Socrates Life - Admission/Application Essay Example

Module Module ID: Socrates Distinguished philosopher, intellectual, scholar and moralist of ancient Greece Socrates (469 B.C-399 B.C) serves as one of the wisest humans the world has ever produced. By dint of his exceptional talent, wide-range knowledge, unique wisdom, superb foresight, unflinching modesty and exemplary humility, the great philosopher earned fame, respect and adoration from the wise and prudent people of his city-state Athens. It was his great inquisitiveness and dedication to seek and spread knowledge, which encourage the Athenian youth to develop yearnings and taste for learning and wisdom. Socrates is also remembered as the great torch-bearer of truthfulness, justice and equality, which are the golden principles for laying the foundations of a political and social establishment. He was an extremely brave, resolute, determined and dauntless person, who sacrificed his life rather than making any compromise or surrendering before the injustice, ignorance, corruption and mendacity at any cost. It is therefore his name has been illuminating like a bright star on the horizon of knowledge, wisdom and fair play for the last twenty-four centuries, and people belonging to all castes, creeds, cultures, races, regions and religions of the world feel pride to associate themselves with the noble teachings accredited to Socrates. Although the critics find no specific philosophical doctrine, attributed to this legendary philosopher, due to the very reality that he did not leave any written documents of his thoughtfulness, yet it is Socrates to introduce the method of dialogue or elenchus methodology and Socratic irony in the discipline of logic. Socratic philosophy concentrates upon proving the facts by dividing the statements into questions, hypotheses and premises. The foundation of his philosophy also rests upon the famous notion that he knows nothing, for he views belief in the claim of having little or no knowledge as the source of discovering, exploring and spreading wisdom and awareness of natural and social phenomena existing all around the human beings. It is therefore Socrates is aptly quoted to be stating that the theme of real knowledge is that one must declare that he knows nothing. The reason behind pretending ignorance about several concepts including virtue, justice, courage, vigilance and much more including lack of comprehensive and in-depth information about these things, which forced him to display his sense of ignorance and to seek the help of others in getting acquainted with the same. Socrates used to wander in the streets of Athens, busy in asking from the people about the nature and scope of truth, generosity, meekness, munificence, modesty and astuteness etc. Hence, Socratic philosophy is determined to explore the real meanings of the concepts by diving deep into the ocean of knowledge for extracting the precious jewels from the surface after making hard efforts in order to present and portray the actual picture of all the notions related to awareness and wisdom. Pretending ignorance during teaching was adopted by the educationalists, where the teacher or mentor pretended extreme ignorance during raising questions and obtaining answer for the same from the pupils. Thus, the quiz questioning methodology and as well as cross-examination technique seek their roots in Socratic irony. Socrates applied the same technique while entering into debates, discussions and dialogues with the purported analysts and scholars of Athens. It is not only a simple but powerful method of exploring the information from a respondent, but is also beneficial for the respondent to speculate, assess and estimate the depth and magnitude of his knowledge. “The account of Socratic irony that he does develop is based instead on a theory traditional since the codification of ancient rhetoric, which claims that we understand an ironical utterance by replacing the literal meaning with a figurative meaning that contradicts it or, more vaguely, is its opposite, which gets applied not only to the utterances of the ironist but also to the smooth talk of the con artist who intends simply to deceive.” (Ferrari, 2008:3) The technique articulated Socrates served as mirror for them, through which they could witness lack of their knowledge and wisdom. Consequently, a large number of the politicians and pundits turned against him because of the humiliation they underwent during the cross examination for their ignorance and unawareness of the phenomena in their environment. “Socrates removed the mirror of self-flattery from the eyes of the Athenians and held up before them the glass of truth; they were shocked at the result. For, they saw in this glass not the reflection men, but the images of beasts.” (Thomas & Thomas, 1971: 5) Socrates was one of the pioneers to discover the significance of mathematics and geometry. Mathematics, according to him, shapes intellect in almost the same manner as gymnastic shapes body. Since mathematical equations also prove or disapprove the validity of a notion or hypothesis in the form of sets, Socrates recommended the same method in logic too. For instance, he claims that a knowledgeable man remains far away from ignorance and vice; so if A is a scholar, then he would be a modest and virtuous fellow. Hence, his methodology pays due heed to logical reasoning, which was adopted by the later philosophers including Plato, Xenophanes, Aristotle and others. Socratic formula of “I know nothing” not only wide opens new avenues of discovering the realities of life and self, but also introduces the people with the horizons of knowledge about the vast universe. Through enquiring from oneself the nature of the realities existing before the eyes urge the people to discover the truth about them by contemplating upon them in the light of available information on the one hand, and by applying their senses and gut feelings on the other. It was the same methodology that forced the future philosophers, scientists and intellectual to know their Lord, the universe and all the creatures of the world. Had Socrates not devised this methodology, the world would have been far behind from the present state of technological advancement and scientific revolution. Socrates’ doctrine is not confined to materialistic exploration only; rather, he appears to be determined to unveil the mysteries of life and death, and body and soul. He is of the opinion that knowledge and vigilance construct the human soul, and help the humans to lead a virtuous life. Pure soul is necessary to make up a pure mind and heart, which consequently forms a neat, clean, sober and pure social set up, he asserts. It was the same argument made by Socrates, which developed Platonic notion that true knowledge of virtue and vice keeps man away from vice and evil by turning him courageous, pious and modest, as all noble deeds reflect that the man has gained proper knowledge and wisdom. (Plato, Protagoras) Somehow, Aristotle declared the notion incomplete one, as mere knowledge of good and bad does not make man prudent and virtuous. Anyway, Socrates points out towards the crude sense of knowledge, where in-depth awareness of the nature, scope and consequences of virtue and vice certainly paves the way towards lead a pious, brave, generous and righteous life. Socratic irony obtained imperative popularity, and the same technique remained in vogue at Plato’s Academy, Aristotle’s Lyceum and other educational institutions for the future years to come. The same teaching methodology was adopted by the Europeans for the last many centuries, though it also underwent criticism during the modern era, where pretending of ignorance was declared as inadequate way of teaching by the critics. “Ironic questions, indeed any type of expression other than a declarative assertion, can be similarly problematic for the traditional view, for they seem not to have opposites. Moreover, declarative assertions can be literally true and yet ironic: an example in the literature is ‘You sure know a lot’, addressed to someone who is making a pretentious display of his knowledge.” (Sperber & Wilson, 1991:554) Socrates’ techniques got popularity among the prudent and positive Athenians, though the observing of ignorance and curiosity to spread wisdom invited the wrath of the wealthy and powerful Athenian ignorant. It was the sign of humiliation for the people to be declared ignorant in the eyes of the fellow-beings. Since they claimed to be intelligent, sharp and successful in trade, commerce and politics, they could not tolerate the Socratic philosophic notions and methodology as an accurate way of estimating the level of knowledge and wisdom. As a result, a large majority of the members of assembly turned against Socrates, and blamed him of seducing the youth of Athens. As a result, he was prosecuted at the court of law in 399 B.C. A leather merchant called Anytus along with other citizens including Meletus sued against him for his attempt of corrupting the youth of Athens on the one hand and defying the Athenian gods on the other. Anytus’s son was the pupil of Socrates, who had also raised revolt against the Greek gods; consequently, Anytus had developed the feelings of abhorrence and malice for Socrates, and hence was determined to take revenge from him for the same. As a result, he plotted conspiracy against Socrates, and motivated the assembly to vote against Socrates. Consequently, Socrates was declared responsible for denying the Greek gods. He was granted the option of either leave the city or to embrace the death penalty. However, this great man preferred death to exile and happily drank the goblet of poison to immortalize his truthfulness and vision for the future centuries to come. His death could not kill the light of wisdom and knowledge he had illuminated with his profound intellect, dedication for learning and search for truthfulness; it is therefore his teaching and methodology are still followed and adopted as one of the best methods of exploring the phenomena all around us. Works Cited Ferrari, G. R. F. Socratic Irony as Pretence February 2008 1-34 Retrieved from http://fds.oup.com/www.oup.co.uk/pdf/0-19-954487-5.pdf Plato Apology Sperber, D. & Wilson, D. ‘Irony and the Use–Mention Distinction’, in S. Davis (ed.), Pragmatics: A Reader Oxford Press 1991 550–63 Thomas, Henry & Thomas, Dana Lee Great Philosophers Bhavan’s Book University Bombay 1960 1-22 Read More