Ancient Greece: Socrates and Plato ' Ethical Dimensions Contemporary Affairs
Essay by nikky • December 22, 2011 • Essay • 1,195 Words (5 Pages) • 2,340 Views
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Socrates is one of the first and oldest Greek philosophers ever known and he was the founder of philosophy. He was born in Athens, in the year 470 B.C. During that time there wasn't a person like him. He was a very out spoken man that held no fear for what he said. For someone so intelligent and wise he couldn't read or write. Knowing that is quite a shock you can have so much knowledge even for a man raised in poverty. He seemed rather blessed even without shoes on his feet; it seemed that being wise was one of the greatest gifts.
I was amazed on how he concluded he was the wisest among people because even though he had little wisdom as others he at least realized his own ignorance "I only know I know nothing." From my point of view it seems that Socrates had quite a humor even though he angered many citizens. He had a different atmosphere to him you could really feel he was ahead of his time.
Theirs a quote that I really like and I find it true "there is only one goodness it is knowledge there is only one evil it is negligence." He finally married at the age of forty to a young woman of nineteen. For being young she had a temper and was even more annoyed by his wise talk.
At the age of seventy he was brought to court and charged with disgrace and depravity of the youth. He thought that he should not be subjected to trial but to be honored as benefactor and spiritual instructor of society. The judges were not fond of Socrates and they became very angered by him and sentenced him to death.
Plato:
The people who accuse him tell others not to listen to him. They seem jealous of him. The people say he speaks nonsense and he teaches for money and makes the worst cause better. One of his friends went to the oracle and asked if any man wiser than Socrates. These two philosophers, each in their own style, have discoursed on a myriad of subjects, some of which they agree on, some of which they don't, including the ever present theory of metaphysics. "Both Plato and Aristotle were interested in practically every subject, and each spoke intelligently on philosophical topics and problems.
Both men were, of course, influenced by Socrates, though Plato was a direct student of the philosopher, whereas Aristotle was indirectly affected by being Plato's student, so both were attuned to the way Socrates spoke and discussed on almost any subject requiring thought, and both continued the tradition in a serious way. One such discourse prevalent in their writings is the theory each believed in concerning forms and change. A theory of forms is such a difficult subject that often times it will either lead or be led into other subjects, so that the original theory can be found touched on in man
Glazebrook wrote that Aristotle"tms analysis was that "nature could not be faked" as if natures were nothing more than matter upon which form can be imposed" .Karamanolis states in his book Plato and Aristotle in Agreement, that he was, "mildly critical of Aristotle"tms rejection of transcendent Forms, he nonetheless detected implicit agreement with Plato in relating them to essence and stability" (Karamanolis 2006 . Socrates, through Plato, believed in the existence of a Form because when he looked at certain items all containing at least one common character; he surmised that there had to be a common
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