Rene Descartes lived from 1596 to 1650. He was born in France, and went to a Jesuit primary school. He earned a law degree, but later on he began focusing on math and logic in the world. During the early 17th century, his ideas deviated more and more from previous philosophers. Because of this, he became known as “The Father of Modern Philosophy.” While some of his ideas weren’t completely original, his way of getting to them was. He believed in totally ignoring everything previous philosophers had done, and starting new, as if their work had never happened. He did not even trust his own emotions. He also believed that consciousness was the only truth in the world, leading to his most famous statement, “I think; therefore I am.” He also published several books, and despite his late entrance in the subject, and early death, he is still one of the most…
Socrates’ unique wisdom can be likened to that of a midwife, as stated in Theaetetus. In Meno, Socrates discusses the definition of virtue with the titular character. Socrates challenges Meno to define virtue, and Meno states that each demographic has a different virtue, for example, “a man’s virtue: to take part in the city’s affairs capably…”(Meno, 71e-72a) or “there is a different…
After all this, Socrates goes on to the story about a man returning from the afterlife and describing it. At the end of the story, he says that because he and his companions have established that the soul is immortal, and because this story speaks about the immortality of the soul, it is even more important for people to be just and seek good and true knowledge in their life. This, in turn, will bring them much happiness in both this life and the…
“The most intriguing people you will encounter in this life are the people who had insights about you, that you didn't know about yourself” (Alder). This quote can be used to show why the great Greek philosopher, Socrates is deemed as being so intriguing. During his time, Socrates was seen as a great threat because he tended to break free from the normal way of thinking and inevitably, people became afraid of him. Socrates was eventually put to death on account of “corrupting the youth” and being an “atheist,” which were false claims against him to cover up the fact that his accusers simply didn’t like him or his ways. When reading Plato’s Republic, Socrates is shown as being very intriguing because of: his humble ways, his Socratic method,…
Socrates in essence, believes in god and is too wise for his own good. Throughout whole trial he spoke nothing but the truth however, because of the greed and jealousy of men they convicted him other wise simply because of their own intentions. Furthermore, searching for the truth couldn't be possible because of the reality of the situation: Socrates was considered the wisest man, people in an act of evil wanted to confront and destroy him and in essence, this couldn't be possible because in fact Socrates was the wisest man and was unknowing of it. This in reality represents the irony in the situation because Socrates doesn't consider himself to be the wisest man in Greece, but he is. In reality Socrates only escape from death was to lie and he didn't feel obliged to do so. In fact the truth was there the whole time and it was up to the people to pry through the illusion of this situation and understand what Socrates was saying. This represents the high cost of searching out the truth in this case, which was the causing of Socrates'…
For the majority of his life, Socrates spent a good deal of his time asking questions of the people of Athens. His goal was to arrive at a set of political and ethical truths. Contrary to many people at the time, Socrates did not lecture about the things he knew; he actually claimed to be rather ignorant. He claimed he was wise only because he recognized his ignorance and did not claim to know what he did not know (Grube 26). The questions Socrates asked forced his audiences to think through a problem and arrive at a logical conclusion. At times, the answers seemed so obvious his opponents often looked foolish. His “Socratic Method” of questioning as it came to be called later, was adored by Socrates’ followers but despised by others throughout Athens (“Socrates Biography.”).…
Socrates, one of the greatest minds go Ancient Greece’s was no exception. As a sophist, Socrates was considered a teacher of the noble. Sophist of Greed taught young men ’arete’: excellence or virtue for a price. However, Socrates wasn’t a regular sophist, he never accepted any monetary reward for his ’teachings“ (b316,p813) and he never actually taught anything but rather trained minds to think. Socrates states at the trail that he doesn’t have any true knowledge and he believed that in order to have any true knowledge one must be able to produce a single, clear definition of a subject without any exclusions to the rule, something that he was never able believed that he couldn’t do.Rather than use he own opinions to teach his pupils what to think, Socrates used ”systematic questioning“ (b136p813) to help clear their own minds and reach their own conclusions just by thinking. A skill that they could carry forward, into their lives as Athenian citizens. With this in mind, it is nearly impossible for the Athenians government to find Socrates guilty of…
This would go on until the person that Socrates was talking to (such as Euthyphro) winds up in the same position, recognizing that they didn’t know all that they thought they knew, then walks out irritated. I think, this raise an interesting humanity question for us. We claim that we value the truth more than lies, yet at the same time we would found ourselves similarly irritated by people (like Socrates) who challenge our ideas and put us in a position where suddenly the idea that we have been defending, we can suddenly see it’s not a good position that we thought it was, yet typically we don’t welcome…
himself, yet in reality he was not. So I then tried to show him that he thought…
First, in Plato’s Euthyphro, we see the Socratic Method of questioning being applied in a discussion between Socrates and Euthyphro. Plato writes, “Socrates: … Is the pious being loved by the gods because it is pious, or is it pious because it is being loved by the gods? Euthyphro: I do not know what you mean, Socrates.” (Plato 11). This method of questioning and critical thinking is what Socrates applies to all the issues that he is faced with, which is why it’s referred to as the Socratic Method. This method does not only apply to words or ideas, it can be applied to anything to find the deeper reasoning behind every belief. The Socratic Method is one of the most important aspects of Socrates’ lifestyle that causes him to act as a gadfly to society. Second, Socrates’ strength in evaluating information was admitting his ignorance when it came to what he didn’t know, while others attempted to act as though they already knew the answer to the problem. In The Apology, Socrates writes, “… It is likely that neither of us knows anything worthwhile, but he thinks he knows something when he does not, whereas when I do not know , neither do I think I know” (Plato 25). The acceptance of his ignorance allows for him to seek the truth and find it for himself rather than accepting what others tell him. He…
Question 2) In Book I of Republic, Thrasymachos’s states that unjust people are stronger and more powerful than just people. Thrasymachos believes that being just is not virtuous nor wise but that men act just only because they afraid of having injustices happening to them so they obey. Those who have power and control are those people who act unjust-they make laws and rules that benefit themselves, not the rest of the people. Socrates proves Thrasymachos otherwise by arguing that being just is virtuous, wise and profitable and being unjust does not make people stronger nor more powerful. Those in power or rulers make laws that are just for themselves but Thrasymachos agrees that sometimes rulers make mistakes and make laws that are unjust to them, therefore, making them just or advantageous for the people they rule. Therefore, unjust people would not be more powerful in this case. Additionally, Socrates goes on to reason with Thrasymachos that the individual in power commands advantages for his or her subject rather than their own personal advantage. Socrates makes a comparison to a doctor and a patient as well as a pilot and a sailor, where the doctor and pilot are commanding advantages for their subjects, the patient and sailor respectively. Thrasymachos argues that a just man will pay taxes on his estate and an unjust man will pay less taxes on the same size property, etc. Therefore, being unjust serves a greater purpose than being just. Socrates goes on to argue that no one chooses willingly to rule but they do so in exchange for wages because the ruler does not expect to make other gains in simply doing what is advantageous for the people being ruled. Work performed by people in power and in control is considered an art form that without being rewarded with wages solely serves that subject, or weaker person, receiving the benefit of the art. For example, a doctor practices the art of making others healthy. There are no advantages the doctor gains in…
Rene Descartes, a rationalist, said that each person contains the criteria for truth and knowledge in them. Finding truth and knowledge comes from the individual themselves, not necessarily from God. Descartes also believed that reason is the same for every single person. Descartes believed that nothing could be true unless we as humans could perceive it. He also believed that you could break down things into smaller simpler parts. Descartes also believed that there was a relationship between the mind and body. He also believed that the idea of being perfect originated from God since God himself was perfect. He also integrates his mathematical concepts into his methodology. Descartes also applied doubt to his ideas before he granted complete certainty to them. Descartes famous quote is "I think therefore I am."…
Socrates: Words heard through Centuries Socrates was a standout amongst the most powerful scholars in the West, despite the fact that he left no compositions of himself, it was plausible to remake an exact record of his life from the works of his Greek understudies since he generally connected with them. Socrates was a man with an extremely solid conviction since he carried on with his life for the quest for learning, genuine insight, God's will, and devotion. Despite the fact that he never composed anything, his spirit wellspring of information about him originated from one of his understudies, Plato. Socrates teachings have given us significant bits of knowledge into the human personality and the way we consider the world across different…
The Euthyphro dialogue is essentially a conversation between Socrates and Euthyphro each of who attempt to argue their point of justification about why they are in court or should not be there, which in turn a question develops about the gods and holiness.…
Rene Descartes has been called the father of modern philosophy and is considered by many to be one of the most influential philosophers. Descartes refused to accept the views of those who came before him and in order to rid of all past opinions, he began doubting everything, especially material things. This way of questioning and skepticism enabled Descartes to make breakthroughs in philosophy. Rene Descartes tried to prove that there is something more to ones own existence, as he is a philosopher most interested in his own self. He tried to prove that God does exist and that this is the certainty for which he based all his knowledge and beliefs. Descartes introduced his method of radical doubt, a method of not accepting anything as true. Rene Descartes believed that there is no need to doubt every opinion, there is only the need to question the foundations of those before. The inevitable result of this doubt is to make it impossible for us to have any further doubts about what we discover to be true. Everything in the universe is able to be doubted, but there are things that you should not have to doubt. Nothing should be perceived as automatically true. My belief is that one must doubt everything that has been taught to us until we can confirm the legitimacy. Using this method of doubt can help to enable the mind in understanding what is real and what is not real. Though many of Descartes' philosophies cannot be proven, his method of doubt showed to be extremely successful in creating ideas.…