Socrates - A Great Teacher - Essay Example

Socrates – A Great Teacher I think that Socrates was a great teacher, and I wish he wrote his lessons down himself, instead of just telling them to Plato. However, through Plato, we get a good view of some of Socrates’ lessons. Of course, I am a different person from Socrates, because we live in different times, but there are similarities as well. For example, people are still religious today, but less so than in the past, and in Socrates’ time, the gods were seen as no longer being so invested in taking such a personal, direct, and explicit interest in the affairs of humanity.

Therefore, the society in which Socrates lived was the perfect place for his kind of philosophy, which was centered on the idea of teaching about the power of humanity and human law and justice rather than the wrath or benevolence of the Gods. I feel that I can learn from this because even though I am a person who has religion, I think it is important to focus on humanity as well as God. Socrates believed in superhuman power, but equated it directly with humanity. The philosopher recognized that his actions were in some way controlled by the moral hesitation that preceded them or the moral retribution that followed them if they were negative.

He thought that the voice inside of him that caused him to stop and reflect before performing a certain action was divine, and I think that this is a good lesson to learn and apply in everyday life, by following my conscience. Socrates saw the human conscience as a gift from the gods, and therefore continued an expanding humanist tradition in his society by relegating more and more power to humanity as being inspired by the Gods, rather than being directly and explicitly controlled, monitored, punished, and rewarded by them.

I think that I can learn from Socrates’ humanism, because he can teach people to be good, and he seems to have good expectations for society. I want to learn this kind of optimism and apply it to my own life. More and more throughout his life, Socrates began to see that goodness was not a reflection of divine destiny or a means to personal advancement, but was inspired by a sense of universal justice. To Socrates, being just to all meant goodness. This reflects the sense of fairness or balance that was a central feature in Socrates’ philosophy, which can be compared to some of the Stoics’ argumentative and unbalanced polemical perspectives previously.

I agree that fairness and justice are important things. Most important, Socrates is a great teacher, because he teaches his students to question. In a general sense, philosophy in the Socratic tradition as questioning and looking for the truth is still very active in contemporary society, across many occupational and lifestyle boundaries. The Socratic relationship between the individual and society can be seen in many contemporary examples that both support and deny Socrates’ findings, from Martin Luther King, Jr.

to Ghandi and Henry David Thoreau. I think that this is a benevolent and positive tradition to learn from. Good intentions and moral principles are just as important to me today as they were to people in ancient Greece, and issues such as the rule of law in deciding issues of right and wrong, the dangers of tyranny, and the individual’s obligation to fulfill an agreement with the society in which they live (if the society is seen to be just) remain important contemporary issues. In a more specific sense, the most important tenets of philosophy can be seen today in the continuing advance of science and the scientific method.

I feel that today, questioning and looking for the truth is not as valued in this society as doing what you are told; I think that Socrates can help reverse this trend.