Top-Rated Free Essay
Preview

western civilization

Satisfactory Essays
369 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
western civilization
1Western Civilization I Rutgers/McNair Prof. Mellen
21.510.210.07/.98 Socrates: the Apology Fall 2014 Reading response sheet
Name:
CONTENT SUMMARY: in your summary include responses to the following What is Socrates searching for in his consultations with wise men, poets and artisans?
What does Socrates consider to be the basis or source of virtue? Knowledge
Why are the Athenians troubled by Socrates? *How does Socrates’ description of his actions and ideas connect to Greek ideas about reason?

The first part of the reading is about Socrates goes around to men that he heard are wise but found them not. He found himself wiser than them even those people are skillful in their area but they are not wiser than Socrates. He said, “I do not think that I know what I do not know”, Socrates thinks that knowledge in the basis of virtue. These poet, artisans and other skillful men think just because they know their area means they know everything, which is consider ignorant by Socrates. Socrates thinks men should recognize what they don’t know so that they can learn about it. Socrates taking humanized approach to the further steps. However he is raising this issue at the time when Athens is busy fighting Sparta and that’s why Athenians were troubled by Socrates. Like Greek ideas about reason, Socrates believes that knowledge is given by God and men should know how to use it.

SIGNIFICANT/INTERESTING WORDS AND TERMS: (include words/terms that you don’t know or aren’t sure of) question RESPONSE/REACTION TO THE TEXT:(* can expand this question here)

I think Socrates is very wise and it is true that if you ask questions, you will never learn.

SELECT ONE QUOTE THAT YOU THINK IS ESPECIALLY INTERESTING OR IMPORTANT:

“I will never choose what I know to be evil, and fear and fly from what may possibly be a good.”
I tell you, that virtue does not come from wealth, but that wealth and every other good, whether public or private, which men have, come from virtue.

PROVIDE ONE QUESTION YOUR HAVE OR ONE OBSERVATION - SOMETHING YOU PARTICULARLY NOTICED - ABOUT THE TEXT:

if you need more space, continue your answers for each question on the back --------------->

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Socrates introduced his first topic by his first sentence, “I do not know,” . Socrates was the wisest man in ancient Greece at that time. “He asked if any man was wiser than I, and the Pythian replied that no one was wiser…” The wisest man started his dialogue with “I do not know.” Socrates wants to emphases the ignorance of human race which he mentioned several times in Apology. “What is probable, gentlemen, is that in fact the god is wise and that his oracular response meant that human wisdom is worth little or nothing…...” By the first sentence, Socrates brings out his first theme in Apology: the ignorance of people. In another way of understanding, although he is already the most wisdom man in the world, he still prefers to begin his sentences with “I do not know” to emphases that there is a much broader and larger world of knowledge for man-kind to explore.…

    • 574 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Socrates does not in fact tell his associates anything, but rather helps them understand ideas that were already in them through his series of questions that test whether what his associate says is of truth or not, and so he is not actually giving any knowledge. In the Meno, he shows an example of what he does when he attempts to “bring forth” geometry knowledge from a Greek slave boy. The boy answers some questions incorrectly at first before stating that he does not know. Socrates then continues to ask the boy more questions, and as the boy answers them, he comes to understand it without Socrates ever actually telling the boy anything at all. Socrates then states that “Then he will have knowledge without being taught by anyone but only questioned, since he will have recovered the knowledge from inside himself” (Meno, 85c-85d). He is saying that the boy is able to gain knowledge from Socrates asking him multiple questions about it constantly, and it will come forth within his associates, without him actually telling them anything at all. He also elaborates on this type of wisdom that he has in the Apology, saying “I thought this man seemed wise to many people, and especially to himself, but wasn’t. Then I tried to show him that he thought himself wise, but wasn’t.” (Apology, 21c-21e). Here, Socrates is stating that he has no knowledge, but rather questions the ideas of his associates to help them become more wise. This also showcases the type of wisdom that he does possess, which is knowing that he does not know…

    • 984 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    2) Socrates did not always think that he was wise, many people labeled him as a teacher. Socrates did not really care for this label. He did not really think that he knew much. Socrates had a friend named Chaerephon who went to the oracle the God of Delphi. Cheaerephon asked the oracle is there any one wiser then Socrates, the oracle answered no (21a). Socrates did not understand this and set out to prove the oracle wrong. While out to prove the oracle wrong Socrates realized he is wise but not because he knew everything, but because he realized he knew nothing and didn’t act as if he did.…

    • 260 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Socrates in essence, believes in god and is too wise for his own good. Throughout whole trial he spoke nothing but the truth however, because of the greed and jealousy of men they convicted him other wise simply because of their own intentions. Furthermore, searching for the truth couldn't be possible because of the reality of the situation: Socrates was considered the wisest man, people in an act of evil wanted to confront and destroy him and in essence, this couldn't be possible because in fact Socrates was the wisest man and was unknowing of it. This in reality represents the irony in the situation because Socrates doesn't consider himself to be the wisest man in Greece, but he is. In reality Socrates only escape from death was to lie and he didn't feel obliged to do so. In fact the truth was there the whole time and it was up to the people to pry through the illusion of this situation and understand what Socrates was saying. This represents the high cost of searching out the truth in this case, which was the causing of Socrates'…

    • 1148 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Their never is an understanding in which both men truly seem to be self-confident in or hold that self-knowledge needed to develop an understanding. Socrates always seems to teach his understanding through questioning as he and Meno seem to solve the answers of knowledge along with virtue. Socrates questions “If there is something good, and yet separate from knowledge, possibly virtue would not be a knowledge, but if there is no good in which knowledge does not contain, it would be a right notion to suspect it is knowledge,” (Socrates 50). His knowledge is never clear or resolved, it is always an on word discussion with Meno about clarifying the real meaning behind what is truly knowledge. By means Socrates never simply applies his understanding of what knowledge is until further…

    • 1551 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Western Civilization, defines and helps us understand the important aspects of the term civilization and how it is used. "The peoples of Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Eastern Mediterranean, and Greece created Western civilization by exchanging ideas, technologies, and objects through trade, travel, and war. Building on concepts from the Near East, Greeks originated the idea of the West as a separate region, identifying Europe as the West (where the sun sets) and different from the East (where the sun rises)" (Hunt p. 4).…

    • 459 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    When Socrates questioned the poets, the poets believed that they had the ability to speak brilliantly about various issues. However, Socrates revealed that although they each wrote amazing works of art, their intelligence did not come from wisdom, but instead, came from an impulse which wasn’t associated with their genius. As Socrates interrogated the craftsmen, he seemed to find men who genuinely contained much wisdom in their craft, but the men thought that their abilities in a certain field granted them to speak officially in other fields that they were associated with, although they truly knew nothing. Each case shows that Socrates confirmed that he would prefer to be as he is, stating that he truly knows nothing, rather than to be filled with a false impression of his own wisdom. Socrates states, “So I asked myself on behalf of the oracle whether I would prefer to be as I am, being in no way wise in their wisdom or ignorant in their ignorance, or to have both things that they have. I answered myself and the oracle that it profits me to be just as I am”…

    • 695 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    helloham

    • 3763 Words
    • 16 Pages

    Socrates is considered one of the greatest thinkers of all time. This was not because he was the most intelligent, but as he states in the Apology, it was because he knew he didn’t know everything. He enjoyed questioning people and getting them to think deeper and he would consider other’s opinions. He refers to himself as a gadfly that pesters the horse into action. This is the case in Plato’s Meno. Socrates is having a discussion with Meno on whether virtues are teachable. This conversation leads to what does it take for a man to be a success. Socrates states that there are two ways in which men succeed. They are though true knowledge and right opinion. Although there are differences between them, they both will lead to success.…

    • 3763 Words
    • 16 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Socrates' Apology

    • 451 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Even though this reading is old it still carries great value and importance because it shows that knowledge as Socrates argues is not ours but it belongs to God. Hence, Socrates’ work will continue even after his death “For the word which I will speak is not mine.” It reminds me of Jesus Christ, which story is similar to Socrates’. They both followed a divined forced rather than their own interests and hence both didn’t have a sign of this divine force until the very end. However, their end, death, might seem a negative end to others but the opposite was for both Socrates’ and Jesus’ point of view. Furthermore, their deaths didn’t stop the work they were doing and were accused of but it rather intensified it, making other to seek same path or belief.…

    • 451 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Apology by Plato

    • 2058 Words
    • 9 Pages

    For the majority of his life, Socrates spent a good deal of his time asking questions of the people of Athens. His goal was to arrive at a set of political and ethical truths. Contrary to many people at the time, Socrates did not lecture about the things he knew; he actually claimed to be rather ignorant. He claimed he was wise only because he recognized his ignorance and did not claim to know what he did not know (Grube 26). The questions Socrates asked forced his audiences to think through a problem and arrive at a logical conclusion. At times, the answers seemed so obvious his opponents often looked foolish. His “Socratic Method” of questioning as it came to be called later, was adored by Socrates’ followers but despised by others throughout Athens (“Socrates Biography.”).…

    • 2058 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Socrates Unjust Analysis

    • 872 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Socrates, one of the greatest minds go Ancient Greece’s was no exception. As a sophist, Socrates was considered a teacher of the noble. Sophist of Greed taught young men ’arete’: excellence or virtue for a price. However, Socrates wasn’t a regular sophist, he never accepted any monetary reward for his ’teachings“ (b316,p813) and he never actually taught anything but rather trained minds to think. Socrates states at the trail that he doesn’t have any true knowledge and he believed that in order to have any true knowledge one must be able to produce a single, clear definition of a subject without any exclusions to the rule, something that he was never able believed that he couldn’t do.Rather than use he own opinions to teach his pupils what to think, Socrates used ”systematic questioning“ (b136p813) to help clear their own minds and reach their own conclusions just by thinking. A skill that they could carry forward, into their lives as Athenian citizens. With this in mind, it is nearly impossible for the Athenians government to find Socrates guilty of…

    • 872 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Assyrians, Neo-Babylonians, and Persians are considered to be amongst the first successful civilizations of first millennium B.C. It can be argued that each civilization was better than the others in terms of treatment of common people, but that’s a issue for another essay. What we want to know right now is, why? What made their model of civilization more effective than that of previous empires?…

    • 390 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Western Civilization

    • 1133 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Muslims: The first great wave of Muslim expansion had ended at the beginning of the eighth century. Gradually, the Muslims built up a series of sea bases in their occupied territories in North Africa, Spain, and Southern Gaul and began a new series of attacks in the Mediterranean in the ninth century. They raided the southern coasts of Europe, especially Italy, and even threatened Rome in 843.…

    • 1133 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In chapter one, the Sumer culture is discussed at lengths including their religion of several Gods from the “natural world” and their technology and innovations. I particularly find it interesting that despite the Sumer’s lack of mineral, they were still able to make innovations and weapons using traded copper. The Sumer people may not have had access to various resources but they are still to be thanked for technology such as the seed drill. It is very useful of the Sumerian people to be so innovative and creative despite their lack of resources.…

    • 698 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Wisdom Essay

    • 4896 Words
    • 20 Pages

    Socrates defined the aspects of wisdom as recognizing the limits of one’s own knowledge, the importance of persistent critical thinking and discernment, and the importance of identifying and pursuing goodness. It is a physical and intellectual undertaking which involves a journey towards a change of a better perspective in life. It is interesting to note that Socrates viewed wisdom as both a blessing and a burden.…

    • 4896 Words
    • 20 Pages
    Powerful Essays

Related Topics