How Did Socrates Play In Ancient Greece

Socrates was born to a middle-class Athenian family. “Phaenarete, a midwife, and Sophroniscus, a stonemason welcomed Socrates into the world in 469 B.C.E” (Ambury). Socrates grew into a young man with an odd physical appearance. He did not have the male beauty that was sought after in his culture. Although, he didn’t seem to mind much as he was focused on enlightenment. Socrates would spend much of his time searching for truth. Socrates goal was to discover the truth behind the creation of the earth, the people, and the role of the gods. In searching for truth, he created a new method known as the Socratic Method. Plato became one of his students and was intrigued by his new way of thinking. “Socrates would later fight in the Peloponnesian

Kenneth C. Blanchard, Jr. “The Enemies of Socrates: Piety and Sophism in the Socratic Drama.” The Review of Politics. 62.3 (2003): 421-449. Print.

Socrates was a interesting person to say the least. From what I have learned about him this week I would not conclude him as a troublesome person but more annoying or pest like in the streets of Athens. While reading "Crito" and watching "Death of Socrates" I could not help but notice how the points Socrates makes about him and his government were not much like the points I think most people would make about our government. I think if most people nowadays were put in the same situation as Socrates most of us would take the escape option and live our lives with friends and family in another city. The arguement that struck me the most interesting was "The Analogy between the State and one's Parents."

Socrates is also one of the great character in history who does not agree with things that he does not belief or important to him. He disagreed with the Athens god, because they worship the body, also known as the Greek Idea of the body (what the male or female should look like: beautiful fat, muscle, etc.). Society of Peacock in which people walk around with self- appraiser of their body image. Socrates always disagree with the people of Athens and there democracy system and religious belief. “Socratic dialogue” is conversation of question and answer, almost close to debate. Socrates education principle is still important to the educational system. He believed, that “the educated person cannot be educated until you realize what you

faced political issues. After his declarations, Socrates is taken on a trial and he is accused of

This quote is a great illustration of how Socrates does not want people to grow stagnant in their personal or spiritual growth. Rather, Socrates wants them to flourish, to expose themselves to new ideas and knowledge so they can become better people. This line is the best example of how much Socrates believed in critical examination as not just a way of thinking, but as a lifestyle and a way of improvement. By revealing their flaws, Socrates gave people an opportunity to better and enrich themselves. Socrates believed it was his divine duty to nurture this practice of self-analysis.

The first charge that he summed up in his speech was “Socrates, a wise man, who speculated about the heaven above, and searched into the earth beneath, and made the worse appear the better” (Plato 18). Socrates defended these accusations by saying that they were based entirely on falsehoods, and

Throughout the world’s history, there have been civilizations that have come and gone. These civilizations are represented to the world today by leaders and their ideals of those times. One such leader was a person of thought from the city-state Athens in Greece. (7) This person was Socrates, “the quintessential philosopher, the seeker and conveyor of wisdom.” (8) Paul Johnson states, “Such a man is well worth knowing about, and for 2,500 years the learned and intellectually enterprising in all countries have sought to know him.” (8) But what is really known about a man who lived thousands of years ago and who left no written record of himself. The starting point to understand Socrates and his thoughts are through the words of his pupils. (8-9) Socrates was a philosopher whose ideals changed the world around him and have an effect the world today.

Socrates traveled from one group to another visiting wise politicians, poets, and craftsmen, making enemies out of each group. After talking to the “wise” men Socrates realized they were all arrogant for thinking themselves wise. Because Socrates knew he was not wise he believed he was better off then them. In the end it was a representative from each group that charged Socrates with the crimes that got him condemned to death. This "occupation" consumed his leisure as well as his finances. Socrates told the court at his trail: "I live in great poverty because of my service to the god"(6). Socrates compared himself to a gadfly, and the city of Athens a steed he was just trying to stir into life (11). When a horsefly bites me I squash it, and that is exactly what the city of Athens did to Socrates. Instead of squashing him they made him drink poison, a little bit less messy. Socrates was a gadfly by questioning Athenians on subjects they rarely talked about, making them think about something they normally wouldn’t. He did his questioning out in the open where Athenians congregated so the public could observe and hopefully think on whatever subject that was being talked about. Socrates would question respectable Athenians making them look stupid too a crowd, because they would not know what to say. Making the person being questioned very angry towards Socrates for putting them in such a position. Socrates

As an Athenian philosopher, Socrates spent his life in constant pursuit of insight. He loved engaging in conversations that helped him derive philosophical views on a number of different issues. The birth of ideas through critical reasoning can be credited back to his method of teaching, which is now known as the Socratic Method. Although widely respected today, many of his teachings were found controversial in Athenian times. Socrates was placed on trial and put to death soon after because of the disapproval of his ideas.

Socrates, a well-known philosopher of the early Athenian era, is believed to be one of the wisest and virtuous philosophers of all time. This belief holds true in the encounters of Symposium by Plato, as depicted by Alcibiades during a symposium held by Agathon. Alcibiades, the last to speak at the symposium, derails from the topic of the night, love, and elicits much praise and gratitude for Socrates. Although Alcibiades did not witness the speech given by Socrates on love, he manages to depict how Socrates endeavors through life with notions that are remarkable to that of what Socrates mentions during his oral, from which much insight is inspired as to the values of which Socrates holds.

Socrates went on trial for allegedly disrespecting the gods and corrupting the youth of Athens, even though he was very religious. It is clear from the Apology that Socrates’ real “crime” was severely embarrassing Wealthy and Important people in the Athens by his habit of questioning them in public places with respect to matters about which they claimed expertise, exposing them as frauds, while providing amusement to the onlookers who gathered to see the supposed experts confounded. Socrates regularly insisted that he was merely a philosophical inquirer after truth asking those who supposedly knew the answers. In this insistence he was only half sincere. He was pursuing the truth, but he knew that his shallow debaters would fall victim to his superior logical and rhetorical skill. He chose the questioning method as an effective way of developing and presenting his own philosophy.

With the continuation of the aspect that Plato dramatized the trial of Socrates to form am emotional connection with the audience, giving context of Socrates’ life adds to

Socrates is a man of great controversy. He has been portrayed as many different personalities such as a sophist to a great philosopher to just a vocal old man. The true nature of Socrates is to be questioned. He spoke his thoughts on life and what his philosophy on life was. A couple arguments that he spoke about really stood out about lying. These arguments had brute force and were made very clear through his dialogue. According to his dialogue, he felt that there were two different types of lies.

     Socrates was wise in respect to the fact that he never accepted a “truth” that was told to him, without getting incontestable evidence to back it up. He made the realization that people believed in things without even knowing where their ideas came from. In ancient Athens, citizens believed in many gods and myths associated with them.