Philosophy

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Philosophy Socrates -
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The Greatest Greek Philosophers

• Socrates 470 B.C. - 399 B.C.
• Plato 427 B.C. - 347 B.C.
• Aristotle 384 B.C. - 322 B.C.
• (dates are approximate)

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Charges against Socrates

• Informal charges
• "Socrates is an evil-doer, and a curious person,
  who searches into things under the earth and in
  heaven, and he makes the worse appear the better
  cause and he teaches the aforesaid doctrines to
  others." (P 7b)
• Formal charges
• "Socrates in guilty of corrupting the young and
  of not believing in the gods in whom the city
  believes, but in other new divinities." (Apology
  24b)

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Oracle

• An oracle is a person or agency considered to be
  a source of wise counsel or prophetic opinion. It
  may also be a revealed prediction or precognition
  of the future, from deities, that is spoken
  through another object or life-form

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• The oracle was associated with the cults of
  deities derived from the great goddess of nature
  and fertility, the preeminent ancient oraclethe
  Delphic Oracleoperated at the Temple of Apollo
  at Delphi. Oracles were thought to be portals
  through which the gods spoke to man.

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• The Delphic Oracle exerted considerable influence
  throughout Hellenic culture. Distinctively, this
  female was essentially the highest authority both
  civilly and religiously in male-dominated ancient
  Greece. She responded to the questions of
  citizens, foreigners, kings, and philosophers on
  issues of political impact, war, duty, crime,
  laws, even personal issues.3

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Socrates and Wisdom

• Oracle No man is wiser than Socrates. (P 8b)
• Socrates tries to prove the oracle wrong.
• He searches for someone wiser than he.
  (Politicians, poets, artisans) He finds others
  aren't as wise as they appear.
• He concludes He has a wisdom that they don't
  have
• Socrates "I am better off than he is--for he
  knows nothing, and thinks that he knows I
  neither know nor think that I know. In this
  latter particular, then, I seem to have slightly
  the advantage of him." (P 9a)
• Neither he nor they know anything (important),
  but they think they do and Socrates knows that he
  doesn't know.

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Interpretations of the Delphic Oracle

• Oracle No man is wiser than Socrates. (P 8b)
• Socrates tries to prove the oracle wrong.
• Perhaps Socrates intends to show the oracle
  (which he believed to be divine) to be right
  ("vindicate" (P 9b)) by trying hard to prove it
  wrong (by finding a counterexample) and failing?
• Socrates' initial interpretation
• "I am the wisest of men." ( P 8b) Another
  interpretation of oracle No person is wise (not
  that Socrates is wiser than others). Socrates
  seems to accept this. "By his answer he intends
  to show that the wisdom of men is worth little or
  nothing he is not speaking of Socrates, he is
  only using my name by way of illustration ..." (P
  9b) A feminist interpretation
• Only women are wise!

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Socratic Method

• (Illustrated by Socrates questioning of Meletus)
  
• Someone claims to know something.
• Socrates questions the person.
• Through questioning Socrates gets the person to
  make claims.
• Socrates himself avoids making claims, but simply
  focuses claims the other person makes.
• Socrates uses logic to deduce other claims from
  these, but still only proceeds if and when the
  other person accepts these further claims.
• Socrates shows that these claims are
  self-contradictory.
• Socrates concludes that the person does not know
  (and is not wise).

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Some other topics in the Apology

• Socrates defense against charges of corrupting
  the youth
• Socrates defense against charges of atheism
• Socrates "voice"
• Socrates political career
• The result of the trial
• Socrates proposal for punishment
• Socrates attitude toward death
• The "death is a blessing" argument

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The Death of Socrates
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• When he was 70, he was accused of corrupting the
  youth of Athens as well as being a threat to the
  state and authority.
• They brought this upon him in the hopes of
  humiliating him by making him grovel beg for
  mercy.
• Instead he lectured the jury of 500 about their
  ignorance.

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• When he was found guilty and was asked to suggest
  his own punishment he recommended that they build
  a statue in his honour and place it in the main
  square in Athens.
• They condemned him to death but were prepared to
  look the other way if he were to bribe the prison
  guard and escape.
• Despite his friends pleas, Socrates refused to
  break the law.

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• He drank poison Hemlock and philosophized with
  his friends until his last breath.
• He became a martyr for truth.
• His weakness He assumed that if people knew what
  the right thing was to do, they would do it.