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Kindle Notes & Highlights
In a world where it is easy to forget good virtues due to worldly desires, we all need to be reminded why it is important to preserve our morals, values, and virtues, even if other people seem to be getting more cynical and negative every day.
agora, as it is called in Greek.
Because of this blatant disregard for the truth, those who view philosophy as a way to search for the truth began to call these false teachers rhetoric ‘sophists.’
He showed that it is desirable to live a life according to good virtues. He felt that the aim of philosophy is to care for the soul.
I think Socrates is right. Further I think the soul, our divine spark, is comprised of more than concepts. I think we are energy. Energy does not disapear it transforms into something new.
Both Socrates and Plato believed that a study of philosophy should encourage a student to think of himself.
Philosophy cannot be characterized by the use of emotions, flowery language, and other methods of rhetoric. It cannot support arguments based on fallacies. It must always follow the rules of logic and correct reasoning based on facts or the truth.
“dialectic.” The term refers to a dialogue between two people.
(in fact, he was firmly opposed to the idea of philosophical writing:
Interesting
At the core of Socrates’ philosophy is a desire to uncover the truth.
“Truth” for Socrates meant perfect knowledge of something, and was his end goal whenever he chose to analyze a topic or an idea. As a means of reaching this ultimate end of “Truth,” it was important to make use of logic, analyze simpler, less complex beliefs, and ensure that anything he took for granted along the way was, in fact, “true,” and based in sound knowledge.
For Socrates and other philosophers, the correct justification has always been logic. No one who says his beliefs are true because he feels intensely about them has ever been considered a philosopher by the ancient Greeks.
Lmao. Perfect
accepting blindly is the easiest way to believe in falsehoods. Socrates’ whole philosophical project was discovering the ultimate Truth in everything. He took very little for granted, and was constantly skeptical of people’s commonly held beliefs and ideas.
We must question our ideals to ensure they remain ideal. Blind faith when misplaced can have disasterous consequences.
All knowledge is worth having
It’s no surprise that Socrates had a mixed reception in his day: people clung to their beliefs in ancient Greece, just as they do today. Socrates made it his life’s work to poke holes in those beliefs. Some people (such as Plato) admired him for this, and sought to learn from him. Others, as we’ll see, turned against him.
Many of these works, however, have been lost but there are fragments written by Phaedro, Eucleides and Antisthenes, while Plato’s and Xenophon’s works have survived completely intact.
(both their works were entitled, Apology of Socrates and centered on his trial).
an unexamined life is not satisfactory,
“The unexamined life is not worth living.” – Socrates.
Socrates was focused on the importance of examining our lives, our ideas, and our beliefs in order to arrive at Truth, and improve upon who we are as humans.
Socrates was not proposing that everyone should be rejecting all of those calls, but instead to examine them to see whether they were truly worthy of the human soul.
Beautiful
What’s interesting to note here is that Socrates was one of the first philosophers--if not the first philosopher--in the Greek tradition to explore epistemology (the study of how we create and understand knowledge, or how we come to know things), virtue,
a deep inquiry into human values, motivations, and our lives in general. This set the stage for hundreds of years of human inquiry to follow.
First, it makes it clear that Socrates believes humans are inherently good. In other words, humans are guaranteed to pursue “the good” in any given situation, so longer as we’re aware of what “the good” actually is. Second, it confirms the importance of “knowledge” for Socrates. Since knowledge is the one thing that allows humans to pursue the good and avoid error and evil, pursuit of knowledge is of prime importance for humans in virtually every situation.
When a leader sentences someone to death, it isn’t because they find it pleasurable, but because they believe it is necessary. As a result, the act is focused on the good because that was the motivation behind it.
Interesting but untrue.
Ends dont justify the means
They desire valuable things even while they don’t possess the wisdom of what is really valuable.
Care of the Soul.
When you commit a bad deed, then you hurt or damage your soul, and thereby the gravest thing that could ever happen to you.
happiness is Eudaimonia,
Eudaimonia means well-being, instead of the contemporary notion of happiness.
The philosopher-king, according to Plato, must practice philosophy (the word itself in Greek meaning “love of knowledge”), while also living selflessly: for the sake of the people and justice, as already mentioned. Socrates and Irony
Love this
Finally, by the end of their debate, his opponent will have made a fool of themselves, and it seems clear that Socrates’ final claim of his own “ignorance” is actually a subtle jab at the nonsensical case made by his opponent.
Aristotle describes irony as an endeavor of self-depreciation; that it is the opposite of arrogance and that those who do participate in irony are doing so in order to avoid being arrogant.
Leo Strauss, a philosopher from the 20th century, states that Socrates’ irony in that he declined to display his preeminence before others, especially those who possessed a poorer intellect to his, was a way of getting his point across to the few others who were on level with his intellect.
Hide in plain sight.
These are not the droids you are looking for
Trick #1
The point being made here is we live our lives, not the teachers or philosophers who tell us how we ought to live. Whatever consequences we experience because of our beliefs are experienced by us, and no one else. Given that, is it not important to decide for ourselves how we ought to live?
One further point to make here is that the examined life must be constantly evaluated. It is tempting to think that we only need to examine our beliefs once and we are set for life. Actually, we will encounter new experiences and new issues we need to think about. We may find that we need to change our views according to new experiences and
realizations.
Continuously examining our choices encourages us to be critical thinkers and not fall into a rut. It encourages us to seek what is truly best for us.
Socrates realized that the oracle meant he is wise because he knows he is not wise and does not pretend to be
The point of this lesson is that we need to accept that humans are imperfect creatures. Even if we have examined our beliefs as thoroughly as we can, it is still possible to misinterpret these beliefs. Human beings, even the most intelligent among us, are not God. We can always make mistakes.
We can seek the truth, but still be humble enough to know that we can misinterpret ourselves.
Socrates viewed philosophy with a more practical approach.
it's just an attempt to “establish outside the mind what in reality can only be in the mind.”
This is how Socrates lived his life, until the day he died.
If he wrote down his truth, trying to “establish outside the mind” the truths that he had realized for himself, it would mislead people. It would discourage them from examining their own lives. It would be, as he said, “inhuman.”
constantly pursue new understanding.
Socrates chose not to compose great philosophical works. He chose instead to live a simple life, one that involved the constant examination of everything that those around him took for granted. In doing so,
he hoped to set an example for all of us: to never stop questioning until we arrive at the truth, and to always remind ourselves that true knowledge means admitting that we “know nothing.”
In subjective principles like philosophy, the humanities and art, the method works almost flawlessly.
how we ought to live our lives.
Gorgias,
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Socrates believed that knowledge was inborn, and could be accessed equally in all of us.
