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Similarities Between Pericles And Socrates

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Socrates and Pericles had extremely differing views about Athenian life. Pericles was a Politician, whereas Socrates was a philosopher. In “The Funeral Oration of Pericles”, Pericles contradicts himself a lot. While in “The Apology of Socrates”, Socrates does not go back on what he said in the past. He stands by everything he has said. Pericles was respected and liked in Athenian society, and Socrates was neither respected nor liked. Socrates questioned everything about the way people lived their lives and their beliefs. Pericles believed that Athens was the best and the way that they lived was the right way and there should be no other way of life. With the way that Pericles and Socrates lived they would clearly have different views of life. Pericles believed that Athens was superior to any other Greek city- state. The Athenian laws are not emulated by any others; they are their own. Athens had a democracy and other Greek city-states looked to Athens to base their laws. To Pericles, Athens emulated the best of …show more content…

Where Pericles said that money did not matter, but did not really mean it; Socrates said money did not really matter and means it. “A citizen of the great and mighty and wise city of Athens, -- are you not ashamed of heaping up the greatest amount of money and honor and reputation, and caring so little about wisdom and truth and the greatest improvement of the soul” (Plato, 66)? Socrates said, “Not to take thought for your persons or your properties, but first and chiefly to care about the greatest improvement of the soul. I tell you that virtue is not given by money, but that from virtue comes money, and every other good of man, public as well as private” (Plato, 66). Socrates believes that Athenian citizens are more concerned with their wealth, but they should not be. He believes that wealth is not the monetary value or possessions that you have, but wealth is your virtues and how you live your

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Pericles, who was Greek, can be biased in his statement because as a leader, he needs to win the people’s support. Therefore, he can only say the glories of Athens. Document 5 supports Document 4’s statement. Document 5 talks about the details of the Athenian government. It tells the reader “No one remained in power long enough to entrench himself”

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Whereas Aristophanes is writing for an audience that should be taken as a commentary and critics of Socrates, but as more humorous than anything. 3. Who are the intended

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He mocks them for remaining closed off to foreigners when Athens is open and welcoming (Book 2 Funeral Oration of Pericles 39). Pericles uses rhetoric in order to build a sense of patriotism and nationalism with his grieving audience. He uses this nationalistic feeling to

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Instead, these contributions skew away from his social impact and narrow down towards the political and military impact he had on Athenian society. Source C is an ancient source, created by Plutarch, that highlights the political and social influence Pericles held over powerful men, who chose to uplift and honour Pericles at his deathbed for his contributions to Athenian society. These two sources both mention the impact of Pericles, though they mention different contributions. Source A would be more useful for a historian looking into modern interpretations of Pericles’ creative and infrastructural contributions, whereas source C would be more useful for a historian looking into the ancient interpretations of Pericles’ political and social

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Plato creates a whitewashed image of Socrates, completely undermining the image presented in Aristophanes Clouds. As compared to Aristophanes' clouds, Plato portrays Socrates as wise, humble and sophisticated. Plato was a student of Socrates, whereas Aristophanes was a comic writer and a friend. The original Socrates is unknown, therefore we can only evaluate what others have written about him. Aristophanes writings seems to be a reflection of the public opinion.

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They both are looking at defining concepts of what is of value to society. However, the environment they lived in also shaped the message they delivered. Socrates was born in fairly turbulent times. Athens had been form in the wake of the Persian invasion and was in the process of becoming an empire of itself.

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The Funeral Oration of Pericles: A Primary Text Analysis In Pericles’ Funeral Oration, the famous and influential text in 430 B.C was given by Pericles to traditionally honor the death of the soldiers that fought in war and serviced in the Athenian military. This interpretation of the oration is written by Thucydides, as it is a manuscript of what Pericles said to the Athenian public. Through this text, Pericles focuses on honoring the fallen soldiers, but he also emphases the values of Athenian society and the social structure of the invention of democracy, as it is introduced for the first time ever in history. The Funeral Oration of Pericles expresses the distinct values of strong moral standards for social structure and introduces democracy, as it reinforces laws and the need for equal justice.

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When considering how a person should act in order to gain the most honor or respect, there are varying opinions. Some may say that you simply must be a good person, but how does one constitute what a good person looks like? The Greek word arete represents what the ideal person in Greek society was. Sometimes arete is loosely translated to mean virtue, however this can be misconstrued in the English language. “Virtue, at least in modern english, is almost entirely a moral word; arete on the other hand is used indifferently in all the categories and means simply ‘excellence’”

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Here is my first piece of evidence to support my point. “I happen to be a gift of the god to the city; and this is how you can tell: Unlike most people, I have neglected all my own interests, and I’ve put up with this private neglect for so many years, while always attending to your business.” (Lines 108-111) In the quote stated above, Socrates claims that even with the annoyance people found in him, he pursued in his mission to help the people. Even though he had to give up his interests and hobbies, he did not give up his mission and focused on his work with the people all those years.

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His story warns that the pursuit of wealth—even as a means to an end—causes loss, despite the seeming gain. In order to achieve fulfillment, we must abandon that pursuit in favour of the direct pursuit of the things that would do

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Pericles, a key political figure of 5th century Athens states, “Our constitution does not copy the laws of neighboring states; we are rather a pattern to others than imitators ourselves.” The Athenians had no desire to follow what appeared as mediocre government, the Athenians pushed for the best form they could find. Arete, for Athens, meant every person had a voice in politics. Politics embraces the reason of the mind as well as the emotion of the heart. Therefore, the very essence of a good human being would lie in being a politically active person.

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Making enemies and becoming the topic of conversation, the Athenians began to view Socrates as a threat to their beliefs and way of life and sought to end it. In order to end this, Socrates was accused of blasphemy (Mod1SlideC7). Socrates’s accusers took him to court and after Socrates did not play their game by asking to be sent into exile, and in the end, he was sentenced to death. After reading the textbook and Plato’s writing influenced by Socrates, I realized that in the period of his life Socrates was indeed truly a threat to the Athens society, because he looked for answers that no one else bothered to find which challenged their culture.

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Meaning of Excellence and Wealth According to Plato (2000) Socrates claims that “Wealth does not bring about excellence, but excellence makes wealth and everything else good for men, both individually and collectively.” (p.10). There are different answers on the question: What is wealth? Wealth is to have money, to have knowledge, or to have family.

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The two philosophers believed strongly in the concept of eudaimonia, which is basic human well-being and goodness (Mastin, 2008). Much of Socrates’ ethics was built around this concept, which led to his ethical code becoming basically objective. Socrates’ ethics were based on something of a knowledge/ignorance dichotomy. He believed that people act immorally but they do not act this way intentionally. Like all animals, Socrates believed that we act in and seek out what is in our best interests.

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Socrates and Aristotle, despite being related through Plato, are in fact very different people and have many differing theories. Socrates outlook on life was that we 're all inherently good, but we will do bad things on accident. For example, when talking about ignorance, Socrates believes that we do not willingly do anything wrong. We instead have two branches of ignorance: not knowing something and knowing that you don 't know, or not knowing but you think that you do know (Plato, P.561). Aristotle on the other hand, claims that there is a different outlook on the model of ignorance.

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