Assignment.Submitted to: Dr. Dil Afroze Quader, Professor.

Student: Zafar HossainID: 133 1345 655English- 501Department of EnglishNorth South University

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Appeared in the Golden Age of Athens & shaped Greek beliefs.

Wisdom and truth was the only search at his young age.

Not worldly-minded & never took money against his services.

Classical Ancient Greek Philosopher(469 BC-399 BC) and founder of Western Philosophy.

Socrates.

Father was stone sculptor mason and mother was a midwife.

His father wanted him to become a sculptor but he became Socrates the greatest one.

His wife is Xanthippe, she has contributions as a shrew; they have 3 children.

Menexenus, Lamprocles and Sophroniscus

Father was Sophroniscus and mother was Phaenarete.

i. Walking around the places in Athens, talking and

questioning people.

ii. Socrates would stand on stoa at the time of giving

speech. Ruins of stone stoas is still found in Athens.

iii. He is a brave solider, Fought in Peloponnesian war

as an Athenian infantry.

iv. He is strange, ugly and quite opposite, often went

into trance while thinking hard.

v. Athenians would stand by him to enjoy watching

him; walk away being slapped from trance.

vi. The "Socratic Intellectualism" states that one must

know how to use the virtue of generosity as well as

courage, honesty and loyalty.

Teaching his methods to his pupils

Plato: 30 dialoguesXenophon: MemorabiliaAristophanes: The clouds

i. In Socrates’ time business were run orally-oral

tradition was strong.

ii. In ancient time, philosophers were more concerned

with teaching disciples speaking than writing.

Example: Confucius & the divine figure Jesus.

iii. Socrates’ words were portrayed by his students

Plato, Xenophon and Aristophanes.

iv. Some says, he didn’t write anything because he was

forever asking questions and learning.

v. Nowadays, a series of dialogues written by Plato are

as chief source of insights into Socrates; on his The

Trial and The Death. In Phaedrus; Plato being

Socrates, says “Writing is inhuman, pretending to

establish outside the mind what in reality can only

be in mind.”

Early, Middle and Late DialoguesPlato is a Greek philosopher, born in Athens to an aristocratic family, studied under Socrates. Socrates appeared as a character in many of Plato’s dialogues. Through Plato’s hand we meet Socrates’ thoughts and knowledge.

Plato’s 36 dialogues and 13 letters have been assigned to him. Which are called Socratic Dialogues. Example: Euthypro, ION, Apology, Phaedrus

In his dialogues we find Socrates, going around Athens, questioning and questioning everybody he could find: “What is justice?” “What is piety?” “What is right and wrong?”

The Cloud is a caricature of Socrates. Unlike in Plato’s Apology where it depicts the old man’s trial and execution.

Socrates is demonstrated as a cynical sophist. He offers teaching in his “Thinking Shop” to his students in the Protagorean technique, for paying a fee.

In The Cloud, Socrates is such a person who can make a good argument seem bad and a bad argument seem good.

His pupils were taught how to argue effectively for any position, even an offensively immoral one. A bright picture is pointed in The Cloud, that the son of protagonist, which is Socrates’ pupil,

blatantly argues that a son has the right to beat his parents.

Aristophanes uses Clouds as a means of criticizing the Sophists. Although Aristophanes grossly

misrepresents Socrates, who actually was not a Sophist, and also misrepresents Sophism

1. Socratic Dialogue.2. Socratic Method.3. Socratic Questioning.4. Socratic Irony.5. Socratic Paradox.6. Socratic Problem.

Socratic Dialogue.i. As we know, Socrates actually didn’t

write anything himself, his disciples did as successors.

ii. Plato’s renowned series of Dialogues and Xenophon’s works are depicted as Socrates’ Dialogues.

iii. The Dialogues are either Dramatic or Narrative.

iv. In their Dialogues Socrates is the main character; this is why they are called Socratic Dialogues.

Socratic Method.i. Socratic Method is

all about Inquiry and Discussions among the group of people.

ii. To arouse critical thinking and new ideas Socrates made his pupils to ask and answer questions repeatedly.

iii. Here, one’s perspective is opposed by another to strengthen main thought.

Socratic Questioning.i. Socratic

Questioning is systematic and disciplined.

ii. Socratic Questioning system is applied to reach at complex solution in many purposes.

iii. Differentiating known objectives from unknown ones.

iv.His Questioning method is implemented to uncover the ultimate truths.

Socratic Irony.i. Irony is a term where a statement

depicts the opposite meaning of literal meaning.

ii. Socratic Irony is pretending to be ignorant and asking questions(knowing the fact) others to know how ignorant they are.

iii. It’s a way to trick other person to reveal his own lack of knowledge.

Socratic Paradox.i. "I know that I know nothing" or "I know

one thing: that I know nothing” is the widely known phrase of Socrates, which often represents Socratic Paradox.

ii. Some other sources state that, knowing nothing is the beginning of wisdom.

iii. This paradox defines that in knowing nothing is the first step to learning.

iv. In response to answer of “who is the wisest man in Greece” from Oracle at Delphi he showed his paradoxical attitude.

Socratic Problem.Historians and scholars, while trying then facing problem in accumulating particular information about Socrates, is called Socratic Problem.

There are 3 key features about Socratic Problem:1.There is no proof that Socrates had ever wrote anything.2.All we know about Socrates is from the works of 4 scholars Plato, Xenophon, Aristophanes and Aristotle.3.The details about Socrates in their works are truth or imagination is a fact.

1. Young men of Athens humiliated their tradition and elders by participating in Socrates “Thinking Shop”.

2. The association with his two pupils Alcibiades and Critias regarding the democracy of that time created hostility.

3. Alcibiades once commented that their Democracy “acknowledged folly”. Thus, Socrates’ teaching got a negative impression.

4. Socrates himself spoke sharply against Athenian democracy and Thirty-Tyrants.

The Trial

Reason two: Impiety; rejecting

the state’s religious belief!

Reason two: Impiety; rejecting

the state’s religious belief!

Reason one: For corrupting the young men!

Reason one: For corrupting the young men!

Socrates was sentenced to death by drinking hemlock

“The unexamined life is not worth living for a human

being.”“False words are not only

evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil.”

“By means of beauty beautiful things become

beautiful”

“The unexamined life is not worth living for a human

being.”“False words are not only

evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil.”

“By means of beauty beautiful things become

beautiful”

Socrates

…Thank You!