Socrates+Lecture+Notes

1)Weird format changes, so if you can't follow it, check out the file attached:

2) Pericles: Leads Athens to its greatest defeat. “Lend me your gear, let’s go fight for the right to impose our indemnity on the world” He distorted the truth, and silly people went along with it. Everyone was excited, but they lost. i. Sophist that Socrates didn’t like was Meno- Socrates would make fun of him. ii. The only thing you see when you write things down, is what the one person said and the whole rest of the world is excluded. He believed you should open up the conversation with questions. It took Plato to write it all down. 3) __Socrates’ Teachings__ i. Bronze types: aren’t particularly clever, but you need them. They’re the masses of people (ie. Bread makers, coffee sellers, etc). They deserve to have some kind of dignity, but they’re not the best. ii. Silver types: Exist in a “limbo” world, part serving society, but also have a higher purpose of enhancing the society. Fewer of these than the Bronze type. iii. Gold type: The philosophers of the society- they make a living out of thinking. They have the conversations that will build policy. Out of here, one philosopher would serve as king so the whole nation prospers. i. Breaking free from the cave was dangerous. But once you do, you leave the cave and head toward the light, and your eyes painfully readjust and the more light you get, the more painful it is. __Light, for Socrates, is always a symbol for knowledge.__ The sun is the source of light, knowledge- this comes from Plato 4) Truth i. He was never able to figure out how to define physical objects. In order to define an object, you have to be able to tell me what it is that thing is, what is its essence, and what is it that distinguished that thing from anything else? What is it that is a chair, and only a chair? Only have to know form and function. Ie. What is big? ii. Socrates to Meno “What defines a good man?” iii. Socrates was the teacher, Plato was his student. Plato’s student was Aristotle (who brought up the idea of categories for definition-played into the whole “what is big?” question), whose student (the final student of the “greats”) was Alexander the Great, a Masadonian. 5) Justice i. When a king or person believes enough to prosper for themselves. (?) But justice for me competes for justice for you? Yes. So what happens when what I want competes for what you want and the state suffers. ii. Justice becomes how we can better serve the state
 * __ Socrates __** Other notes found at todaysmeet.com/seaholmsocrates
 * 1) a. __Thesis__: Socrates is defined, like all great leaders, by the events that proceeded him, and continues, then, to define the world after his death.
 * 2) b. How has Socrates changed education, religion, government?
 * 1) a. So Athens was in a state of chaos. One reason (according to Socrates) they were in such chaos. That reason was Democracy- people were incapable of leadership, we needed the best and the brightest to lead us. Believe in Philosopher King. Socrates rises out of a time of chaos, but he is able to put order on.
 * 2) b. He was deliberately ugly, which is importantly because he believes you can’t judge a book by its cover. This goes against the Greek form, because at that time, they believed only the most beautiful were great.
 * 3) c. He //dialogues// about the way life ought to be, and these are written by his #1 student, Plato. Socrates lives in 450 BC, which was a bridge into another century- marked a large change. Writing was just becoming all the rage, Socrates himself never wrote, for he believed in the dialogue and believed that writing was evil and would lead to sophistry: self promotion. More about winning the argument than learning the truth.
 * 1) d. Plato has a whole bunch of philosophies that belong to him, and then a whole bunch that are the teachings of Socrates. But we really only know Socrates through Plato.
 * 1) a. Types of people:
 * 1) b. Pericles dupped the people into going to battle, then Socrates writes the __Allegory of the Cave__ (in reference to Pericles- when talking about the puppet masters)—similaties between AotC and 2003 War on Iraq.
 * 1) a. Socrates believed in truth- truth is true, and it’s always true. It is also difficult to find things that are really true. Nothing that you can see, touch or smell is really (at least on a surface level) is true- it is real, but not true. The only things that are true are those you can’t see, like math.
 * 1) 1. Meno: “one who can run the state!”
 * 2) 2. S: “What is it that defines a woman?”
 * 3) 3. M: “A woman is someone that can run a house, like a state”
 * 4) 4. S: “well isnt running a state like running a house? So they both have to be able to run a house like state and a state like a house.”
 * 5) 5. M: “well then a man is a woman!”
 * 1) a. What is Justice?
 * 1) 1. In current day, if the individual serves themselves, then he is serving the state as well