SocratesBiographical Data

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SocratesBiographical Data

• Born 469 B.C.
• Birthplace Athens, Greece
• Death 399 B.C. (execution by poison)
• Writings We have no record that Socrates ever
  wrote anything
• Best Known As one of the most important icons of
  the Western philosophical tradition who drank
  hemlock.

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Socrates Relevance

• The Greek thinker Heraclitus has warned, One
  ought not to talk or act as if he were asleep.
• Socrates embraced Heraclitus challenge as his
  life mission, calling himself a gadfly.
• Too often we are drowsy sleepwalkers.
• More than ever, we need the gadfly of Socrates to
  wake us from our dozing.

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Sources of Information on Socrates

• Thucydides
• Aristophanes
• Plato Xenophon
• Aristotle

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Socrates Life

• Appearance
• Family Life
• Social Life
• Military Service

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Socrates Trial and Execution

• Reasons for Trial
• Criticism of Athenian Democracy
• Views on Religion

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The Socratic Method

• Any process of thorough-going questioning
• A series of questions intended to help a person
  or group discover their beliefs about some topic
• Resented by influential figures of Socrates day
• Garnered Socrates the title Gadfly of Athens

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Socrates TeachingsThree Theses

• The unexamined life is not worth living
• The most important task in life is caring for the
  soul, the real person
• A good person cannot be harmed by others

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PlatoBiographical Data

• Born 428 B.C.
• Birthplace Athens, Greece
• Death 347 B.C.
• Best Known As Author of The Republic
• Name originally named Aristocles
• Platos School The Academy (f. 387)
• Platos Most Famous Teacher Socrates
• Platos Most Famous Pupil Aristotle

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Platos Life

• Family
• Influences
• Socrates
• Pythagoreans, Anaxagoras Parmenides

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The Allegory of the Cave

• Prisoners have been chained since childhood deep
  inside a cave.
• Shapes cast shadows on the wall, which occupy
  prisoners.
• A prisoner is released and dragged up out of the
  cave into the sunlight.
• His eyes are blinded at first but eventually can
  look directly at the Sun.
• Once enlightened the freed prisoner would no
  doubt want to return to the cave to free his
  fellow bondsmen.
• The problem however is that they would not want
  to be freed.

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Plato on Knowledge, Reality, and Personal
Enlightenment

• Plato is NOT saying that
• Knowledge
• Reality
• Appearance vs. Reality
• The World of the Forms
• Personal Enlightenment