Socrates

Introduction

Socrates was the son of a (probably) middle-class stonemason. He performed his military service as an infantryman in the Peloponnesian War (431-404 B.C.E.). His philosophical activities and his suspected impiety resulted in his trial and execution (described in Plato's Apology and Phaedo). Socrates wrote no philosophical works of his own, and our evidence on his views comes primarily from the works of Plato (c. 430-347 B.C.E.) and Xenophon (c. 435-354 B.C.E.), in which Socrates is introduced as a speaker (Brickhouse & Smith, pp.1).

The way how Plato's setting does lay the groundwork for his spiritual and positive view of the afterlife, are discussed as Socrates believed in survival of the soul. He believed in the afterlife where gods judge the actions and behavior performed in worldly life. He said that death may be total destruction to life. He admitted that faith exists in immortality and judgment. But for him, faith in judgment and immortality was a risk to his belief.

Socrates, the philosopher prepares for death with the hope of surviving. With death, the soul leaves the body. With this separation, the soul is concerned on the philosophical aspect. To soul, knowledge is an essential phenomenon. Plato concluded that a philosopher views death as a freedom of the soul from the body limitations. He further discussed that philosophy in the aspect for the preparation of death. He says that a philosopher would disregard the body because the body is always a barrier to wisdom. Death is said to be separation of soul and body, therefore, a philosopher is always prepared for death.

The effect of modern society to the human beings can be in the forms of shortening the attention span, distorting body image, working in conjunction with factors like obesity, fear and increasing aggressiveness and anti-social behaviors. Modern technology makes the imagination weaker and decreases the attention span. The main reason for short attention span is quick, short bursts of information and ready-made availability of things (Brickhouse, pp.1-12).

In recent years there have been several attacks in the world that many international relations theorists attribute to the effects of globalization. According to Socrates evil tends to arise due to the ignorance of the individuals. Socrates philosophy comprised of a coincidence that the man does in ignorance, by confusing good with evil. Socrates believed that remedy against evil is knowledge. According to Plato, the good and evil are equally real. In this case, good refers to the world of ideas, and the evil - to all the senses, apparently changing. The contribution of Socrates to philosophy has been a strong ethical tone. The basis of his teachings and what he instilled was the belief in an objective understanding of the concepts of justice, love, virtue and self-knowledge. He believed that all vice is the result of ignorance, virtue is knowledge and those who know the good, will act fairly. Socrates defined philosophy as a search necessarily collective. Every man has a part of the truth and discovers making more with the help of ...