Socrates: The Greek Philosopher :: essays research papers

The life of the classic philosopher Socrates (469-399 BC) marks such a critical point in westerly thought that standard histories divide Greek philosophy into pre-Socratic and post-Socratic periods. Socrates left no writings of his own, and his work has inspired al close to as many divers(prenominal) interpretations as there have been interpreters. He remains one of the most important and one of the most enigmatic figures in Western philosophy. As a young man Socrates became fascinated with the new scientific ideas that Anaxagoras and the latters follower Archelaus had introduced to Athens. He seems for a time to have been the leader of an Athenian investigate circle--which would explain why the first appearance of Socrates in literature is as a villainous, atheistic scientist in The Clouds of Aristophanes. Young Socrates also knew the Sophists and listened to their debates and ceremonial orations. Socrates and the Sophists incomplete science nor Sophistry, how eer, could answe r a new philosophic question that soft on(p) him. The earlier Greek thinkers had been concerned almost wholly with physics and cosmogeny until the Sophists suggested that what should be done instead was to teach young men skills to forgather their natural self-interest. Instead, Socrates wondered "What is a self?" Although "Know Thyself" was one of three sayings carved on the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, the directive proved difficult to carry out. The so-called scientific views of the time, particularly that of atomism, defined the self as a corporal organ that responded to environmental pressure. Socrates felt, however, that the Sophists, for all their talk of self-interest, had little curiosity approximately the status of a self they assumed that it was merely an isolated sum of money constantly greedy for more pleasure, prestige, and power. The Sophists further thought that the values that populate advocated were all conventional, varying from one culture t o another, and that no one would ever act against his or her own interest, regardless of how many people talked as though they would. This complex of ideas offered little to explain human nature and excellence. Socrates later(prenominal) Life and Thought Socrates, setting about his search for the self, was convinced of the richness of his quest. Until educators and teachers knew what human excellence was, he thought, they were engaging in false pretenses by claiming that they knew how to improve students or societies. Socrates believed that objective patterns, or "forms," exist that define human excellence, that these are neither culturally relative nor subjective, and that philosophic inquiry could divulge them.