Note | Philosophy of Socrates

The Man Set Up Philosophy as A Human Inquisition

Socrates is a philosopher who set up the philosophy as a human inquisition and a moral science for the first time. And it’s said that he invented the word philosophy. So that he is called “the father of philosophy”. And he is the creator of today’s ethics.

Philosophers before Socrates, such as Thales, Anaximander, Pythagoras, Heraclitus and Democritus utterly pursued and learned about rules and causes of the nature, the world or the universe. But the huge impact of Socrates changed the language game of philosophy. So philosophers before Socrates are named “Vorsokratiker (Presocratics)”.

The Socratic Problem

Socrates wrote nothing. He thought verbal words are only livid, written text is dead words. To know Socrates thought, it can be only from describes by authors of the same age. The representative authors are Xenophon, Aristophanes and Plato. Despite, these three descriptions about Socrates are utterly different. Xenophon describes Socrates as an ideal and sincere but strict teacher led truth and virtue, also told boring moral by common knowledge. Aristophanes’ character of Socrates is bold, unreliable and stupid sophist told the way of debate, took money for a charge, also researched natural studies. Plato’s Socrates is a cynical and ironic thinker always told paradoxical sayings, also have a god-like genius of thinking and debate.

By the philosophical contribution, I’ll comment on Plato’s Socrates.

Opposition to Sophists

The first half of Socrates’ life isn’t quite known. Socrates served in the military, went to the war three times. And he studied mathematics, astronomy and natural philosophy under Archelaus. But he soon noticed these study not useful for human understanding.

It’s said that in his forties, he began to tell and argue his philosophy at agora, and to dispute with the sophists. The sophist are a school philosophy of professional teachers told various knowledge and skills, especially rhetoric to win opponents and to attract audiences in an assembly or a court. They thought language is a tool and language itself has a sense and a truth, it’s right to win a debate by sophistry. By the technique of rhetoric, we can insist yes or no, good or bad in all subjects, they thought. And their thought is relativism. Protagoras’ famous saying “Man is the measure of all things,” stands for human thinking and sense are criterion of value of all things, and value of things are different each of men.

On the contrary Socrates insisted it should be extracted the truth and the value from things themselves. By using words and logic we must take out contradictions, demonstrate intuitions and prove the truth.

The Socratic Method : Elenchos (or Maieutike)

A day of late in life, Socrates’ friend Chaerephon received the answer that “no one was wiser than Socrates” by the Oracle at Delphi. Socrates felt the answer is not correct and thought “I know nothing expect the fact of my own ignorance”, and he decided to certify it. So Socrates visited and argued with politicians, poets (playwrights) and artisans (they were considered most honourable in Greek at that time).

Socrates argued about wisdom, temperance, courage and justice with notables. The argument is processed by the Socratic Questioning, a method of questioning, a question responses an interlocutor’s question to redefine his question. For example, an interlocutor presented a definition, Socrates told a further premise and the interlocutor approved of the premise, and Socrates further discussed and proved the definition and the premise are a contradiction, then Socrates insisted on the interlocutor’s definition is false or non-sense and the converse is true. This Socrates’ method indicate new consideration and refined definition, also interlocutors can’t say anything further and must recognize their ignorance and blunder.

This method of negatively aggressive questioning is named Socratic Method (Elenchos), also is named Maieutike (the way of midwife), . Because Socrates found a new knowledge or perception went through a hardships. And Socrates developed the dialectic which is made progress by Plato, Aristotle, Kant and Hegel.

“Knowing I Know Nothing” (The Socratic Ignorance)

By the arguments, Socrates recognized personages supposed to be wise, don’t know the truth and virtue, and only he know “I know that I know nothing”, so Socrates is wiser than others.

The Socratic Ignorance is a criticism to practical knowledge and vanity. Personages in Athens knew only separated practical knowledge. They didn’t know the importance of truth and virtue, the basis of things.

Some scholars think “knowing I know nothing” is a kind of knowledge and a self-contradiction. The true meaning of the Socratic Ignorance might be an “I understand just the importance of truth and virtue”.

The meaning of Socratic Ignorance is not only a nihilism or a cynicism. He found the importance of truth, virtue and moral issues. It’s a starting point to pursuit truth, virtue, humane study and ethics.

Why Socrates accepted the death penalty ?

Socrates’ emphasis on good spirit and virtue, his dialectic method look strange and abnormal for Athens citizens at that time. (Some researchers say Socrates extremely pushed forward very conservative and common thoughts such as faith gods, temperance and a proverb “know thyself”.) Socrates’ point of view and his method of debate is shocking for the citizens. So he was blamed, hated and feared by many people. Then Socrates was accused by a fake crime of atheism or faith in Damon by malicious men.

In the trial, Socrates testified against him and bitterly attacked accusers by his philosophical faith and principle. He made jury members angry more than necessary, and unfortunately received a sentence of death.

Socrates’ policy is pursuit of virtue, wisdom and truth, and inseparability of knowledge and action. Opposition to the law and the judgement of the nation is different with his policy. It’s an injustice. So he accompanied the law of Athens, accepted the death penalty, and took a cup of hemlock to follow his particular pragmatic philosophic view. He devoted his life to his philosophy and will to virtue. Therefore his act and thought remain permanently and they turned the meaning of philosophy.

Criticism to Socrates

Socrates is a martyr of philosophy. By his saintly activity, Socrates is worshiped as a saint equal to Jesus Christ and Buddha. But Socrates is criticized by many thinkers from the later modern era.

Especially Nietzsche severely accused the activity and the philosophy of Socrates. He really dislike Socrate’s belief of processes of thinking by dialectic must lead the truth, thought it as a very strange belief. What’s more Nietzsche said it’s further wrong Socrates took a cup of hemlock by himself to follow the validity of his logic. Socrates is the prototype of the theoretical optimist and the originator of the intellectualism about knowledge and logic.

By the modern and contemporary philosophers generally regard Socrates’ philosophy as an intellectualism, an anthropocentrism and a centrism of virtue, wisdom and reason. Socrates concealed the value of lively nature and the true nature of human in the nature are pursued by the Presocratics, and first divided philosophy into the human inquisition (today’s meaning of philosophy) and the natural science.

Conclusion

Socrates is a revolutionist of philosophy and a true activist of “philosophia”. His life and activity made a huge impact on philosophy and ethics. He launched the second birth of philosophy, and philosophy became a human inquisition and a moral science. His philosophy made huge impact on the Western culture and studies.

But he made an end to natural philosophy by the Presocratics, concealed the value of lively nature and the human nature in the nature pursued by them, and divided philosophy into the human inquisition and the natural science.

References

Christopher C. W. Taylor, Socrates: Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 1998)

Hiroyuki Ogino, Symposion of Philosophy: Socrates, Plato, Aristotle (NHK Publishing, 2003)

Louis-André Dorion, Socrate (Presses Universitaires de France, 2004)

Micheline Sauvage, Socrate et la conscience de l’homme (Éditions du Seuil, 1957)

Michitaro Tanaka, Socrates (Iwanami Books, 1957)

Paul Strathern, Socrates in 90 Minutes (Ivan R. Dee, 1997)

Dictionnaire Larousse de la Philosophie (Éditions Larousse, 2011)

The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy (Second Edition), (Cambridge University Press, 1995)

The Penguin Dictionary of Philosophy (Second Edition), (Penguin Books, 2005)

The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy (Second Edition Revised), (Oxford University Press, 2008)

Related Posts and Pages

Plato’s Theory of Ideas

Note | A Definition of Philosophy

Note | A Definition of Ethics

Timeline of Philosophy

Philosophy / Philosophie

Note | A Definition of Ethics

What is Ethics

Ethics is a branch of philosophy. It is a principle, a norm or a theory of behaviour, value, and judgement about good or bad, are invented, made up or reformed by philosophical reflexions. To say quite simply, ethics is a form of knowledge treats human good and bad, or a principle of moral, but it’s not exact.

The founder of Stoicism, Zeno of Citium first divide philosophy into three parts of principle: physics, logic and ethics. Aristotle really invented ethics as a separated study which inspired by ethical thought of Socrates and Plato. Originally, Aristotle’s ethics treats all of humane matters such as living human itself, law and system of society. While Aristotle’s physics treats natural matters are not affected by human. Once ethics was total human study, but the time go on ethics was separated by many fields of humanities and social studies. Now a day, ethics exclusively covers moral, morality, matters about them and action by them.

Difference to Moral

Also, moral or morality is a manner or a way of behaviour and judgement of a man live in the world. But ethics and moral are formed by different roots. Moral is a type of norm and value set naturally inherits past and tradition, or typically from a religion. Also, moral is a judgement by intuition to judge good or bad, a natural and spontaneous thinking about behaviour, what we should do and how to act.

The word, ethics is used for exclusively for the field, the norm and the rule of behaviour are built, invent and formed by the method of general collective reflection. Face with a new situation or problem, it’s necessary to allow or forbid these acts, decide them good or bad in each of cases, persons and situations. Ethics is the rule is elaborated and shaped by accounts and realities of multiple points of view, and find a consensus or an accept among each individuals.

Significance of Ethics

Moral can’t deal with contemporary problems such as biotechnology, doping, environmental destruction, globalization, multiculturalism, information technology and AI. These problem must be considered by various view points, various facts, up-to-date knowledge and various principles of general ethics. And, by the ethical consideration, new principles of applied ethics (such as bioethics) in each fields should be formed. On ethics we reflect on to justify rules, to found choices of action, and point of beginning of our commitments. So ethics is a solution to new problems or peculiar situations.

Today is the age of globalization, so we need a universal mutual understanding beyond divides of countries, regions, religions, races, classes, traditions and common knowledge. Moral is formed by tradition, common knowledge and spontaneousness. So it is different in countries, religions and social positions. Moral might occur conflicts and problems. But ethics is formed by common sense and philosophical reflection, always begin from nothing, and present a mechanism of relations to others. Ethics is a key to live better together in the age of globalization.

Conclusion

  1. Ethics is a principle treats behaviour, value, and judgement about good or bad, are invented, made up or reformed by philosophical reflexions and common sense.
  2. Ethics is the rule is elaborated and shaped by accounts and realities of multiple points of view, and find a consensus or an accept among each individuals.
  3. Moral is a type of norm and value set naturally inherits past and tradition.
  4. Significance of ethics is which give us a solution to new problems or peculiar situations, a key to mutual understanding in the age of globalization.

References

Christopher Panza & Adam Potthast, Ethics for Dummies (Wiley Publishing, 2010)

Roger-Pol Droit, L’éthique expliquée à tout le monde (Éditions du Seuil, 2009)

Yoshiaki Utsunomiya, Introduction to Ethics (Chikuma Books, 2019)

Related Posts and Pages

Note | A Definition of Philosophy

Philosophy of Socrates

Timeline of Philosophy

Philosophy / Philosophie

Note | A Definition of Philosophy

What is Philosophy ?

The origin of the word philosophy is “philosophia” of Greek, love or collection of wisdom or knowledge. The definitions of philosophy by André Comte-Sponville is “a (discursif, reasonable and conceptional) theoretical practice”. And the definition of philosopher by Roger-Pol Droit is a specialist of ideas (or concepts) and a friend of knowledge-wisdom.

Philosophy is a way of thinking by concepts and principles for a fundamental comprehensive account of the world. Subjects of the account are (what are) being, human, self, others, life, knowledge, perception, time, virtue, happiness, reality, society, world, universe, to live good and so on.

Philosophy forms or let you have a view to the world and the life. Because it is a fundamental account of the world. So philosophy become a criterion of how to think and how to live good.

Philosophy is a “language game” aims for the universality and mutual general understanding. Philosophy itself and its principles is not absolute and true. Philosophy can be remade to be better one.

Different to Religion

Religion is also a comprehensive account of the world. But religion teaches believers the origin of world, the meaning of life and moral by a story. And a most important thing of religion is believers believe a story of a prophet or a founder, and believe there’s a truth in its story. Religion gives us truth, and salvation, peace mind and the meaning of life by truth, so it’s an indispensable thing for human.

Religion pursuits a truth, but philosophy pursuits a universality. And essences, methods or worths of philosophy and religion are not same. They are in different aspects or spheres. So they are comparative each other. And we can hold both philosophy and religion.

Philosophy is a Process

Philosophy always begin from nothing, root or ignorance, on the other hand it should follow philosophical tradition, problems and themes. New philosophies have appeared as a critical following or a critical turn. Almost philosophers refine their philosophy for their entire career by their own further researches, and arguments and criticisms by others. Philosophy isn’t a truth or a fact. It’s a changeable principle is refined and replaced by better one(s). Because aim of philosophy is to grasp a universality and mutual understanding. So philosophy is an endless process of thinking.

And the history of philosophy is a succession of conflicts between monism and dualism or pluralism, absolutism and relativism, realism and idealism, subjectivism and objectivism, rationalism and anti-philosophy.

Different to Science

Once, Philosophy includes today’s natural science, engineering and social science. The past philosophy is a total science to know principle of the nature and the world. Modern philosophy and modern science are divided, and the feature of modern science is pursuit physical and material facts unlimitedly. Science grasps and describes facts as they are.

But science doesn’t give us principal value of the life. Different to science, philosophy inquires “why and how the facts exit”. Philosophy treats value and meaning of facts include scientific facts. A role and a significance of philosophy is principal value and ethical judgement by thinking about facts. Science can’t reply to questions like “How it should be ?” and “How I live ?”.

On the other hand, the progress of science influences our view to the world and philosophy. Also philosophy of science inquires into the basis and the meaning of science.

Conclusion

  1. Philosophy is a way of thinking by concepts and principles for a fundamental comprehensive account of the world.
  2. Its principle always begin from nothing or ignorance. Philosopher must think by himself, but his thinking should be in the philosophical tradition, themes or problems.
  3. Philosophy is not absolute and true, is a variable process of thinking. Its aim is a universality and mutual understanding of the world.
  4. Philosophy tells how to think and how to live good. So philosophy is a criteria of our thinking, act and life, and give us a key to a the meaning and value of our life.

But philosophy has no fixed definition. Continue to think about what is philosophy or definition of philosophy is also an important element of philosophy.

And some thinkers or philosophers (such as Pyrrho, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Deleuze and Derrida) said like “there’s no universal view to the world”, “The philosophical tradition is a fiction.” and “There isn’t a good life and the meaning of life of the world”. These skepticism, pessimism and unti-philosophy are also a philosophy as well.

References

André Comte-Sponville, La philosophie (Presses Universitaires de France, 2012)

Roger-Pol Droit, La philosophie expliquée à ma fille (Édition du Seuil, 2004)

Seiji Takeda, What is Philosophy: To Know Yourself and Society (Iwanami Books, 2002)

Seiji Takeda, A Super Introduction to Philosophy from Age 14 (Chikuma Books, 2009)

Related Posts and Pages

Philosophy of Socrates

Philosophy of René Descartes

Plato’s Theory of Ideas

A Definition of Ethics

Timeline of Philosophy

Philosophy / Philosophie