Plato's The Apology of Socrates



Plato’s The Apology of Socrates

HMXP 102

Dr. Fike

Background on Socrates and Plato

1. The life of Socrates:

a. Not an aristocrat:

b. Physical appearance:

c. Life’s work

i. Sculptor.

ii. Military:

iii. Teaching:

2. Socrates’s work:

a. Socrates wrote

b. Plato and Zenophon:

c. Problem: Socrates is merely________________________________.

i. The Apology is a special case because

ii. Therefore,

iii. As a result,

3. Socrates’s reputation more generally?

a. He is called the “_______________ of ethics” because of his transformational effect on ___________________ philosophy.

b. He turned his back on the ________________________ (i.e., scientific truth).

c. Interested in man’s __________________________ and his relationship to ______________________________ (i.e.,_____________ truth).

d. Goal:

4. Central idea in Socrates’s system: “Virtue is its own ___________________.”

a. Happiness

i. Not a matter of ________________________________.

ii. But a matter of ________________________________.

b. The key is ____________________ morality achieved by ________________ and ________________________.

5. Virtue, moreover, is knowledge: no one _________________ does wrong; thus improper conduct is the result of _______________________.

a. Compare St. Paul, Romans 7.18-20: “For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin which dwells within me.”

b. For Plato, knowledge is based on _____________________ and inductive reasoning.

i. Observation ( __________________________ ( objective standards of conduct.

ii. You look at the evidence and prune away all the unessential stuff until you have the essence.

iii. Dialectic:

1. Sought to ___________________________.

2. Sought to test and improve theories through ___________________ analysis.

c. Keys:

i. Knowing ___________________. Par. 68: “The unexamined life ____________________________________.”

ii. Constantly asserting his own ignorance: this, for Socrates, was the ___________________________________.

6. Plato’s basic thought:

a. Dualism:

i. Material world:

ii. World of Ideas:

iii. Which does Plato reject?

iv. Why?

b. True reality = ______________________________.

i. You can apprehend this only by _____________.

ii. It is the realm of ________________________.

iii. Ideas (universals, absolutes, Forms) have an ____________________ and ___________________ character.

iv. Examples:

v. Concrete things are copies of the __________________.

vi. What would happen if all concrete things ceased to exist?

vii. Criticism of art:

7. Idea of the Good: As all concrete things are subordinated to and derive their existence from Ideas, so all Ideas, forming a pyramid, are subordinated to the highest Idea, the Idea of the Good, which stands at the apex.

a. Good = the _________________ concept, the one absolute _______________ = God = the _________________ Mover.

b. Its qualities:

i. Self-___________________.

ii. Perfect _________________.

iii. It commingles the essence of all other Ideas (e.g., pure reason, absolute virtue).

iv. Good = the source of all other Ideas.

v. But even these lesser Ideas > the material world.

8. The soul and human nature:

a. The soul (divine and immortal) ______ (> or or ................
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