Pre-Socratics and Socrates

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Pre-Socratics and Socrates
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Pre-Socrates

• Early Greek Dichotomies
• Thales (naturalists) One Many
• Permanent Changing
• Heraclitus Known believed
• Parmanides and Zeno Reasoned (known)
  experienced (believed)
• Zenos Paradox
• Flying arrow / Chinese School of names
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• Democritus (and Naturalists).
• Methodological individualism
• Logos

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Socrates

• A man who choose death for the sake of having a
  good life
• A man who is wise because he knows his own
  ignorance
• A man who searches virtue but believes that no
  one is evil
• A man who teaches by not teaching

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I. Socratic Life --- Life Has No Intrinsic Value.
"An unexamined life is not worth living."
Implications 1. Life has no intrinsic
value Intrinsic and extrinsic -- Good in itself
or not. Is it good no matter what? 2. What has
intrinsic value to a person? A person is a
soul. (Are we essentially a soul or a body?) The
excellence of a soul is its awareness. --- So
knowledge has intrinsic value. A soul without
awareness is worse than nothing. 3.
Implications Discussion 1. Would life be
worth living no matter what? 2. Does knowledge
have intrinsic value?
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• II Socratic Wisdom --- Knowing One's Own
  Ignorance.
• 1. It is not about any information that one adds
  to one's stock. It is "dropping."
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• 2. It is not pointing to others.

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• III. Socratic Virtue --- It Is A Matter Of
  Knowing What Is Really Good For Oneself!
• Ordinary beliefs
• 1. One can be virtuous, but have no knowledge
  about the virtue and the use of the virtue.
• 2. One can have knowingly but not virtuous.
• Socrates
• 1. If one is virtuous, one has knowledge on how
  and when to use it
• 2. "No one does wrong knowingly and willingly.
• -- No weakness of the will
• -- One does wrong only out of ignorance
• -- If one knows what is right, one will do the
  right
• -- What we need is not punishment, but
  education.
• Arguments
• We do voluntarily what we want most.
• We want most what we think to be the best.
• We do what we think to be the best.
• Separate the following

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• DISCUSSION
• 1. Does Socrates' view entail that there are no
  rights and wrongs? or that everyone is right?
• 2. Does Socrates' view entail that everyone
  always does things that are of one's best
  interest?
• 3. Does Socrates believe that one's believe in
  X's being right justifies one's action of X as
  right?
• 4. "People use their knowledge (e.g. computer
  knowledge) to do crimes. This proves that
  Socrates is wrong in saying that people who do
  wrong are ignorant."
• 5. "The child's being sneaky when he was stealing
  the candy bar proves that he is doing wrong
  knowingly and willingly. If he did not know it
  was wrong, he would not be sneaky."
• 6. "The Bible says The spirit is willing, but
  the flesh is weak (Matthew 2641). This proves
  that one can do wrong knowingly, and there is
  such a thing called the weakness of the will."

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• IV. Socratic Method -- Teaching By Not Teaching.
• Midwife

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• Daily One-minute Paper
• 1. What is the big point you learned in class
  today?
• 2. What is the main, unanswered question you
  leave class with today?