Essay Plato's Apology of Socrates and Crito - 1326 Words | Bartleby

the stoics would follow socrates with the proposition that happiness should depend entirely on virtue. socrates’ argument was unique in that he tried to convince the jury he was just an average man and not to be feared, but in actuality demonstrated how clever and tenacious he was. mentioning this, socrates may remind the jury that they suspected the stratêgoí of impiety, just like him. if socrates is thinking of a particular god, and he is, he never does actually name the god, though later we will have no difficulty understanding who it is -- the "god at delphi" is apollo.- justice in socrates’ city while adeimantus and glaucon appear to enthusiastically accept socrates’ conclusions about the nature and benefits of justice at the end of book iv, even going so far as to complete his argument about the profit of justice themselves, they only do so because they have followed socrates’ argument linearly without going back to test new claims against established premises." although the charge was ambiguous, socrates finds it hard to believe that meletus is really going to go ahead and say this, despite the difficulty that he is sure to have maintaining it in the face of the words of his own accusation." again, we have the aspect of public benefit from socrates' private doings. because socrates was supposed to have had a "pug-nose," and the greeks said that all "ethiopians" had pug-noses. socrates' accusers, one way or another, think that they are doing something just and pious. following exchange is the only time that someone besides socrates speaks in the apology, and it is the only example we have in this work of socrates' method of asking questions.- from the very beginning of the republic of plato it has been socrates’ aim to prove to adeimantus and glaucon, why men lead just lives." this is a noteworthy passage in light of the other reasons for not going into exile that socrates gives in the crito. in light of socrates and plato's homoerotic comments, this is well worth keeping in mind." the problem is that, not being guilty, socrates doesn't deserve any penalty. socrates’ thoughts on the subjects of rhetoric and writing will be the main points of this paper." socrates restates, even more bluntly, the thrust of the previous passages, that he is going to do what he does, regardless of what they say or do, even if they could kill him many times. human wisdom is thus knowledge of human ignorance, and this is uniquely the possession of socrates, which is why no one is wiser." so, it turns out, meletus thinks that socrates is the only bad influence in athens. attacking socrates for the sins of the presocratics and sophists, indeed, makes no more sense than defending these same people against insult.- socrates once said, “the unexamined life is not worth living. not only did athens kill socrates, but the democracy had carried on in such a high handed way with the city's own allies, that a large part of athens' defeat in the peloponnesian war was due to allies going over to sparta. however, once accused, socrates does not escape from prison and later, execution, for: "socrates is confident that justice and morality are always in our interest. he thinks that they associated with socrates just for their own ambitious purposes, hoping perhaps to acquire his own facility with argument -- "as soon as they thought themselves superior to their fellow-disciplines they sprang away from socrates and took to politics" (ii-16; loeb trans. in any case, there is no basis in either xenophon or plato for modern speculation about the bean oracle. after everyone has spoken, including socrates, alcibiades enters and gives a eulogy of socrates. the laws didn’t find socrates guilty; socrates was guilty because his jurors enforced the laws. in the apology, plato is accused of corrupting the youth of athens and of atheism, to elaborate on these they are one and the same as socrates is claimed to have corrupted the minds of the youth by atheistic ideals…. socrates was a political philosopher who did not agree with these freedoms provided by the athenic democracy. achilles was not entirely a good man, did not necessarily do the right thing; but in thinking of him as good, noble, and righteous, socrates pursues his project of morally cleaning up greek religion and breaking away from the fifth characteristic of mythopoetic thought.." since socrates acts like his accusers know that they are prosecuting an innocent man, then they know that they are behaving unjustly and impiously." socrates enters into his "mission from the god" (like the "mission from god" of the blues brothers [1980]), which is to test the oracle continuously by giving everyone a chance to refute it.- socrates - definitions of piety      during the periclean age (around 400 b.- recounting the last days of socrates in crito in the last days of socrates the dialogue “crito” recounts socrates last days before his execution." socrates is going to claim for himself "human wisdom" ( , anthrôpínê sophía). socrates was born in a village on the side of mount lycabettus." since socrates questions people in public, it is not his business to drive away anyone from the crowd that it draws. so too with divine things: since socrates believes in a diamon (a divine thing), it follows that he believes in divinities. as socrates later makes fairly clear (33b), his business was not to teach anyone anything. the movie even has socrates anticipating the title line of the long-running nbc soap opera, "days of our lives." supplying the noun "divinities" or "beings" implies that what socrates' teaching is about living things, or actual gods." since socrates denies that he is acting out of arrogance, he is evidently aware that his defense could be interpreted in that way. some young men, like plato himself, had some notion of what socrates was about, and that it was not just a game. socrates did the right thing by not escaping from jail because if he had escaped he would be contradicting everything he ever believed and said, and that would be the worst possible thing for socrates.” – socrates the apology in this literature review i will discuss both socrates and jesus christ (jesus). socrates would not be seen as a possible enemy of athens if all his friends had done was ask questions." socrates is always interested in what people believe, not with hypothetical propositions.. socrates says he is accused of being "an accomplished speaker. so chairephon simply asked the pythia, "is anyone wiser than socrates?" the poets are, as socrates says, , enthousiázontes, "inspired," those in (en) whom is the spirit (, theós) -- getting us the word "enthusiasm," which was still used by john locke (1632-1704) to mean possession by the holy spirit. comparing the gods to asses may not convey quite the right tone of reverence to the jury that socrates should like. socrates would rather die searching for the truth than live accepting what he considered a blatant lie." when it comes to socrates' attitude towards the democracy, this doesn't sound too good.” this is the famous quote proclaimed by socrates, a controversial philosopher of ancient athens. i will first explain the most important issues of why socrates was sent to death.

The Apology: Socrates' Defense

but his friends going over to or collaborating with the spartans -- that raises the issue of socrates' own loyalty. as socrates is often used as a mouthpiece for plato’s ideas about the world, one cannot be sure that they had the same agenda, but it seems as though they would both agree that dialogue was the best way to go about obtaining the definitions they sought.- socrates: the stubborn seeker of truth socrates had one of the most critical minds in greece." so socrates is thought of as a presocratic and/or sophist, and everything people believe about their teachings is attributed to him.. socrates was wrongly accused and sentenced to death, but his knowledge lives on. socrates, we have drugs that will make those nasty voices go away." again, the important notice that socrates' listeners have grown up with his reputation, not necessarily with him. people are talking among themselves or shouting protests, and socrates must periodically quiet them.- socrates, guilty or not ancient athens was the site of a growing culture. through the formation of the city of thought we are first introduced to socrates idea of what his ideally just city would be like and how it would be formed." so socrates is proposing that he be made a "parasite" on the city. but in avoiding a more forthright discussion of the "young men," socrates actually didn't do the best job in dispelling those slanders. we have no record of socrates questioning any alcoholics, but it certainly would have been an interesting encounter. the more traditional translation, however, may also have been based on some idea that socrates was a monotheist. they did bad things, and what they did damaged socrates' reputation. since socrates' accusers see him as a sort of generic philosopher, all of this is attributed to him. we must ask something rather like what socrates asked meletus:  who has knowledge of the law to enforce it in the first place? this section also reveals, with many others to be sure, socrates' citizenship and kinship at athens. in plato’s apology socrates explains to the jury the reasons he should be found not guilty against his accused crimes. in this instance, socrates had made a mockery of meletus by having him state to the jury that socrates, alone, is the . this is what happened, and various versions of the apology of socrates were produced. this idea that there will be more justice in a city as compared to a single person sets socrates off on an extended tangent trying to create the just city, kalliⲑpolis. closer associates, indeed, would be little inclined to put on the airs that socrates has no difficulty eliciting from him. along side commending socrates for his strong beliefs, and having the courage to stand by those convictions, socrates can be commended for many other desirable characteristics. plato experienced this situation when socrates, his teacher and friend, accepted the ruling of death from an athenian court. it is my belief that socrates was a good person with good morals. the basic principle, however, is simple enough: socrates asks questions until he finds a contradiction in what the person says. in plato's symposium, a drinking party where socrates and aristophanes are both present, they seem friendly enough." socrates gives meletus the chance to produce any witnesses, victims or relatives, of his corruption to testify against him. anytus said that the jury must execute socrates, because if he is not executed or, even worse, not found guilty, he will have become a sensation and even more youth will flock to him and be corrupted. using the analogy of a magnet, with the power to draw one rhapsode ring to itself, and through that another, and another, socrates says that homer himself had no knowledge of his own writing his poetry, but was divinely possessed." they are also, interestingly, the people of socrates' own class. thus, socrates sees people as doing what they regard as right, because that is the way they talk about it. both socrates’ elenchus and the scientific method have similarities and differences. it is socrates, not just his accusers, who leaves out the nouns. plato did use socrates as a "character" for delivering his own philosophical treatises as well as some of socrates'." so socrates knows that death is good, but he still doesn't know just what it is. though he never wrote anything, his soul source of knowledge about him came from one of his students, plato." such a careful qualification is always a red flag when we are dealing with socrates. socrates in his dialogue says, “think not of life and children first, and of justice afterwards, but of justice first. his accusers have sent out a warning that socrates is a “clever” speaker and he clarifies that he would admit that he is an orator if a “clever speaker” is one who speaks the truth. so the origin of socrates' reputation is in the embarrassment that he causes these people. this is where the apology begins, as we can tell, since socrates initially comments on what he has just heard from his prosecutors." socrates says that this is a "moderate" fee, but how moderate is it?'; this is to an extent the same idea that socrates said in the quote….. socrates refers to his manner of speech as "things spoken at random and expressed in the first words that come to mind. (soccio) socrates was wise in respect to the fact that he never accepted a “truth” that was told to him, without getting incontestable evidence to back it up. both socrates and jesus had many things in common yet, they we’re different. play in question by aristophanes was the the clouds (423, rewritten 418), whose name comes from socrates being shown floating up in the clouds -- like all philosophers." this is the formula that socrates repeats, whose origin will be evident shortly. on the apology of socrates, note 1;the olympic games and the other panhellenic games. plato himself, and his brother adeimantus (who turns up in the republic) are there -- a nice way of telling us in passing that plato's report of the apology is his own eyewitness account. yet neither xenophon, nor plato, nor aristotle allow that socrates was actually an atheist, as charged by meletus. well, its membership was drawn by lot, so just as an athenian citizen socrates was liable to be called up.

Apology- Plato essays

socrates is on trial for his life, his prosecutors (meletus, anytus, and lycon) are private individuals. socrates says "the sign (, sêmeîon) of the god ( , toû theoû)." sometimes it is said that the whole apology is an ironic put-on and that socrates never does actually say he believes in the gods. if the verdict was expected, then socrates deliberately made a kind of defense that he knew would be ineffective. in the protagoras, socrates argues about this with the great sophist himself, with, in typical fashion, socrates arguing against the thesis at the beginning and for it at the end. his method is tested and explained in plato’s euthyphro and meno. but socrates' accusers accuse him of being a sophist, while they profess to despise them -- antyus is quoted in the meno saying that sophists "clearly cause the ruin and corruption of their followers" (91c)." the whole image of the gadfly reinforces the notion that socrates' "benefit" to the city is not from his positive teachings. would a socrates with an inflated ego really compare himself to a fly? taking 30 from the 280 and giving them to the 221 would get socrates up to 251, a bare majority. this kind of inconsistency should make it clear that socrates is not a systematic thinker." socrates doesn't ask himself about life or death, just about right and wrong, good and bad. that would be immoral; and to socrates the gods are not immoral. a socrates convinced of his own wisdom and dignity might well have chosen that animal over an unpleasant and undignified insect. through his teachings and beliefs, socrates had positive and negative influence on the people during his time and modern time. socrates, who thinks he will die soon enough anyway, is well aware that execution is not the only way to die. socrates knew that the jury was prejudiced against him from the start and addressed it immediately. this is an important point when socrates is still being accused of being an enemy of the democracy and a partisan of sparta." the next, and final, line of questions involves the next charge in the indictment, about belief in the gods and whatever other sort of spiritual teaching socrates has. others, however, could take from socrates what amused them and forget the rest. in plato’s five dialogues, accounts of events ranging from just prior to socrates’ entry into the courthouse up until his mouthful of hemlock, both points are represented. in that respect, socrates now should be protected by the first amendment, since everything he did would be protected by freedom of speech (, or ) and of religion.- the defense of socrates begins with socrates stating he does not know if his fellow athenians, his jury, have been persuaded by his accusers. this is one of the most enduring qualities of the apology, that at this point socrates is in no different a situation than we are." does socrates deliberately made his associates wicked, when they are going to then harm him?" as we saw in the earlier passages about the beneficial nature of socrates' mission, here we find that examining goodness, justice, beauty, and the other things that socrates asks about is "the greatest good. socrates was found guilty by a narrow margin and was asked to come up with a penalty." the very idea of a penalty for what he does is ridiculous to socrates.. "socrates is guilty of corrupting the young and of not believing in the gods in whom the city believes, but in other new spiritual things." socrates returns, in midsentence, to the weakest part of his earlier defense." perhaps they cannot answer the questions of socrates or his imitators, but socrates cannot deny that they know sacrilege and treason when they see them -- so he avoids talking about it. we know from xenophon that this is why socrates did not really prepare a defense:  whenever he would start thinking about it, his voice would stop him." neither translation shows quite what socrates says, since the first phrase has only the neuter plural adjectivies (, daimónia, "spiritual," and , theîa, "godly, divine") and the second phrase the plural nouns (, daímones and , theoí, "gods"). he certainly didn't like what the presocratics and sophists represented, but he hardly seems like one to blame socrates for losing the war with sparta (by undermining athenians virtues), since aristophanes never liked the war anyway. in the apology, socrates argues that the charges of meletus are not only false, but have led to the rise of prejudice against him, and he demonstrates this through what he considers his own reflection on the charges against him." socrates usually addresses the jury as , ándres athênaîoi, "athenian men" (men, latin vir, not "persons," greek , ánthrôpoi). during greece’s golden age, socrates emerged expanding on these basic beliefs by using his inquisitive mind." a long passage in which socrates represents what it is that he does when encountering people. plato need not have been manufacturing socrates' speech for it to be reproduced in the manner of plato's own writing. socrates, therefore, has already perhaps lived something like two, or three, lifetimes.- recognized as one of the classical greek athenian philosophers who founded western philosophy, socrates was a mysterious figure known essentially through the accounts of later classical writers, especially from writings of his students xenophon and the most popular plato. in socrates’ cave analogy there was a group of people who were from childhood held in a dimly lit underground cave. unfortunately, the role of mind was perfunctory, and socrates was disappointed." a final denial by socrates that he had any private or secret teachings. condemning something for their lack of dignity would be no better than the jury condemning socrates for his lack of deference. with socrates’ pedagogy, a series of questions can be asked not only to draw individual answers, but also to persuade deep-seated insights into the real issues at hand." having addressed "the earlier accusers" of those who have generated and spread the kind of reputation he has, socrates now moves to the real charges against him at the moment, and one of his real accusers, meletus. socrates also appears at the butt end of aristophanes’ comedy clouds, where he is satirically ridiculed and seemingly corrupting the youth of athens in his school, the thinkery. crito, who is socrates student and close friend, tries to persuade him to escape because he did not believe socrates committed any actual crime. towards the end of his life, socrates was accused of a myriad of crimes including criminal meddling and the corruption of the minds of the young. when word of this got back to athens, the assembly was furious, not just because the survivors had been abandoned, as socrates says, but because the dead had been abandoned also. this belief sets the foundations for ethics and philosophy, that socrates died, not in vain, but for that which he most valued: the pursuit of virtue. since woody allen seemed to think that he deserved misery out of guilt, socrates could always argue that real guilt would merit punishment and so would be a good." a salient characteristic of the sophists, which socrates hasn't mention yet, but to which he returns.

Free Socrates Essays and Papers

socrates tries proving his case to the jury by questioning meletus about his beliefs. this is an idea that we can apply to many issues, as in "socratic ignorance in democracy, the free market, and science," and it also gets us the significance of the word "philosophy" itself (, philosophía), as explained by plato in the symposium (203e-204a), that we love (, phileîn) wisdom (, sophía) precisely because we don't have it.- socrates was a great greek philosopher (athenian) around 469 bc – 399 bc. but then that would have required planning a defense, and this is what socrates didn't do. purpose statement by conducting research and examining various sources, the trail of socrates proved to be an important part in history, impacting the development of western philosophy and allowing the beliefs of socrates to live on to this day. socrates was a philosopher who disagreed with the sophist's point-of-view. those in attendance include phaedrus, pausanias, eryximachus, aristophanes, and socrates. against the charges of corrupting the youth, atheism, and introducing new deities, socrates states that has been doing athens a service by improving its beliefs of wisdom and virtue.- the death of socrates "crito, you and other people who claimed to be friends to socrates are all useless. crito has made arrangements to help socrates escape from prison. socrates wanted everyone to step out from his or her personal comfort zones and achieve a higher view of life that was unique to each of them. with the trial actually over, what socrates says next is not a formal part of the proceedings." the assembly means every free adult male citizen of athens, if they were all to show up; so this is a significant part of the entire population of the city, in fact everyone of political significance, everyone with the franchise, which is why socrates next refers to them as "all the athenians" ( , pántes athênaîoi). like his accusers, excellent adventure presents a socrates talking the kind of "nonsense" that must sound vaguely "philosophical" but which has nothing to do with socrates' interests, activities, or even personality.- in plato’s: the apology socrates was charged and put on trial for impiety, as well as accused of committing many other crimes." this allegation specifically referred to socrates' neglect of the accepted public gods of the city and introducing new gods." a nice list of the qualities upon which socrates bases his actions." we have already been told that socrates discovered that "those who were thought to be inferior were more knowledgeable," and here we get to those who might well be "thought to be inferior. therefore socrates was known to perplex even simple ideas and to frustrate his opponent. throughout plato’s early writings, he and socrates search for meanings of previously undefined concepts, such as truth, wisdom, and beauty. the contradiction, it seems, focuses on whether or not socrates is a proponent of civil (dis)obedience, and the apparent conflict between the two works revolves around passages from the apology, that seem t. such ambivalence, so authentic and truthful to life, is the very thing that socrates, and some earlier philosophers, wanted to fix up. he has "given no thought" to the subject about which he is accusing socrates. friend of socrates, xenophon also produced the valuable recollections of socrates (or memorabilia)." if , "human wisdom," is the best we can do, because only the god is really wise, then socrates' investigation is itself the "human and social kind of excellence," which means it is the perfection of being human. socrates was born in the greek city of athens in 470 bc." now we get an interesting list of socrates' friends, younger and older, who are actually at the trial. without him, socrates claimed, the state would drift into a deep sleep, but through his influence it can be awakened. both jesus and socrates warn their accusers that they will suffer for their actions. thus, not only has socrates nothing to do with the presocratics and sophists, but if the jury were to rely, not on rumor and reputation, but on their own familiarity with his activities, the charges against him could be laid to rest. the trial for his life in 399 bc, socrates defense is recounted in plato's apology. socrates is grateful to his old friend for his willing to help aide him in the escape. socrates disagrees with thrasymuchus and he states, "surely, then, no doctor, insofar as he is a doctor, seeks or orders what is advantageous to himself, but what is advantageous to his patient?" as harold ravitch considers in these pages, discussing john burnet's gloss on the passage, the implication here may be that socrates will be relieved of the task, the investigation, with which the god has charged him. socrates would have been about 35 in 434, even before the peloponnesian war, when we have several stories about socrates serving in combat." but the politician thinks that he knows something when he does not, while socrates recognizes his own ignorance. though out this text socrates ignorance results from his belief that he has no knowledge of moral idea, or moral properties, such as justice, virtue, piety, and beauty.- socrates and his philosophy socrates makes a profound impact in our minds through his wisdom, power of critical thinking, moral strength and intelligence. i would consider myself to be a great fool, but given the circumstances and the parties involved i believe that socrates made proper decisions in his defense. this means that socrates allows for the fourth characteristic of mytho-poeic thought, that myth is self-justifying.- in plato’s works apology and crito there is an attempt by socrates to defend himself in court and defend his choice to receive the death penalty when found guilty. i feel that socrates has great respect for the state but is definitely not afraid to question officials to try and find justice." we are reminded again that meletus doesn't want to answer socrates' questions and that the jury is restless with this procedure." since socrates only cross-examined meletus, the closeness of the vote does not reflect well on his answers. old, ugly, stumpy socrates, waddling along, is overtaken by death. so socrates has been busy at home, perhaps even into his sixties.- in his constant quest to find the true meaning of justice and the creation of the ideal city socrates finds that while many of the element of the city have been properly set forth he forgot to take into account the place women will have in the city and the idea of child-rearing. on the other hand, socrates has quite convincingly shown that meletus has simply attributed to socrates what he thinks "all philosophers" believe, as socrates said about his reputation in the first part of the apology. in plato’s eyes, socrates was an idol, a saint, a prophet and a master in philosophy." this would not ordinarily make for an obscure answer; but, as we shall see, it is a very perplexing riddle for socrates. callias informs socrates that he has found a sophist, evenus of paros, to teach his sons. this, again, passes over socrates' own principle that no one knowingly does wrong." now that socrates has established his belief in spirits, then he asks what spirits are. so "more people" definitely followed in the footsteps of socrates.

SparkNotes: The Apology: Summary

aristophanes is a “friendly critic” of socrates and warns socrates to change his ways for athens and for the good of himself (whidden). in the eyes of his contemporaries, socrates' blatant defiance of tradition and religion as the sole importance of life and thought was so unorthodox that it was punishable by death. (2) but was socrates really everything we know him as today. plato helped form classical education, and we would not have a good basis for education in america and western civilization. if socrates questions the role or ability of the jury in improving the young, then he will be insulting the jury." people blame socrates for making the young men the way they are, but then they can't say what he actually does teach to make them that way." socrates draws the conclusion, putting it in the form of a question. as well another major claim was that socrates was corrupting the children of athens. the implied heteronomy, however, concealed in the apology, comes out rather forcefully in the crito, where socrates says that he must stay and die in obedience to the laws. we have no trouble imagining what euthyphro's father and relatives said to him, entirely appropriate in the circumstances, but socrates' advice, however obvious to a perceptive person, was delivered in a far more indirect, confusing, and even frightening way -- socrates' own analogy of seizing euthyphro like proteus might be enough to frighten anyone. imagine yourself in the shoes of a philosopher named socrates who has to face a big decision of whether or not to escape jail after being sentenced to be executed. of course, socrates doesn't have any teaching, so this is all besides the point anyway, but it should serve to impeach and discredit meletus. may be a bad example for socrates to bring up, for the assembly was angry with the stratêgoí about the dead for much the same reason that the jury is suspicious about socrates now.- a) plato’s symposium is a story about a party in which the guests were so sick from continuous parties that instead of drinking at this one party they decide to give stories about love.-      socrates, in his conviction from the athenian jury, was both innocent and guilty as charged. in socrates defense to the jury, he claims that by looking at the facts, the jury will see that meletus is accusing him of something that is not his fault.- the innocence of socrates the goals of this paper will be to explore the death of socrates and to support the thesis that the jury at socrates' trial was not justified in its decision to sentence him to death. however, as this is an account of a well known event, we can be sure that it is accurate (many other of socrates' friends were present and plato is less likely to have written something different when there were other people who witnessed the speech).- socrates’ trial defense in terms of his values in his apology, plato recounted the trial that led to the execution of his friend and mentor, socrates. socrates asks meletus a question, meletus answers and then socrates moves on to the next question to support his claim that he is not a " villainous misleader of youth" (apology 41)." this should have laid to rest the impression that socrates' was a sophist. however, xenophon, who discusses at length in the memorabilia the complaints that people had against socrates, does not mention this one; and such a complaint would have discredited the "walls of wood" pronouncement, which was delphi's principal contribution to the defense of athens and the defeat of the persians. however, there is not much time here for the jury to consult among themselves about their own knowledge -- in a modern courtroom, by the way, they would be prohibited from doing this -- and socrates himself passes on to things that they may find immediately irritating, whatever his reputation was. although socrates does occasionally give answers to his own questions, he does not do so in a systematic or complete way, which means he is consistent enough in his ignorance not to have theories about the good, etc. presumably by the gods, as socrates implies more clearly later (41d). this statement by socrates shows us that he is familiar with presocratic doctrine, even if he doesn't believe it. if, however, someone became virtuous and benefited the city in response to socrates' investigation, then presumably socrates, in his ignorance, would no longer be wiser than all others. the entire issue of socrates' attitude about democracy is separately discussed in "socratic ignorance in democracy, the free market, and science"; but the evidence of the apology will also be examined at the appropriate places in the text. the jurymen's ears are still ringing with the sound of his accuser's well-crafted arguments, and the stage is set for socrates to defend himself. now, socrates might just explain the good reasons for not participating in politics, but this is not what he does at first. no one knowingly does wrong, then, as socrates say, "if i learn better," he will cease doing wrong." we get a detail of the private and public benefits of socrates' action, though, as noted above, it may have been hard to tell from what socrates actually did that all this is what he meant." passing from city to city -- not unlike a sophist, actually -- is no life that socrates wants. it is just that this is not good enough for socrates. if meletus got into that here, then he would be open to questions about whether he thought socrates was a sophist, how socrates would be a sophist, and so to admission that what socrates does has little to do with the sophists., socrates chooses to accept his fate and, doing so, secures his place as "the greatest hero in the history of philosophy. socrates’ method is very alike to the scientific method however; socrates’ method seems to be less effective than the scientific method. because socrates kept no written record, historians today just have to go upon the most logical and credible sources(nails)., who often writes (in retrospect) as though socrates had all sorts of direct advice to give people, nevertheless admits, "to be sure he never professed to teach this; but, by letting his own light shine, he led his disciplines to hope that they through imitation of him would attain to such excellence" (memorabilia ii-3-4; loeb p." having lived his life, or even a couple of lives, death is a small loss for socrates. one of the major charges against socrates in his trial was that of "impiety." now we get socrates' most heartfelt thoughts about his own, condemned, situation.- thesis statement socrates was accused of corrupting the youth of athens and sentenced to die for his beliefs. but since socrates' questions were about goodness, virtue, justice, piety, etc. in many ways, socrates changed the idea of common philosophy in ancient greece; he transformed their view on philosophy from a study of why the way things are, into a consideration man.." socrates now turns to the peril of death that he is in, since his accusers have already let it be known that they want the death penalty for him. for he states: "someone will say: and are you not ashamed, socrates, of a course of life which is likely to bring you to an untimely end? protagoras' fee reportedly was 100 minas, or the truly astronomical 0,000 -- no wonder plato mentions (meno 91d) that protagoras died rich. all socrates had to worry about was how to appeal to the jury, but he then made his defense in such a way as to antagonize the jury instead. two more cases follow, as socrates moved from the politicians to others.- morality and laws in the trial and death of socrates upon reading plato, the trial and death of socrates, socrates strongly held views on the relationship between morality and laws become apparent to the reader." socrates picks up the theme, introduced above, of being a source of blessings to the city." what we do not see is how socrates determines this. socrates may well think the same thing, though he does not make that explicit here.

Argument in the Apology Essay -- Plato Socrates

and if it really did figure in socrates' defense, as plato has it, then the evidence of xenophon's apology would seem to indicate that it just didn't register with many of those hearing it. my speech," socrates must infer that he was never doing anything wrong. socrates believes that if the government is punishing him because he broke a commandment; then he did perhaps break a law. question at hand is on what side would socrates stand on, creon's or antigone's. socrates' objection, interestingly, is that he would not want to be "subjected" to the magistrates. it seems unlikely that chairephon would have been socrates' friend, and have done what he did, if this had been true of socrates. introduction “the death of socrates has had a huge and almost continuous impact on western culture” (wilson 1). socrates could well have been an ordinary artisan for the ancient equivalent of entire lifetime, until 35, and still had another full 35 years to live a new life as a philosopher." evidently, the vote of the prytanes had to be unanimous (another law) for action, so socrates was holding things up, and the assembly turned against him. malcolm, as socrates would predict, begins chiseling the gangster, raking off some of the profits that he should turn in. in the symposium, however, plato has alcibiades stumbling into the party, drunk, telling a story of how he had gotten socrates to sleep over once, trying to seduce him, only to have socrates pay him no more sexual attention "than an elder brother" (212d-219d)." the final reminder that socrates does not accept these presocratic cosmological theories." socrates behaved in his rare political involvement in the same way that he always behaved. socrates' speech thus might be translated the defense of socrates without the possible confusion over the modern meaning; but after long usage, it is hard to imagine calling the apology anything else." if socrates has accidentally corrupted the young, then he doesn't belong in a lawcourt. so we know who socrates was having sex with -- his wife. now socrates is supposed to offer an alternative for the jury, which will decide between them. in order to thoroughly explain his point of view as we now know socrates went about setting up his city of thought. thus, the terms of the reputation that socrates has, although applicable to many greek philosophers -- though not really all to one at the same time -- has nothing to do with him whatsoever. we get important details of socrates' religious beliefs in little pieces like this." that is, if socrates did what he considered impious, then he would have to act and believe as though there were no gods to punish him, and his actions would bespeak this atheism. plato as an active critic of democracy, and the triumph of monarchy in the hellenistic period, democracy seemed to have little future either in theory or in practice. also, although this makes socrates a very autonomous agent, we see exceptions to this. irony, where it is hard to tell if socrates really believes what he says, is thus followed by very blunt statements that he certainly believes. this extraordinary claim is founded on some of socrates' typically paradoxical pet ideas. inward - to discover the inner person, the soul, the source of all truth to socrates. king archon, the judge, is not mentioned by socrates because he has almost no power." again, socrates is aware of the effect he is having." in other words, socrates still expects to be convicted because of his reputation, regardless of his success in dealing with meletus." socrates thanks meletus for obeying the jury to answer, but then he rubs it in by going over the point again. so when socrates mentions delphi, this actually adds to the things that are provoking the jury.. parmenides) was lost and is known only through quoted fragments in later works, like those of plato himself. socrates would have little to complain about the durability of his fame, however easily distorted in popular presentations." "affairs" is more like the modern meaning of derived words like "pragmatic," while "deeds" or "activities" may be more to the point for socrates' argument."(apology 41) in the apology, by plato, these are the accusations brought against socrates during his trial. and socrates do not have the same definition of corruption." socrates how moves his argument to one of his barnyard analogies.';(apology of socrates 21) through this one can see that he does respect the state but there are just things that the state rules on that he can not justify so he goes against them and does what he feels is right. achilles was certainly "contemptuous of danger" in just the way socrates means (with the help of being nearly invulnerable to harm), but he doesn't quite pass the test socrates has just mentioned, about the important question of whether one is a good or a bad man. so socrates is being freed from "deeds, acts, affairs, matters, business," which we might well call "troubles" but which seems very different from "trouble" in a sense that might be conformable to xenophon's information or speculation. the first part, about the young, socrates has already touched on and will deal with first in his examination of meletus." so socrates, a philosopher, who, as we all know, go around teaching their doctrines, must be responsible.- defense of socrates there are times in every mans life where our actions and beliefs collide—these collisions are known as contradictions." a nice combination of military and religious duties with socrates' own philosophical principles and convictions. i do not believe that socrates packages lies as irony, and the only way for anyone to think so would be to assume that they have derived his true, esoteric teaching from some other source. the jury that socrates was tried by was made up of 501 athenian citizens of all classes of society." this is pretty funny, but the real socrates still, two thousand years later, just can't get a break. socrates saw the law being a general father figure for society.- socrates was one of the first true intellectuals in human history. it does not detract from socrates that he had humble and human motives behind his performance, and not just the grand purposes of displaying the "human and social kind of excellence.- plato’s “defense of socrates” follows the trial of socrates for charges of corruption of the youth." socrates quotes thetis and refers to the details of the story given above. socrates' religious conservatism, already evident in his beliefs about the sun and the moon, extends to the location of the realm of the death. but socrates is in a more difficult position than most people.

Reading Plato's Apology

socrates has a unique position in the history of philosophy. the debate between thrasymachus and socrates begins when thrasymachus gives his definition of justice in a very self-interested form." both sarcasm, since socrates really doesn't think that meletus is a "good and patriotic man," and the warning qualification "as he says he is. the ins and outs of this calculation are discussed separately in "money in plato's apology of socrates. socrates might be challenged by the idea that a heroin high is preferable to almost any other goods in life, but he may have already been familiar with drunks who exhibited a similar problem. the first is that if socrates choices to stay, his death will reflect poorly on crito.- the portrayal of socrates, through the book “the trial and death of socrates” is one that has created a fairly controversial character in western history." here again, socrates doesn't always just say things in an ironic way but he warns us with a qualifying statement. athens became the very center of greek philosophy, already in socrates' time, but also for the future all the way until plato's academy was closed in 529 ad. if he has been hearing his voice since childhood, and occasionally even goes into trances in public, there may well have been more to socrates' relationship to the divine than we do ever hear about., "the god" is a common locution, as common as socrates' oaths involving zeus or hera; and the more that this god happened to mean personally to socrates, the less likely that he would actually pronounce his name. socrates asks meletus, " then every athenian improves and elevates them, all with the exception of myself." it is a little startling to realize that socrates was tried and condemned all in one day. socrates is perfectly willing to stand up to them and tell them what's what. that apollo is not named is the best evidence of the power that the identity of the god held for socrates." a little fatalism goes a long way, though socrates has brought upon himself his fate quite deliberately. eventually, socrates was found guilty of his crimes and shortly after he was condemned to death. his story was taught through the writings of his students plato and xenophon, along with aristotle and aristophanes in various forms of dramatic texts and histories. if not for himself, socrates should escape for the sake of his friends, sons, and those who benefit from his teaching. to start what now we call the "penalty phase of the trial," socrates' accusers propose their penalty, which they put at death." socrates would have had a job cut out for him, asking questions about this sort of thing, even though he commits the inconsistency in his own defense." this, according to xenophon, would be a fifth of socrates' entire net worth, or 00 in 1990 dollars. the evidence of the apology, then, gives us a good picture of socrates' political views." indeed, socrates seemed driven by an unusual sort of ambition, with no prospect of power, wealth, or position." again, socrates talks to everyone, and this inevitably means non-athenians as well as athenians in cosmopolitan athens. socrates was accused at the end of his life of impiety and corruption of youth. the accusers may deserve the attack, but socrates seems to change the subject a bit abruptly, as though he is uneasy with the issue. if socrates were a sympathizer of the spartans and fundamentally disillusioned with the democracy, this should have been just the ticket for him. "neglecting the public gods" may have referred to socrates' individualistic optimism when regarding their nature.- socrates and rhapsode socrates thought is that a rhapsode speaks not from knowledge but from inspiration, his thoughts being ‘breathed into’ him without the use of his own understanding at all." later on in the trial socrates remains steadfast on his views and refuses to give up his philosophical pursuit, even if it costs him his life.- socrates was a man that was in search of the truth about wisdom.- essay: a discussion on whether or not i believe that socrates’ views in the crito contradict his views expressed in the apology. the ease with which this could be misunderstood, especially by a biased auditor, we can tell by the reaction of arethas of caesarea, whom i have referenced above and who wrote in his copy of the apology, "you are quite right, socrates, to compare the gods of the athenians to horses and asses" [scholars of byzantium, n. it is meletus, not socrates, who says this about meletus. we can imagine a woman who was uncomprehending and unworthy of her great husband, but it also seems that socrates simply might not have included her in his "investigation., the artistic misrepresentation of socrates continues today, when a largely unrecognizable socrates turns up the popular movie, bill & ted's excellent adventure (1989). we may say that socrates was among the first to do that, and know what he was doing. socrates was a revolutionary thinker in that he recognized the benefits and importance of studying temporal elements instead of devoting his life to religion. with the understanding that a jury condemned socrates to death and his defense nevertheless pleased him because he gave it truthfully, it is most sensible to call it a good defense because he felt it was the best that he could do. alcibiades complained that socrates never had sex with his young admirers. this applies equally whether we are talking about the real crimes of people like alcibiades or just about socrates' trivialization, so it is a genuinely valuable part of his defense.) -- and no one could expect to be taught by him -- "socrates indeed never promised any such boon to anyone" (ii-8; loeb p. these will be noted at the appropriate points in the course of socrates' speech." what socrates actually says is "some divine (, theîon) and spiritual (, daimónion) [thing] comes to me.- at the beginning of book seven, in an attempt to better describe the education of the philosopher socrates begins to set up an analogy with an ascent and descent into “the cave”. it is impossible that no one was wiser than socrates. so, again, socrates answers for him, "i shall assume that you agree. and say to me: socrates, this time we will not mind anytus [a prosecutor], and will let you off, but upon one condition, that you are not to inquire and speculate in this way any more, and that if you are caught doing this again you shall die; - if this was the condition on which you let me go, i should reply: men of athens, i honor and love you; but i shall obey god rather than you, and while i have life and strength i shall never cease from the practice and teaching of philosophy. so the "trouble" may be the remaining clue that, after all, socrates did not want to live too long. socrates thinks that simply presenting a point to the jury, without convincing them is enough. it is in the works and dialogues of two main witnesses that the life of socrates has mostly been constructed." although simplicity itself, the "no" answer of the pythia is for socrates another example of delphic obscurity." his voice always stopped him from participating in politics, but, by merest coincidence, socrates thinks that it was "quite right" to do this.

Free Plato Essays and Papers

my reading of plato's apology of socrates and crito, i have been able to see how socrates makes important decisions and what he primarily bases his decisions on. so socrates clearly has a problem with the democracy at athens. plato agrees with these distinctions and expands on them in the meno (96e-99e)." socrates has staked his life on what he thinks is best.- a student of socrates, a major western civilization influence, and an amazing philosopher, plato was his name and he was one of the most influential persons in history..Unless plato had already written some short dialogues to illustrate socrates' technique of questioning (like the euthyphro), the apology of socrates is the earliest thing by him that we have. however there were men in power who did not care for him or his teachings; claiming that he corrupted the athenian youth and did not believe in the greek gods, socrates was put on trail. we might like to know how socrates knows this, but then nobody else seems to have asked socrates the kinds of questions he asked others -- we have xenophon's testimony that antiphon the sophist tried to pin down socrates (memorabilia vi-1), but he does not seem to have questioned socrates in the way that socrates questioned others." socrates' investigation begins by seeking out one who is thought wise." socrates doesn't have the craftsmen's knowledge of their craft (though he did know his own craft, unmentioned), but he does recognize his own ignorance of the human and social kind of excellence, which they don't. whole line of questioning is going to turn on one of socrates' pet ideas, namely that no one knowingly does wrong. allegory of the cave by socrates and the republic of plato." a key explicit claim of knowledge, about which socrates would have thrilled to question anyone else. socrates asks agathon a series of questions - which leads to agathon being thoroughly confused and completely re-thinking his entire speech he just made. after socrates died, people tried to act the same as him and claimed to be him." if socrates became so infamous because he was entertaining, the irony here is that the jury is put off because in this case socrates has not been entertaining the manner to which they have become accustomed. in the apology one peculiarity is that, even as socrates tries to get meletus to admit that he would not knowingly do wrong, socrates never concedes to his accusers the benefit of this principle. one suspects that socrates had is own reasons for not mentioning alcibiades or critias by name, as considered below, at 23e.- introduction socrates argues in the crito that he shouldn't escape his death sentence because it isn't just. thus, ironically, socrates, who in a sense was put to death for practicing free speech (, parrêsía, or , eleuthería parrêsíai, the "freedom of speech"), nevertheless had more freedom of speech at his trial than most defendants do in the courts of the united states of america, where judges can prohibit defendants from making certain kinds of defenses, e. not only is socrates obeying the oracle and conducting his investigation as part of the god's business, but this enterprise is actually for the good of the city. religion, which included women also, somewhat mixed the private and the public, but was very much a matter of public concern -- as socrates himself is charged with not honored the "gods of the city." is that the answer of the oracle stands and that it is better for socrates to be "as i am." this leaves it a little vague about just what socrates does know. when socrates says, "what we are told," he may actually have been told something of the sort. in short, people could see socrates as what now we call a nihilist (latin nihil = nothing). socrates goes way out of his way here to provoke the jury. however, they have different goals: socrates concerns with worldly meanings and codes, he deals with truth and morals. if the poets do not have wisdom, then this confirms the oracle again, that no one is wiser than socrates." now socrates simply veers away from his treatment of the "youth" and begins to attack his accusers. the apology in the trial and death of socrates is an example of a quest or journey motif applied, whether or not quest or journey is the preferred word is left to you who are reading this. this is worth noting because of the occasional bizarre "afro-centric" claim that socrates was an african. however, the question of what exactly caused his death and why was socrates, such a remarkable thinker sentenced to death in the very society that valued democracy the most is not easy and straightforward to answ. seeing socrates always ask questions and never give answers, there are other interpretations possible. clearly, plato was more interested in socrates acting out of his characteristic convictions rather than merely provoking the jury because he wanted to die and get it over with. although, i expected that people would react this way to my actions, or lack of actions, regarding socrates death. but socrates' relationship to the god has several dimensions, as we see in the question of an easy death, such as socrates seeks, through the "sweet shafts," aganà bélea, of apollo. socrates actually starts by giving agathon a series of questions about love. not everyone understands the point of this, certainly euthyphro didn't, and socrates' accusers are not interesting in figuring it out. is this just an actuarial expectation, or does socrates feel some real infirmities? socrates compared himself to a gadfly stinging the lazy horse, which is the athenian state.'s death of socrates, new york metropolitan museum of art. the result that we find here may seem very considered and accomplished, but one thing to keep in mind is that the text is produced, not by socrates, but by plato, probably the greatest stylist in the history of philosophy." socrates does not even think he would have survived if he had gone into politics. while meletus has responded that there is not a man who believes in spiritual [things] without believing in spirits, when socrates asks the same question with himself as the subject, meletus won't answer again.- socrates and properties by characterizing himself –socrates- as both ignorant and wise, he presents us with one of the most striking paradoxes. socrates never wrote anything down so what we know of his life is the from the records left by his followers, mainly plato.- socrates, a greek philosopher and teacher, was born june 4th, 469 bc in athens, lived his life in athens, and died in may 7, 399 bc. socrates, indeed, does not need to go into that kind of metaphysics to reflect that dreamless sleep is untroubled. with the permission of phaedrus, socrates has an interesting discussion agathon instead of a monologue-styled story. through plato’s dialogues, socrates has been portrayed and renowned for his involvement in the field of moral principles, and by this the concepts of socratic irony and the socratic method had come about. no wonder that socrates is going to ask about it." the most memorable and durable image of the entire apology, socrates as a stinging horsefly. the reputation of socrates as a wise man was established, but then athens, even by killing him, borrowed his glory.

in my view i feel that socrates respects the states law and ability to find justice but is willing to question it when his own morals or views on justice conflict with the states. aristophanes was still alive in 399; and if he was really friendly to socrates, then socrates might have brought him in as a witness. is also noteworthy in the apology that socrates never mentions a judge.- the trial of socrates the trial of socrates is an excellent source of events during the period in which socrates lived and died.- in plato’s the republic, we, the readers, are presented with two characters that have opposing views on a simple, yet elusive question: what is justice." socrates has finished examining meletus and, in a sense, his defense is over. socrates does not share in the naturalism of the presocrates." irony verging on sarcasm, since socrates has no respect for what the sophists do, though he hasn't let that quite out into the open yet. this is a problem for the "questions about socrates":  socrates does not act like he is entirely ignorant.- socrates (470-399 bc) was a credited philosopher born in the city of athens to father sophroniscus and mother phaenarete.- in plato’s phaedrus, socrates encounters phaedrus who has just come from a conversation with lysias. if his behavior in the euthyphro is characteristic, and it is certainly consistent with his "knowing practically nothing" stand of socratic ignorance, then the problem is that socrates does not tell people what to do. socrates' manner does make it possible that not everyone is going to pick up on what he really does believe and what he doesn't. socrates substantially refounded philosophy, and the apology is still, all by itself, about the best introduction to western philosophy that there is. if alcibiades can be substantially blamed for the loss of the war against sparta, then socrates can ultimately be blamed also. socrates never sought anything more than friendship -- "his highest reward would be the gain of a good friend" (ii-7; loeb p. now, if the jury finds him not guilty, but on the condition, with anytus' statement in mind, that he "spend no more time on this investigation and do not practice philosophy," socrates says he will simply ignore the verdict. while the court doesn't seem to do very well, the trial of socrates is ironically a great tribute to athens, just because socrates was allowed to make his defense, his friends were allowed to witness it, and the record of it, produced by people like plato and xenophon, became celebrated documents of greek philosophy, and of the history of athens." the thirty, trying to get socrates associated with their crimes, instead turned him into an opponent. instead, socrates accepts the possibility of the nothingness, and deals with it." after pointing this out, socrates gets meletus to answer "these jurymen." those are strong accusations coming from someone who obviously did not know socrates as well as his other students or me. anyway, the socratic problem usually only arises in the dialogues that plato wrote, not accounts. interestingly, socrates does not advance the kind of argument that parmenides, would have suggested, that the word "nothing" is self-contradictory and meaningless -- or a similar argument that something cannot become nothing, the view of the bhagavad gita. had they done so, they would have been to discover the gaps in socrates’ logic and the full implications of his constructed city—a city that not only failed to illustrate how justice was profitable in itself and correlated with happiness, but actually proved the precise view of justice as a sacrifi. while this confirms that socrates mentioned the delphic answer in his speech, we may suspect from the other features -- for instance that socrates names apollo -- that it owes more to xenophon's imagination than to a reliable account, especially when xenophon does not use it to explain socrates' investigation, but instead merely as an example of the pious consulting oracles, in defense of socrates' piety. it is important to make this clear, since some people accept the practice of plato, and the accusations of socrates' enemies, that he taught secretly, as actually true of socrates. meletus views the corruption of the youth as socrates telling the children to believe in certain gods contrary to what gods the public believes in. as socrates says himself, the justice of the case should be the basis of the judgment. socrates can do this because (1) he actually was in battle, as he will shortly note, and (2) he actually is in danger of death, with the clearly stated intentions of his accusers in the air." "divine" conceals the fact of socrates' statement that the sign, indeed, is from the god. if socrates believed his moral purpose was to achieve philosophical virtue, justice and truth by examining life to its fullest, why then would he willingly give his life on the charges of crimes that he did not commit? socrates’ effectiveness as a philosopher depended as much on the strength and interest of his personality as on the power of his mind. socrates claims that he did not consciously corrupt the youth of athens, and he gives many reasons why he is not at fault for their actions. when socrates retired from fighting in the army, he began focusing on expressing his beliefs. the list of things that socrates thinks people are eager for -- , "wealth," , "reputation," and , "honor" -- sounds a lot like the "wealth and rank" that confucius speaks of several times. the politician contradicts himself, so socrates concludes that he doesn't know what he is talking about. "now, all the time that critias and alcibiades associated with socrates they were out of sympathy with him," says xenophon (ii-39; loeb trans." meletus, of course, would not ironically engage in the socratic project of testing socrates. in socrates' day, the greek cults were integrated into greek religion. we later get a small example of socrates' method when he questions meletus, but we must go to one of the dialogues proper, like the euthyphro, to see the whole process in detail.- in 399 bc, socrates, the great philosopher in ancient greece, was put to death under the hands of his athenian fellow-citizens to whom he had a strong attachment, after a final vote with over two-thirds of jurymen against him. nor is recognition of his irony just a later or modern observation about him, since in the apology itself socrates mentions it, at 38a -- the verb he uses, , eironeúomai, can also mean "dissemble" or "feign ignorance," which is what happens in irony and sarcasm:  someone says, in a certain way, the opposite of what they really mean. socrates explicitly frowns upon the gods when he exclaims, "what do you mean, 'the gods'? this uneasiness may reveal that socrates has some real guilt and uncertainty about this. meletus doesn't know that and, as socrates has said, simply attributes to socrates the kind of things that "other philosophers" would believe. socrates, with a characteristically ironic pose, became the student of everyone he talked to." this goes back to another one of socrates' pet ideas, that it is better to suffer evil than to do it. answering his own question, which he also does elsewhere in plato's dialogues, especially with other uncooperative subjects (e. socrates does have a problem with the democracy, but we learn exactly what that is. "he [socrates] regarded the charges as wholly unjustified; he claimed to reform and improve both his own moral outlook and other people's. the philosopher socrates is a commonly known inquisitive character, and is mainly known of because of his trial in 399 b. the god, after all, did not say that socrates was particularly wise, just that no one was wiser." again we are warned by his careful language that socrates may not be willing to credit a sophist like evenus with the knowledge he claims to possess.

" socrates pursues the conceit that people are just angry about these young men asking questions.. socrates must now answer the charges implicit in the kind of reputation he has, again that he is guilty of "studying things in the sky and below the earth," that "he makes the worse into the stronger argument," and that "he teaches these same things to others.- the unjust death of socrates the question of why socrates was executed and if he deserved the charges put against him has been asked by historians for centuries. however, it is his trial in which both the democracy of athens and socrates himself show their hypocrisy. this is good entertainment, especially for anyone who likes to see the pompous deflated, which is why socrates attracts crowds and followers. here, on the other hand, i find no evidence of monotheism in socrates.." actually, socrates says that neither knows anything "beautiful and good" (, kalòn k'agathón), which is much more evocative than "worthwhile. as a 9th century christian, arethas prefers a reading of socrates as a proto-monotheist -- something we still find in paul johnson's 2011 book, socrates, a man for our times [viking adult]. (1) socrates produces a paragon of fearlessness in the face of death; and (2) socrates is overlooking the moral ambivalence of myth in order to cite this paragon.- as socrates awaits his upcoming execution; he is visited before dawn by a close old friend crito. and through the way that he speaks with others, socrates demonstrates how speech is the way to interact, teach, and learn from one another. in addition, i will comment on the different arguments made by both socrates and thrasymachus, and offer critical commentary and examples to illustrate my agreement or disagreement with the particular argument at hand. modern judges would fail socrates' test also, since their concern is not "whether what i say is just or not. socrates from the beginning on 336b was asking questions all the way to 347e building up his defense to thrasymuchus statement that "justice is the interest of the stronger party" (pg. commentators who are unaware of this ancient religious reluctance to name the god to whom one is appealing may use the absence of the name "apollo" in the apology as evidence that socrates did not believe in the god and is referring to delphi ironically. plato could use the lethe in his own vision of the afterlife, where each person, before rebirth, would drink of the river and forget all they knew.- socrates was one of the most influential thinkers in the west, even though he left no writings of himself, it was possible to reconstruct an accurate account of his life from the writings of his greek students because he always engaged them. like socrates himself as a prýtanis, someone must be in a position of authority with both the power and the interest to enforce the law against the abuses and usurpations of other authorities." while socrates appears to respect the works of the poets, and hoped to "learn something from them," the poets were unable to explain what they had written themselves. socrates was no longer young (37) even at the earliest of these, and there are stories about him behaving strangely, i. socrates says that he is not corrupting the youth, because that would mean he was harming them and he knows that he is not.- socrates is known in todays world as one of the greatest philosophers in history." socrates talks to anyone and is thus drawn to public places. they are not likely to do this, even as vengeance on socrates' own sons. “‘the ‘real’ socrates we have not: what we have is a set of interpretations each of which represents a ‘theoretically possible’ socrates’”(cornelia de vogel). here socrates appeared, despite his lengthy defense, not to acquit himself from all accusations, but rather to deliberately ensure that he would be found guilty and thus condemned to death." the point is the same as at the end of the first line of questioning, though the first demonstrated that meletus hadn't thought about education at all, while the second merely demonstrates that meletus is not familiar with socrates' own paradoxical theories about moral knowledge. in my opinion, socrates was wise in all aspects of the word. everything that aristophanes wanted to ridicule about the presocratics and the sophists he attributed to the man who was already the most famous philosopher at athens, socrates. however, socrates warns us, "if someone is wise in these things. socrates is not the kind of guy to pretend anything in a situation like this. there could be a marxist angle to this, though there is no talk of "exploitation," and socrates ends up being disappointed again in what he is looking for. this adds far too much to what the charge says, and makes socrates' questions about it sound unmotivated." our only clue why socrates is able to make his final remarks. the main differences between the sophist and socrates were their views on absolute truth.- socrates and plato: significant philosophers of ancient greece “the unexamined life is not worth living." socrates' primary concern in life was arete `excellence', not in the sophistic sense of practical efficiency in public life, but as moral excellence of soul, that is, virtue." a key point in the text for socrates' attitude about death. what we don't see in xenophon is the ironic playfulness with which socrates undertakes to become the "pupil" of someone like euthyphro." if the presocratics and sophists really knew about the things they claimed to, then this would be real wisdom, and socrates would have to respect it. his accusers could not even have begun to make such a charge stick, while socrates' poverty was his own best witness. if souls were coming up out to hell to be reborn, as in plato's cosmology, this arrangement would make some sense." socrates acts like the only objection people have to his erstwhile followers is that they made nuisances of themselves by questioning people the way socrates did." an ironic jest that meletus might sue socrates for defamation or libel on behalf of the presocratics and sophists whose knowledge he could be seen disparaging. because socrates never wrote anything of his own, there is little evidence of socrates life. perhaps most frequently the center of controversy was his thoughts on theocracy and piety as seen in the plato’s euthyphro. socrates has already denied taking fees, so this just reinforces that by the way. socrates is being accused of teaching new something-or-others about divine or spiritual things, without much of a clue about what those would be." socrates does not really say why he is not angry at the jury. socrates cannot maintain universal ignorance while saying things like this." if socrates believed there were children of the gods but then did not believe in the gods, this would be as absurd as to say, with one of his barnyard analogies again, that mules exist but not horses and asses. socrates materializes before me in a sudden, puzzling flash of light. so socrates was a prýtanis when the case of the naval battle came up. in older translations of the apology (like benjamin jowett's), it is not uncommon to find socrates referring to "god" rather than "the god.

Essay plato appology socrates

" actually, socrates says, "oh best (, áristos) of men," with ironic exaggeration of meletus' value. socrates was only guilty as charged because his peers had concluded him as such. he thus will escape from "troubles" in the sense of no longer carrying out his mission from the god, who thus, by not neglecting his affairs, enables socrates to enter a well deserved retirement.- in “crito” by plato, socrates and crito are having an intimate conversation about reasons why socrates should escape. socrates had no way of knowing just how enduring his fame would be, but he would doubtless appreciate the irony that the antipathy of his accusers, and the injustice of the athenian jury, would help create that fame in such a memorable form. then i will argue the position that socrates is innocent, and should not be have been found guilty." socrates has already said that he does not fear death, "of which i say i do not know whether it is good or bad. he chose to give up his life as an example for generations after as he declares to the jury, "wherefore, o men of athens, i say to you, do as anytus bids or not as anytus bids, and either acquit me or not; but whatever you do know that i shall never alter my ways, not even if i have to die many times" this is why socrates meant to be prosecuted, he was not afraid of death, and believed if he died for a noble cause it was justified. in 895 arethas ordered an edition of twenty-four dialogues by plato from a calligrapher named john. both are concerned with the "human and social kind of excellence," but the sophists with teaching it, and socrates only with asking about it. prove of this is shown in the apology when the athenians other a deal to socrates." and they might remember, "he used to hang out with socrates. socrates responds, 'athenians, i respect and i love you, but i'll obey the god rather than you." an extraordinary request, for his accusers to continue socrates' own investigation! the apology, socrates puts forward his views of wisdom, virtue, and nobility he believes to be moral truths, not to clear his name, but to reveal the ignorance of his prosecutors, judges, and fellow citizens. the account revealed that values of socrates’ accusers and his own fundamentally differed, and that they had been angered because he tried to prove that they had misplaced theirs." a final statement of socrates' peculiar idea that the good cannot be harmed, though here with the implication that this is guaranteed by the gods, who watch over us -- as socrates certainly felt watched over himself, by his "sign. socrates is already telling the jury that he doesn't care if they kill him." since socrates doesn't know if death is good or bad, but he does know it is bad to disobey the god, he will obey the god regardless of any risks this may entail, even the risk of death. plato was born in greece in 427 bc and grew up in a wealthy and noble family.- socrates and phaedrus writing and speaking are two very different, yet extremely important activities to any educated person. xenophon's apology thus is an abbreviated and disappointing document next to plato's, but it does tell us a couple of things that we might not know otherwise." socrates' most forthright treatment of his association with people like alcibiades, though he still doesn't name any names or address the seriousness of their crimes.. meno 96d), socrates jokes that he was a student of prodicus, evidently because prodicus was interested in definitions. line with socrates and laws is that he probably did not live by them very closely. even if the play does use some low devices, the play’s message is sophisticated and can be read as a warning to socrates. the tension becomes evident as socrates' systematic defense leads him to contradict his opening statements and undermine the ethos he sought to establish in the beginning of the dialog." (apology, plato, philosophic classics page 21) socrates is also accused of denying the existence of the gods, and corrupting the youth. phaedrus invites socrates to walk with him and hear what he has learned from his conversation with lysias. socrates relinquishes sensual desires in hopes of spiritual rebirth after death and achieving enlightenment in life. socrates does not dismiss the poets, does not deny that they are for real and onto something. socrates is now, perhaps for the first time ever, going to explain what he has been doing, why, and how it got started." but, whatever the quality of his own arguments, socrates was not a paid teacher, did not teach persuasion, and in fact did not teach anything, except indirectly. plato has his own presence at the trial affirmed by socrates himself, who mentions plato by name twice in plato's apology." of course, it was more like socrates wasn't given any advice, except in his ironic and indirect way.- thrasymuchus and socrates thrasymuchus was very hostile against socrates in book i. all the writings that exist and everything about socrates such as his life and philosophy were from the writings of his students, mainly from plato., when socrates had the chance to get in good with the spartan sympathizers, he was no more interested in their politics than he was in that of the democracy, but had to cross them nevertheless, when they tried to involve him in their doings. since socrates doesn't do much buying or selling himself, the only reason he is there is to talk to people." a reminder that what socrates has to say is not always going over well with the jury." here socrates addresses the issue of the "youth" who used to hang out with him, and whose misdeeds had become associated with him.- socrates was accused of being a sophist because he was "engaging in inquiries into things beneath the earth and in the heavens, of making the weaker argument appear the stronger," and "teaching others these same things. here, socrates wants to get meletus to apply this principle to him and to admit that socrates could not have knowingly corrupted the young, that it wouldn't make any sense. the charge is like a "riddle" or a joke, since meletus must now reconcile the charge of atheism with his very own accusation, which is going to imply that socrates does believe in gods, as the subsequent examination will reveal. some scholars seem to think that xenophon understood socrates better than plato did, and other scholars that xenophon's information is not worth considering. first socrates asks if anyone (, anthrópôn, "of men") believes in , anthrópeia prágmata, "human affairs," who does not also believe in , anthrópoi, "men" or "humans. i will examine yogananda’s autobiography through the platonic monocle and reason on why there are flaws in the allegory and how that can be corrected by adopting bifocals that combines both. through the breakdown of real knowledge and wisdom, socrates proclaims that the only true teaching is done through speech. only a bare majority is needed, though, as socrates mentions, the prosecution is fined if it does not get a fifth of the vote. it is ok for socrates to say now that this is all what he meant, but it is not what he actually ever said to people. having been a "hand-artist" himself, socrates discovers that they are the only people who actually know what they are doing. instead of "singing the honours" (94) of love like the other participants, socrates uses a retelling of a discussion that he had with a woman named diotima to tell the audience of what he perceives to be the truth of love." a very important phrase, since this is what socrates has in common with the sophists. however, it became more than just a simple search, rather it tuned into a complex assignment where the answer of true wisdom leads socrates to be brought up on charges of corrupting society.

since, as we know, everyone has an opinion, it was natural for people to think that socrates must have opinions also, and must think that he had answers to the kinds of questions he asked." here we have a repetition of socrates' basic "human wisdom" claim, applied more specifically now to the issue of death." today, socrates would have no more difficulty than then finding politicians with plenty of answers, though few sensible people today would think of politicians as the kind of people who really are wise. socrates’ in dealing with moral law was not guilty of the crimes he was accused of by meletus. from now on, when socrates refers to "the god," it is much more obvious who he is talking about. this may be foolish, and so senseless and impossible to someone like socrates, but it is a common phenomenon. socrates states that he is not responsible for the corruption of the youth, because he was not aware that he was leading them astray. socrates has already discovered that good art does necessarily mean good understanding on the part of artists.- the stoics and socrates the question of the reality of the soul and its distinction from the body is among the most important problems of philosophy, for with it is bound up the doctrine of a future life." and a reminder that meletus sees socrates as as much an atheist as he thinks of all the other philosophers and sophists. the very idea that socrates has students is to slander him, since he is not a teacher in any ordinary sense. socrates’ method is a series of steps that are meant to test or challenge a claim. but again, since the way socrates' behaves in public is well known to many people, the only way he can be seriously accused of teaching atheism, etc. this was a much more serious misunderstanding of socrates; for, although he was certainly not a nihilist himself, there were young men (, néoi, "youth") who hung out with him who actually were nihilists.. the gorgias), socrates opens himself to the charge that he has opinions about his questions after all, and is not just asking his questions to vindicate the god, on the principle that everyone is ignorant. also characteristic, however, is what socrates says next, which is that "hardly anything of what they said is true," [or "and yet for truth, so to speak, they said nothing"]. they say they will let socrates go as long as he promises to never to inquiry others and to stop philosophizing. if socrates were to choose an ordinary good over the just course of action he would be choosing an action that is bad for him, and he refuses to do this; this is why he refuses to propose an alternative to the death penalty. if socrates' words were going to be remembered, the spectators were going to have to record them. on his way to his trial socrates met a man named euthyphro, a professional priest who is respected by the "authorities" (those who want get rid of socrates). the product of socrates' investigation is now supposed to be the best state of the soul. although this is ridiculous as a charge against socrates, the presocratics and the sophists were vulnerable. there may not have been a mass market for greek philosophy even in greece; for, after all, anaxagoras was driven out of athens with the same kinds of charges leveled against socrates (though this was mainly as an indirect political attack on anaxagoras' friend, the statesman pericles)." actually, to the question, "is there any man," socrates answers "there is not ( , ouk éstin). the "greatest good" sounds rather like , , "the human and social kind of excellence," and socrates himself has claimed to possess "human wisdom.- the trial of socrates in athens is both similar and different from the trial of jesus of nazareth. in the republic, plato modifies this with his theory that the right part of the soul, reason, must be dominant both for knowledge to be obtained and for it to have its salutary effect." while meletus sounds innocent of any understanding of socrates, he is clever enough to know how to appeal to the jury. it is said that socrates married xanthippe, a woman known for her shrewish demeanor. the god has a part, both to do what is best for socrates, which may be to die, and but also to judge the jury, who will have to face their own consequences. socrates' day in court is the most enduring tribute imaginable to such liberal spirit, in ancient form, that the democracy at athens was able to boast. socrates never does bother with his other accusers, anytus and lycon." if the jury was so rich with teachers, socrates decides to check about the audience. the claim that socrates believed in new divinities, the third charge…." socrates is not just putting the jury on notice that he is going to proceed in his usual manner, he is telling the jury how to be a good jury. this is a crucial statement because socrates explains how of the many false claims that his accusers have made, one particularly can be proven as untrue. he shows this attribute when he fights for his life in the apology of socrates. is a 500 man jury really going to deliberate among itself and come up with the condition that socrates proposes? socrates, whether on principle or strategy, is simply going to be himself, whatever the consequences. socrates goes on to ask agathon if a father must be father to something in order to be called a father.- in my paper i will address the interdisciplinary relationship between the western philosopher socrates’ in the allegory of the cave, an excerpt from republic by plato, and the eastern mystic paramhamsa yogananda’s autobiography of a yogi. jesus may have said, "father, forgive them; for they know not what they do" (luke 23:34), but socrates does not. to introduce, socrates was placed on trial and charged with the crime of impiety. then socrates asks agathon whether the same principle applies to mothers and brothers; one must be a brother or mother to someone or something else. such a view diverges somewhat suspiciously from the apology, where we already have a reason why socrates won't leave the city:  he doesn't want to. socrates holds out that possibility, even though his wisdom remained safely superior in his own day, as it mostly would be in ours too. in this case, socrates is barely (by 30 votes) found guilty. also present in socrates’ cave was a certain wall or partition separating the prisoners from another group of people who simply walked along a path carrying statues shaped after all that of beings and occasionally uttering sounds as the othe.?" meletus is relucant to answer again, and socrates must mention ".- in the spring of 399 bce, a man named socrates was put on trial in front of his native athenians." if socrates never participated in politics, how in the world did he end up on the council (of five hundred)? this is a fundamental feature of the apology:  his accusers attribute all sorts of ideas and attitudes to socrates that have nothing to do with him." a very, very revealing passage, both about socrates and about meletus. also, socrates uses ánthropos, "man, human being" (latin homo), rather than , anér, "man, male" (latin vir) -- though, not being plato, he probably is not thinking about an unexamined life being similarly not worth living for a woman.

so men who profess to despise sophists and prosecute socrates for being one, actually use the tools of the sophists against one who really is not one. i suspect that even such books still would have been more valuable than socrates's "drachma at most." the only reason that the present charges against socrates were credible was because of the reputation he already had." socrates can also hope for a more responsible hearing from the "demi-gods" (, hêmítheos, "half-god"), as well as meeting all the famous people of history, and those unjustly convicted like him." socrates, indeed, has his own ideas about his own dignity, that of the court, and that of the city. later, when explaining the elements to strepsiades, socrates exclaims "zeus you say? socrates reasons that anything bad would contribute to unhappiness, and so only those desiring to be unhappy would want what is bad.- the scene: inside the perry-castañeda library, as i doze off over a paperback of plato’s republic. plato wrote an entire dialogue featuring him (the alcibiades), which begins with socrates homoerotically admiring the first blush of beard on his face." socrates takes a moment to express his astonishment, which is considerable, that meletus would try and make this stick. the final part of the apology, then, is what socrates has to say after that vote, after he knows that he is sentenced to die." there certainly is a large part of the jury that will vote against socrates just because he wasn't imploring them enough and was telling them how to be a good jury. socrates, of course, would be free to express skepticism about this, as in addiction is a choice by jeffrey a. socrates is not interested in this stuff at all, and really has very conservative religious ideas about cosmology. so if socrates had to be quiet, this could mean ceasing to be human. since socrates stops people in public places, there is a strong chance they will not be athenians citizens. the objective of this is to inspect, delve, and widen socrates’s perspective that there are extra factors that relate to the steps that lead up to the light." socrates continues to vindicate the oracle by questioning people anywhere. in this paper, i will explain thrasymachus’ definition of justice, as well as socrates’s rebuttals and differences in opinion. plato and aristotle, maybe, but there is no evidence of monotheism in the apology, or in the early dialogues that we can confidently say reflect socrates' own ideas. but socrates, in a sense, already understands in the apology what is needed. we don't know how old she was, when socrates married her, or anything. this tells us something important about chairephon, that he would have been a partisan of the democracy, and also something important about socrates, who thus had a friend who was a conspicuous partisan of the democracy. so it is hard not to suspect that aristophanes was not close to socrates and was, at the very least, cool. at meno 100b, plato has socrates conclude that "virtue appears to be present in those of us who may possess it as a gift from the gods" [grube p. interestingly, xenophon details the vengeful steps that critias took directly against socrates under the oligarchy, while in the apology socrates never mentions that, even though he does talk about his problems with the thirty (32c) and could win sympathy with a specific example of their hostility towards him. but, instead, socrates unfolds his mission from the god, which he takes seriously enough to die for. socrates had been accused of corrupting the youth and not worshipping the gods of the state." we know from xenophon that socrates had not prepared a defense and just walked into court. socrates, as one of the most well-known of the early philosophers, epitomizes the idea of a pursuer of wisdom as he travels about athens searching for the true meaning of the word. we do know, however, even from the euthyphro, that socrates is in the court of one of the major officials of athens, the "king archon. meletus is clearly a reluctant and hostile witness, so socrates has to make the answer as obvious as possible..:It is true that we cannot be 100% sure of what socrates said himself as plato wrote the apology. among others, plato wrote many dialogues that quoted socrates’ exact words. now he must admit that socrates believes in daímones, and it cannot be avoided, for greek religion, that this will imply gods also. socrates does not want to become senile and lose his faculties. the situation, critique, and fate of socrates are the most sobering reminders of that. as an aside, i would like to note that, though i believe that a further objection could be made to socrates conclusions in “the philosopher's defense”, due to space considerations, i didn't write the fourth section “failure of the philosopher's defense”.- philosophy and the human condition socrates and alcibiades in plato’s symposium, he describes the party which agathon had several famous people of his time over for dinner." indeed, the infamy of having killed socrates was not forgotten, ever.. a warning that socrates is concerned with justice, not with words or anything else. it is plato who immortalizes socrates in the popular imagination as a man of profound knowledge. my position: i am in disagreement with this statement and my analysis, based on contextual evidence, is as follows: although i could argue the question posited above from either position, as many have done before and, as many will continue to do after me, i do not believe that socrates waivers in his beliefs between the two accounts according to plato.- socrates was a one of the first philosophers and teachers known to western philosophy. when one initially learns of socrates through plato one gets an upstanding view of the philosopher, while when viewing socrates through the writings of aristophanes one finds him a crude purveyor of the children. we don't have a hint here of plato's later notions, in the phaedrus and republic, about a celestial afterlife." while meletus may know that he doesn't like the point, he is certainly unaware of socrates' theory that is behind it.. having never appeared in a court before, socrates warns the jury that he will speak in his "usual manner. that one excerpt i find it to be clear that socrates would stand by antigone and her actions. the answer seems to be "ordinarily not," but then it turns out that this is only because everyone is ignorant and because real knowledge must be remembered, not taught -- plato's theory of recollection. crito is distressed by socrates reasoning and wishes to convince him to escape since crito and friends can provide the ransom the warden demands. the bluntest statement in the entire apology of socrates' willfulness, or autonomy, or transcendent, extra-political loyalty, little and ineffectively qualified with "i am grateful and i am your friend [philô, i love]. the charges are still not fair, and he might simply have handled the issue better, but it is the most awkward and hollow part in socrates' entire defense. everything the world knows about socrates comes mainly from the works of plato, aristotle, aristophanes, and xenophon.
" now socrates can ask if any of the older and wiser youth whom he had "corrupted" want to testify against him." but socrates decides, evidently because of his a priori confidence in the justice and providence of the gods, that anything that appears to be harm must not really be harm. socrates probably had never tried to disabuse people of this impression before, and it is one of the very great misunderstandings about him that he must deal with in his defense." the thing that socrates says that seems the most overtly misogynistic -- at least if that is how to interpret him invoking the stereotype of women as emotional and given to hysterics (from , hystéra, womb, uterus). it was because of socrates open-mindedness that he was sentenced to death by two charges brought against him. curious question to consider about socrates is "what is the value of family? they are the principal reason why socrates is in trouble." in predictable fashion, they began killing their political enemies, as socrates mentions himself (32c-d). socrates is charged on corrupting the minds of the youth in athens. the story is that the mask of the actor playing socrates, who was legendarily ugly, was so good a caricature that socrates himself stood up in the audience so that it could be compared to him. indeed, socrates says elsewhere that he read a book by anaxagoras once because he had heard that mind (, noûs) was the cause of everything." socrates may well have been concerned with this, but his strategy was much more indirect and was based on what people believed about themselves. socrates has been called the inventor of reason and logic, and at the same time has been condemned as a corruptor and a flake. unfortunately, historians today can only base socrates upon what others have written, and because so many wrote about an obviously different person, it is hard to come up with who he really was.- to question what no man has questioned before, that is a credo which we seemingly impose upon socrates looking back upon his life. he became a philosopher when his teacher, and another great philosopher of greece, socrates, was tried and executed in 399 bc." socrates states that this was his true purpose, for "the unexamined life is not worth living. it is this hypocrisy that makes the trial and death of socrates quite ironic. grube translation, in different editions [plato, five dialogues, euthyphro, apology, crito, meno, phaedo, hackett publishing company, 1981, pp." perhaps socrates took his criticism to actually discredit the democracy as a whole. as a philosopher socrates is known to take every angle of an argument and to never put belief into one idea.- socrates was a classical greek philosopher that was born in athens, greece around 470/469 bc. socrates, from phaedrus and letters vii and viii, seems to think that spoken word holds great precedence over writing. after some careful discussion about the nature of women and how it would relate to their particular role in the city socrates and adeimantus come to the agreement that the women will be assigned their roles in the same manner as the men of the city. the sophists taught, and socrates asked, about the enlarged greek "political" life.. such an answer is not responsive, since socrates asked "who?" socrates is later going to be accused of being an atheist. grube's translation often says "gentlemen," or the like, instead, which sounds more modern, but doesn't have quite the same flavor:  socrates is addressing male citizens of athens, and uses those terms. or have the lines between the real socrates and the socrates of aristophanes, plato and xenophon been so blurred that we do not know who the real man is. socrates’ view on morality is that anyone can do wrong. socrates suggests the indictment against him should read: “socrates is guilty of engaging in inquiries into things beneath the earth and in the heaven, of making the weaker argument appear the stronger, and of teaching others the same things”.- socrates and siddhartha guatama buddha have many similarities; they both believe in the importance of justice and good, and a simpler way of life. as a philosopher, socrates is more in the school of the spartans at thermopylae, fighting to the death." so poor leon, evidently, did get executed; but socrates ignored the whole business." again, nota bene, meletus won't answer, so socrates answers for him. to him i may fairly answer: there you are mistaken: a man who is good for anything ought not to calculate the chance of living or dying; he ought only to consider whether in doing anything he is doing right or wrong - acting the part of a good man or of a bad" this is socrates most cherished principle, that in dying for his beliefs he would be choosing the most noble action and not the most obvious.- the socrates elenchus was socrates way of questioning a proposal. if socrates has "human wisdom," then the presocratics and sophists whom he has been discussing earlier would have to claim something rather more. his long time friend crito proposes to socrates a plan to escape from his death sentence in prison. socrates then reflects on the nature of the defense: "perhaps one of you might be angry." in having or teaching specialized knowledge, whether about animals or humans, socrates now asks if this is something everyone has, or just one or a few. xenophon tells us that socrates' entire net worth was only five minas, just enough for the "moderate" fee charged by the sophist evenus." so the seventy-year-old socrates has two sons who are still children. plato wrote a lot about socrates in his works of ancient greece." socrates must have tried to explain how the politician was contradicting himself, but usually people don't want to hear that kind of thing. from plato’s apology, we admire socrates’ brilliant rhetoric and rigorous logic, while at the same time feel pity for him and indignant with those ruthless jurymen.- socrates theories move away from the previous pre-socratic philosophers mainly because his goal and answers he wanted were the meaning of mortality and society. this is probably the least honest part of the apology and perhaps might be considered evidence for the authenticity of plato's rendition, since he might otherwise have been at pains to fix up the argument and address the real issue, treason, and not beat a straw man, as socrates does. this might suggest that maybe socrates didn't care what the answers to his questions were." however, the evidence for existence of this practice is thin; and the thesis is compromised both by socrates referring to the speech of the pythia and by xenophon's version of the pythia's response (xenophon's apology 14), which was that "no man was more free than i, or more just, or more prudent (, sôphronésteros). equally, socrates makes clear why laws should be followed and why disobedience to the law is rarely justified.- plato’s portrayal of socrates the portrayal of socrates by his student plato creates one of the most controversial characters of all time. despite this disagreement, one is a certainty: socrates had a very interesting and active sense of humor. indeed, the word "gadfly" in english now is hardly used for its original sense of real flies, but exclusively for the sort of "annoying person" (as webster's says), like socrates, who bothers politicians and others with pestering complaints or criticism.

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