Socrates Essay - 1353 Words

Socrates was perhaps the most interesting and influential thinker in the fifth century. He was dedicated to careful reasoning and he wanted genuine knowledge rather than the victory over his opponent. He learned the rhetoric and dialectics of the Sophists, the ideas of the Lonian philosophers, and the general culture of Periclean Athens. Socrates used the same knowledge by the Sophists to get a new purpose, the pursuit of truth. He called everything into question and he was determined to accept nothing less than the truth. nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;He was well known for his skills in carrying on a conversation and his public speaking, but Socrates never wrote a thing. We learned from his students, mainly Kenophon and Plato, about his†¦show more content†¦Socrates said, â€Å"The capacity for knowledge is innate in each man’s mind.† This simply meant to him that when one is caught up in superficiality, then the truth does not shine through. He thought that the people that were consumed in the shallow world would only see reality as mere shadows compared to the truth. â€Å"The good†, according to Socrates is â€Å"the source not only of the intelligibility of the objects of knowledge, but also of their being and reality.† He thought that when the mind is preoccupied with a bad world, it does not see the truth. nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Socrates thought that pleasure should not be taken to the extreme, because it will then be unhealthy for the mind and body. He explains that the mind, body, and soul must all be in unison in order to be healthy, then happiness will follow. Many people look for happiness by engulfing themselves in life’s highest pleasures and others look for contentment by over working themselves to be the richest. However, these two extremes will not produce happiness but instead one should find peace by seeking out the truth, and looking inside to find reality and true beauty. nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;The allegory of the cave illustrates the difference between the materialistic world and the intelligible world. Socrates described a man with his arms and legs chained and with his neck in a brace. This only lets the man see the wall with shadows.Show MoreRelatedSocrates : The Suicide Of Socrates1405 Words   |  6 PagesSocrates was born in 470 BCE in Athens, Greece. His father was Sophroniscus, a sculptor and stone mason from Athens and his mother was a midwife by the name of Phaenarete (30 Interesting Socrates Facts 2014). Socrates original profession was masonry and sculpting, before becoming a philosopher. On a day in 399 BC, Socrates ( roughly 71 years at the time) went to trial.Now why would anyone want to send an old man to court? 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