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Socrates Wisdom

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Socrates on Wisdom Steven Rabby Excelsior College INTRODUCTION Socrates is often regarded as one of the pinnacle figures, if not the pinnacle figure in establishing western philosophy. Although Socrates claimed no specific theory or set of beliefs, what he did do, is introduce the world to a new way of thinking. This way of thinking, or questioning, is referred to as the dialectical method. The dialectical method involved taking the beliefs of others as one who knew nothing and attempted to expose contradictions, gaps in information and false assumptions within their arguments. In Athens, this caused Socrates to acquire some enemies, who labeled him as a Sophist, eventually sentencing him to death on the charge of corrupting Athens youth. After Socrates death, …show more content…

There is a story which recounts that Chaerephon, a friend of Socrates, asked the oracle of Delphi: “Is anyone wiser than Socrates?” The answer was: “No human is wiser.” (Plat. Apol. 21a) When Socrates had received word of this, he set out to see if he could prove the oracle wrong. Yet the more Socrates set out to discover those wiser than himself, he came across people who only appeared to know a great deal but actually proved their knowledge to be false or lacking. It was through engaging the people of Athens that Socrates discovered the limits of our own ignorance and the importance of removing any preconceived notions or beliefs in the pursuit of truth and knowledge. Socrates dialectical method of questioning worked to bring awareness to the false assumptions the people of Athens had at the time concerning love, virtue, and what is just. Through rigorous questioning, Socrates exposed the ideas and assumptions his opponents believed and with this revealed the contradictions within their arguments, bringing them to a higher level of

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(20c) Socrates mentions that it was human wisdom and nothing more that has allowed himself to know what he knows. (20d) Socrates even mentions

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It’s what motivates people to stay persistent in accomplishing their goals. Socrates was an incredibly determined person. His single goal in life was to learn and to question others, a task he claimed was given to him by the gods, and in this goal, he succeeded tremendously. Socrates was endlessly determined to question as many people as possible, and even more so determined in aiding the questionee to achieve non biased logic in their thinking, while showing that what the claim to know, they do not really. For example, when Socrates was questioning Euthyphro about how he concluded what’s pious and what’s not, he kept asking what Euthyphro meant meant by his responses: “So you did not answer my question, you surprising man” (Euthyphro 8a).

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Doing so would result in a weak soul that is full of ignorance. Socrates had developed an understanding that came from within. This gave him

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His goal was to make the court understand his beliefs prove which type of knowledge is worth knowing. When talking about the wise man he examined, Socrates said, “Neither of us actually knows what Beauty and Goodness are, but he thinks he knows, even though he doesn’t; whereas I neither know nor think I know.” This shows that Socrates proved he was more wise than the titled wise man because instead of faking the knowledge, that wasn’t too important, he accepted that he did not know which would result in him then seeking for

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He starts his interrogation with those that are believed to have the greatest reputation and wisdom and visits with the politicians, poets, and craftsmen. Socrates tells the court that the politicians are not wise, hence he is in a room full of politicians and there supporters He concludes that he is wiser than these politicians even

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Here is another example to support my point. “Athenians, I got this reputation thanks to a certain kind of wisdom I have. What kind of wisdom, you ask. Just a human sort of wisdom, I’d say; and I may really be wise in this respect.” (Lines 24-26)

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Socrates appeals to ethos, or credibility, first. To do this he speaks directly to the audience, and all Athenians, by asking those who have heard him talk and preach to tell others that he is not an “evil-doer, and a curious person, who searches into things under the earth and in heaven, and he makes the worse

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Because Athens was a theocracy, by Socrates going against their gods and goddesses, he could have caused disturbances in the way that their city operates. Athenians believed that Gods were responsible for many important factors of their community, such as an excellent and bountiful harvest. If one person in the community, such as Socrates, disobeyed the Gods, the community believed that the Gods would punish them as an entire civilization. By removing Socrates's from their community indefinitely, in the

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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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The existence and continual study of Socrates’ philosophy regardless of differing accounts is astonishing in itself since it survived not through the specific philosopher, but through other people. Which is a testament of the impact that a man, such as Socrates, can make. When we think of Plato, who is regarded as a father of western philosophy, we are quick to think of his major work The Republic, his student Aristotle, and his writing on Socrates. (We think of his writings on Socrates as mere footnotes in philosophical thought without examining them.) “Nothing comes from nothing,” Parmenides proudly claimed, and this philosophical doctrine applies to Plato’s thought.

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According to Socrates perspective, the democracy of Athens was corrupt and even though they courts were made in such a way that everyone was judged fairly, it wasn’t such because there were no rules or principles set forth. When a person was brought to court in the Athenian court and the person spoke against the jurors or offended them, he or she could be prosecuted based on that. In summary, judgment was passed based on emotion rather than on justice. In the Apology, Socrates stated, “my present request seems a just one, for you to pay no attention to my manner of speech-

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Socrates is quoted as stating, “An unexamined life is a life not worth living” (38 a). Socrates was a founding figure of western philosophy, and a stable for many ideas. He lived in Athens, Greece teaching his students, like Plato, questioning politics, ethical choices, and many other things in Greek society. In the Trial and death of Socrates: Four Dialogues by Plato, it explores the abstract questioning Socrates had towards many of the normal social properties, which led to his trial, resulting in his death. The most important aspects discussed in the dialogues is the questioning of what is pious and impious, what it means to be wise, and good life.

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I think that it is a little ironic that Socrates, the man who was all about intellect, had an intellectual error. Socrates was a man who focused on the truth, and unfortunately he failed to realize that the truth might not be what everyone else was focused on. In relation to what I stated earlier here is some in text evidence; Socrates said “to disregard the manner of my speech- it doesn't matter how it compares- and to consider and concentrate your attention upon this one question, whether my claims are

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They didn 't believe him because of lack of information, if you can 't prove or see it, it can 't be real. Socrates thought that the physical world is different in each person 's mind and ruled by our ways of perceiving things. This allegory showed that if we just use our hearing and vision we will never know what is what or what is knowledge, like the four men who stayed chained in the

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Socrates was a great philosopher of the Greek world. He was quite an atypical and distinctive person. Being different from all the other philosophers of the land, Socrates was teaching his students ideas totally out of the ordinary from what the society believed was right. As a result, he displeased many people so much that they decided to get rid of him. Socrates was put to trial, accused of spoiling the youth of Athens, tried and sentenced to death.

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