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Socrates And Euthyphro Analysis

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What does it mean to be alive? Is it simply being birthed into this world, being able to see and comprehend your surroundings through your own eyes or feel your heart beat under the palm of your hand? Is being alive breathing air into your own lungs? Is there more to life than just existing? In his collection of dialogues, The Apology of Socrates and Euthyphro, Plato explores this question by examining the lives, morality and character of two men who encountered the philosopher Socrates. This two men, Meletus and Euthyphro both believed they were living a life of areté, but through the Socratic method it became clear that although each man has achieved much in their lives, they were lacking one crucial thing, a clear understanding of …show more content…

Socrates used Socratic irony on the jury, to make clear that his accusers were skilled in rhetoric but not the truth. Many of Socrates’s accusers were taught in the art of rhetoric by sophist, men well trained in the art of making the weaker argument stronger. Plato defined Socrates’s character by comparing himself, a philosopher, a lover of wisdom, to men taught by sophist who claimed to be wise but rejected wisdom in favor of rhetorical persuasion. The clear distinction between sophist and philosophers is an important one to make, because it shows that although Socrates was accused of selling his wisdom to the highest bidder, that was not the case. Socrates spent his entire life realizing his own philosophy, swayed only by the truth and never by the coin. “For all their shameless accusations, my accusers have not been able in their impudence to bring forward a witness to say that I have ever received a fee or ever asked for one. I, on the other hand, have a convincing witness that I speak for truth, my poverty.” (The Apology …show more content…

Starting with the politicians, then the poets, and finally the skilled craftsmen, Socrates asked them all questions about areté, virtue, and justice and by doing so he discovered that these men were actually unwise in most things. By asking these questions and searching for understanding Socrates gained the self-knowledge needed to lead a life of areté. He realized that the oracle was right and that no man was wiser than him because all of them claimed to know the truth when in actuality they had no idea what the truth was. No man is wiser than him because he knew one thing to be true which was that he knew nothing. This realization led Socrates to full consciousness, a true understanding of oneself. He was wise only because he had questioned himself and what he was taught to be true. By doing this he has opened up his mind to other ideas and was able to look at them objectively and find the truth or falsity in them. In contrast Meletus strongly believed that he was wise and just, but through careful questioning Socrates exposed that Meletus knew very little about wisdom or justice because he never sought out the true meaning behind those words and never started on the journey of self-

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