Socrates Polis: Some Important Characteristics
The polis some important characteristics
A polis is a Greek city-state. Instead of having a united country, the Greeks were divided into large, independent cities with their own governments and people. Some of the more famous poleis are Athens, Sparta, Corinth, Thebes, and Argos.
Poleis were originally ruled by heredity kings. As these kings became unpopular, they were often overthrown by tyrants. Although usurpers to the throne that were considered illegitimate, they were often very popular because they ended the corrupt monarchies. After tyrannies, other forms of government, like democracies and oligarchies formed.
The average polis was usually built around a hill. At the top of the hill was the acropolis, a heavily-protected fort …show more content…
Good looks and proper bearing were important to a man's political prospects, for beauty and goodness were linked in the popular imagination. The extant sources agree that Socrates was profoundly ugly. Socrates let his hair grow long, Spartan-style (even while Athens and Sparta were at war), and went about barefoot and unwashed, carrying a stick and looking arrogant.
What seemed strange about Socrates is that he neither labored to earn a living, nor participated voluntarily in affairs of state. Rather, he embraced poverty and, although youths of the city kept company with him and imitated him, Socrates adamantly insisted he was not a teacher and refused all his life to take money for what he did. The strangeness of this behavior is mitigated by the image then current of teachers and students: teachers were viewed as pitchers pouring their contents into the empty cups that were the students. Because Socrates was no transmitter of information that others were passively to receive, he resists the comparison to teachers. Rather, he helped others recognize on their own what is real, true, and good (Plato, Meno, Theaetetus)
It did not help matters that Socrates seemed to have a higher opinion of women than most …show more content…
He explains that he has no experience with the law courts and that he will instead speak in the manner to which he is accustomed: with honesty and directness. He explains that his behavior stems from a prophecy by the oracle at Delphi which claimed that he was the wisest of all men. Recognizing his ignorance in most worldly affairs, Socrates concluded that he must be wiser than other men only in that he knows that he knows nothing. In order to spread this peculiar wisdom, Socrates explains that he considered it his duty to question supposed "wise" men and to expose their false wisdom as ignorance. These activities earned him much admiration amongst the youth of Athens, but much hatred and anger from the people he embarrassed. He cites their contempt as the reason for his being put on
A polis is a Greek city-state. Instead of having a united country, the Greeks were divided into large, independent cities with their own governments and people. Some of the more famous poleis are Athens, Sparta, Corinth, Thebes, and Argos.
Poleis were originally ruled by heredity kings. As these kings became unpopular, they were often overthrown by tyrants. Although usurpers to the throne that were considered illegitimate, they were often very popular because they ended the corrupt monarchies. After tyrannies, other forms of government, like democracies and oligarchies formed.
The average polis was usually built around a hill. At the top of the hill was the acropolis, a heavily-protected fort …show more content…
Good looks and proper bearing were important to a man's political prospects, for beauty and goodness were linked in the popular imagination. The extant sources agree that Socrates was profoundly ugly. Socrates let his hair grow long, Spartan-style (even while Athens and Sparta were at war), and went about barefoot and unwashed, carrying a stick and looking arrogant.
What seemed strange about Socrates is that he neither labored to earn a living, nor participated voluntarily in affairs of state. Rather, he embraced poverty and, although youths of the city kept company with him and imitated him, Socrates adamantly insisted he was not a teacher and refused all his life to take money for what he did. The strangeness of this behavior is mitigated by the image then current of teachers and students: teachers were viewed as pitchers pouring their contents into the empty cups that were the students. Because Socrates was no transmitter of information that others were passively to receive, he resists the comparison to teachers. Rather, he helped others recognize on their own what is real, true, and good (Plato, Meno, Theaetetus)
It did not help matters that Socrates seemed to have a higher opinion of women than most …show more content…
He explains that he has no experience with the law courts and that he will instead speak in the manner to which he is accustomed: with honesty and directness. He explains that his behavior stems from a prophecy by the oracle at Delphi which claimed that he was the wisest of all men. Recognizing his ignorance in most worldly affairs, Socrates concluded that he must be wiser than other men only in that he knows that he knows nothing. In order to spread this peculiar wisdom, Socrates explains that he considered it his duty to question supposed "wise" men and to expose their false wisdom as ignorance. These activities earned him much admiration amongst the youth of Athens, but much hatred and anger from the people he embarrassed. He cites their contempt as the reason for his being put on