Essays on Socrates

Socrates, the father of modern Western philosophy, once said, shortly before his own death that “[Those] who happen to have gotten in touch with philosophy in the right way devote themselves to nothing else but dying and being dead” (Phaedo 64A). In other words, Socrates...

Selfish Disobedience? Civil disobedience can be defined in a number of different ways: in its most raw form, “civil disobedience is the refusal to comply with certain laws or to pay taxes and fines, as a peaceful form of political protest because of moral objections...

After running into Euthyphro outside of king-archon’s court and hearing about why Euthyphro is there, Socrates is not convinced that Euthyphro prosecuting his father for murder is the just or pious thing to do. He asks Euthyphro to teach him about what piety and impiety...

In response to Crito’s arguments Socrates thinks about/believes first, why the opinion of the majority is not the most important opinion, second, what the results of escaping would be for the city of Athens, and third whether escaping is an unfair action such that it...

From historical sources it is known that Socrates was Plato’s teacher and that Socrates was Plato’s elder by at least a few decades. Other than this, things become far less clear when examining the relationship between these two founders of western philosophy. Since Socrates never...

“[H]ow it would come into being, if it ever were to come into being, you have, in my opinion, Socrates, stated well” (The Republic, 510a). The possibility of the Republic coming into being is the issue which sets the earlier Dialogues apart from The Republic....

Man himself is the standard to determine the values appropriate according to circumstances.The Sophists recognised the power of speech and called it as ‘logos’ . Here speech (logos) is having powerful effects to control the human emotions like distress, delight ,fear etc. ,that was why,they...

Civil Disobedience in the Mind of Socrates Civil disobedience is a practice that has been studied and exhibited for thousands of years. This practice is defined as “the refusal to obey certain laws or governmental demands for the purpose of influencing legislation or government policy”...

The Platonic Dialogue is written by Plato at the scene of Socrates prison cell and death bed. The government of the time and place of ancient Athens did not want to hear Socrates ideas and did not want to give him freedom of speech. (South...

Was Socrates’ Punishment Just? In The Apology, Socrates is put on trial for supposedly corrupting the youth of Athens and for not believing in the gods. The charges were brought against Socrates because by Meletus. While on trial, Socrates defends himself very well against the...

A major controversy in the philosophies of both the modern philosopher Sartre and the ancient philosopher Socrates is the argument regarding how life will unfold. Either every choice someone makes determines the next thing that may happen to that person, or his or her life...

In the Apology, Socrates tries to convince the jurors that, if they kill him, they will only be harming themselves. This argument is part of Socrates’ larger defense of his actions as he seeks to avoid drinking the hemlock. Socrates makes two claims: (1) that...

Novelist Rossiter Worthington Raymond once said, “Life is eternal; and love is immortal; and death is only a horizon; and a horizon is nothing save the limit of our sight.” A horizon, by definition, is no more than the range of one’s knowledge or experience....

What does it mean to be human? We are “decision-making creatures capable of overruling [their] own instincts.” It naturally follows that those tools which enable humans to exhibit these unique characteristics are the most essential to human existence and evolution. For thousands of years, Rhetoric...

Aristotle’s definition of the virtue of high-mindedness in Nichomachean Ethics, and of what constitutes the excess and deficiency of this virtue, poses a problem when applied to Socrates’ in Plato’s Apology. On one hand, Socrates is high-minded when he accepts his death sentence, despite believing...

“Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds” (Albert Einstein). When encountering the inexplicable, people’s visceral reactions often oscillate between fear and awe-nevertheless establishing the subject in terms of “otherness.” Steven Millhauser’s collection of short fiction, The Knife Thrower and Other Stories, explores...

Apology, written by Plato, outlines what occurred during Socrates’ trial. Socrates was on trial because he was accused of being a doer of evil, corrupter of the youth, and not believing in the gods. His charges where those often used against philosophers. Apology tells about...

Socrates found Euthyphro in the agora and after very brief rapport launched straight into asking the question of what is virtue; in the case of Euthyphro, the specific virtue being discussed is piety. Socrates was able to look at his subjects, including Euthyphro, in such...

Socrates’ Argument That Virtue Cannot Be Taught In the latter half of Plato’s Meno, Socrates doubts whether virtue is a type of teachable knowledge and instead argues that it is a result of “true opinion” (97b). In reading Socrates’ argument, I find that, while his...