GR E AT P H IL OS OP H E R S series TRI NI TY C OLLEGE D UBLI N 1. 26/09 SOCRATES Damien Storey 7. 14/11 NIETZSCHE Georg Ulrich 2. 03/10 PLOTINUS Vasilis Politis 8. 21/11 G.E. MOORE Ben Bramble 3. 10/10 AUGUSTINE Paul O’Grady 9. 28/11 RUSSELL Keith Begley 4. 17/10 M. CAVENDISH Kenny Pearce 10. 05/12 FOUCAULT Lilian Alweiss 5. 24/10 SPINOZA Jim Levine 11. 12/12 DENNETT Tom Farrell 6. 31/10 J.S. MILL James Miller (7/11 is reading week, so no lecture) S OC R ATE S 469– 399 B C Damien Storey 26th Aug 2017 S OC R ATE S 469– 399 B C 1. The historical/intellectual context 2. Socrates’ life 3. Socrates’ philosophy 4. Closer look at Socratic definitions SOCRATES PLATO PARMENIDES ARISTOTLE HERACLITUS CICERO PYTHAGORAS PYRHO THALES ZENO 8 0 0 BC 7 0 0 BC 6 0 0 BC 5 0 0 BC 4 0 0 BC 3 0 0 BC 2 0 0 BC 1 0 0 BC A. THE GREAT HOMER’S ILLIAD & DEFEATS THE ODYSSEY (750) PERSIANS (333) BATTLES OF SPARTA DEFEATS FIRST OLYMPIC GREECE MARATHON & ATHENS (432) GAMES (776) CONQUERED BY SALAMIS ROME (146) (480 & 490) PARTHENON BUILT (432) SOCRATES v s . TH E PRE - SOCRATICS  Style: He used plain language, rather than, e.g., poetry.  Method: Question and answer – philosophy as an inquiry or search.  Content: Focuses on ethics (mostly). And maybe most importantly…  Makes inquiry examine itself:  Not just making arguments, but asking how good arguments are made.  Not just claiming knowledge, but asking what knowledge is and how we get it.  Coupled with a kind of humility: he claims to be wise because “I do not think I know what I do not know” (Plato, Apology, 22d) SOC RATES ’ LI FE & D EATH  The paradigmatic example of a philosopher: “the unexamined life is not worth living”.  An unlikely Greek hero, contradicting traditional values like beauty, wealth, reputation, and power.  Politically “uncooperative”. Associated with controversial figures, like Alcibiades and Critias.  Eventually triad (by a jury of about 500 of his Athenian peers) and condemned to death by drinking hemlock. The charge: Meletus, the son of Meletus, of the deme of Pitthos wrote this indictment and takes this oath against Socrates, the son of Sophroniscus of Alopece: Socrates is guilty of not believing in the gods that the city believes in, and of introducing other, new deities; and he is guilty of corrupting the youth. The penalty is death. TH E “ SOCRATIC PROBLEM” Socrates wrote nothing himself and (almost) all our sources present fictionalised accounts of Socrates. Do we really know anything about the historical Socrates? Our principal sources: Aristophanes: The Clouds Xenophon: The Apology of Socrates and The Memorabilia Plato: almost thirty dialogues with Socrates as a character SOCRATES’ PH ILOSOPHY Contributions to philosophy (some of).  A distinctive method: the Socratic method (or elenchus).  A theory of definitions and its role in knowledge.  An ethical theory that related knowledge, virtue, and happiness.  A psychological doctrine, Socratic ‘intellectualism’: we desire something if and only if we believe it to be good.  Sometimes associated with a kind of scepticism. SOCRATES’ P HI LOSOP H Y A ‘typical’ Socratic conversation. SOCRATES: What is courage? (Or virtue, piety, etc.) LACHES: Courage is endurance of bad things. SOC: But can’t people can endure bad things unwisely? LAC: Well, yes. SOC: Is courage ever unwise? LAC: Well, no. SOC: Then you do not think all endurance of bad things is courage. So, again, what is courage? … LAC: My beliefs contradicted each other! Now I do not know what I thought I knew! SOCRATES’ PH ILOSOPHY A ‘typical’ Socratic conversation. Elenchus (ἔλεγχος): refutation. 1. Socrates asks “What is F?” (Where F is, e.g., courage or wisdom,) 2. Interlocutor offers a definition of F, p. 3. Socrates questions the interlocutor and finds that he also believes q, r, and s. 4. Socrates argues, and the interlocutor agrees, that q, r, and s imply not-p 5. Socrates concludes that p is not a good definition of F (at least if q, r, and s) The result is aporia (ἀπορία): puzzlement or impasse.