OFFICIAL HIGH SCHOOL No. 68
SCHOOL YEAR 2017-2018
AFTERNOON SHIFT
PHILOSOPHY MATERIALS
TOPIC 3 UNIT I: SOCRATES
01. Brief biography of Socrates
Socrates was born in Athens, Greece, in 470 BC. He is one of the most important philosophers in the Ancient Greece credited as one of the founders of Western Philosophy. His father was a sculptor named Sophroniscus. His mother was a midwife named Phaenarete. He married Xanthippe and she bore for him three sons: Lamprocles, Sophroniscus and Menexenus.
During his living Socrates was a critic of democracy. In fact, one of Socrates’ purported offenses to the city was his position as a social and moral critic. With this attitude he irritated some people with considerations of justice and the pursuit of goodness. His attempts to improve the Athenians’ sense of justice may have been the cause of his execution.
According to Plato’s Apology, the problem of Socrates begins when his friend Chaerephon asked the Oracle at Delphi if anyone were wiser than Socrates; the Oracle responded that no-one was wiser. Socrates realized the Oracle was correct because he himself knew he was not wise at all, and this made him the wiser one since he was the only person aware of his own ignorance. This turned the Athens against him and that’s why he was found guilty of both corrupting the minds of the youth of Athens and of impiety (not believing in the gods of the state), and subsequently sentenced to death by drinking a poison hemlock.
He died in Athens in 399 BC.
At the end of the dialogue Phaedo, Plato said these words: “He aquí, Equécrates, cuál fue el fin de nuestro amigo, del hombre, podemos decir, que ha sido el major de cuantos hemos conocido en nuestro tiempo; y por otra parte, el más sabio, el más justo de todos los hombres”.
02. Socratic Method:
The Socratic Method, also known as Maieutics, Method of Elencus or Socratic Debate, is a form of cooperative argumentative dialogue between individuals, based on asking and answering questions to stimulate critical thinking and to draw out ideas and underlying presumptions. It is a dialectical method often involving a discussion in which the defense of one point of view is questioned. This method is employed to bring out definitions implicit in the interlocutors’ beliefs, or to help them further their understanding.
03. Explanation of the expression “I know only that I know nothing”.
Socrates is a wise man because he knows that he doesn’t know, and only the wise men know this. In this case, it is good to remember that once Pythagoras was called “wise”. He clarified: “I am not wise. I am only philosopher”. So, in nature there three kinds of beings: the animals, the philosophers and the gods. The animals don’t know that they don’t know. The gods know that they know. The philosophers know that they don’t know. That’s the socratic wisdom.
04. The four socratic paradoxes.
The four socratic paradoxes are:
· No one desires evil.
· No one errs or does wrong willingly or knowingly.
· Virtue –all virtue- is knowledge.
· Virtue is sufficient for happiness.
05. The meaning of Phronesis (knowledge).
Phronesis is a greek word which means “thought”, “sense”, “judgement”, “practical wisdom” and “prudence”.
06. The causes of wrongdoing and bad behavior.
Therefore, he believed that wrongdoing and behavior that was not virtuous resulted for ignorance. So, instead of prisons we have to put schools.
07. The conception of Virtue.
According to him Virtue is the best guaranty for happiness, so that the best way for people to live is to focus on the pursuit of virtue. The best virtue is “phronesis”.
08. The expression: “ethical virtue is the only thing that matters”.
Virtue is the only thing which matter according to Socrates. That’s why he said many times: “the unexamined life is not worth living”, so that means that a life without virtue is a life without sense, an unworthy life.
Elaborated by: Lic. Rubén Olivera Luna.