CLA 100: GREEK CIVILIZATIONLectures 21 & 22

1. Socrates

2. Plato

1. Socrates (469-399 BC)• a. His career• tried, convicted, & executed in 399 BC on charges of

introducing new divinities & corrupting the youth• in Plato’s The Apology of Socrates, Socrates spends

greatest amount of time defending himself against the views about himself put forward 26 years earlier by Aristophanes in the Clouds where he was depicted as an atheistic sophist running a school for useless research where students were trained to make the worst argument appear the better

• Apology means “defense”• very critical of Athenian democracy because of its

reliance on lot for choosing leaders• when you build a temple you appoint someone with

expertise so why would you not do the same in politics?

1. Socrates (469-399 BC)• a. His career (cont)• some of his students turned out to be

enemies of polis• e.g. Alcibiades, Critias• Critias, uncle of Plato, was one of 30 tyrants

who ruled Athens in brutal fashion after democracy was overthrown at end of Peloponnesian War in 404 BC

• Socrates makes a reference to this period in Plato’s The Apology of Socrates when he took his turn at being a member of the Council of 500

1. Socrates (469-399 BC)• a. His career (cont)• democracy was restored in 403 BC but

399 when Socrates was tried was not a good time to be critical of democracy

• b. His philosophy• his primary concern was ethics: how one

ought best to live one’s life in order to be happy

• spent his life devoted to philosophy but didn’t commit his ideas to writing

1. Socrates (469-399 BC)• b. His philosophy (cont)• what we know about Socrates comes from his

student Plato, from historian Xenophon, & from comic playwright Aristophanes

• each gives quite a different view• with Plato it’s hard to tell what views are those

of Socrates and what are Plato’s own views since Plato writes in form of a dialogue with Socrates as one of main speakers

• in Plato’s early dialogues, such as the Apology of Socrates, it’s generally thought that we have the historical Socrates

1. Socrates (469-399 BC)• b. His philosophy (cont)• In middle & later dialogues, it is Plato putting

forth his own views through the character of Socrates

• one view attributed to Socrates: “Virtue is knowledge.”

• If a person really knew what was good for his soul, that person would do it, because he would not want to harm his soul

• True knowledge is, however, very hard to attain• When someone does something evil, it’s because

that person mistakenly thinks it will be good for his or her soul

1. Socrates (469-399 BC)• b. His philosophy (cont)

• another idea of Socrates “the unexamined life is not worth living” (Apology)

• dialectical reasoning (Socratic reasoning)

• Socrates carries on his search for the truth by the method of questioning

• origin of this questioning: one of his students went to Delphic oracle & asked whether there was anyone wiser than Socrates. Oracle replied no.

1. Socrates (469-399 BC) Socrates then went to those in Athens who

had the greatest reputation for wisdom and on cross-examining them was able to show that they were ignorant

He upset a lot of people in Athens by his line of questioning

• Socrates came to conclusion that oracle was right about his being wiser than all the rest in that he at least was willing to acknowledge his ignorance

2. Plato (427-347 BC)• a. His career• student of Socrates for 8 years• lived in S. Italy & Sicily in 399-388 BC• founded Academy outside walls of Athens in

385 BC• in 366 and 361 went to Sicily as advisor to

Dionysius II, the tyrant, & attempted to implement his ideas on political reform without success

2. Plato (427-347 BC)• b. His philosophy• 1) theoretical• reacted against view of sophists that morality

was just a matter of convention & that there was no such thing as absolute knowledge

• Plato thought absolute knowledge existed• Developed his theory of forms to counter

claims of sophists

2. Plato (427-347 BC)• b. His philosophy• 1) theoretical: theory of forms• Believed in eternal, unchanging, universal

absolutes that are independent of our world of phenomena

• When we say something is ‘just’ or ‘beautiful’ they’re not just relative terms or a matter of human convention

• Things like justice & beauty must have a reality of their own outside the minds that conceived of them

2. Plato (427-347 BC)

• b. His philosophy

• 1) theoretical: theory of forms

• Plato often resorted to allegory and myth to help explain his ideas

• E.g. allegory of cave (gives example of prisoners who had grown up in a cave & who could only see shadows on wall cast by objects out of their view)

Allegory of Cave• http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~loxias/plato/caveframes.htm

2. Plato (427-347 BC)• b. His philosophy• 1) theoretical: theory of forms• In this world of appearances things we think we

know are just like shadows reflected on the wall of cave.

• Since these shadows are all we have experienced we think they’re real

• in fact they only belong to the world of appearances

• They are just imperfect reflections of true reality

2. Plato (427-347 BC)• b. His philosophy• 1) theoretical: theory of forms• Plato never worked out completely his views on

these absolute forms, and is critical of them in his own later dialogues

• E.g. Were his views just meant to account for abstract ideas such as truth, justice & beauty or were they supposed to apply to terms like ‘chair’ or ‘table’ too?

• Is there an absolute form of chair in which all particular chairs participate?

Cave of Pan & Nymphs (Mt. Hymettos)

Cave of Pan & Nymphs

2. Plato (427-347 BC)• b. His philosophy• 2) political• In his Republic Plato has a very elaborate

description of the ideal state• Purpose: so he can use state & how it works as

model for soul• That he tried to put his political ideas into practice

in Syracuse, Sicily shows he was interested in political questions raised with his model

2. Plato (427-347 BC)• b. His philosophy• 2) political: ideal state• Starts with premise that justice is a virtue

not only in individual but in state• Justice in state exists when 3 parts of

society carry out their duties• 3 parts of state: guardians (the rulers),

auxiliaries (army), & craftspeople (labourers)

2. Plato (427-347 BC)• b. His philosophy

• 2) political: ideal state

• Women should be able to be guardians

• Children brought up in common

• Fathers should be between 25 and 55;

• Mothers should be between 20 and 40

• Best ruler is a philosopher-king

2. Plato (427-347 BC)• b. His philosophy

• 2) political: ideal state

• Education: 18-20: gymnastics

• 20-30: music, arithmetic, astronomy

• 30-35: dialectic (philosophy)

• this was program of education he tried to use with Dionysius II in Sicily

• no surprise that he was unsuccessful