A Critical Review of Socrates Stances - Essay Example

Socrates stance is that the role of a philosopher in the society is parallel to that of a gadfly in stimulating a horse. As gadflies, philosophers have the responsibility of challenging the society to think clearly about things which may otherwise be taken for granted. Philosophers question the inconsistencies and fallacies that are acceptable to the rest of the society (8). Upham (71) supports this view of the Socratic gadfly, stating that philosophy involves uncovering assumptions, asking pertinent and unwelcome questions alongside mocking self seriousness.

The analogy is immensely strong, as the gadfly is deemed irritating in a similar fashion by which philosophy in this approach may be quite unwelcome. The gadfly metaphor is of significant value in the academic and intellectual pursuit of philosophy since it spells out philosophers’ roles. This helps in defining practice of philosophy; without it, philosophy may be solely constrained to knowledge seeking and having no roles in society (72). ‘…the unexamined life is not worth living.

’: In Socrates proposal for his sentence, he ponders the question of whether he should stop practicing philosophy and go into exile. To this, Socrates observes that the greatest good a man can do is to converse about virtues. He highlights the value of philosophy (examining self and others), arguing that an unexamined life is not worth living (Colaiaco 147). The context of this statement involves the issue of silencing Socrates from engaging in philosophy. As he explains in earlier passages, Socrates had been undertaking conversations with the “wise men” of Athens in a bid to determine their wisdom.

Socrates believed in this as a divine calling, and in the process found out that much of the said wisdom was indeed self gratification and absent. The young people of Athens attended Socrates enquiries. Exposing the lack of wisdom among his respondents won Socrates many enemies, who then plotted his downfall based on unfounded issues.