Socrates

Question 1

Rough Dates

Answer 1

Classical Athens ( 470 BC - 399 BC)

Question 2

Country of Origin and Language

Answer 2

Greek, Greece

Question 3

Where we know of him from

Answer 3

Didn’t write anything down, so everything we know is from Plato’s writings about his dialogues. It’s unsure what was really from Socrates and what was Plato pretending to be Socrates.

Question 4

Wealth / occupation

Answer 4

dirt poor.
Would sit in the park all day and talk philosophy; could have charged for his teachings but didn’t, and therefore his wife didn’t like his occupation much

Question 5

married

Answer 5

yes

Question 6

student

Answer 6

Plato

Question 7

Death

Answer 7

• He was put on trial because he was seen as “corrupting the youth” and for not believing in the gods of the state
• He had a chance to denounce his teachings but he was like “meh no thanks”
• He was poisoned to death

Question 8

Socratic method

Answer 8

where you have a dialogue and lead the person into your opinion with questions (which is the format of the reading

Question 9

Plato

• dates
• origin
• language

Answer 9

Classical Athens ( 428 BC - 348 BC) 
Country of Origin: Greece
Language Spoken/ Written: Greek

Question 10

Plato

• family
• student

Answer 10

Came from a very wealthy family
However, he chose to hang out with a weird philosopher guy everyday and learn philosophy
Taught Aristotle

Question 11

Plato

• work
• views

Answer 11

opened his own school: the academy

agrees with socrates

Question 12

Myth of the Cave

-inside the cave

Answer 12

There are men in the cave with fetters on their necks so they cannot turn their head. Behind them there is a low wall where there is shadows created by the puppets (and fire) behind the wall so they are forced to watch the puppet show.
Because this is everything they’ve ever seen, this is what they consider reality. The person who can name all the symbols is considered the smartest in their realm. What they think is a cat is actually just the shadow of a symbol of a cat.
They would be confused and want to be a prisoner still because of what is comfortable…will think that the shadows are more real than reality

Question 13

Myth of the Cave

-escaped prisoner

Answer 13

One of them hypothetically gets loose from the fetters and gets close to the cave entrance. The entrance then blinds them and they go back until someone forces them out into the ‘real world’.
If one were to escape they would be a need for habituation and the escaped prisoner to get used to the pain of light once out of the cave
They begin to learn what things actually are instead of their shadows, and then they are pretty much obligated to go back to the cave and teach the others what they know, but the others will probably consider them stupid. They will ask the enlightened one to name the shadows on the wall and consider them inept if they cannot guess them correctly anymore. The enlightened one will then most likely be torn down or beat up or whatever.
He would pity the prisoners who were still in the cave and want to get them out
They would put him through a test to see if he pass the test of the sequences of the puppets.
If he tried to take them away from the cave they would be mad and would rather kill him

Question 14

lesson about human perception: logic

Answer 14

Cave is sloppy conclusions with a perpetual cave of intellect
Our senses are handicapped; we want to be fooled
Outside reality beyond our perception is devotion to prayer and philosophy
We start as the prisoners
The person who goes back to the cave represents a prophet/philosopher
All the prisoners/we know is what they have seen
Not enlightened, and our senses are only attuned to our own world, need for a call to action
Those who try to see reality for what it is are the enlightened ones, the kings of the society, and should also try and bring others to enlightenment.

Question 15

What terms does Bertrand Russell attach to this analysis?

Answer 15

appearance and reality

Question 16

appearance

Answer 16

shadow of artificial things

Question 17

reality

Answer 17

what we directly feel and see and we believe

Question 18

If reality is not what appears how do we know if there is any reality at all?

Answer 18

We live through images of things

Annunciation of our faith in our senses

Question 19

prisoners are like…

Answer 19

the last man -Nietzsche

Question 20

sense data

Answer 20

what we see. For example: color, shape, texture etc

Question 21

matter

Answer 21

the actual stuff assuming there is actually something physically there, collection of all physical objects

Question 22

Sensation

Answer 22

What we sense, sensory data, to the experience of being immediately aware of the senses

Question 23

What is the Republic

Answer 23

The Republic is the “ideal” utopia

Question 24

What is the basis for S & P’s exclusion of art and artists?

Answer 24

If the artists know something enough to imitate it, then why aren’t they dealing with the real, productive thing?
It doesn’t follow a real version of reality; when you draw something, you see it from one angle at a certain time. It doesn’t help society in any way and actually lies to everyone, having a negative impact. It’s like the people in the cave thinking they know what reality is.

Question 25

the three makers, the three kinds of products

Answer 25

God/ The Republic - the idea of a table
The craftsman - a table
art/artist - imitation of the table

Question 26

What are the many shortcomings of the third category – art and artists?

Answer 26

Useless
Lying to society
Not real
Don’t actually know anything about what they’re imitating

Question 27

Does imitation appeal to the strengths or weaknesses of human perception? [Here the Myth plugs in too.] the imitation appeals to the weaknesses of human perception
If you, the artist, really knew about your subject matter what would you do?

Answer 27

Make the actual thing rather than just make a picture of it.

Question 28

Is the ‘user’ a valuable knowledge provider?

Answer 28

Yes because the user knows how the product works

Question 29

What’s the argument about tragedy and comedy?

Answer 29

Tragedy and Comedy makes people stupid
Tragedy is only interesting when people act in a very exaggerated fashion. This acting isn’t normal to society because they’re sad all the time. Prof made the example that if his cat died, he wouldn’t be sobbing all over the place when he’s teaching, he’d be expected to teach and be sad at his own house. If people were skirting their responsibilities just because they were sad, society wouldn’t function normally. Watching tragedy makes people believe this behavior is okay, therefore tragedy is detrimental to society.
Along the same lines, comedy back then was slapstick humor. Hitting people over the head with a bat is not normal behavior in society, and therefore there should not be any influence of it.

Question 30

Do S+P leave room for an argument in art’s favor? What is it? Is it an attractive argument?

Answer 30

Art should promote good values.
They basically say that art with a purpose can exist in their society, but it can’t exist just to take up space. Generall that purpose is propaganda or promoting the ideals of the society.