Friday, July 8, 2011

Socrates

A brief explanation of Socrates' importance, in case you don't already know him. Many consider him the godfather of philosophy.

Socrates went around asking things we consider as common sense. He asked a General "What is courage?". The General told him it was when a soldier remained firm in battle. Socrates would reply: "No, you're just giving me an example. I asked you what is it?!" And so, talking to Socrates made you realize you knew nothing. Also, he didn't teach you, because he didn't know either.

His famous phrase was: I know that I know nothing. What he meant with this was the fact that you only can learn something if you realize beforehand that you know nothing about the topic. Otherwise, you wouldn't need to learn, right? He also taught us that The unexamined life is not worth living, because you must constantly review you actions in a rational way.
However, Socrates wasn't much appreciated by the masses. Not only did he made them look stupid, but the young people were beginning to question everything, and the men holding the power could lose it. At his trial, Socrates could have been freed if he payed the fine, his friends wanted to pay his fine, but he decided not to because that would be cowardly saving himself at the expense of others. He remained true to what he believed.

21 comments:

  1. Nice post, thanks!

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  2. Definitely one of the great minds

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  3. Wow I had never heard of Socrates before, very interesting post!

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  4. I learned about him this year of school in my World History Class very interesting person. Thanks for the extra info! +1

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  5. Yea, he was a joy to research in school.

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  6. its better to remain in ignorance of these things

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  7. Dude had a sweet beard as well.

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  8. Socrates failed to realize that if he had let his friends pay his fine, he would have lived to teach more than was taught by his death.

    Sad way to go.

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  9. I like that quote, "the unexamined life is not worth living." Something to live by!

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  10. lol nice post, love this artistic stuff!
    +1 and keep up.

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  11. Socrates is legendary!
    like ur blog, keep it up

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  12. when i saw the name i immediately was reminded of the movie, Willard

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  13. It's a shame that he wasn't appreciated much in his time, but it seems that the best people rarely are.

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  14. men like this are always ostricized

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  15. The unexamined life is not worth living is something that should be taught to people in schools, so many are content to go through life without comprehending anything, without a single bit of curiosity at all

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