PHL-1502 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Cephalus, Socratic Method, Thrasymachus
13 Sep 2016
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Book 1 of the republic begins with socrates walking home to athens from a festival: while on the way, socrates runs into cephalus, a wealthy businessman. o. Cephalus invites socrates over to his home for a dinner party, and socrates agrees. Socratic method: through conversation, we will discover which opinions are best. o. Example: socrates will say, i don"t know anything about ethics. What is ethics? the person will respond, and then socrates will critique their answer and correct them. o. Socrates employs this method on cephalus in book 1 when he asks cephalus what justice is. Cephalus knew what was coming, so he left the room and left his son. Thrasymachus: he was a sophist one who instructs others on how to defend themselves in court. They had no concern for the truth (guilty vs. innocent), but only for what argument would be most persuasive.
