Sunday reading: Socrates- Life and Trial

This blog is written as a response to a task assigned by Dilip Barad sir, Department of English MKBU. In this blog there is discussion about Socrates. In the task students has supposed to watch four video and write down their understanding of the videos in the blog. For further information click here.

Socrates was an ancient Greek philosopher who lived in Athens around 470 to 399 BC. He's considered the founder of Western philosophy and one of the first thinkers to focus on ethics. Unlike many philosophers, Socrates didn't write down his ideas; we know about him from writings by his students Plato and Xenophon. They wrote dialogues, where Socrates and others discuss ideas through questions and answers. This created a style called Socratic dialogue.

There are different views on what Socrates believed because of these writings, making it hard to know his exact philosophy—the "Socratic problem." In Athens, Socrates was controversial. In 399 BC, he was accused of disrespecting the gods and influencing young people negatively. He was found guilty after a quick trial and chose to die rather than flee from prison, where he was held until his execution.

In this video there is a discussion about the life of Socrates. The video starts with saying of Socrates “Crito, I owe the sacrifice of a rooster to Asklepios”. In the end of the video we get an answer to that. He was a soldier and how he became the philosopher here is a wonderful story. One person went to the oracle and asked who was the most intelligent man in the world and the answer was socrates. When Socratese got to know about that and started asking people about what they know and then he emerged the new method that is called “Socratic Method”. The quote of him ”The unexamined life is not worth living” says a lot about his character and knowledge. The disputes with 30 Tyrants episode also give the essence that he was not afraid of anything he was rather ready to give his life for the truth. His death also remains the wonderful episode that he also wanted to know about. That is why he praised Asklepios that life was a disease and he gave liberty from it. So he was also asking the question of death and the afterlife. He thought that those are the fools who are afraid of death. Beauty competition episode also gives the insight of his way of thinking, which changes the whole concept of beauty by asking the question about it. And at the last Cicero’s view on him “Socrates was the first to call philosophy down from the heavens”.

In the second video the technique is rather different, there is a first person explanation about his story and that is Socrates himself while he was in the jail of Athens. He told the background story. The first thing in his teaching is to be sceptical ,don't believe in something that is told, always ask questions to know more, or to find the truth. There are two metaphor that is used in the video those are tree and a stone, stone is static while the tree is a always growing and for growing one has to ask the questions. There is a question about the virtue and love so what do we mean by the virtue and love then how can we love someone or be virtuous for the gods. It would become a repetition of the words rather than any meaning of it. There is also a reference of his disciple Plato, Plato’s disciple Aristotle, Alexander the great and the Roman empire. Throughout the generation his knowledge system was spread across the world until the Dark Ages came and his knowledge stopped spreading, But after the Renaissance period his method was again adapted by the people. The quote that is mentioned in the video I liked “The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing”.

The third video is about the book by Plato “Apology”. The word apology does not mean to apologize but it is to defend. In the video there is a detailed analysis of the last trial of Socrates, and by line to line we get to know about the defence that Socrates gave in the jury. Here we can also find that during that time there is a democratic law system that is rather good then the monarchy where the king takes decisions alone. Socrates first accused those who say that he is wise. He says that he is ot wise and he only knows that. The very good quote “ When I do not know neither do I think I know.” The wonderful thing we find in the video is that Socrates is not afraid of death and he says that he would continue the same work after death that he was doing when he was alive. His only purpose is to know the truth, not taking anything else that is said is true. So he says that after death he would do the same thing. He also takes death positively, which is a rare thing to see because whenever we look at death we look at it negatively but he shows the immense possibilities after death also. He says "That a good man cannot be harmed either in life or in death, that his affairs are neglected by the gods”. At his last time he is not angry with people but he gives the message that always questions the people who killed the innocent. 

The fourth video is from Ted.ed that makes animated videos to make learning fun. In the Socrates's method it is likely to be seen that he does no do a debate nor is he give advise, he just  asks more questions from the answers. In the example we find the conversation between Euthydemus and Socrates about justice, in that conversion we find that Socrates evokes the knowledge of others by asking more and more questions. He describes himself as a midwife who gives birth to other’s ideas through inquiry. His method is now used in various fields like medical science, astronomy, mathematics, law and teaching in school. His reasoning is useful in logical discussion and to get to the roots of the problem or the truth.

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