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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Are the unexamined lives of others worth examining?
Socrates continually admonished his interlocutors to become more introspective, arguing passionately for self-examination:
The unexamined life is not worth living.
But an examined life is painful, ...
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Which philosophers proposed theories containing a performative contradiction?
Socrates was blamed of this by being wrongly interpreted of saying: "I know that I don't Know." or other variants. What he really said was: "I neither know nor think that I know."
Source: https://en....
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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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Are all philosophers subject to a variation of the Socrates problem?
Obviously, the specific problem of knowing who Socrates was and what he taught is wholly unique to the man. However, reading books and articles about philosophers and philosophy, I'm struck by the ...
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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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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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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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What was Socrates/Plato's view on free-will?
Socrates (or, rather Plato, through the voice of Socrates) leads us to the conclusion in the dialog Protagoras (see this for example) that our actions are entirely determined by our beliefs of what is ...
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Is there a correct or better order to read Aristotle, Plato, and Socrates?
I would like to read the text written by Aristotle, Plato, Socrates and so on. Is there any reference of the best order to read them? Is the chronological order the best or correct one? Or is there a ...
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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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Did Plato record actual conversations in his dialogues?
For example, Did Socrates really meet Zeno in Parmenides as a young man and the conversation that took place between them was recorded by Plato?
Are ANY of Plato's dialogues recordings of actual ...
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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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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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Why does Socrates think that you can master something without wisdom or knowing what one is talking about?
Source: p 3, A Little History of Philosophy (2011 ed; but Reprint ed, 2012 extant) by PhD in Philosophy (Cambridge)
[...] ‘How can I be the wisest man in
Athens when I know so little?’ he [...
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'you cannot refute the truth; for Socrates is easily refuted': How does this rebut disagreeing disputatiously?
Source: How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading (Revised 1972 ed.), p. 145 Bottom - 146 Top.
The second general maxim of critical reading is as obvious as the first, but it ...
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Irony in Friedrich Nietzsche?
Wikipedia defines verbal irony as
a statement in which the meaning that a speaker employs is sharply
different from the meaning that is ostensibly expressed. The ironic
statement usually ...
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