The Man Who Asked Questions Flashcards
(42 cards)
Which Philosopher was put to death for asking too many questions?
Socrates
Why does Socrates not fit in?
He was ugly and annoying, but brilliant.
What did Socrates do as a young man?
He fought in the Peloponnesian wars against the Spartans.
What did Socrates do in middle age?
He stopped strangers in public and asked them weird questions.
What did Socrates conversation with Euthydemus show?
Socrates forced Euthydemus to think on a deeper level about something that he thought was obvious, but really wasn’t.
What did Socrates do generally with the people he met in public?
He confused them by revealing the limits of what they understood and questioning their assumptions.
What did the sons of rich men do in Athens?
They were sent to study with Sophists who charged a lot of money.
How was Socrates different from the Sophists?
He did not charge anything for his services since he claimed not to know anything. Students kept coming to listen to him and the Sophists did not like him.
Who was the oracle of the Apollo at Delphi?
A wise old woman, a sibyl, who told Socrates friend Chaerophon that no one is wiser than Socrates
How did Socrates respond when Chaerophon told him what the sibyl had said?
He was surprised that he was considered the wisest man in Athens, given how little he knew, but then he realized that the Oracle had been right, and no one knew what they were talking about.
Where does the word “philosopher” come from?
The Greek words meaning “love of wisdom”
What kind of wisdom is philosophy based on?
Argument, reasoning, and questions, not just facts and understanding the true nature of our existence and the limits of what we can know
How does philosophy today compare to what Socrates was doing?
It is similar, but today, there are 2 1/2 thousand more years to work with.
What made Socrates so wise?
He always asked questions and was always willing to debate his ideas.
What was unusual about Socrates?
He refused to write anything down.
Why does Socrates believe that talking was better than writing?
Written words cannot answer questions and when we talk to people, we can adapt to people we are talking to.
Who was Plato?
Socrates best student
How do we know so much about Socrates, given that he refused to write anything down?
Plato wrote down conversations between Socrates and the people he questioned. These are known as the platonic dialogues and are great works of literature and philosophy.
What is ambiguous about the platonic dialogues?
We don’t really know that it all came from Socrates or if some of what he wrote were actually Plato’s ideas.
What is one idea that most people believe is Plato’s rather than Socrates?
The world is not at all as it seems or that there is a significant difference between reality and how things appear. Plato believed that only philosophers understand what the world is actually like because they discover reality by thinking.
What is Plato’s cave analogy?
It is an analogy to show that Philosophers are really the only ones who see reality because of their ability to think deeply. Ordinary people do not see reality because they focus on appearances without thinking.
What is Plato’s Theory of Forms?
It says that if you want to understand what something is, you need to focus on their form and not particular examples of it that you see. It is abstract thinking.
What did Plato believe with respect to philosopher’s power?
That philosopher’s should be in charge and have all the political power
What was Plato’s most famous work?
In the Republic, which he described an imaginary perfect society
