Up@dawn 2.0

Monday, April 23, 2018

Socrates and his Teachings


Socrates was born circa 470 B.C. in Apolece and died in 399 B.C. He was a hugely important philosopher from the Classical period from Greece. Unlike philosophers before him, Socrates was more interested in how people should behave rather than how the world works. He was the son of Sophroniscus who was an Athenian stone mason and sculptor. He is believed to have received only a basic Greek education and learned his father's craft at a young age and is believed to have spent his early working as a stone mason before devoting himself to philosophy.


Socrates believed that philosophy should be used for the greater well-being of society and decided to try to develop an ethical system rather than a theological doctrine. He said that choices were motivated by the desire for us to gain happiness and that ultimate wisdom comes from knowing oneself. So he created his "Socratic Method" which is a form of cooperative argumentative dialogue between individuals, and it is based on asking and answering questions to stimulate and draw out ideas and underlying presumptions. As a teacher he would repeatedly ask his students continual questions until a contradiction was exposed. He used this method so that the audience that was listening to him were compelled to find a logical conclusion to a problem. 

Socrates taught much about knowledge and intelligence and one of his most famous quotes is pictured to the right. I take this quote as he is saying that once you know that you know nothing, you become intelligent. The world is so big and there is simply so much knowledge to be acquired that one person can't acquire all that knowledge. Another way I look at this quote is a person who claims to have knowledge is less wise and intelligent compared to someone who is open to learning new things. 

Socrates died when he was executed in 399 B.C. because at the time, Athens was in a transition between hegemony and its decline after a humiliating defeat against Sparta in the Peloponnesian War. As a result of these losses, Athenians held on to past morals and teachings and Socrates came and challenged these by calling on the greater importance of the mind. Many Athenians admired his challenges to conventional wisdom, but an equal number also grew angry at him and felt that he threatened their way of life. The jury convicted him by a vote of 280 to 221 and he was executed by drinking a mixture of poison hemlock.

2 comments:

  1. I really enjoyed your researched on Socrates. It was well thought out and very clear.

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  2. Good. But that quote is a bit off. He said he was WISE, not INTELLIGENT... there's a difference. Lots of very smart people are extremely unwise, and we're very unwise to listen to them.

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