Teacher Resource PagePhilosophy (page 1)Lesson 4

Lives and Contributions of Socrates and Plato

Socrates (ca. 470—399 B.C.)

• He lived in and around Athens.

He did not write anything, all recorded work is from students Aristophanes, Xenophone,

and Plato.• He was the first philosopher to focus on the questions of ordinary living rather than

the nature of reality.

• Bulldog tough, he was able to withstand temperature extremes; it is believed that Socrates

went barefoot year-round.

• He was considered to be a gadfly to the citizens of Athens because he constantly asked

questions.

• He was the teacher of Plato.

He developed the Socratic Method, which was based upon the following concepts:

1. Dialectic: A form of argumentation where one person starts with a question or idea

(thesis) and another person states the opposite idea (anti-thesis); the -discussion will

eventually lead to a universal definition.

2. Universal definition: This is the synthesis of the two opposite ideas argued down to

the lowest common denominator.

3. Inductive Arguments: Use examples to produce a logical outcome. For example, "if this

is true, then this must be true." The conclusion follows probability from the premise.

• He was put on trial and sentenced to death for impieties against state and for corrupt-

ing Athenian youth.

• He was forced to drink hemlock.

Quotes:

"Knowledge is Virtue."

"The unexamined idea is not worth having, any more than the unexamined life is not

worth living."

"I am the wisest because I am the most ignorant."

Plato (ca. 428-348 B.C.)

He was born into an affluent Athenian family.

After death of his mentor Socrates, he shifted away from political ambitions and turnedto philosophy.He traveled to Greek colonies to meet Pythagoreans and see volcanoes.

He founded the Academy in 388 B.C.

He was the first philosopher to create a full-blown system to explain all major philo-sophical issues.

He wrote in the dialogue form and his main character was often Socrates, so there is somequestion of which philosophic ideas belong to Socrates and which belong to Plato; accordingto most experts, the majority of his later works, Plato is developing his own ideas.

His major works include Euthyphro—pretrial Socrates; Apology—trial of Socrates; Crito-—Socrates in jail; Phaedo—execution of Socrates; Meno—theory of ideas and metaphysics;The Republic—greatest work on political philosophy; Timeaus—structure of nature withreferences to religion.

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Teacher ResourcePhilosophy 2)

Lesson 4

He was the teacher of Aristotle.

Later in life, he tried to serve as tutor to Dionysius, a Syracusan prince, in the mold

of philosopher-king.He died in 348 B.C.

Quotes:

"The soul which has never perceived truth, cannot pass into human form.-

"There is written and unwritten law.""Until philosophers are kings, or the princes of the world have the sp t and of

philosophy cities will never rest from their evils.-

The Republic Background

The Republic is also referred to as the Polity, which in Greek means the

constitutional government of a city. The plot centers on six men meeting in the

house of a rich merchant in Pireaus, the port city of Athens. It is written as a

dialogue with Socrates as the primary character. The other five characters areCephalus (businessman and house owner), Polemarchus (teacher of rhetoric),Thasymarchus (sophist), Glaucon (younger half-brother of Plato), and Adeimantus

(older half-brother of Plato). In the course of their conversation, they addressquestions regarding justice, rule, obedience, art, and education. Included withintheir discussion are the concepts of philosopher-king, Allegory of the Cave, thetheory of the divided line, and the theory of the forms. The Republic is dividedinto ten books or chapters and is regarded as one of the political philosophyclassics which has greatly influenced the thought of western civilization.

"Allegory of the Cave" Summary

Socrates describes a cave underground where the prisoners are chained insuch a way that all they can see is a wall in front of them. On the wall, shad-ows appear created from a fire behind and above the prisoners. The shadowsor images are created by form holders who stand between the prisoners and afire. They hold up all sorts of objects and make sounds for these objects. Theprisoners are at the mercy of the form holders. They may hold up the image ofa duck and make a barking sound. This is the world of reality for the prisoners.One day a prisoner escapes, and he sees the cause of the shadows and the lightthat casts them. Slowly, he makes his way out of the cave. He is blinded by thelight of the outside world, but eventually, he adjusts to the light and sees truereality. Ducks don't bark; they quack. He decides to return to the cave and revealthe truth to the chained prisoners. They disbelieve him because all they know isthe world of darkness and shadows. They jeer him and, given the opportunity,they would tear him to pieces.

Philosophy NameLesson 4

Handout 6 (page 1) Date

"Allegory of the Cave"Part A.

Read the "Allegory of the Cave" from Plato's The Republic.

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I want you to go on to picture the enlightenment or ignoranceof our human conditions somewhat as follows. Imagine an un-derground chamber, like a cave with an entrance open to thedaylight and running a long way underground. In this chamberare men who have been prisoners there since they were children,their legs and necks being so fastened that they can only lookstraight ahead of them and cannot turn their heads. Behind themand above them a fire is burning, and between the fire and theprisoners runs a road, in front of which a curtain-wall has beenbuilt, like the screen at puppet shows between the operators andtheir audience, above which they show their puppets.

I see.Imagine further that there are men carrying all sorts of gearalong behind the curtain-wall, including figures of men andanimals made of wood and stone and other materials, and thatsome of these men, as is natural, are talking and some not.

An odd picture and an odd sort of prisoner.

They are drawn from life For, tell me, do you think our prisonerscould see anything of themselves or their fellows except the shadowsthrown by the fire on the wall of the cave opposite them?

How could they see anything else if they were prevented frommoving their heads all their lives?

And would they see anything more of the objects carried alongthe road?Of course not.

Then if they were able to talk to each other, would they notassume that the shadows they saw were real things?

Inevitably.

And if the wall of their prison opposite them reflected sound,don't you think that they would suppose, whenever one of thepassers-by on the road spoke, that the voice belonged to theshadow passing before them?

They would be bound to think so.

And so they would believe that the shadows of the objects wementioned were in all respects real.

Yes, inevitably.

Then think what would naturally happen to them if they werereleased from their bonds and cured of their delusions. Supposeone of them were let loose, and suddenly compelled to standup and turn his head and look and walk towards the fire; allthese actions would be painful and he would be too dazzled tosee properly the objects of which he used to see the shadows.So if he was told that what he used to see was mere illusion

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PhilosophyLesson 4

Handout 6 (page 2)

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and that he was now nearer reality and seeing more correctly.

because he was turned towards objects that were more real.

and if on top of that he were compelled to say what each of the

passing objects was when it was pointed out to him, don't you

think he would be at a loss, and think that what he used to see

was more real than the objects now being pointed out to him?

Much more real.

And if he were made to look directly at the light of the fire. ft

would hurt his eyes and he would turn back and take refuge

in the things which he could see, which he would think really

far clearer than the things being shown him.

Yes.

And if ... he were forcibly dragged up the steep and rocky ascent

and not let go till he had been dragged out into the sunlí$itøthe process would be a painful one, to which he would muchobject, and when he emerged into the light his eyes would beso overwhelmed by the brightness of it that he wouldn't be ableto see a single one of the things he was now told were real.

Certainly not at first.

Because he would need to grow accustomed to the lí$rthe could see things in the world outside the cave. First he wouldfind it easiest to look at shadows, next at the reflections of menand other objects in water, and later on at the objects themselves.After that he would find it easier to observe the heavenly bodiesand the sky at night than by day, and to look at the light of themoon and stars, rather than at the sun and its light.

Of course.

The thing he would be able to do last would be to look directlyat the sun, and observe its nature without using reflections inwater or any other medium, but just as it is.

That must come last.

Later on he would come to the conclusion that it is the sunthat produces the changing seasons and years and controlseverything in the visible world, and is in a sense responsiblefor everything that he and his fellow-prisoners used to see.That is the conclusion which he would obviously reach.

And when he thought of his first home and what passed for wis-dom there, and of his fellow-prisoners, don't you think he wouldcongratulate himself on his good fortune and be sorry for them?Very much so.

There was probably a certain amount of honor and glory to bewon among the prisoners, and prizes for keen-sightedness foranyone who could remember the order of sequence among thepassing shadows and so be best able to predict their future ap-pearances. Will our released prisoner hanker after these prizesor envy this power or honor? Won't he be more likely to feel, asHomer says, that he would far rather be •a serf in the house

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PhilosophyLesson 4Handout 6 (page 3)

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of some landless man," or indeed anything else in the world,than live and think as they do?Yes he would prefer anything to a life like theirs.Then what do you think would happen if sit in his old seat in the cave? Wouldn't his

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by the darkness, because he had come in suddenly out of thedaylight?

Certainly.

And if he had to discriminate between the shadows, in com-petition with the other prisoners, while he was still blindedand before his eyes got used to the darkness—a process thatmight take some time—wouldn't he be likely to make a fool ofhimself? And they would say that his visit to the upper worldhad ruined his sight, and that the ascent was not worth evenattempting. And if anyone tried to release them and lead themup, they would kill him if they could lay hands on him.They certainly would.Now, my dear Glaucon, .. this simile must be connected, through-out, with what preceded it. The visible realm corresponds to theprison, and the light of the fire in the prison to the power of thesun. And you won't go wrong if you connect the ascent into theupper world and the sight of the objects there with the upwardprogress of the mind into the intelligible realm—that's my guess,which is what you are anxious to hear. The truth of the matteris, after all, Imown only to God. But in my opinion, for what it isworth, the final thing to be perceived in the intelligible realm, andperceived only with difficulty, is the absolute form of Good; onceseen, it is inferred to be responsible for everything right and good,producing in the visible realm light and the source of light, andbeing, in the intelligible realm itself, controlling source of realityand intelligence. And anyone who is going to act rationally eitherin public or private must perceive it.I agree, so far as I am able to understand you.Then you will perhaps also agree with me that it won't be surpris-ing if those who get so far are unwilling to return to mundaneaffairs, and if their minds long to remain among higher things.That's what we should expect if our simile is to be trusted.Yes, that's to be expected.

Nor will you think it strange that anyone who descends fromcontemplation of the divine to the imperfections of human lifeshould blunder and make a fool of himself, if, while still blindedand unaccustomed to the surrounding darkness, he's forcibly puton trial in the law-courts or elsewhere about the images of justiceor their shadows, and made to dispute about the conceptions ofjustice held by men who have never seen absolute justice.There's nothing strange in that. I

IAdapted from The Republic, Plato, trans. H. D. P. Lee (London: Penguin Books, 1955), 278—282.

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