Socrates
Alex Sosa
6/28/13
Intro to Humanities
Prof. Smith
SOCRATES
Socrates was a man of many words, with more thoughts and questions than any man of his time. Socrates wrote nothing himself, leaving much of his life a mystery. As mysterious as he was, today we look at him as the Father of Philosophy. Most of what we know about him was depicted through works that Plato, his pupil, had written about him. These works were Crito, Phaedo, Lysis, Symposium, Euthyphyro and Apology, and with them being written Socrates was remembered as being the greatest philosopher. Plato had used these works to describe Socrates at his best and was meant to be studied by the academy created by Socrates. Although his teachings were free, they weren’t exactly the easy way to learn what Socrates had believed in. Trivial thoughts had been brought up by these works and it was up to the person reading them to decide what Socrates had wanted you to understand. Plato was not the only scholar or pupil to be taught by Socrates. Xenophon, Aristophanes, and Aristotle were all his students or had learned from him, more importantly his thoughts. His thoughts were fairly complex, and ahead of his time, however, he had been able to question every little thing within society, religion, and state. Socrates was one of the wisest of men; he had realized that knowledge was immeasurable, and unconquerable. There is a tale that states that an admirer called Chaerephon had asked the Oracle of Delphi “who the wisest man was,” only to receive the reply stating that it had been Socrates. Socrates had believed that by not knowing, you could continually seek to quench your thirst of knowledge. That knowing that everything could never be learned, but that not knowing could mean you were a truly wise man. One could simply prove this by asking questions to things we believe to know is true, where as a Socratic could try and prove that belief wrong. Socrates did not want to know everything; rather, he tried to get
6/28/13
Intro to Humanities
Prof. Smith
SOCRATES
Socrates was a man of many words, with more thoughts and questions than any man of his time. Socrates wrote nothing himself, leaving much of his life a mystery. As mysterious as he was, today we look at him as the Father of Philosophy. Most of what we know about him was depicted through works that Plato, his pupil, had written about him. These works were Crito, Phaedo, Lysis, Symposium, Euthyphyro and Apology, and with them being written Socrates was remembered as being the greatest philosopher. Plato had used these works to describe Socrates at his best and was meant to be studied by the academy created by Socrates. Although his teachings were free, they weren’t exactly the easy way to learn what Socrates had believed in. Trivial thoughts had been brought up by these works and it was up to the person reading them to decide what Socrates had wanted you to understand. Plato was not the only scholar or pupil to be taught by Socrates. Xenophon, Aristophanes, and Aristotle were all his students or had learned from him, more importantly his thoughts. His thoughts were fairly complex, and ahead of his time, however, he had been able to question every little thing within society, religion, and state. Socrates was one of the wisest of men; he had realized that knowledge was immeasurable, and unconquerable. There is a tale that states that an admirer called Chaerephon had asked the Oracle of Delphi “who the wisest man was,” only to receive the reply stating that it had been Socrates. Socrates had believed that by not knowing, you could continually seek to quench your thirst of knowledge. That knowing that everything could never be learned, but that not knowing could mean you were a truly wise man. One could simply prove this by asking questions to things we believe to know is true, where as a Socratic could try and prove that belief wrong. Socrates did not want to know everything; rather, he tried to get
Cited: Destree, Pierre, and Nicholas D. Smith. "Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews." Socrates ' Divine Sign: Religion, Practice and Value in Socratic Philosophy // Reviews // // University of Notre Dame. Notre Dame, 11 Nov. 2005. Web. 01 July 2013. <http://ndpr.nd.edu/news/24881-socrates-divine-sign-religion-practice-and-value-in-socratic-philosophy/>. Beckman, Tadd. "Phil 101 Notes: Socrates." Phil 101 Notes: Socrates. Harvey Mudd College, 1999. Web. 01 July 2013. <http://www4.hmc.edu/humanities/beckman/PhilNotes/socrates.htm>. "SOCRATES AND THE SOPHISTS." SOCRATES AND THE SOPHISTS. Sophists.us, -. Web. 01 July 2013. <http://www.sophists.us/>. Nails, Debra, Nails,. "Socrates." Stanford University. Stanford University, 16 Sept. 2005. Web. 01 July 2013. <http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/socrates/>.