Midterm Post # 1 Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle

Socrates (470-399) was a western philosopher from Athens, Greece.

He believed in the reincarnation of an eternal soul which contained all knowledge. He believed in immortality of the soul.

The soul dies but is reborn and thus never destroyed. "Then, since the soul is immortal and often born, having seen what is on earth and what is in the house of Hades, and everything, there is nothing it has not learnt; so there is no wonder it can remember about virtue and other things, because it knew about these before. For seeking and learning is all remembrance."

He did not agree with the teaching of the idea that all things are relative. Socrates was more interested in finding the truth.  However, he thought people needed to be reminded of what we already know, instead of learning something new. Socrates suggests that we all desire good things.

Socrates placed importance on virtue, but claimed that no one really knows what virtue means. He said that nobody has the same virtue, consider a free man and a slave. He argued with Menon who claimed virtue is role specific. However, all virtues have one something the same in all that makes them virtues. He also believed that ethics meant to think about life, and the importance of individual consciousness.  

Socrates was a teacher, although he argued there was no such thing as teaching, only remembering. His use of questions and answers to remind his students of knowledge is called the Socratic Method.   He enjoyed having long discussions with his students, but not documenting his thoughts. One of his most famous students was Plato. The only resources left for historians to draw conclusions from about Socrates are the writings of Plato. A set of his writings about the discussions between Socrates and his students is known as the Dialogs. However, many historians feel that Plato may have written these dialogues more in favor of his own beliefs rather than Socrates.

Socrates was sentenced to death by the citizens of Athens because he was teaching his political and religious views to the youth. They felt he was corrupting the morals of the youth of the city. In 399, he was ordered to drink a brew of poison hemlock. He did this in the present of his students. We know about this event only because of its documentation in Plato’s Apology. 


Sources; http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/athenians.html
http://myweb.wvnet.edu/~jelkins/pmpl99/fragments/platovirtue.html