... to varying degrees, depending on the extent of the identification of a religion with the society at large or the government." (All refer reference) Socrates went against the accepted ideas of religion and therefore was perceived as a threat to society. He rejected several Athenian gods including Hephaetus and questioned ... their existence. Although Athenians viewed him as a threat, Socrates" purpose was not to harm but bring about truth to Athens and for this I think it was wrong to punish him. Just because Athenians ... thought to have encouraged youthful followers to be anti-democrat...

• Word Count: 944
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... he has been charged with however in different scenes in the case he does try to build some sort of defense and fails. During his journeys, Socrates embarked to discover a man wiser than himself to prove he was not the wisest. However, in explaining his travels he is forced to admit that ... continues to undertake the task of showing the jury the law and the people persecuting him are wrong instead of himself being the wrongdoer. Arrogance leads Socrates to antagonize the jury and break any sway he had begun to build with them. By calling out Meletus his credibility diminishes because h...

• Word Count: 1233
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... is many false accusations against him and those that accuse him of these deeds don't come forward with supporting information but instead stay hidden in the darkness. Socrates then goes on by giving examples of others just like him like Georgia of Leontini, Prodicus of Ceos, and Hippias of Elis who are able to ... man was not wise at all. He started to show the public this man wasn't in fact wiser and Socrates soon became unpopular to the public and disliked by the man. The way that Socrates figured out that he was smarter than this man was that this man when he didn't have an answer he ...

• Word Count: 857
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... a crime that he didn't commit, he refused to commit a crime even if it involved saving his own life. In his time many people professed that Socrates was the smartest man alive, which made him angry because he himself believed that he knew nothing. That very fact made him known as the smartest man alive ... a wise man is really foolish, that does not make the wise man foolish, because the wise man is still wise no matter what the masses say. Socrates also argues that he would not want to live his life knowing that he had committed a crime because it would decrease his quality of health. ...

• Word Count: 1176
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• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... attitude of arrogance to the Court, this is denoted in both texts of Plato and Xenophon where find an explanation based on both written: Socrates to have a very own philosophy, considers defend against all odds, and he considered that this philosophy was not created with the intent to ... leaves a taste in which he reader encounters the dilemma of why accepting a death sentence.  With regard to this argument, deduced by first instance Socrates to be wise and moral man, rather die following the law to live against her and her same ideology, but it is not known for ... age where intellec...

• Word Count: 1077
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... His ideas involving spiritual matters, the soul, individual enlightenment, and the truth are still very much practiced today. The amount of influence that Socrates has on a society depends on where that society is located as well as the type of government, leadership, and religion. Those areas that ... In his younger years he followed in the footsteps of his father and became a sculptor until he left to fight in the Peloponnesian War. When Socrates returned to Greece after the war he decided to end his previous profession and become a philosophical speaker. As a debater he quickly gained ...

• Word Count: 927
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... only consider whether in doing anything he is doing right or wrong and acting the part of a good man or a bad one." (pg. 41) Socrates believes that one should act on moral knowledge alone. By not "calculating living or dying," you are taking away the emotional side of ones thoughts. Rather than ... be selfish and care about your own well being, Socrates is saying that one should simply follow the rules or not follow them at all. This alone will define you as a human being in the present ... being selfish and escaping, he should try to persuade the Laws to let him go by using his knowled...

• Word Count: 772
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... that death is a good thing. The main reason behind his decision is justice. His friend Crito came up with a plan to let him escape, but he refused. Socrates argument went like this, "One ought never to do wrong (even in response to the evil committed by another). But it is always wrong to disobey the state. ... . His way of thinking, at first was very mind boggling. But, after spending time looking at it, it startes to make more sense. To think like Socrates thought you have to be willing to never stop asking questions or settle for one answer. I like how he kept digging until he found t...

• Word Count: 883
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... "if you kill the sort of man I say I am, you will not harm me more than yourselves" (pg. 33,30c-d). By saying this, I believe Socrates was stating that so many people were unaware of how to find truth, and they would only hurt themselves by killing the one who could teach them how to do ... corrupting the youth unintentionally, the law requires one to take you aside to tell you, not take you to court(pg.29, 26a). This demonstrates how brave Socrates was because even though he knew he could possibly be killed, he proved the accuser Meletus wrong. Instead of trying to bargain or lie his wa...

• Word Count: 811
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... about old age and money and the positives and negatives associated with both. This in turn leads to the topic of fairness and justice. Socrates begins to question Cephalus, Polemarchus" father who believes he understands the meaning of justice. Cephalus explains that justice is simply, "speaking the ... truth and giving back what one takes." (331 C) Whether this is the correct definition of justice or not, Socrates, through a series of questions refutes Cephalus" statement saying that "if someone asserts that it's just to give what is owed to each man ... man then must be stronger becaus...

• Word Count: 1185
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• Grade Level: High School

... friends and ourselves but undermined society and morality of Athens by confusing people and attempting to destroy their social rules and orders. Socrates thinking became the major concept of philosophy because it makes people to question the decision they have made. His questioning is still ... friendship, poetry, religion, science and government. His important discussions were concerned with how one should live, with virtue and wisdom. In these discussions Socrates used an approach now known as Socratic method of questioning. Instead of lecturing people, he approaches them with a questi...

• Word Count: 823
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... state of being hot. Since hot and cold are opposites, this simple statement proves that things come from there opposite. Also by using this example, Socrates is trying to imply the idea of eternal existence. He is saying that cold doesn't come from thin air. It had to have come from some ... can not come from thin air, and neither can being awake. A person must physically be one before that person can become the other. Then Socrates ventures to say that if you are not alive then you are dead. This idea works because to prove the theory of immortality because according to ... belong to...

• Word Count: 1040
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... lecturing in a one-sided manner, therefore he is not a Sophist. His name was only used in the play due to name recognition. Socrates name was well known during that time period, and was friends with Aristophanes. The comedy The Clouds portrays Sophists as teaching people to win an argument, such ... about Sophists and Natural Philosophers; both of these groups are active during this time period and the play takes aim at them. Mellitus convicted Socrates of not believing in the gods. The comedy the Clouds portrays Natural Philosophers as not believing in the gods, and this is probably whe...

• Word Count: 613
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... he began to study the rhetoric and dialectics of the Sophists, the speculations of the Ionian philosophers, and the culture of Periclean Athens. At first, Socrates was a sculptor, like his father. He created the statue group of the three Graces, which stood at the entrance to the Acropolis until the ... 2nd century. In the Peloponnesian War, he served as an infantryman. He fought at the battles of Potidaea, Delium, and Amphipolis. Socrates liked to argue instead of write. Therefore, he spent a lot of time in the marketplace and other public places of Athens, trying to start ... willing. ...

• Word Count: 772
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• Grade Level: High School

... there is one who has knowledge of these things he is a wise person, but if he doesn't then he is a foolish men. The third statement that Socrates says is "if we do not follow his directions, then we shall harm and corrupt that part of ourselves that is improved by just actions and destroy by unjust ... actions" (Zeyl 49). As we can see, Socrates is talking about the body. He says that if we don't follow the wise people, then we are going to corrupt our bodies, because this is the ... to the foolish people life is not worthy. Once you have a body that is in bad condition life is not wo...

• Word Count: 1023
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... to be the people who are supposed to be experts on all these areas. The have well thought out opinions, and they are very learned people. Socrates (470 B.C.-399 B.C.) was born near Athens, and spent most of his life in Athens. He married women named Xanthippe, who was rumored in the town ... comfort. Supposedly, he once stood in one spot for a day and night puzzling over a philosophical problem. Now you may ask what is Socrates most noted for? Well, Socrates is best known for his devotion to logic and for his great argumentative skills. But there is no general introduction into the life ...

• Word Count: 931
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• Grade Level: High School

... tougher, the fact remains that to commit injustice is in every case bad and dihonourable for the person who does it" (49b). And as Socrates also says, to live an honorable and just life (which he has already said is the only life worth living) one must never commit an ... been consummated upon them. Furthermore, Crito agrees that neither shall a man commit an injury on another, even if they have been injured themselves (49c). Socrates continues by proposing that "Both in war and in the lawcourts and everywhere else you must do whatever your city and your country commands, or else ... Whi...

• Word Count: 1020
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• Grade Level: High School

... for him to for him to function as a normal member of society. The police took Socrates to jail for a crime that happened in his area. Being labeled a killer it's hard for Socrates to fit into society as a whole. Socrates has gone through the Social Institution of prison. It was not the social institution itself that ... tree with a beautiful woman in his remembrance. Through that he met Charlene, a woman he wouldn't normally talk too, and had a relationship in his friend's remembrance. Socrates is starting to open himself up to people like Darryl and Charlene. He doesn't have many peop...

• Word Count: 970
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... or her convinced conscience? Each of these situations surface in the works of two ancient Greek writers. In Plato's Apology and Crito, through critical reasoning, Socrates acknowledges the word of the law. In contrast, Sophocles" play Antigone makes the point that justice should be put ahead of the law, otherwise more ... since his mother and father married through it. Furthermore, the city provided him with his education in the arts and in physical culture. Being so, Socrates claims to be born, nurtured and educated by the city, and thus is its offspring and servant. Accordingly, the sta...

• Word Count: 1064
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: High School

... and beautiful, but Jesus' ideas and life were the very embodiment of God on this earth. Christian intellectuals, drawing on this idea, have often noted that they were students of Socrates and disciples of Jesus. They were not political or religious leaders. They both were sublime teachers. Both advanced ideas of the individual over the Establishment. A threatened mob-guided Establishment ... executed both men for impiety, though neither had harmed anyone or infringed anyone's natural rights. The collectivist Establishment executed Socrates and Jesus for their individualistic, anti-establ...

• Word Count: 709
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• Grade Level: High School

... it is the most blameworthy ignorance to believe that one knows what one does not know.' If we were to analyse this more closely, we would see that Socrates makes three arguments which leads to a conclusion. Firstly, he says that no one can be sure that death would not be the greatest blessing to a ... what one does not know, I would agree with his statement. However, as he used the word 'most', this renders his argument unsound. Another argument that Socrates puts forth regarding not fearing death is that "Whether to die be evil or good, I know not, though many think they know it to be ...

• Word Count: 1061
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• Grade Level: High School

... way an individual thinks and how their way of thinking could contribute to improving society. In ancient Greece, there lived three great men named Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. These men were the first and still the greatest philosophers of all time. They questioned people's way of life and ... and died. "It is better to die on my feet than to live on my knees," he stated proudly. Plato became disillusioned with Athens after Socrates died. Later, he started his own university called the Academy. There, he taught philosophy, math, astronomy, science, history, physical education, and rhe...

• Word Count: 924
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• Grade Level: High School

... home often wandering through the agora (an Ancient Greek market place) and discussing his ideas with students, friends and other people he found in the street. Socrates believed in questioning people and the way they ran their lives, claiming that "the unexamined life, for a human being, is not worth living". His ... large bald spot. This added to the people of the times" fascination towards him. However in the year of 399 BC charges were brought against Socrates claiming that he was guilty of not believing in the gods that the people of the time believed in, introducing new religious bel...

• Word Count: 794
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: High School

... insofar as they play an important role in a person's upbringing and improvements. Without them his life and activities would not have been possible. Also, Socrates believes that by remaining in the State and existing under its laws, one has entered into an implied contract with the State to follow its laws. ... author of one's education, and breaking a contract to abide by the laws of the State from which you have gained so much. Due to this, Socrates argues that all laws, regardless of whether or not they are just, must be obeyed. Dr. Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, on the other han...

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... goes on to explain his views on the just individual which he grapples with many people throughout the duration of the text. Here we see Socrates' real ideal and philosophical beliefs coming to the forefront in the way he refutes others ideas, and how he frames his own Utopian society ... rigorous training and balancing of learning that the guardians have to engage themselves in just to be considered wise. This brings out a particular issue with Socrates' view of wisdom, it is not just the acquisition of knowledge, for anyone could gain knowledge, but it is knowledge that is tempered and ...

• Word Count: 721
• Approx Pages: 3
• Grade Level: Undergraduate