Plato - Socrates Essay Example for Free

Plato Socrates Es submitApology, in greek, means to give defense (). In Platos Apology, Socrates is blamed for numerous acts and elegantly defends himself in front of the court. To start off, he was inaugural accused of studying astrology and demonology and passing his knowledge and beliefs to other people. His first response to this was blatantly asking who has perceive him speaking of such acts should tell each other if any wholeness of you has ever perceive me discussing such subjects to any extent at exclusively (19d). He also claims that if any wiz has heard of him charging fees for his teachings, that that is a lie as well. Socrates continues by saying that god at Delphi claims that he is the wisest man in A thusces, and he ch each(prenominal)enges anyone who look ats they ar wiser. Even though Meletus refuses to believe the words that Socrates speaks, he continues to listen as Socrates further explains his viewpoint. Socrates continues by saying that the reason behi nd his unpopularity lies behind his ability to analyze others. He criticizes the politicians, the poets, and the craftsmen for their apparent wisdom.Socrates first examines the Politicians, saying that I found that those who had the highest reputation were nearly the most deficient (22a) meaning that they owned little to no wisdom. Next, Socrates examined the Poets. He only stated that the poets had no clue what they were writing about. He believes that their poems come from sheer inspiration and natural talents, and their wisdom has nothing to do with it. Finally, Socrates speaks about the craftsmen. He shares his belief that the craftsmen are really wise, notwithstanding they only possess knowledge of their crafts. Secondly, Socrates was accused of corrupting the minds of the schoolboyish.Meletus originally claimed that only Socrates is guilty of corrupting the minds of the youth. Socrates asks Meletus a a few(prenominal) questions such as Who im sustains the young? In which Meletus responds by telling Socrates that the legality is held responsible for improving the practice of law. Socrates then follows up by asking who contains the knowledge of the law? Where Meletus answers with the jurymen, audience, members of council, etc. Socrates then summarizes all of the premises for Meletus by concluded that everyone in Athens besides Socrates improves the young. Socrates continues his channel with an analogy.He uses an anaglogy involving a horse trainer. He states that there are very few horse trainers who are experts in their field, and their job is to improve them to the best of their abilities. If an ordinary person, one whom isnt trained on horses, were attempt to train a horse, they would simply only make matters worse. What Socrates is trying to say here is that ther are very few trainers that train people, and contrary to Meletuss beleifs, Socrates is one of those trainers. Socrates quickly unblocks the boat just about towards Meletus and claims that he has never given any thought towards the youth.He then continues to upgrade his argument by saying that most people, if not all, would rather stand firm in a town full of good people rather than bad Do not the wicked do some harm to those who are ever closest to them, whereas good people benefit them? (25c). This quote shows how he tot ups with the previous statement that most people would rather live with good people. He states here that bad people will harm the ones that are closest to them, whereas good people will only bring them goodness. Socrates then follows up on his argument by repeating Meletuss thoughts that he, Socrates, intentionally corrupted the minds of the young.He concludes by saying that, usually, when people harm another person, a harmful lessen should be expected. Therefore, if he intentionally harmed the youth, then he would be expected to be harmed as a result. He asks Meletus namely that if I make one of my associates wicked I run the try of bein g harmed by him so that I do such a great evil deliberately, as you say? (25e). Here, Socrates explains that if he were to harm another person, then he would be subjected to harm himself, and what person would subject themselves to harm in the first place?Socrates finalizes his attack on the second charge by saying that hes either innocent of corrupting the youth, or he did so unintentionally. If he was found guilty, however, then he should rather be taught than to be subjected to the court. In my eyes, Socrates argument was relatively strong here. During his speech, Socrates quickly turns to focus of his argument to the inconsistency of the charge and his belief in new spiritual things. He addresses Meletuss belief in spiritual things by saying that it is a contradiction to atheism.Socrates justifies his beliefs by saying that you cant believe in human activities only when not believe in humans, or believe in flute-playing but not believe in the human race of flutes. Therefore, Socrates concludes by saying that you cant believe in spiritual activity but not believe in spirits. He also makes his argument stronger by mocking the court in a sense with strong irony. In the beginning of The Apology, Socrates was being charged of impiety, using rhetoric to potentially bed the truth behind the lies of the law.Reading about Socrates, it is clearly shown that he is quite fond of exposing the truth, making him a prime example of a rhetorician. In battle array to turn his case around in the court, Socrates uses rhetoric to defend himself. Since he saw no way out of the post, he decided to complement his casing and keep to his traditional ways. However, towards the end of the argument, Socrates seems to lose focus and his argument becomes less and less stable. In Crito, Socrates was given the death sentenced, and when the opportunity arised for an escape, he refused.Crito gave him numerous reasons as to why Socrates should escape. First, Socrates would be abandoni ng his married woman and children. Secondly, people are willing to pay his way out of jail, that way he wouldnt be in debt. Also, if he didnt escape, Crito worries what people would think of Socrates companions. He is worried that the situation would reflect badly on them, that they did nothing to help Socrates escape. As well as deserting his wife and children, Crito believes that Socrates will also be deserting himself. After all he has believed in and persevered through, Crito doesnt want Socrates to give up now.Finally, People are willing to risk themselves to help him escape from prison. Crito thinks that since Socrates has so many reasons to escape, that he should quickly act upon the situation. After Crito delivers his five reasons as to why Socrates should escape, Socrates states two different premises as to why he should stay in jail and accept his punishment. First, he defends himself against Critos speech. He first questions whether or not he should remain in prison and a ccept all punishments against him, or agree with Crito and escape.He states that if he were to escape from prison, then he would be saying that it is acceptable to perform immorality acts. He then corrects the statement by saying that no matter what the issue is, its unacceptable to wrong against any man. Following up, Socrates states that if one were to agree over something, then infra no circumstances should that agreement be broken or cheated on. While Socrates is living in Athens, he is agreeing to all of the rules and regulations that the law presents. If he doesnt agree with the laws, then he has the choice of leaving in pursuit of a new city or challenge the law itself.If he doesnt perform either of these acts, then he is subjective to the laws of the city. Socrates then combines all of these premises to come to the conclusion that he should accept his punishments and desist from escaping. Socrates then lays out his second premise by first stating that if he were to escape , he will then destroy the impartiality of Athens and the metropolis, something that he promised not to break upon living in the City. At the age of consent, Socrates turned into a man, thus agreeing to the rues and regulations of the city.The law originally allowed his parents to wed and deliver Socrates, and then in turn allowed Socrates to wed and have children. So far, the fair play of Athens have done nothing but help the nurture of Socrates and his children. However, he then states that if the Law and the Citys ruling was unjust, then if Socrates were to escape, he wouldnt be breaking the Law of Athens. The problem here is that the only way Socrates would be able to prove his ruling unjust is if he was on an equal footing with the Law of Athens or if he did not promise to abide by the Law of Athens and all of its rulings.If he was on an equal footing with the City, then whatever the city would do to Socrates, Socrates could do the city, which is inaccurate. After all, the c ity is responsible for the upbringing of Socrates and his family. Since he isnt on an equal footing, and he did promise to follow all of the rules and regulations of the City, Socrates concludes by saying that the ruling of the jury was accurate. Socrates addresses the first three arguments of Crito by saying that they are irrelevant to whether or not his escaping is right or wrong.Secondly, Socrates says that although that remaining arguments are valid, the do not give good enough reasons. In Crito, the city is wronging Socrates by order of execution. Therefore, by complying to the wrong accusation, is Socrates committing an unjust act as well? With all of the arguments Socrates has made so far (one has to keep his promise, one should follow the rules of the Law, one should never commit wrongdoing), he cannot admit it. Another validation issue in Socrates argument is the potential contradiction with The Apology.In The Apology, Socrates states that under no circumstances will he obe y any order to stop philosophizing Gentlemen of the jury, I am grateful and I am your friend, but I will obey the god rather than you, and as long as I draw breath and am able, I shall not hold on to practice philosophy.. (29d). Another example that seems to be contradictory in his beleifs in Crito is the story of Leon form Salamis. Socrates was ordered to bring in Leon for a possible execution, but instead headed home.Then I showed again, not in words bu in action, that, it if were not rather vulgar to say so, death is something I couldnt business concern less about, but that my whole concern is not to do anything unjust or impious (32c-e). Here, Socrates shows how he refused to do something that he believes to be unjust. Relating this back to his situation in Crito, Socrates was being punished for being unjust, thus putting him in the comparable position as Leon. In Crito, he shows his obligation to obey the Law of Athens, even if that meant he was going to stop philosophizing as well as being wrongfully executed.In Phaedo, Cebes and Socrates have a long a thorough conversation of the existence of the sense. Cebess argument is that the soul is recycled through different bodies. However, the more time the soul is reused, then more it is damaged. Cebes believes that when the soul at last runs out, it will result in the death of a birth. He finishes his argument by telling Socrates that unless you can prove that the soul is immortal, every man essential be fearful of his soul and what will happen to it if it is reensouled.Thus, if anyone was to face death with confidence would be considered unwise. Socrates follows up with his New Method of Hypothesis. Here, he states that everyone is participating in a certain form, whether its the form of tallness, the form of beautiful, etc. I assume the existence of a Beautiful, itself, of a good and a Great and all the rest (100b). He believes that the form of Beautiful is made up of participates, and that they al l come together to create the form. Socrates also comes up with the Exclusion of Opposites.Here, he states that everything that is condisered a universal fact, will never have both itself and its opposite simultaneously. Socrates uses the example of the Form of Tallness, saying that one cant possess both the Form of Tallness and the Form of Shortness. What he means here is that you cant be both tall and short at the same time. He continues on by saying that certain states of affairs have opposites, but their character is made up of the opposite that they possess.As his argument goes on, Socrates states that the soul brings to body life as well as anything that it possesses. If this is true, then that would mean that the soul is immortal, always reensouling another body. This is unlike what Cebes said, since he was convinced that the more times the soul possessed a new body, then the sould would become weaker and eventually cease to exist. Following up on Socratess argument, if the s oul never dies, then that you mean that it is imperishable. In conclusion, Socrates can say that the soul is abiding.