Questions tagged [socrates]
Socrates was a classical Greek Athenian philosopher. Credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, he is an enigmatic figure known chiefly through the accounts of later classical writers, especially the writings of his students Plato and Xenophon and the plays of his contemporary Aristophanes. Many would claim that Plato's dialogues are the most comprehensive accounts of Socrates to survive from antiquity.
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All I know is that I know nothing. Does this statement of Socrates still resonate in modern philosophy?
Regardless of attribution, this could be interpreted as profound wisdom or a suggestion that things are ultimately unknowable. It certainly seems to indicate humility. Does any of this still hold true ...
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Is the temperance resulting from the socratic maxim "know thyself" always about knowing others?
I was just thinking about what good 'know thyself' means. There is something arguably narcissistic and unnecessary - or at least self absorbed - about examining your life just to know your own flaws ...
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When is mental illness a meaningful failure of wisdom?
Some philosophers think mental illness is a failure of function, to act rationally, others a failure of doing, but it can also at least involve failures of self appraisal, to accurately judge what is ...
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What did Socrates mean by " there is no more fitting reward than maintenance in the prytaneum"?
According to wikipedia:
"In general in ancient Greece, each state, city or village possessed its own central hearth and sacred fire, representing the unity and vitality of the community. The fire was ...
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Explanandum and Explanans in Greek Philosophy
From Wikipedia: 'An explanandum is a sentence describing a phenomenon that is to be explained, and the explanans are the sentences adduced as explanations of that phenomenon. For example, one person ...
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How one should live a peaceful life knowing this fact that there is no meaning of life? [closed]
So I am going through the philosophical path and I think I am deep into it nowadays.
That old question "What is the purpose of living when we are going to die one day" was eating my mind but ...
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Did Socrates say: "Strong minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; weak minds discuss people."?
Where did Socrates say or did Aristotle quote Socrates saying:
Strong minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; weak minds discuss people.
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Was Socrates hypocritical about Eros?
Taken at face value, in the Symposium and Phaedrus gay love that remains unconsummated is regarded as the highest form of love between humans men.
It makes the soul rise upward to the form of beauty, ...
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How applicable is the craft analogy for discussing the virtues, like justice?
In Book I of The Republic, Socrates uses a craft analogy (CA) as part of his argument against Thrasymachus to convince him that justice is not the advantage of the stronger. To do so he equates ruling ...
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Is it ok, that translation of “Apology of Socrates” has a lot of grammatical mistakes?
This is a technical and pretty specifically question: I bought a book, that contains Apology of Socrates, and some dialogues (Kriton, Meneksen, Ion, etc) in Russian language ISBN 978-197-4015-03-0, ...
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What is the origin of the account of Socrates learning to play the flute in prison?
I have long been familiar with a story about Socrates—that, while awaiting execution, he chose to use his time by learning to play a tune on the flute. An example of this in an article about a ...
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Did Socrates' actual apology resemble Plato's Apology?
I have seen that Plato's writings have traditionally been classified as Early, Middle or Late and that the earlier the work, the closer it resembles what Socrates might have actually said. In view of ...
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Does Apology's Socrates contradict Crito's Socrates?
In Plato's Apology Socrates clearly indicates he would continue to philosophize even if the court ordered him not to:
if now, when, as I conceive and imagine, God orders me to fulfil the philosopher’...
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Euthyphro's Dilemma
I'm current reading one of the first of plato's dialogues, Euthyphro, concerning piety. At one point in their conversation, Euthyphro proposes to Socrates the following definition,
I) What all of the ...
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What is a question?
Sponsored by Socrates:
Alcibiades 113, b
SOCRATES: Come then, give me the general principle. When there’s a
question and an answer, who is the one saying things--the questioner
or the answerer? ...
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What makes a good question?
Most philosophy begins with a question. I'm wondering why certain questions provoke more profound thoughts than others. What characteristics do good questions share with each other? How can we go ...
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Does Socratic intellectualism suppose that no one is evil?
Since one will always do what one believes is right.
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Was Socrates a fictional character invented by Plato?
I have read a lot of websites that suggest Socrates was a fictional character created by Plato (albeit without the citation of any corroborating evidence), but I have also read the opposite (and by "...
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"The beginning of wisdom is the definition of terms." - Socrates?
Did Socrates actually say, "The beginning of wisdom is the definition of terms"?
The aphorism, "The beginning of wisdom is the definition of terms" is often attributed to Socrates, but I could not ...
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If Socrates time travelled to the 21st century, would he still face the same fate?
I believe that the Athenian community and authority did not appreciate his philosophy and political view.
Sometimes, I tell himself that they just didn't know his worth as he was way ahead of his time....
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Is Socrates' wisdom intrinsically valuable?
I don't mean specifically felicity etc. at philosophy, but whether a state of ambivalence toward death, while alive, can be intrinsically valuable because of some knowledge or wisdom that ambivalence ...
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Is there an issue with the Socratic method arguing against points?
So, I've noticed something, looking at the classic example:
Do the gods know everything?
Yes.
Do some gods disagree with others?
Yes.
So gods disagree about what is true?
I suppose they must.
So gods ...
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If Socrates said he was ignorant but was in fact knowledgeable, was he simply a liar?
According to "Does the center hold?" by Donald D. Palmer,
Socrates's main argument during his trial was that "he knew nothing". But Socrates discussed various topics with many ...
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Plato's Ion - Can a god inspire a wrong thing?
Let's suppose that Socrates does not mock Ion in the dialogue. Socrates states that in every topic which Homer talks about, the master of that topic have the authority to judge whether Homer is right ...
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Did Aristotle accuse Plato of distorting Socrates?
It is always said that Plato sometimes put his words in the Socrates's mouth. Aristotle is the contemporary and critic of Plato. If Plato misattributed some Platonian notions to Socrates, Aristotle ...
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How to understand that "It is fear and terror that make all men brave, except the philosophers"?
In Phaedo, plato writes the following:
And the brave among them face death, when they do, for fear of greater evils?
That is so.
Therefore, it is fear and terror that make all men brave, except the ...
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Is Socrates a teacher despite him denying so?
Despite him denying that he actually taught his followers anything and that they did everything on their own accord, what argument could be put forth that he was actually a teacher
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Is the examined life worth living?
Obviously, the unexamined life is not worth living. But, for Socrates, or indeed any Socratically influenced philosophy, is any examined life valuable or in some sense a success; fully lived?
Put ...
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Is studying the origins of philosophy In the pre-socratic thinkers useful?
In what way can the study of the origins of philosophy in the pre-socratic thinkers illuminate the nature of philosophy?
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In Plato's Republic, why would a musical, medical, or knowledgeable man NOT try to get the better of another like man?
Book I, 349e, Socrates confirming the position of Thrasymachus:
"...is any musical man who is tuning a lyre in your opinion willing to
get the better of another musical man in tightening and ...
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Who is Plato and Socrates' God?
I'm reading the Phaedo, as translated by Benjamin Jowett. The characters alternately mention "God" (As a monotheist would spell it with a capital "G"), for example, at one point, Socrates says:
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How do we know which dialogues Plato didn't write?
I understand that there are dialogues of Plato for which the authorship is contested, with some more than others.
How are the dialogues determined to be spurious? Is it a different process for ...
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What is the origin of the idea that moral realism requires a god?
This idea has always been very strange to me. The first time I encountered this idea was when I was required to read about the Euthyphro Dilemma in college. It felt like a whole dialogue about ...
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Does the Euthyphro dilemma apply to secular ethics?
The original statement of the dilemma is found in Plato's Euthyphro:
Just consider this question:—Is that which is holy loved by the gods because it is holy, or is it holy because it is loved ...
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No treatise by Plato exists or ever existed
In Plato's second epistle appears the following line:
For this reason I myself have never yet written anything on these subjects, and no treatise by Plato exists or will exist, but those which now ...
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What were the government ideals for the Socrates and Aristotle?
Winston Churchill famously quipped, "The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter." Plato also seems to have held such a view, where he wrote in The ...
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What influence did Socrates and Plato have on ancient Greece?
We know that Socrates and Plato are two of the most influential Greek philosophers in current Western society. But what influence did they have in the Greece of their time and subsequent centuries? ...
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What were Socrates views on afterlife?
Did Socrates believed in reincarnation or did he believed in heaven and hell concept?
And if he did, did he justify his beliefs and how?
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Quote about serving to someone better than you
I remember reading something along the lines of "what can be better than to serve to someone who is better than you" in my philosophy class back in the days. I was pretty sure that I read ...
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Platos's/ Socrates' conception of reincarnational purpose and the soul's nature
I can not help but wonder what must have been Socrates' opinion of the human soul.
On the one hand I am told that 'the Greeks' (and thus, I assume, Socrates and his followers too) took ψυχή which is ...
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Do philosophers ever admit to arguing for things they themselves don't believe? [closed]
Do philosophers ever admit to arguing for things they themselves don't believe, without that meaning the former is not really the case, but merely explicative or similar of something they do believe.
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Why is Nietzsche so against Socrates?
Nietzsche recalls the story that Socrates says that 'he has been a long time sick', meaning that life itself is a sickness; Nietszche accuses him of being a sick man, a man against the instincts of ...
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Are people inherently good according to Plato?
Are people inherently good according to Plato? Are Gods subject to forms, in the sense that they are good because they are subject to the form of good, or are they independent of the forms? Because I ...
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How is Socrates's daimon related to one of Aquinas's laws/views of virtue and justice
In Plato's Apology of Socrates, Socrates talks about having a daimon, a divine being/voice that tells him of things not to do. For Aquinas, what would this be?
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Is there any contradiction in Phaedo 102d-103a and 103c-105b?
I'm a complete beginner in philosophy and have been reading Phaedo for the first time. While reading about Forms in this, I understood that a thing can share in tallness and shortness at the same time,...
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Was Socrates a monotheist?
I know my question seems weird, but in Plato's books Apology, Crito, and Phaedo (and probably in other books since I've read only these three and I am in the middle of the third one), when Socrates ...
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Plato Symposium - Is Socrates's Response to Agathon Warranted?
I'm reading Plato's symposium and I had a question about the section 199b - 201c where Socrates responds to Agathon. This comes after Agathon's speech, but before Socrates tells the tale of Diotima.
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When the Oracle called Socrates the wisest of the Greeks he at first rejected the label then accepted it. What caused Socrates to change his mind?
And in what sense could he be called wise?
Can you please help me in this essay assignment?
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The concept of nature in the Greek philosophy
My question is: Is it possible to point to a development in the concept of "nature" in the period between pre-Socratic philosophers and Aristotle (inclusive)?
Thank you very much.
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