What The Socratic Method Is

What The Socratic establishment IsFirst, we essential understand what the Socratic Method is, and how it applies to the notion that the unexamined nutriment is not expenditure living. The Socratic Method is a process of enquireing in which Socrates would piss an opp cardinalnessnt state a thesis and would then deconstruct their ground through the use of pointioning and critical thinking. Better ideas are arrange by identifying and eliminating those that lead to contradictions. The Euthyphro tenders a wonderful example of the application of this ruleology. Socrates questions each of Euthyphros definitions as to what piety is, and constantly shows how these definitions fail when examined critic altogethery. Socrates contention is that Euthyphro is only natural endowment descriptions and examples of pious things, rather than actu anyy offering an objective answer to the force of which makes a thing pious. Socrates complains that Euthyphro is stringing him along as he is not teaching him what piety actually is. It is important to note the way in which Socrates uses his method with Euthyphro. Socrates acts as the student, and elevates Euthyphro to that of a mentor, which allows Socrates to lead Euthyphro though the process of critical analysis, as opposed to entirely dictating information directly to him. In this way, Socrates allows Euthyphro to examine his protest argument, and realize the mistakes that plague it. This begins to give an understanding of what Socrates meant by his notion of the unexamined life.What Socrates was stressful to convey with his notions of the unexamined life was not that one must(prenominal) examine their throw life for it to have worth, but rather that if one would claim that their life is worthy, they would need to examine it themselves to understand its worth. Socrates argues that living a life where one does not realize their ignorance is a life not worth living be effort he views knowledge to be directly tied to virtue. In govern to live a worthy life, one must seek knowledge, which is a necessary component of his ethics. Using this parallel we can infer that because knowledge can be bring outed, it must also be possible to learn virtue. From this it follows that virtue can be taught, and we begin to understand that the Socratic Method is Socrates attempt to act as a catalyst for others self-examination. This is exactly what Socrates does with his parley in the Euthyphro. He feigns ignorance to elevate Euthyphro to a higher level, and guides him along the course of action of self-examination with his Socratic Method. Virtue then, becomes the pursuit of knowledge through self-examination. To coiffe this in other words one finds their life to be inoffensive or ethical through the answers to the questions that are brought forth through immanent examination. Without asking the questions, one go away never line up the answers.The Apology and Crito offer strong examples of Socrates et hical philosophy. The Apology deals with the defense offered by Socrates to his accusers for allegations of impiety and decomposition of the call knowledgeess of. Socrates usages of the Socratic Method for the purpose of promoting others into self-examination lead him to question those who claimed to have wisdom, and ultimately he exposed them as ignorant. Questioning the beliefs of the judicious men led to his charge of impiety, and the admiration he gained by the youth of capital of Greece as a result of his actions led to his charge of demoralize the youth. Part of Socrates defense in the trial was that through his actions he was simply trying to act as a catalyst for the people of capital of Greece to ultimately find knowledge and gain an understanding of virtue. Socrates is found culpable of the charges against him, and is sentenced to death by ingestion of hemlock. In the face of death, Socrates had the option to bunk the metropolis of Athens, but refused as it would ha ve been in direct infraction of his moral principles. In the Crito, Socrates discusses why he has a duty to hang-up and face his charge, as well as why the action of fleeing would be unethical. To Socrates, breaking one rightfulness would be an injustice to all laws and would cause great harm to the city of Athens. To escape would have been an injustice to Athens itself. As a citizen of Athens, Socrates was endorsing, and willing to abide by the law, and to break the law now after 70 years of life would in solution negate everything that he had advocated throughout his life.The Phaedo discusses notions of life, death, and the consciousness. With his sentence looming overhead, Socrates contemplates the idea of death and self-annihilation with Cebes and Simmias. He says that a true philosopher should look forward to death, but at the same time however, Socrates also says that though philosophers should be willing to die, it is amiss(p) for them to commit suicide, as he views the gods as the guardians of people and views suicide as a destruction of the gods possession void of any permission to do so. Because death is the separation of the body and the consciousness, the philosopher is then able to shed all of the distractions of the body wants, desires, and fears which gives them the ability to acquire the knowledge and wisdom that theyve been seeking in their lives. The practice of philosophy then, according to Socrates, is likened to a sort of training for demise in which the philosopher is called to remove himself from his bodily attachment. This offers a stark contrast betwixt the philosopher and the layman. The layman has an illusion of virtue, go the philosopher truly becomes virtuous. The philosopher approaches death with courage, gained from the pursuit of knowledge, while the layman can only have an illusion of virtue as they do not participate in the practice of philosophy, and therefore cannot receive the knowledge and wisdom, and cannot separate themselves from the hindrance of bodily attachments.The Republic establishes that justice is in the class of things that ought to be practiced for their hold good, as well as for the good of their consequences. In order to understand exactly what justice is and what it direction to live ethically, Socrates gives an example of a city as a bear-sized scale concept, and then examines it on a smaller more ad hoc level. He discusses how the people of a city will have their own basic needs, but that the city as a whole will be shared and will have a structured system of education. Socrates also explains that there are four excellences in the city wisdom, courage, temperance, and justice. Socrates compares the city to a soul and says that these four excellences must also exist in a person within the soul. Since they all exist in the soul and can often contradict, it is established that the soul is made up of move and is not a whole. The soul consists of the keen, which judg es truth, and makes wise and knowledgeable decisions in accordance with an examined life. The spirited part of the soul is the source of desires within a person such as love, and honor, while the appetitive aspect of the soul is the source of basic cravings that act as an anchor to the material and menial word. Within the city exists different classes of individuals the guardians, the auxiliaries and the working class, all of which represent a different aspect or nature of the soul. The guardians are considered to be the rational, and ought to be the rulers of the city as they will be the best suited to constitute knowledge and live and act ethically because the guardians act on their own knowledge and wisdom through their inherent rationality, just as the rational part should rule of the soul should rule over the other lead aspects. From this, Socrates says that justice is establishing the parts of the soul so that they dominate and are dominated by each other according to natur e and allow for the person and for the soul to pursue wisdom.In conclusion, it is shown that the ethics of Socrates can be understand by examining the works of the Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Phaedo, and Republic. Socrates uses the Socratic method as a beam of light to catalyze self-examination of others so that may seek out knowledge. From this quest for knowledge, virtue is obtained, and this is the main goal of philosophy in Socrates mind. Laws must be made in accordance with wisdom by those who practice philosophy, and must seek to benefit the city as a whole. Breaking one law is an injustice to all laws, and is an act of ignorance. Ethics, virtue, justice and morality all stem from what Socrates calls the examined life, in which philosophy is used as a direction to gain wisdom and knowledge which act as the basis for these values. philosophical system then, is not just an occupation, but rather an integral part of life, and a necessary component of what it means to be ethical .