Download Lecture Notes 10/06/08

Lecture Notes
Notes are contributed by
Student Tanya Ahmed
section p05
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Socrates and the quest for
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Virtue
Five Moral Philosophies of
Socrates
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1. Care for the soul is all that matters
2. Self knowledge is required for the good life
3. Virtue is knowledge (there is no place for weakness of will
and ignorance is evil.)
4. You cannot harm the good person, but in trying to harm
the good you harm yourself.
5. Is the good, good because God has chosen it, or does God
choose the good because it is good.
 Socrates is going to be charged with disregarding the gods
that will get him into trouble.
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Socrates Video Notes:
The Greeks Crucible
Socrates is discussed on page 42 of the textbook.
The pro Socratics were interested in the big question,
what element composes reality.
Socrates was interested in how does one become a good
person?
Socrates comes up with the moral philosophy
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Socrates was unique in the Athenian culture. He was ugly
with a large head and his eyes were too big. His
appearance was the opposite of what Greeks considered
beautiful. He walked about barefoot in a dirty robe.
He breaks every rule with proportion and measure
according to the Greek concepts of beauty.
He cares only about the mind.
Greeks took the Gods out of the heavens and replaced
them with reason.
Greeks began to calculate the movement of stars and
moon through mathematics; which began the birth of
science.
Socrates’ job was as a stone mason, though he rarely
worked.
Thales was the first man to measure the height of the
pyramid.
Socrates used reason and logic to study people.
Socrates walked the streets talking and debating with
everyone.
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His life was spent
questioning the
assumptions of the
Athenians, of what
was right and wrong.
He would turn
convention on its
head to prove a
point.
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Socrates believed in freedom of thought. “An unexamined
life is not worth living.”
While he spent his days in debate, the city was at war
threatened by the Spartans.
The Spartans burn the countryside and surround Athens.
Athens relied on food shipments from fleet. One year
plague comes in shipment.
Plague comes in food shipments and spreads like wildfire.
Violent ulcerations, uncontrollable diarrhea, fever.
People crawled into the city tunnels of the water system
to die; which further caused the spread of disease.
Plague killed a third of Athens’ population and struck the
figure head Pericles.
Pericles died in 29 B.C. after six months of suffering.
After Pericles’ death, Athens descends into mob rule.
Leaders gave the mob whatever they wanted in exchange
for power.
The Generals who won the Sicily naval battle against
Sparta were thrown into prison for not picking up soldiers
who fell overboard. Socrates stood up for the generals.
After the death of Pericles, Athens never again had a
political leader with a well thought out plan. Conflict
spread over a decade.
Spartans ravaged Athens. Neither side was able to defeat
the other. Deprived of victory, Athenians became
frustrated.
The conflict becomes a stalemate.
The Persians will aid the Spartans by building them a navy.
Persians took advantage of Athens’ weakness.
The Spartans blocked food shipments with their navy.
People starved in the streets.
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Athens surrenders in
404 B.C.E. They were
forced to tear down
city walls and burn
their fleet except 12
ships…for
communication
purposes.
Athenians search for
a scapegoat within
the city
walls…someone to
blame for what’s
happened. They’re
looking for Socrates,
who has always been
a public voice against
tradition.
Socrates is arrested
for undermining
religion and
corrupting the youth.
(see page 42)
He’s put on trial in a
public marketplace.
The jury, selected at
random from the
population, was of
the same type that
condemned the 6
generals to death 7
years earlier. His
speech time is
limited by a water
clock, as are all
speeches in the
Athenian system.
Socrates shows no
fear…he is quite
stubborn. He’s so
stubborn he insists
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that he be granted free dinners for life. He also insists that
a life of thinking for one’s self is the only life worth living.
An apology could have saved his life, but he refused, and
was unilaterally sentenced to death.
The jail in which Socrates was held still exists today, and
we can even guess at which cell in which he was held.
His method of execution was by drinking the poison
hemlock, which caused a slow, painful death through a
slow disabling of the central nervous system.
Socrates ends up redefining what a hero is. He died for his
principles with conviction. Rather than being a large,
muscular war hero, he was an intellectual and social hero.
Effigies of Socrates can still be found, and in the years after
his death the Athenians came to be more like him.
Athens never became a large military force again, but
instead flourished as an intellectual community.