Socrates of Athens 469-399 B.C.E.

Socrates’ influence

}  Before his time Greek thinkers were pre-occupied with nature--what we would call “cosmology.”

}  After him we observe a strong shift in the direction of ethics.

Presocratics

}  Philosophers who lived before, or down to, the time of Socrates are called Presocratics.

}  Their works have not survived. }  All we know about them comes from

references to, or quotations from them found in later writers.

}  Aristotle (384-322) is a mine of information about the Presocratics.

One Presocratic: Parmenides

}  Parmenides was born (late 500s) in the Greek colony of Elea (founded in Italy in the 530s B.C.E.).

}  He wrote a poem known later as “On Nature” in which he made some startling claims.

}  He dismissed the world we see and sense as unreal appearance. True reality is permanent, unchanging, and indivisible.

Another: Pythagoras

}  Born c. 570 B.C.E. on the Aegean/Ionian island of Samos according to tradition.

}  Reputed to have been a mathematician, musician, and a mystic.

}  Some traditions make him the inventor of geometry and musical theory (based on numbers/proportions expressed by numbers).

}  These mathematical concepts (ratios) anticipate Plato’s “Forms.”

A Third: Protagoras

}  Protagoras (c. 490-c.420 B.C.E.) of Abdera in Thrace.

}  He was one of many itinerant teachers called Sophists, possibly the most famous and likeable of them all.

}  His pronouncement: “Man is the measure of all things, of things that are that they are, and of things that are not that they are not.” seemingly dismisses the teachings of Parmenides and even Pythagoras.

What is the good…?

This question was allegedly posed by Socrates repeatedly,

if we can believe Plato’s Apology. Again and again he

apparently exposed one Athenian after another as a pretender,

one who claimed to know but did not.

Socrates argued that Apollo, who had described Socrates as

a man than whom there was no wiser in Greece, concluded that

the god was right because all other Greeks thought they knew

what was good but did not, while he knew that he did not know.

So Plato records a Socrates who believed in the importance of clear knowledge especially on the subject of right behaviour (ethics). Even more, admitting one’s ignorance seems To have been a key to obtaining this knowledge. But how?

Sources for Socrates

1.  Plato of Athens (427-347), philosopher who wrote dialogues, many of which feature Socrates.

2.  Xenophon of Athens (c.430-c.355), historian and soldier, not too familiar with Socrates, wrote memoirs of him in later life.

3.  Aristophanes (c.455-c.386), Athenian comic poet, wrote Clouds, a comedy ridiculing Socrates.

Plato  Wrote the account of

Socrates’ defense that it is in the Coursepack.

  It is not clear how much of it represents the actual words of Socrates and how much it recreates a figure that suited Plato’s philosophical objectives.

Aristophanes

 Was mostly interested in getting laughs out of the Athenian audience.

 Historical accuracy was not a concern to him.  Many scholars think that Aristophanes has

dredged up all the philosophical nonsense in circulation at the time and attributed it to Socrates indiscriminately.

The Clouds  Earlier version produced

in 423.  Came third (of three) in

the competition.  Current version is a

revision of the original.  From Plato’s Apology we

can see that something of the earlier play survived in the later one.

What did Socrates teach?

 “Nothing,” according to the Apology.  Xenophon, Plato, and other less well known

followers of Socrates all seemed to have turned their minds to ethical questions after his death. (What is good moral conduct and how can we know?)

 It appears, then, that his followers remembered that he forced them to think about moral or ethical questions.

Socratic Method 1.  Ask someone for a

definition of something (e.g., “the Good”).

2.  Ask more questions seeking clarification or aiming to remove inconsistencies from the answer.

3.  Expose contradictions in the other person’s position.

4. This last state is called the elenchus (or elenchos). It means a refutation or “shaming.”

5. Shamed, the other person is now in a state of confusion “aporia.”

6. If questioning continues, the hope is that a true searching of the soul will result in a great discovery.

Searching the soul.  From the state of aporia, the questioned person

now proceeds to reexamine the things he (or she) thought (s)he knew.

 The person searches the soul and “finds” things there in a process that resembles recollection.

 So, recollection (anamnesis)=learning (mathesis).

 There is no agreement among scholars regarding the significance of this idea to Plato’s thought.