Socrates Courage Definition

How someone grows up and experiences life causes them to create their own meaning for a word. A definition is something concrete, but what a word means to someone is not always the same for everyone. Especially when looking at bold words like love, courage, or happiness, there isn’t one true definition or meaning. Not everyone’s measurement of happiness is the same and not everyone’s way of showing love is the same. An example definition of courage given in the book is, “A man of courage is one who doesn’t run away but remains at his post and fights the enemy.” (Plato, 77) From this statement brought about a whole conversation about what courage is or more specifically, what courage isn’t. Using the Socratic Method, Socrates, Laches, and Nicias

Socrates response demonstrates the Socratic Method because he is responding in a way that discredits Lache’s definition of courage. Because of this response, Lache’s is forced to respond with an answer that is broader than his initial statement. As this conversation continues, Lache’s begins to realize how much more difficult it is to describe the true definition. The definition must be universal, it cannot be an example, and it must identify the common quality that makes something belong to a certain class or kind. After a long discussion, which also included Nicias, they decided that they couldn’t truly define courage without finding a

The Socratic Method is a conversational method of doing philosophy where someone challenges the other’s beliefs to create a discussion. The more fundamental way of causing a discussion is to show how a proposed idea is not totally true in hopes of leading to an accurate answer. Socrates does this throughout the passage, Lache, by refuting initial statements by Laches and Nicias. When Socrates explained why his response wasn’t correct, they would revise it to create a new definition. Thus, this created the discussion throughout the passage in Lache. Because of this dialect, I do believe the Socratic Method is capable of making philosophical progress. The reason I believe this method is capable, is because I read it myself. Throughout the passage Laches Socrates keeps pushing Laches and Nicias to be more and more accurate. Instead of settling at a response and ending the dialect, by pushing the topic, it resulted in an answer way more profound that Lache’s original response. Although they weren’t ever able to make a conclusion they still made progress toward the result. The Socratic Method is a casual way to create a great, meaningful