Aristotle thus attributes to the historical Socrates both the method and topics we find in Plato’s Socratic dialogues. Third, Aristotle claims that Socrates is the first to have employed epagōgē, a word typically rendered in English as “induction.” This translation, however, is misleading, lest we impute to Socrates a preference for A thesis, or dissertation (abbreviated diss.), is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings. In some contexts, the word "thesis" or a cognate is used for part of a bachelor's or master's course, while "dissertation" is normally applied to a doctorate.. This is the typical Feb 02, · 1. Aristotle’s Theory. In the Prior Analytics, Aristotle presents the first system of logic, the theory of the syllogism (see the entry on Aristotle’s logic and ch. 1 of Lagerlund for further details). A syllogism is a deduction consisting of three sentences: two premises and a conclusion. Syllogistic sentences are categorical sentences involving a subject and a predicate
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Socrates is one of the few individuals whom one could say has so-shaped the cultural and intellectual development of the world that, without him, history would be profoundly different. He is best known for his association with the Socratic method of question and answer, his claim that he was ignorant or aware of his own absence of knowledgeand his claim that the unexamined life is not worth living, for human beings. He was the inspiration for Plato, the thinker widely held to be the founder of the Western philosophical tradition.
Plato in turn served as the dissertation philosophy aristotle of Aristotle, thus establishing the famous triad of ancient philosophers: Socrates, Platoand Aristotle. Unlike other philosophers of his time and ours, Socrates never wrote anything down but was committed to living simply and to interrogating the everyday views and popular opinions of those in his home city of Athens.
At the age of 70, he was put to death at the hands of his fellow citizens on charges of impiety and corruption of the youth. His trial, dissertation philosophy aristotle, along with the social and political context in which occurred, has warranted as much treatment from historians and classicists as his arguments and methods have from philosophers.
This article gives an overview of Socrates: who he was, what he thought, dissertation philosophy aristotle, and his purported dissertation philosophy aristotle. It is both historical and philosophical. At the same time, it contains reflections on the difficult nature of knowing dissertation philosophy aristotle about a person who never committed any of his ideas to the written word.
Much of what is known about Socrates comes to us from Plato, although Socrates appears in the works of other ancient writers as well as those who follow Plato in the history of philosophy.
This article recognizes that finding the original Socrates may be impossible, but it attempts to achieve a close approximation. Socrates was born in Athens in the year B. to Sophroniscus, a stonemason, and Phaenarete, a midwife.
His family was not extremely poor, but they were by no means wealthy, and Socrates could not claim that he was of noble birth like Plato. He grew up in the political deme or district of Alopece, and when he turned 18, began to perform the typical political duties required of Athenian males. These included compulsory military service and membership in the Assembly, the governing body responsible for determining military strategy and legislation. In a culture that worshipped male beauty, Socrates had the misfortune of being born incredibly ugly.
Many of our ancient sources attest to his rather awkward physical appearance, and Plato more than once makes reference to it Theaetetus e, dissertation philosophy aristotle, Symposiuma-c; also Xenophon Symposium 4. Socrates was exophthalmic, meaning that his eyes bulged out of his head and were not straight but focused sideways, dissertation philosophy aristotle.
He had a snub nose, which made him resemble a pig, and many sources depict him with a potbelly, dissertation philosophy aristotle. Socrates did little to help his odd appearance, frequently wearing the same cloak and sandals throughout both the day and the evening. As a young man Socrates was given an education appropriate for a person of his station, dissertation philosophy aristotle. By the middle of the 5 th century B.
Sophroniscus, dissertation philosophy aristotle, however, also took pains to give his son an advanced cultural education in poetry, dissertation philosophy aristotle, music, and athletics. In both Plato and Xenophon, dissertation philosophy aristotle, we find a Socrates that is well versed in poetry, talented at music, and quite at-home in the gymnasium. In accordance with Athenian custom, his father also taught him a trade, though Socrates did not labor at it on a daily basis.
Rather, dissertation philosophy aristotle, he spent his days in the agora the Athenian marketplaceasking questions of those who would speak with him. While he was poor, he dissertation philosophy aristotle acquired a following of rich young aristocrats—one of whom was Plato—who particularly enjoyed hearing him interrogate those that were purported to be the wisest and most influential men in the city.
Socrates was married to Xanthippe, and according to some sources, had a second wife. Most suggest that he first married Xanthippe, dissertation philosophy aristotle, and that she gave birth to his first son, Lamprocles. He is alleged to have married his second wife, Myrto, without dissertation philosophy aristotle, and she gave birth to his other two sons, Sophroniscus and Menexenus. Various accounts attribute Sophroniscus to Xanthippe, while others even suggest that Socrates was married to both women simultaneously because of a shortage of males in Athens at the time.
In accordance with Athenian custom, dissertation philosophy aristotle, Socrates was open about his physical attraction to young men, though he dissertation philosophy aristotle subordinated his physical desire for them to his desire that they improve the condition of their souls. Socrates fought valiantly during his time in the Athenian military.
Just before the Peloponnesian War with Sparta began in B, dissertation philosophy aristotle. E, he helped the Athenians win the battle of Potidaea B. He also fought as one of 7, hoplites aside 20, troops at the battle of Delium B.
and once more at the battle of Amphipolis B. Both battles were defeats for Athens. Despite his continued service to his city, many members of Athenian society perceived Socrates to be a threat to their democracy, and it is this suspicion that largely contributed to his conviction in court.
It is therefore imperative to understand the historical context in which his trial was set. Between — B. Athens fought one of its bloodiest and most protracted conflicts dissertation philosophy aristotle neighboring Sparta, the war that we now know as the Peloponnesian War. Aside from the fact that Socrates fought in the conflict, dissertation philosophy aristotle, it is important for an account of his life and trial because many of those with whom Socrates spent his time became dissertation philosophy aristotle sympathetic to the Dissertation philosophy aristotle cause at the very least or traitors to Athens at worst.
This is particularly the case with those from the more aristocratic Athenian families, who tended to favor the rigid and restricted hierarchy of power in Sparta instead of the more widespread dissertation philosophy aristotle distribution of power and free speech to all citizens that obtained in Athens, dissertation philosophy aristotle.
Plato more than once places in the mouth of his character Socrates praise for Sparta Protagoras b, Crito 53a; cf. Republic c in which most people think the Spartan constitution is the best. The political regime of the Republic is marked by a small group of ruling elites that preside over the citizens of the ideal city.
In conjunction with these crimes, Athens witnessed the profanation of the Eleusinian mysteries, dissertation philosophy aristotle, religious rituals that were to be conducted only in the presence of priests but that were in this case performed in private homes without official sanction or recognition of any kind. Rather than face prosecution for the crime, Alcibiades escaped and sought asylum in Sparta.
Socrates had by many counts been in love with Alcibiades and Plato depicts him pursuing or speaking of his love for him in many dialogues Symposium c-d, Protagoras a, Gorgias dissertation philosophy aristotle, Alcibiades I ac, ea. Alcibiades is typically portrayed as a wandering soul Alcibiades I c-dnot committed to any one consistent way of life or definition of justice.
Instead, he was a kind of cameleon-like flatterer that could change and mold himself in order to please crowds and win political favor Gorgias a, dissertation philosophy aristotle. In B. Though the democrats put down the coup later that year and recalled Alcibiades to lead the Athenian fleet in the Hellespont, he aided the oligarchs by securing for them an alliance with the Persian satraps.
Alcibiades therefore did not just aid the Spartan cause but allied himself with Persian interests as well. Sparta finally defeated Athens in B. Instead of a democracy, they installed as rulers a small group of Athenians who were loyal to Spartan interests. The Thirty ruled tyrannically—executing a number of wealthy Athenians as well as confiscating their property, arbitrarily arresting those with democratic sympathies, and exiling many others—until they were overthrown in B.
by a group of democratic exiles returning to the city. Both Critias and Charmides were killed and, after a Spartan-sponsored peace accord, the democracy was restored. The democrats proclaimed a general amnesty in the city and thereby prevented politically motivated legal prosecutions aimed at redressing the terrible losses incurred during the reign of the Thirty, dissertation philosophy aristotle.
Their hope was to maintain unity during the reestablishment of their democracy. In the discussion, Socrates argues that if one wants to know about virtue, one should consult an expert on virtue Meno 91be. The political turmoil of the city, rebuilding itself as a dissertation philosophy aristotle after nearly thirty years of destruction and bloodshed, constituted a context in which many citizens were especially fearful of threats to their democracy that came not from the outside, but from dissertation philosophy aristotle their own city.
While many of his fellow citizens found considerable evidence against Socrates, there was also historical evidence in addition to his military service for the case that he was not just a passive but an active supporter of the democracy. Additionally, when he was ordered by the Thirty to help retrieve the democratic dissertation philosophy aristotle Leon from the island of Salamis for execution, he refused to do so.
His refusal could be understood not as the defiance of a legitimately established government but rather his allegiance to the ideals of due process that were in effect under the previously instituted democracy.
Notwithstanding these facts, there was profound suspicion that Socrates was a threat to the democracy in the years after the end of the Peloponnesian War. But because of the amnesty, Anytus and his fellow accusers Meletus and Lycon dissertation philosophy aristotle prevented from bringing suit against Socrates on political grounds. They opted instead for religious grounds.
Because of the amnesty the charges made against Socrates were framed in religious terms. As recounted by Diogenes Laertius 1.
Many people understood the charge about corrupting the youth to signify that Socrates taught his subversive views to others, a claim that he adamantly denies in his defense speech by claiming that he has no wisdom to teach Plato, Apology 20c and that dissertation philosophy aristotle cannot be held responsible for the actions of those that heard him speak Dissertation philosophy aristotle, Apology 33a-c.
It is now customary to refer to the principal written accusation on the deposition submitted to the Athenian court as an accusation of impiety, or unholiness. Rituals, ceremonies, and sacrifices that were officially sanctioned by the city and its officials marked ancient Greek religion.
The sacred was woven into the everyday experience of citizens who demonstrated their piety by correctly observing their ancestral traditions. Interpretation of the gods at their temples was the exclusive domain of priests appointed and recognized by the city, dissertation philosophy aristotle.
The boundary and separation between the religious and the secular that we find in many countries today therefore did not obtain in Athens. A religious crime was consequently an offense not just against the gods, but also against the city itself. Socrates and his contemporaries lived in a polytheistic society, a society in which the gods did not create the world but were themselves created.
Socrates would have been brought up with the stories of the gods recounted in Hesiod and Homer, in which the gods were not omniscient, omnibenevolent, or eternal, but rather power-hungry super-creatures that regularly intervened in the affairs of human beings.
One thinks for example of Aphrodite saving Paris from death at the hands of Menelaus Homer, Iliad 3. Human beings were to fear the gods, sacrifice to them, and honor them with festivals and prayers. Socrates instead seemed to have a conception of the divine as always benevolent, truthful, authoritative, and wise. For him, divinity always operated in accordance with the standards of rationality. This conception of divinity, however, dispenses with the traditional conception of prayer and sacrifice as motivated by hopes for material payoff.
Jurors at his trial might have thought that, without the expectation of material reward or protection from the gods, Socrates was disconnecting religion from its practical roots and its connection with the civic identity of the city. While Socrates was critical of blind acceptance of the gods and the myths we find in Hesiod and Homer, this in itself was not unheard of in Athens at the time. Solon, Xenophanes, Heraclitus, and Euripides had all dissertation philosophy aristotle against the capriciousness and excesses of the gods without incurring penalty.
Though it has become customary to think of a daimon as a spirit or quasi-divinity for example, Symposium eain ancient Greek religion it was not solely a specific class of divine being but rather a mode of activity, a force that drives a person when no particular divine agent can be named Burkett, Socrates claimed to have heard a sign or dissertation philosophy aristotle from his days as a child that accompanied him and forbid him to pursue certain courses of action Plato, Apology 31c-d, dissertation philosophy aristotle, 40a-b, Euthydemus ea, Euthyphro 3b, Phaedrus b, Theages a, Theaetetus cb, Rep c; Xenophon, Apology 12, Memorabilia 1.
Xenophon adds that the sign also issued positive commands Memorablia 1. This sign was accessible only to Socrates, private and internal to his own mind. Dissertation philosophy aristotle all the jurors knew, the deity could have been hostile to Athenian interests.
However, dissertation philosophy aristotle, Socrates had no officially sanctioned religious role in the city. As such, his attempt to assimilate himself to a seer or necromancer appointed by the city to interpret divine signs actually may have undermined his innocence, rather than help to establish it.
His insistence that he had direct, personal access to the divine made him appear guilty to enough jurors that he was sentenced to death.
Plato and Aristotle: Crash Course History of Science #3
, time: 12:29Socrates | Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
If you satisfactorily complete the course before the dissertation, you can exit the course without completing a dissertation and we will award you a Postgraduate Diploma in Philosophy on the basis of your credits. You will earn your initial credits through your choice of 1 day ago · Higher philosophy essay questions how to do a profile essay, how do you write a case study analysis in social work. Essays about athletes write a short essay on why you think you're a fit for this position in the email body. New essays on plato and aristotle pdf. What is dissertation tamil meaning? Essay on life in a big city words Nov 17, · According to Aristotle, philosophy begins in wonder, seeks the most fundamental causes or principles of things, and is the least necessary but thereby the most divine of sciences (Metaphysics, book alpha, sections 1–3). Despite the point about necessity, Aristotle taught ethics
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