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Summary of Socrates and Plato

It’s been a whirlwind tour through the minds of Socrates and Plato this past semester. I learned quite a bit about these two intellectual giants. My interest in them started several years ago as I was evaluating a curriculum on classical education. I was invited to join the administration of a local school to observe a class teaching classical education. I was told this form of education was language focused, trains the mind, and teaches critical thinking skills. As I watched the students discuss a chapter they read on Homer I was hooked. As a start, I wanted to understand more on classical education and knowing what influence the great Greek philosophers and subsequent philosophers have has on Western thought.

In summarizing, some of the key points I learned this semester from reading C.C.W. Taylor’s book on Socrates. He is known as the founder of Western Philosophy and had a great influence on Plato. We also know Socrates wrote nothing himself and what we know of him is learned through Plato’s dialogues. Socrates believed philosophy should be studied for the well-being of society. He believed knowledge, virtue and happiness were all dependent on each other. Acquiring knowledge was developed by acquiring human reason which was developed by knowing ones-self. The Socratic method was developed by Socrates from the words of the Delphi Oracle who said Socrates was the wisest man. We learn from the Apology, he understood this to mean he was wise, because he had the knowledge that he had no knowledge or ideas. He asked questions of his fellow Athenians to get them to talk through a problem in order to reach a logical conclusion. This method was used to show one’s ignorance in order to get to know one-self and make room for knowledge. Along with knowledge, virtue was also need to attain happiness. Virtue is described as truth and justice. In Crito, justice and injustice are described as the health or sickness of the soul. Taylor tells us, “just as it is not worth living with a diseased and corrupted body, so it is not worth living with a diseased and corrupted soul”. My personal take away from Socrates teaching is happiness can be acquired from having knowledge (wisdom) and virtue (a healthy soul).

Plato, aside from writing the dialogue from which we learned of Socrates is known as the founder of the Academy of Athens as well as the philosopher who developed the theory of Forms. In continuing the discussion on knowledge from Julia Annas’ book on Plato. She raises the question on what is needed for knowledge. She tells us if one is able to be influenced by persuasion he lacks knowledge and raises doubt on whether knowledge obtained through persuasion is true or false. Plato believes persuasion is not guaranteed to be true and that knowledge can only be acquired first hand. When I asked my professor to elaborate on this concept, he told me “The mind’s eye knows, while the body’s eye perceives”. Confirming the thought that ideas of the mind overrides the senses. Virtue of having a healthy soul is critical to Plato as it is the controlling and defining elements of life. If healthy, it will produce a well-organized life, but what controls the soul and how does one keep it healthy? Is the soul controlled by the body or something else? Plato believes in dualism where the soul is separate from the body. He thinks he is the soul and when the body dies, the soul continues to exist. The soul Plato is referencing it is our mind and understanding. It is immortal because it is always in motion and is the force that drives everything else. If it always exists, what happens to it when the body dies? He gives various explanations such as reincarnation, rewards for the virtuous and judgement for the wicked. As with most of Plato's writings, we pull ideas from different dialogues and put them together to form our view.

The Academy of Athens produced two traditions. One of the traditions, known as the ‘New’ philosophy, was developed by the new head of the Academy, a philosopher named Arcesilaus. This philosophy was based not on having a position, but arguing against the other person’s stance, showing he has a problem regardless of what you think. This ‘skepticism’ stays in place until the academy closed its doors in the end of the first century BC. The ‘Old’ philosophy or Platonic which argued for Plato’s original doctrine which eventually revised by Plotinus in the 3^rd century into Neo-Platonism which had added some of the intellectual development of Christianity.

There are two different levels to Plato’s concept of ideas or what he calls Forms. The level that we see, all the physical items in this world and the level we don’t see, the one in which we visualize as the perfect model of the item. This perfect model cannot be changed or seen. This perfect model is an abstract idea and is preferable to the physical or objects we identify with our senses. Some confusion of Form exists because this concept of Form changes between some of the dialogues. In Timaeus, Forms are the pattern the Craftsman uses to make our world. In Republic, he uses Forms as a centerpiece for his argument, but doesn’t say what they are and in Parmenides he criticizes his own theory.

This study gets me started on understanding what influence the great Greek philosophers and subsequent philosophers have had on Western thought, but I’m just scratching the surface. My next steps are to complete the study on Aristotle, read the book “A Little History of Philosophy” to get an overview of all philosophers, and finally pick out the philosophers of interest and take a deep dive with them. Training my mind and honing my critical thinking skills to defend my worldview is my ongoing objective and I take solace in the words I learned from Socrates; The unexamined life is not worth living.