PHILOSOPHY 020E/1
Professor Bruce Freed
Thursday, September 16, 199
First report extension
First report now due
- Instead of Thursday
- September 23
What makes Socrates wise
- It is said that no one is wiser than Socrates
- Politician who thought he was wise
- Socrates could see that he was wiser
- Because he knew he was not wise
- Knowing when we don’t know
- Deming
- 80% of what we believe is false
Why Socrates is on trial
- Real reason because he is a "gadfly"
- A horse fly
- Bugs the fat & lazy horse that is
- The state of Athens
- Official reason
- Accused of not believing in the gods
Socrates does not fear death
- We cannot know what death will bring
- Will bring freedom from tormenters
- Cessation of sensation
- A better life
Socrates’ sentenced to death
- Found guilty by a vote of 281 to 220
- Socrates does not fear death
- Only that he does the right thing
- An unexamined life is not worth living
- Socrates is condemned to death
- Because he is not shameless
- Will not violate his principles
Socrates refuses to escape
- To escape would violate his principles
- Nothing bad can happen to a good person
- In this life or in death
- What has value is
- Living well
- Not just living
Socrates on civil disobedience
- Compare to Gandhi & Martin Luther King
- By staying in a country we agree
- To obey its laws
- To disobey the laws is to act unjustly
- Disobeys parents, educators & government
- To escape would subvert the laws
- Would then be a corrupter of youth
Plato on mind & body
- The soul/mind
- Deals with the unchanging
- The body
- Deals with the changing
- The soul is
- Immortal & indestructible
- Because simple