![]() At his trial, he presented a justification of his life. Almost inevitably, he ran foul of the authorities’ interests and was arrested, charged with impiety and corrupting the morals of the youth of Athens. Most of these were strange to most Athenians. This method has come down to us as the ‘Socratic method’ which involve posing a series of questions through which the partner in argument gets to realise the weakness of his stand and gradually accept that he is wrong and to accept the more correct notion. Also important was his method of engaging in argument, which often involved an ironic stance towards the claims of his interlocutors, known as Socratic irony. Socrates emphasized rational argument, concern with one’s soul, and the search for definitions of ethical ideas. These included the ideas that virtue was knowledge that no one does wrong willingly, but only out of ignorance and that it is better to be wronged than to wrong someone else. Although Socrates claimed only to know that he was ignorant, he developed a number of distinctive ethical views in the form of paradoxes. The central idea of his philosophy was the attribute of arête – usually translated as “goodness” or “virtue” – is an innate human quality and that virtue is self-knowledge. Socrates left no writings we know of his ideas through his pupils’ work, but the characteristic approach of the “Socratic dialogues” and his critical application of logical enquiry ensure his importance in later philosophy. His wife was Xanthippe, an Athenian, with whom he had three children. He had a brief stint in politics but soon withdrew to concentrate on philosophy and discussions. So, it is logical to deduce that had he wanted power, he would have acquired sufficient power for himself. There are various evidences that he was very close to Pericles, the ipso’facto ruler of Athens, and those in authority in the city. Unlike the Sophists, he was an Athenian, and he did not sell his services. He also served with the other male citizens of Athens in the Peloponnesian War with Sparta, acting bravely as an infantryman at several battles. Initially, Socrates followed the craft of his father. He was educated in literature, music, and gymnastics, and later in the rhetoric and dialectics of the sophists, the speculations of the Ionian philosophers, and the general culture of Periclean Athens. Identify what our own educational system can learn from each of the three.īorn 469 BC, in Athens, the son of Sophroniscus, a sculptor, and Phaenarete, a midwife, Socrates was reportedly short and unattractive, but extremely hardy and self-controlled. Analyse the contributions of each of these three to education ģ. Discuss who each of the three philosophers, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, is Ģ. We start with Socrates, the teacher of Plato and end with Aristotle the student of Plato.Īt the end of this unit, students should be able to:ġ. ![]() ![]() In each case, we first address ourselves to who the person is, and then go further by discussing what their ideas and contributions are. So, who are these idealists? In this unit, we devote each of the three sections to each of them. Finally, when you think of ideas and methods of logical thinking, it would be difficult to beat these three. ![]() Besides, both Plato and Aristotle wrote books which are still studied today. For instance, Aristotle is considered one of the first biologists. Indeed, it is not just to the development of education that they made significant contributions, but indeed to so many other areas of human endeavour. The simple reason is that they made so much contribution to the development of human thought that they continue even today to be relevant to our world. In the annals of history, the three great Greek philosophers, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, stand out gigantically.
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