PHI 1103 Study Guide - Winter 2018, Comprehensive Midterm Notes - Zhuang Zhou, Zeus, Wwe Raw
12 Oct 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
PHI 1103
MIDTERM EXAM
STUDY GUIDE
Fall 2018
THE APOLOGY (Jan. 17th)
Socrates vs the Sophists (17a - 18a)
➢ Sophists: do not care about the truth; practice rhetoric art of convincing people; seek to convince
○ Do not believe that the Truth exists
○ Typically paid to do give “legal” advice and to educate children about literature/rhetoric
➢ Philosophy: teach you about something and its opposite in equal force; they seek the Truth
○ Socrates and Plato argue that there is such thing as the Truth (ie. good, justice, beauty)
○ Socrates: not paid; does not teach art of rhetoric; hung out in the Agora (public space)
and spoke with people
➢ Crucial distinction --- Socrates is definitely a philosopher
The nature of Socrates’ teaching (20c - 24b)
➢ Socrates was often confused as being a sophist, scientist, or presocratic philosopher
(heaven/hell/universe); was not a ‘natural’ philosopher
➢ Socrates is concerned with things that pertain to (good) life, virtue, and being a human being
(‘intangibles’)
○ What is virtue? How should I live?
➢ The oracle at Delphi: “no one is wiser than Socrates”
➢ “How could nobody be wiser than me?”
○ Sets out to prove the Oracle wrong/check whether other people are wise
○ Finds that nobody knows anything
➢ Examined the lives of others for decades (by hanging out in the Agora)
○ Ie. asks a priest about piety; the priest knows nothing about piety
➢ Socrates is wiser because he knows that he does not know anything; everybody else thinks that
they know
○ Does not claim to know anything
➢ Gets him into trouble; people do not like to be revealed as being ignorant
➢ Socrates was asking specialists/those who were supposed to know; admitted by their own
omission that they really knew nothing
○ Ie. priest, artist, politician
The charges of corrupting the youth
➢ 1st defense: Meletus is ignorant (24c-25c)
○ Meletus: declared the guilty charges and pressed for the death penalty
○ Meletus knows nothing about improving the youth; how can Meletus know that Socrates
is corrupting the youth if he does not know how to improve them?
○ Meletus says that the laws improve the youth; the jurymen improve the youth; the
audience improves the youth; everybody improves the youth
■ Socrates: How does everybody improve the youth except me?
○ Meletus believes that Socrates means to corrupt the youth; if Socrates were corrupting the
youth unintentionally (if he were confused), he would not be facing prison/death penalty
○ Irony: how can you charge me with something that you know not the nature of?
➢ 2nd defense: Socrates would hurt himself (25c-26a)
○ Socrates: no one does harm to himself willingly; Meletus agrees
find more resources at oneclass.com
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○ Socrates: friends can help or harm you; bad friends will cause harm and good friends will
cause good
○ Socrates: if I were corrupting the youth they would turn into bad people, and bad people
would become harmful to me; I would be willingly hurting myself
○ Why would he harm everybody, or himself?
■ Most of his disciples were the children of aristocrats, and corrupting them would
have negative effects on everybody
The charge of not believing in the Gods
➢ Socrates: I believe in spirits, therefore in the Gods (27b-28a)
○ Socrates is not talking about earthly/natural things, but rather spiritual things (virtue,
justice, etc.); Meletus agrees
■ Therefore, I believe in the spiritual; Meletus agrees
○ Spirits are the children of Gods; if Socrates believes in spirits and spiritual things, how
could he not believe in the Gods?
○ This argument would not hold up today, but to the Greeks there was only the material
world and the non-material world -- no conceptual space as there is today; strong
argument in Ancient Greece
○ Many believed that Socrates was a natural philosopher (ie. Democritus) who was an
atheist
The pursuit of philosophy according to Socrates
➢ He will do philosophy even in the face of death (28a-30b)
○ Politically dangerous to the city (ie. a man exercising the right to examine people's’
motives in a tyrannical society); this makes him a target
○ The people: “Are you not ashamed of putting your life in danger for the study of
philosophy? You have a family etc.”
○ Socrates: A man should never consider life and death when doing something; it is his
duty to philosophize (according to the oracle), and not to do so would be an act of
cowardice
○ Socrates: If it is your duty to do something, you should do it at all costs
○ Also believes that he is doing not only civic duty but also a duty to a higher power (the
Gods, goodness, virtue, justice, etc)
➢ Athens is the one who will be harmed, not Socrates (30b-31c)
○ Socrates: You think you’re hurting me by putting me to death, but I’m 70/will die soon;
in fact, Athens is going to be harmed
○ Socrates is performing a service/trying to improve the city (the greater good),
○ Socrates believed that the sickness of the time was gaining wealth, status, etc; was trying
to teach people about what really matters
○ “You’re going to regret it”; they did (felt bad and erected a statue)
➢ He cannot be involved in public affairs (31c-33b)
○ If he wanted to improve the city, why didn’t he involve himself in public affairs and
implement policies?
○ Wouldn’t have worked; impossible to be a public servant and remain true to the
principles he believes in
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Sophists: do not care about the truth; practice rhetoric art of convincing people; seek to convince. Do not believe that the truth exists. Typically paid to do give legal advice and to educate children about literature/rhetoric. Philosophy: teach you about something and its opposite in equal force; they seek the truth. Socrates and plato argue that there is such thing as the truth (ie. good, justice, beauty) Socrates: not paid; does not teach art of rhetoric; hung out in the agora (public space) and spoke with people. The nature of socrates" teaching (20c - 24b) Crucial distinction --- socrates is definitely a philosopher. Socrates was often confused as being a sophist, scientist, or presocratic philosopher. Socrates is concerned with things that pertain to (good) life, virtue, and being a human being (heaven/hell/universe); was not a natural" philosopher ( intangibles") The oracle at delphi: no one is wiser than socrates . How could nobody be wiser than me? .
