Unit 8 - Final exam (Socrates) (Essay Sample)

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Unit 8 - Final exam (Socrates)
Socrates is one of the greatest philosophers ever lived on earth. From one of his famous arguments that the unexamined life is not worth living we find how Socrates is intelligent and philosophical in his thinking. Socrates believes that the search for wisdom begins with an attempt to gain clarity as to who we truly are (Socrates, 161). This statement is true in it’s entirely. People search for wisdom once they have realized their potential and self. You cannot seek something that you do not know. In addition, people seek different kind of wisdom in life. In addition Socrates explains that we can only presume to understand the world if only we begin by understanding the reality of own consciousness. Socrates understood that our own consciousness plays a significant role in what we do in our daily lives. It is also good to understand that people understand things around them when they question their conscience and try to prove their consciousness wrong or true. By understanding the reality of our consciousness we can, therefore, step forward and try to understand what is around us and the entire world in particular. Everything around us is always synthesized by our minds. We imagine everything in our world and the understanding of things around us starts with the understanding of our consciousness. We also think and convert everything in our minds to fit the human context. This means that the world in particular is reduced into a human world. As initially thought, the search of wisdom is understood in terms of our need to understand who we are. Socrates believed that any person in this world must seek knowledge before anything else. Through knowledge Socrates defined ethics and morals. Although some people accused Socrates of ethical nihilism, Socrates questioned what people defined as ethics. People had different definitions of ethics which differed from the true definition of ethics.
Socrates concentrated much on the self and how understanding of one self, contributed much to their personal development. For Socrates, the self (who I am) controls one’s existence. Socrates believed “I am who I am because I choose to be and do what I am and do” (Warnek, 19). In normal circumstances; nobody can influence who you are and what you do especially on our moral and ethical choices. Our choice and sense of moral and ethical values are because of our choice. Socrates believed this because he was a religious man. He believed that what we choose as ethical or morally upright is only based on our senses. For instance, in The Trial of Socrates we find out how Socrates engages Euthyphro on various questions on piety (Plato 37). He shows how people have different definitions of piety. There is no particular definition of piety. It is only through what we do and who we are that we define piety. However, through our varied religions like Christianity we can define piety in a different way. However, this still leaves people with a choice to do what is right or wrong although there are set moral and ethical values in religion, culture or law. As stated by Socrates, the reality of a person is evident by what moral dimension he /she take. What somebody does defines the person. It is what a person believes. Every person has some form of an eternal self, that determines their choices and hence their destiny. Our self-thoughts often lead to our actions. In addition, person’s deeds are normally associated with their habits that define their morality. Our knowledge is a reflection of our consciousness. Our activities are shaped by understanding and, therefore, it is easy to define a person by their ethical or moral choices. The existence of a person also depends on their choice of ethics and moral values. Socrates seems to understand his self. This is the reason that made him face trial and eventually being subjected to death. He had a good opportunity to escape, but he refused since he had a good understanding of his self and principles. For Socrates self-knowledge was vital for good life. He believed that once a person identifies the self, he would gain knowledge that defines virtues.
Philosophy is a social function. It is good to understand that in the process of understanding one’s self people often look at what other people around them are doing. The moral dimension is shaped by other people in the surrounding. The moral choice is sometimes shaped by other selves. It does not occur in isolation since other selves also may forces choices by laws, culture religion or traditions. Therefore, as a person continues to search for their self and true identity, they must follow the joint effort of other selves. Socrates shows this during his trial whereby he is accused by the Greek jury about his teachings. Socrates choice of moral and ethical values is influenced by people who did not like his arguments. Although Socrates remained firm about his teachings, other people were made to follow what the Greek gods said and what other people in the society chose the moral choices in Socrates context was determined by other selves. The search for the true identity of Socrates was a joint effort in which Socrates conquered by death. The moral choices must be understood to depend on other people surrounding us. Socrates shows this through his trial when he is accused of impiety and asebeia. In The Clouds, Aristophanes portrays Socrates a sophist who taught young people values that were not considered ethical in the society. However, through the self-understanding, Socrates teaches the young people how to defend only their “good” actions (Aristophanes, 23). The other selves in the society sometimes determine how people act, but we should hold firm to our understanding of virtues around us.
Language is not only used for communication or speaking but also for acting. In every activity, we do we always speak to ourselves and agree on what to do. Therefore, in every activity one does, he usually has a companion that is one's language. From the Socratic search of one ‘self we are able to find out how important language is in analyzing what is moral or ethical. In order to do what is ethically good or morally good, we need to define the two terms first. As seen in the Socratic conversion between Socrates and Euthyphro in, we see how language is a key factor in understanding one’s self. For instance, Socrates asks Euthyphro what piety is. In his answer, Euthyphro says that piety is doing what is good. In his understanding, however, what is good is doing what pleases the gods. Socrates challenges this by reminding him that gods do different things that sometimes are opposite of each other. In fact gods even fight amongst themselves. What one god considers is good; the other gods considers it bad. It is, therefore, not certain to say that all that is done by gods is good or piety in that matter. In this conversation, we see how language is a creating a significant argument about moral and ethical terms. Language forms a framework of rationality where somebody understands the self. It is the primary mode of human companionship since it describes everything in terms of morals and ethics accordingly.
Every person lives and does activities basing on the understanding of their languages. It is the language that simply defines human activity. In order for one to define the self, he must have a language that he /she identify with. Through the language, we define and identify what we want and act or do it. Socrates knew that people may be taught about justice and various principles. Therefore as Socrates suggests, the self, starts squarely by linguistic analysis of the moral terms. These moral terms must, however, be subjected to detailed examination before we act. Failure to understand our language can lead to people acting in ethically or morally wrong activities.
In the detailed linguistic determination of moral and ethical terms Socrates used a witty approach in finding how people defined several things. He engaged people in dialogue in trying to find the correct definition of moral or ethical term. In this dialogue, Socrates pretended to know nothing about the term in question. He asked people various questions about virtues, good life, happiness, righteousness and truthfulness. Socrates was the father of the modern-day Socratic Method that engages people in a dialogue that tries to find answers by engaging the person who thinks he knows much about the subject, but later will prove him to be wrong. As seen in conversations with Plato, Xenophon and Euthyphro, Socrates conversations revolved around finding the true nature of the term used and the how the word is used in a conversation. Through these dialogues, Socrates used ambiguities and irony in making the person under question appear more knowledgeable about the subject matter than him. In most instances, Socrates claimed to have no knowledge of some of the subjects in question. In particular those that touched in matters of the Greek’s justice system. Socrates looked for particular answers that touched on a particular subject. His question often led to another question that was more advanced in defining the subject in the dialogue. In some of the linguistic analysis, Socrates seemed to ask a question that seems to have simple answers, but which later turns out to be complicated. However, in most of this analysis the person in the dialogue agrees that that there is no clear answer about the question. Socrates used creativity in the question that discarded some of the ideas in question and left people to think different dimension than before. This is was the basis of Socrates trial in court.
Elenchus is the word given to the Socratic dialogue or method of questioning things (Hans 15). It is an interrogation that leaves the interlocutor t...