Intro to Human perspective based on the Philosophy of Socrates and Plato.

(Pre-to Post Socratic Perspective)

Created by: Joshua Jireh B. Gabion Program: Philosophy(ABNDMU110)

Objectives:
At the end of this report, we should be able to:
a. Understand the Human Perspective based to the Philosophy of Socrates and Plato.
b. Explain Plato’s Justification in his book “Magnus Opus” (Πολιτεία) about Human being.

Timeline Presentation/outline Key points Course reference

3 min Intro:
A person will never be part of living without these two main components. The soul and the Body.
- Before we are going to proceed with the topic for today, we must ask our self about what
makes me a man? How do I really know myself?
- These questions will be answered as we are to discuss and dig in to the philosophy of
Socrates and Plato about the nature of man.
5 min Intro to Classical To have further understanding about philosophy of Socrates and Plato bout https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Greek_philosophy
Greece Human Perspective, first! we must have to understand the overview of Classical
Philosophy Greece Philosophy. Ancient Near east:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Near_East
Intro to Greek Philosophy.

Ancient Greek philosophy arose in the 6th century BC and continued

throughout the Hellenistic period and the period in which Greece and most
Greek-inhabited lands were part of the Roman Empire. Philosophy was used to
make sense out of the world in a non-religious way. It dealt with a wide variety of
subjects, including astronomy, mathematics, political
philosophy, ethics, metaphysics, ontology, logic, biology, rhetoric and aesthetics.

Greek philosophy was influenced to some extent by the older wisdom literature and
mythological cosmogonies of the ancient Near East,

5 min The Pre-Socratics The Pre-Socratics https://www.ancient.eu/Greek_Philosophy/

About 600 BCE, the Greek cities of Ionia were the intellectual and cultural
leaders of Greece and the number one sea-traders of the Mediterranean.
Miletus, the southernmost Ionian city, was the wealthiest of Greek cities and the https://www.utm.edu/staff/jfieser/class/110/1-
main focus of the “Ionian awakening”, a name for the initial phase of classical presocratics.htm
Greek civilization, coincidental with the birth of Greek philosophy.

Beliefs and Philosophical approach of the Pre-Socratic era https://www.philosophybasics.com/historical_

presocratic.html
Their main concern was to come up with a cosmological theory purely based on
natural phenomena. Their approach required the rejection of all traditional
 explanations based on religious authority, dogma, myth and superstition. They
all agreed on the notion that all things come from a single “primal substance”.

…the Pre-Socratic believed that Human is a material. “that everything in the

universe is composed of the material stuff of atoms, including conscious human
beings; there are no non-physical spirits or souls, or gods. In philosophy, this is
a position called materialism—only material things exist—and the challenge of
materialism is to explain how conscious thought in humans can be a purely
material thing. Throughout much of history, philosophers argued that this was
impossible, and that human thought could only take place in a non-physical soul
or spirit. After all, conscious thoughts do not seem to be the kinds of things that
take up physical space.”

The Pre-Socratic philosophers rejected traditional mythological explanations for

the phenomena they saw around them in favor of more rational explanations.
They started to ask questions like where did everything come from, and why is
there such variety, and how can nature be described mathematically? They
tended to look for universal principles to explain the whole of Nature. Although
they are arguably more important for the questions they asked than the answers
they arrived at, the problems and paradoxes they identified became the basis for
later mathematical, scientific and philosophic study.

Closing question:
Is the conclusive identity of a person based on the Pre-Socratic time defines
who we are?

5 min Socrates and his Who Was Socrates? https://www.biography.com/scholar/socrates

human
philosophy Socrates was a classical Greek philosopher credited as one of the founders of
Western philosophy, and as being the first moral philosopher of the Western
ethical tradition of thought.
Socrates was born in ancient Athens, Greece. His "Socratic method," laid the
groundwork for Western systems of logic and philosophy.
hemlock Poisoning
Conium maculatum, the hemlock or poison hemlock, is a
highly poisonous biennial herbaceous flowering plant in
the carrot family Apiaceae, native to Europe and North
Africa.

When the political climate of Greece turned, Socrates was sentenced to death
by hemlock poisoning in 399 BC. He accepted this judgment rather than fleeing
into exile.

Overview:
Important point
Socrates was the son of
Sophroniscus and HE was
married to Xanthippe, a
younger woman, who bore
him three sons—Lamprocles,
reference
Socrates was the son of Sophroniscus, an
Athenian stonemason and sculptor, and
Phaenarete, a midwife. Because he wasn't
from a noble family, he probably received a
basic Greek education and learned his
Sophroniscus and father's craft at a young age. It is believed
Menexenus. Socrates worked as mason for many years
before he devoted his life to philosophy.

Contemporaries differ in their account of how

Socrates supported himself as a philosopher.
Both Xenophon and Aristophanes state
Socrates received payment for teaching, while
Plato writes Socrates explicitly denied
accepting payment, citing his poverty as
proof. Socrates married Xanthippe, a younger
woman, who bore him three sons—
Lamprocles, Sophroniscus and Menexenus.
There is little known about her except for
Xenophon's characterization of Xanthippe as
"undesirable."

He writes she was not happy with Socrates's

second profession and complained that he
wasn’t supporting family as a philosopher. By
his own words, Socrates had little to do with
his sons' upbringing and expressed far more
interest in the intellectual development of
Athens' young boys.
According to Plato,
Socrates served in the Athenian law required all able-bodied males
armored infantry—known as serve as citizen soldiers, on call for duty from
the hoplite. ages 18 until 60. According to Plato, Socrates
served in the armored infantry—known as the
Socrates was known for his hoplite—with shield, long spear and face
courage in battle and mask. He participated in three military
fearlessness, a trait that campaigns during the Peloponnesian War, at
stayed with him throughout Delium, Amphipolis, and Potidaea, where he
his life. saved the life of Alcibiades, a popular
Athenian general. Socrates was known for his
courage in battle and fearlessness, a trait that
stayed with him throughout his life. After his
trial, he compared his refusal to retreat from
his legal troubles to a soldier's refusal to
retreat from battle when threatened with
death.

Plato's Symposium provides the best details

of Socrates's physical appearance. He was
not the ideal of Athenian masculinity. Short
and stocky, with a snub nose and bulging
eyes, Socrates always seemed to appear to
be staring. However, Plato pointed out that in
the eyes of his students, Socrates possessed
a different kind of attractiveness, not based on
a physical ideal but on his brilliant debates
 According to Plato,
Socrates always
emphasized the importance
of the mind over the relative
unimportance of the human
body.
5 min The belief of The Socratic Philosophy
Socrates
Important point
Attempted to establish an
ethical system based on
human reason rather than
theological doctrine. He also
pointed that Ultimate wisdom
comes from knowing oneself.
The more a person knows,
the greater his or her ability
to reason and make choices
that will bring true
happiness.
Athenians entered a period of
instability and doubt about
their identity and place in the
world.
and penetrating thought. Socrates always
emphasized the importance of the mind over
the relative unimportance of the human body.
This credo inspired Plato’s philosophy of
dividing reality into two separate realms, the
world of the senses and the world of ideas,
declaring that the latter was the only important
one.
Reference:
Socrates believed that philosophy should Ηθικά βασισμένο στο σύστημα με βάση τον ανθρώπινο
achieve practical results for the greater well- λόγο και όχι θεολογία
being of society. He attempted to establish an
Ithiká vasisméno sto sýstima me vási to anthrópino lógo
ethical system based on human reason rather
than theological doctrine.
kai óchi ti theología
Socrates pointed out that human choice was
motivated by the desire for happiness.
Ultimate wisdom comes from knowing
oneself. The more a person knows, the
greater his or her ability to reason and make
choices that will bring true happiness.
Socrates believed that this translated into
politics with the best form of government
being neither a tyranny nor a democracy.
Instead, government worked best when ruled
by individuals who had the greatest ability,
knowledge, and virtue and possessed a
complete understanding of themselves.
Socratic Method
For Socrates, Athens was a classroom and he
went about asking questions of the elite and
common man alike, seeking to arrive at
political and ethical truths. Socrates didn’t
lecture about what he knew. In fact, he
claimed to be ignorant because he had no
ideas, but wise because he recognized his
own ignorance.
He asked questions of his fellow Athenians in
a dialectic method - the Socratic Method -
which compelled the audience to think
through a problem to a logical conclusion.
Sometimes the answer seemed so obvious, it
made Socrates's opponents look foolish. For
 this, his Socratic Method was admired by
some and vilified by others.

During Socrates's life, Athens was going

through a dramatic transition from hegemony
in the classical world to its decline after a
humiliating defeat by Sparta in the
Peloponnesian War. Athenians entered a
period of instability and doubt about their
identity and place in the world.

Socrates (see arrow) believed that the soul is immortal. For this reason, he https://study.com/academy/lesson/the-immortal-soul-
asserted that death is not the end of existence. Death is simply the separation of ideas-of-socrates-plato-augustine.html
the soul from the body. Plato also believed that the soul is eternal.
Plato agreed that the soul is immortal and separate from the body. However, he
upped the ante a bit. He believed the soul was eternal. According to Plato, the
soul doesn't come into existence with the body; it exists prior to being joined to
the body.
Sounding a whole bunch like reincarnation, Plato believed the soul exists within
a body until that body dies. It then sets up house in another body. For this
reason, Plato called the body the prison of the soul.

5 min The unexamined “The unexamined life is not worth living”. Declaring that humans must scrutinize
life is not worth their lives in order to live a fulfilled one.
living Important point
“A life that does not examine
is not worth living for a
human being” (Socrates
speech)
The ideal of the examined
life is noble for precisely this
reason. It sounds
unobjectionable: an
encouragement to be fully
human, to use our highly-
developed faculty of thought
to raise our existence above
that of mere beasts. For if we
don't think, we are no more
than animals, simply eating,
sleeping, working and
procreating. And though it
may be a bit strong to say
such lives are not worth
living, all but a minority of
ὁ ... ἀνεξέταστος βίος οὐ βιωτὸς ἀνθρώπῳ
o ... anexétastos víos ou viotós anthrópo
Reference:
What Socrates says positively about the https://schoolworkhelper.net/quote-analysis-the-
divinity is just as damning as it does not say. unexamined-life-is-not-worth-living/
The core of his argument is that his
philosophical activity was undertaken at the
behest of ho Theo’s, which is not allowed to
disobey (23c, 28d-30a, 33c, 37th). Thus, he https://www.the-philosophy.com/plato-socrates-
interprets the oracle. Ho Theo’s requires him to apology-summary
Athens goes through asking questions and
showing people they do not know what they https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian
think they know. Socrates is a gadfly sent by /2005/may/12/features11.g24
the gods to prick the Athenians, and exciting to
be concerned above all virtue (29d-31b, 36c,
41st).
And the best way to show your concern for
virtue is to spend every day of your life to the
philosophical discussion about the virtue. “A
life that does not examine is not worth living for
a human being” (38). Ho theos requires that
everyone, every day, working to ask: to review
and reconsider the values that directed his life.
 ethical vegetarians would
agree that they are much
less valuable than fully
human ones.
He encourages the
Athenians to:
- Use our thought to
raise our existence
above that of mere
beasts (Man is
above all living
things)
Quoted and Cited in:
Plato’s Apology of Socrates
during the speech of
Socrates in Athens
In other words, what matters to the deity from
Socrates is all about two things: (1) that men
strive to be virtuous, (2) they realize that they
do not yet know what it means to be virtuous,
but need to find out. To put it differently, the
divinity of Socrates posits that the values
received in the Athenian community must be
challenged. In their private lives and in their
public life, the Athenians do not live as they
should, the Apology is a lengthy indictment
returned against the Athenians the complaint
of injustice endemic. Few modern
commentators saw this as clearly as the author
of the following lines, taken from an ancient
treatise on rhetoric
“Since we are deliberative and judicial
speeches, you can find in Plato as examples of
several intertwined debates, which combine in
some way every branch of rhetoric. The
Apology of Socrates, as the title suggests, is to
first (Protasis) an apology, but it is also an
accusation of the Athenians, for having such a
man dragged to court. And severity of the
charge is hidden by moderation (you epieikei)
of the apology, for what he says in his defense
is an accusation of the Athenians. There are
two guidelines (sumplokai). And here’s the
third: the speech was a eulogy of Socrates,
made less inappropriate in that it appears as
required by the needs of defense. This is the
third guideline. The result is that there are two
themes court (hupotheseis) linked together, the
defense and the prosecution, along with a
theme encomiastic: in praise of Socrates. The
fourth guideline, which was in the spirit of
Plato, the most important, with a hortatory or
deliberative function, and a philosophical, is
this: this book is a proclamation exhortative
(paraggelma) the kind of man that the
philosopher should be.

5 min Plato as Socrates Plato https://www.biography.com/scholar/plato

student
Born circa 428 B.C.E., ancient Greek philosopher Plato was a student of Citation Information
Socrates and a teacher of Aristotle. His writings explored justice, beauty and Article Title
equality, and also contained discussions in aesthetics, political philosophy, Plato Biography
theology, cosmology, epistemology and the philosophy of language. Plato Author
founded the Academy in Athens, one of the first institutions of higher learning in Biography.com Editors
the Western world. He died in Athens circa 348 B.C.E. Website Name: The Biography.com website
Background
Due to a lack of primary sources from the time period, much of Plato's life has
been constructed by scholars through his writings and the writings of
contemporaries and classical historians. Traditional history estimates Plato's
birth was around 428 B.C.E., but more modern scholars, tracing later events in
his life, believe he was born between 424 and 423 B.C.E. Both of his parents
came from the Greek aristocracy. Plato's father, Ariston, descended from the
kings of Athens and Messenia. His mother, Perictione, is said to be related to
the 6th century B.C.E. Greek statesman Solon.

Some scholars believe that Plato was named for his grandfather, Aristocles,
following the tradition of the naming the eldest son after the grandfather. But
there is no conclusive evidence of this, or that Plato was the eldest son in his
family. Other historians claim that "Plato" was a nickname, referring to his broad
physical build. This too is possible, although there is record that the name Plato
was given to boys before Aristocles was born.

As with many young boys of his social class, Plato was probably taught by some
of Athens' finest educators. The curriculum would have featured the doctrines of
Cratylus and Pythagoras as well as Parmenides. These probably helped
develop the foundation for Plato's study of metaphysics (the study of nature) and
epistemology (the study of knowledge).

Plato's father died when he was young, and his mother remarried her uncle,
Pyrilampes, a Greek politician and ambassador to Persia. Plato is believed to
have had two full brothers, one sister and a half brother, though it is not certain
where he falls in the birth order. Often, members of Plato's family appeared in
his dialogues. Historians believe this is an indication of Plato's pride in his family
lineage.

Founding the Academy

Sometime around 385 B.C.E., Plato founded a school of learning, known as the
Academy, which he presided over until his death. It is believed the school was
located at an enclosed park named for a legendary Athenian hero. The
Academy operated until 529 C.E.., when it was closed by Roman Emperor
Justinian I, who feared it was a source of paganism and a threat to Christianity.
Over its years of operation, the Academy's curriculum included astronomy,
biology, mathematics, political theory and philosophy. Plato hoped the Academy
would provide a place for future leaders to discover how to build a better
government in the Greek city-states.

In 367 B.C.E., Plato was invited by Dion, a friend and disciple, to be the
personal tutor of his nephew, Dionysius II, the new ruler of Syracuse (Sicily).
Dion believed that Dionysius showed promise as an ideal leader. Plato
 accepted, hoping the experience would produce a philosopher king.
But Dionysius fell far short of expectations and suspected Dion, and later Plato,
of conspiring against him. He had Dion exiled and Plato placed under "house
arrest." Eventually, Plato returned to Athens and his Academy. One of his more
promising students there was Aristotle, who would take his mentor's teachings in
new directions.
Final Years

Plato's final years were spent at the Academy and with his writing. The
circumstances surrounding his death are clouded, though it is fairly certain that
he died in Athens around 348 B.C.E., when he was in his early 80s. Some
scholars suggest that he died while attending a wedding, while others believe he
died peacefully in his sleep.
Plato's impact on philosophy and the nature of humans has had a lasting impact
far beyond his homeland of Greece. His work covered a broad spectrum of
interests and ideas: mathematics, science and nature, morals and political
theory. His beliefs on the importance of mathematics in education have proven
to be essential for understanding the entire universe. His work on the use of
reason to develop a more fair and just society that is focused on the equality of
individuals established the foundation for modern democracy.

Πολιτεία Πολιτεία /state/REPUBLIC Politeia

Plato argues that the soul comprises of three parts namely rational, appetitive, https://academichelp.net/analysis/platos-argument-for-
and the spirited. These parts also match up the three ranks of a just community. three-parts-of-the-soul/
Personal justice involves maintaining the three parts in the proper balance,
where reason rules while appetite obeys. According to Plato, the appetitive part https://www.merriam-
of the soul is the one that is accountable for the desires in people. It is webster.com/dictionary/rational%20soul
accountable for the effortless cravings required to stay alive like hunger, thirst,
and for pointless cravings like desire to over feed. The desires for https://philosophycourse.info/platosite
essential things should be limited by other sections of the soul, while illegitimate /3schart.html
desires ought to be limited entirely by other elements of soul.

Types of souls according to Plato

1. The appetites, which includes all our myriad desires for various
pleasures, comforts, physical satisfactions, and bodily ease. There are
so many of these appetites that Plato does not bother to enumerate
them, but he does note that they can often be in conflict even with each
other. This element of the soul is represented by the ugly black horse on
the left.

2. The spirited, or hot-blooded, part, i.e., the part that gets angry when it
perceives (for example) an injustice being done. This is the part of us
that loves to face and overcome great challenges, the part that can steel
itself to adversity, and that loves victory, winning, challenge, and honor.
 (Note that Plato's use of the term "spirited" here is not the same as
"spiritual." He means "spirited" in the same sense that we speak of a
high-spirited horse, for example, one with lots of energy and power.)
This element of the soul is represented by the noble white horse on the
right.

3. The mind (nous) rational , our conscious awareness, is represented by

the charioteer who is guiding (or who at least should be guiding) the
horses and chariot. This is the part of us that thinks, analyzes, looks
ahead, rationally weighs options, and tries to gauge what is best and
truest overall.

Argument

Plato argued that a community has three parts which are guardians, producers,
and soldiers and each part performs a particular function. For a community to be
just, every element has to perform the role to the best capacity, which is a good
worth. The same characters and elements will materialize in the state; have to
exist in every person. Someone might respond to Plato’s argument that if the
good worth of a community were not in a person, it would be hard for the
community to uphold itself. The understanding is that a community is just a
collection of people who have formed a sense of laws on living collectively;
thereby, every individual would introduce some elements, values and functions
into the community. Since every person contributes to the community, those
aspects that are present in the community, ought to have come from the person,
thereby, souls have three different elements.

Possible responses & final rebuttals

People show similar characteristics and perform similar roles that states do.
Applying the equivalence in this way assumes that every person just like the
state, is a complicated whole composed of various different elements, each of
which has its own right responsibility. When faced with options concerning what
to do, individuals feel the tug of various impulses drawing them
in various directions at the same time, and the most innate explanation for this
condition is to differentiate between discrete elements of human beings. For a
community to be just; people have to be just and thus, the soul has to contain
three discrete elements, which would match the three elements of community.

Closing remarks:

Socrates and Plato reflects us what is a Man made up and its characteristics. Many Philosophers and
Socialist rely to this Philios. The end question is, how can you consider you self as a human being?