Socrates In Plato's Republic
“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,
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Leonard Nelson in a critical essay defines the Socratic method as “the art of teaching not philosophy but philosophizing, the art not of teaching about philosophers but of making philosophers of the students” (Nelson). Socrates way of teaching was not simply telling his students something directly and having them accept an answer without doubt like most straightforward teachers of the time did, but rather to propose a question or series of questions and see what his students had to say about it. Socrates would listen to his student’s arguments and either gun down their answers or show an example, which obviously contradicts and proves their ideas wrong. As an example, in The Republic, Polemarchus is arguing with Socrates that it is the right thing to do harm to those who do evil to you. Socrates rejects his answer by telling a horse analogy which he says that harming a bad horse will only make the horse worse, therefore it is not right to do return evil for evil. With his questions, he helped his listeners realize that they lacked a full understanding of the topic they were discussing. Socrates did not teach his own ideas and beliefs. Through his method, he acted as a type of catalyst for others to search and find the truth for themselves. Socrates peculiar teaching method was radically different than those methods of his time and proves another reason why Socrates was a very intriguing
Leonard Nelson in a critical essay defines the Socratic method as “the art of teaching not philosophy but philosophizing, the art not of teaching about philosophers but of making philosophers of the students” (Nelson). Socrates way of teaching was not simply telling his students something directly and having them accept an answer without doubt like most straightforward teachers of the time did, but rather to propose a question or series of questions and see what his students had to say about it. Socrates would listen to his student’s arguments and either gun down their answers or show an example, which obviously contradicts and proves their ideas wrong. As an example, in The Republic, Polemarchus is arguing with Socrates that it is the right thing to do harm to those who do evil to you. Socrates rejects his answer by telling a horse analogy which he says that harming a bad horse will only make the horse worse, therefore it is not right to do return evil for evil. With his questions, he helped his listeners realize that they lacked a full understanding of the topic they were discussing. Socrates did not teach his own ideas and beliefs. Through his method, he acted as a type of catalyst for others to search and find the truth for themselves. Socrates peculiar teaching method was radically different than those methods of his time and proves another reason why Socrates was a very intriguing