Philosophy May 22

May 22 Φ ➡Physis is the natural order of law and nomos is the choice that we make in things (by choice and choice can be changed) ➡Laws of preservation are a matter of physis, you ignore the laws of preservation at the cost of your life, thus seeking what is to your advantage is a matter of physis ➡Atalay criminal defense attorney ➡Socrates ➡Socrates did not write anything so we only have second hand accounts f his teachings ➡ We have 4 primary sources: ➡Plato, his student : plato wrote dialogues , the dialogues are fictional conversations in which socrates is the main character, but they are not just pure fiction ➡Aristotle (a student of Plato) : ➡Xenophon (a student of Plato): gave us additional insight into Socrates ➡Aristophanes (a writer of comedies): he makes fun of socrates in a comedy called “the clouds” ➡The socratic problem with interpreting socrates’ theses ➡Where Socrates’ ideas ed and where plato’s ideas begin, they cannot be separated clearly since it is all second-hand account ➡Plato’s Dialogues ➡The early dialogues: the thoughts of socrates, what plato learned from socrates ➡The middle dialogues represet a mix of ideas from socrates and some from plato ➡The late dialogues are supposed to represent the mature thought of plato ➡Arêté ➡A skill or function that is proper to something or the excellence in the performance of a skill or a function ➡Aristotle says that a sharp knife has arêté, the knife was designed to cut thus a very sharp knife has arêté ➡Aristophanes, in the clouds, portrays Socrates as a sophist; they sophists and socrates frequently discussed things together in public. Both socrates and the sophists were concerned in what human arêté was and what the excellent life was. They were both concerned with clear communication ad persuasive communication

May 22 Φ ➡There were differences in the two however, such as the Sophists demanded payment for their teaching of skills . ➡Socrates on the other hand claimed that he was not a teacher and did not expect payment ➡The sophists, as we know were skeptics and relativists , Socrates on the other hand believed that truth was objective, independent of us and what we had to do was search for it. ➡The Socratic method: an organized conversation to search for truth ➡Structure of the conversation of the Socratic method ➡Socrates would ask a question and the question would be answered ➡Then he comes back and asks a clarifying question about the answer ➡He then asks more questions until he hits a contradiction ➡The person then decides s/he wants to change his/her answer after they realize they hit a contradiction ➡Requirements for using the socratic method ➡Sincerity : for a conversation to be successful we are going to say what we truly believe ➡Open-mindedness:being open minded is the willingness to change your opinion if your opinion is faulty ➡Clarity as to the goal of the conversation: the goal of this conversation is not to win the argument, the goal is together, to get closer to the truth ➡You must be willing to refute anyone whose opinion is incorrect ➡You also have to be wiling to be refuted if your opinion is incorrect ➡You must be happier to be refuted than to refuted ➡The overall picture here is that usng the socratic method is not just about intelligence, you have to be a certain kind of person it is a mix of intellect and character ➡Irony: Jean Paul Sartre- when we lie we say something but conceal what we really feel, but in irony we we say something both are explicit and the contrast is evident ➡Socrates uses irony a lot ➡“Apology” dialogue: the self defense speech of Socrates against his accusers ➡A friend of Socrates goes to an oracle and asks: is there any man wiser than Socrates and the answer of the oracle was no, and socrates was troubled by that he must chose between his reason

May 22 Φ and his faith, so this presents a dilemma for socrates between his faith and his reason; spcrates finally comes to comprehend the meanin of the oracle tha there was a difference between self claimed experts and socrates, they did not believe knowledge, but they beleived they did but socrates didn’t have knowledge and I knew that I did not , this is the fundamental knowledge of socrates: the fundamental of learning is our own admittance that we are ignorant ➡Self awareness of ignorance is a pre requisite to knowledge; irony facilitates this experience ➡Claimed not to be a teacher ➡He does not put ideas in the minds of people ➡He simply facilitates the birth of ideas that are already present in the minds of the people he speaks with ➡Claimed to be ignorant ➡He says the only one that is wise is God ➡Human beings, like me, we are all ignorant ➡For him knowledge has a much higher standard for him ➡Al we can dois get closer to the truth ➡In the first apology speech was to determine his guilt , the second speech was what sentence should be applied, the third speech was what is his farewell address says that a just man cannot be harmed ➡The worst harm is not to my body, it is to mysould, a just man can only spiritually harm himself , it is better to suffer injustice than to commit injustice ➡Th knowledge of the exper/versus the knowledge o the many ➡The knowledge of techné, applied knowledge ➡The person that learns justice with the knowledge of techné is a just person