Socrates and the examined life Chapter 2

Socrates conclusion from the "Apology"

'Goodness' is an intrinsic property that some actions (or persons) posses and that others lack. (The virtuous person is the one who knows what goodness is.)

Beliefs of Socrates

1. The unexamined life is not worth living. 2. The truth lies within each of us. 3. We should strive for excellence in all areas of life. 4. No one knowingly does evil. 5. It is better to suffer wickedness than to commit it.

Plato

427-347 BC, Ancient Greek philosopher of extraordinary significance in the history of ideas. Plato not only preserved Socrates' teachings for future generations but also contributed original ideas on a wide range of issues such as morality, politics, metaphysics, and epistemology.

Xenophon

444-357 BC, Biographer of Socrates and his students as a youth. In addition to four works on Socrates, Xenophon wrote histories and practical treatises on leadership, horsemanship, hunting, and economics. Also a Warrior, he fought for the Greeks and then for their enemies, the Spartans.

Anaxagoras

500-428 BC, maintained that the entire universe is composed of matter in motion, governed by the principle of mind (nous).

Parmenides

510-450 BC, an accomplished mathematician and influential pre-Socratic thinker who posited a necessary, static, unchanging unity running throughout all of what is in flux. Reality must necessarily be eternal and unchanging: Therefore, the changing world of our experience must be in some sense illusory.

Heraclitus

540-480 BC, The most influential of pre-Socratic philosophers, he maintained all things were in a constant state of flux (Change) and that the governing principle of the universe is what he called "logos"

Pythagoras

570-497 BC, heavily influenced Plato; maintained that the human soul was immortal and transmigrated after death.

Thales

585 BC, considered to be the first philosopher because he introduced a different mode of thinking that relied on reason and observation of nature. He argued the primary substance of the universe was water

The Oracle of Delphi

According to the revered Oracle of Delphi, no man was wiser than Socrates.

Core teachings of Socrates

He asked questions about the state of one's soul. 1. What is courage? 2. What does it mean to be a good person? 3. What is justice? 4. What is piety?

Sophists

Influential group of traveling educators who would teach rhetoric oration for a fee. Many Sophists believed truth to be relative.

Socratic method

Investigation of complex issues through a question-answer format. Also known as the dialectical method. This concept helps to understand the essential nature of central concepts such as justice, beauty, or goodness.

Steps to achieving the knowledge of goodness

It is the most important task of our lives, to achieve it one must engage in critical self-examination (Know thyself), engage in dialogue to uncover the truth that our souls have a deep within, and discover the truths via the use of reason.

Socrates view of the soul

Living things have souls, non-living things do not. The soul can never die, it cannot because it is by definition the principle of life, and what is the principle of life can never admit its opposite. (death)

Democritus

Mid-fifth-fouth century, advanced the doctrine of atomism, maintaining that all matter is composed of indivisible atoms in motion

Agora

Open marketplace in Athens, a place where crowds would gather for political speech and conversations.

Anaximenes

Sixth century BC, held the belief that air is the one substance out of which the entire universe is formed

Pre-Socratic Philosophy

Socrates was such an important figure in Western philosophy that we call those who came before him Pre-Socratic philosophers

The Socratic turn

Symbolically: Socrates 'turning away' from nature to the self. This is the first time that the human mind and condition becomes the target of philosophical inquiry.

Psyche

The true self or "soul," which is immortal and imperishable.

Arete

Virtue and excellence

Socrates

(469-399 BC) Ancient Greek philosopher often called "the father of Western philosophy."

Techne

Greek word often translated as either craft or art

Sophia

Wisdom

Irony

A form rhetoric that has at least two conflicting levels of meaning - an obvious one, and a hidden one.

Dialectic

From the Greek word "to Argue" or"Converse," a dynamic exchange or method involving contradiction or a technique for establishing an informed conclusion

Episteme

The Greek word most often translated as knowledge.