ANHS1600 Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Socratic Method
15 May 2018
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Lecture – Socrates
26/04/2016
- He was a classical Greek philosopher.
Death of Socrates:
-His death was overdetermined (damned if you do and damned if you don’t – his death by execution
would have happened one way or another because of the person he was, the life he lived and the
society he was in).
His looks:
- He was viewed as “Ugly”.
- He looked different to the ideal Greek youth
- He was compared to satyrs in his older age – snub nose, bulging eyes, robust physique. Satyrs were
considered as very ugly creatures.
From a very early time in his youth he began to hear voices. He characterised this as a Dymonion (a
divine spirit – somewhere half way between gods and mortals). The voice would dissuade him from
doing things – it was never a positive voice. He would say it would stop him from doing bad things.
This contributed to the charge of irreligion that was brought against Socrates. This charge was
vague, that he didn’t believe in gods or possibly other gods that weren’t in the state – having a
different religion.
As time went on he studied with other philosophers in Athens – typically people who visited Athens
also known as Sophists, who were travelling philosophers. They typically only stayed for a while in
Athens. The Athenians distrusted the Sophists because they thought they shattered people’s ideas –
more so the cultural ideas. Ideas such as respecting parents, belief in gods, etc. Socrates with all
major Sophists – learning all of their techniques, and he used the Socratic method. This asks so many
questions to the point where you don’t know what you believe in anymore. Athenians strongly
disliked this. The Athenians treated Socrates as a Sophist as well as an unbeliever.
Socrates teaches people to think that gods are natural phenomenon’s, that they aren’t as great as
made out to be.
He gets charged with activity that is anti-Athenian in Aristophanes play.
Socrates went to war – fighting in the battle at around 432 B.C. when Socrates was around 37 years
old and another one to mid 40’s. He saw death, wounding and hardship – he was affected by the
war. He got no reward for this, yet Alcibiades did, because he looked better on the podium and was
more idealistic.
Socrates after war:
- Has no income, sits in the agora (marketplace), suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, much
more serious after the war.
- He starts to ask questions – and the people he asks don’t know, and he starts to pick up a following,
gaining a reputation of wisdom from this.
- The only thing he knows is that he knows nothing – he didn’t say this, yet he is associated with this
Document Summary
He looked different to the ideal greek youth. He was compared to satyrs in his older age snub nose, bulging eyes, robust physique. From a very early time in his youth he began to hear voices. He characterised this as a dymonion (a divine spirit somewhere half way between gods and mortals). The voice would dissuade him from doing things it was never a positive voice. He would say it would stop him from doing bad things. This contributed to the charge of irreligion that was brought against socrates. This charge was vague, that he didn"t believe in gods or possibly other gods that weren"t in the state having a different religion. As time went on he studied with other philosophers in athens typically people who visited athens also known as sophists, who were travelling philosophers. They typically only stayed for a while in.
