Strange+Socrates

**Strange Socrates ** Nick W.

Socrates, failure or genius? Socrates was a Greek philosopher who is very well known. We know him and his well known philosophies through his pupils. He had major impacts on all sorts of societies and people, and had a different way of thinking.

Finding the philosophies of Socrates is a hard thing to do mainly because he wrote nothing. The only way we know him and his philosophies is through his students. Socrates believed that wisdom in humanity is having the knowledge that you know nothing. In other words if you know you know nothing, you are a genius. He also thought that “the unexamined life isn’t worth living” ("Socrates: Biography from Answers.com"). My interpretation of this is that if no one knows you are living, then there is no point of life. Another philosophy of Socrates is that ethical goodness is the only thing that matters. This means that honesty, truth, and righteousness are the only things that have meaning. This could easily be taken the wrong way and make people think Socrates had wrong beliefs because he is saying that nothing else matters in a time when religion was very powerful. The final theory that Socrates had was that a good person can never be harmed because their good being will keep them well. We know these theories through the writings of his pupils Plato and Xenophon, some of the people he influenced (“Socrates: Biography from Answers.com”).

The people who were influenced by Socrates were Plato, Xenophon, and Aristophanes. Socrates did not have technical philosophy teachers, but the people who influenced him were Parmenides, Heraclitus, and Anaxagoras. Plato was a pupil of Socrates who also became a very famous philosopher. Even though Plato was about 45 years younger than Socrates, he still learned a lot about philosophy and was greatly inspired. Plato had a pupil named Aristotle, and together these three influenced theories we still use today in subjects like physics and ethics. Aristophanes and Xenophon were not pupils of Socrates, but they were influenced by him. Xenophon was a historian that wrote about Socrates and his philosophies, and Aristophanes was a famous playwright who wrote a play that gave us useful information to who Socrates was. These two influences, Xenophon and Aristophanes, were important so we know that Plato was not giving false information about Socrates. Parmenides, Heraclitus, and Anaxagoras were philosophers who studied nature. Socrates was very interested in natural science, much as Parmenides, Heraclitus, and Anaxagoras were(“Socrates: Biography from Answers.com”).  Everyone has opportunities of what they want to be, especially in Socrates’ time in Athens. Athens was flourishing at the birth of Socrates, so he had many opportunities. When Socrates was young, he practiced sculpting because of his father being a sculpture. Also, he had a strong passion for natural science. He wanted to know exactly how and why everything happened. During the Athenian war with Sparta, Socrates fought as a soldier. Although he was a strong soldier and was remarkably able to put up with the cold, he had greater interests with philosophy. Socrates had reasonable fair theories, but was put on trial for corrupting the young and heresy. His penalty was death sentence or to be kicked out of Athens. Instead, Socrates suggested that he should get free food for life because he had done the city a favor. The jury didn’t like that, so they gave him the death penalty. After waiting a month in prison, he was given his poison and died. In this time period many arts were accepted, but when it came to religion there wasn’t much leniency (“Socrates (469 B.C.-399 B.C.”).  Socrates had a different way of thinking. He was completely devoted to truth and well being. This could make people question his religion. Although Socrates was a religious man, he was charged with heresy and got the full price, death penalty. This wasn’t completely fair because he was a man that just expressed himself. From Socrates expressing himself Greece’s government was developed. Therefore, Socrates definitely has an influence on government, but does he have an impact on religion? In fact, Socrates did have a major influence on religion, for he suggested that gods were of much greater power than men. This is the basis of just about all modern popular religions such as Christianity, Muslim, Judaism, excreta. Even though Socrates believed in gods/a god, he questioned the nature and actuality of a higher power ("Socrates: Biography from Answers.com"). If such a man can impact modern religion, but could he influence societies or even time periods?   Socrates had all sorts of impacts on all different things. Religion, philosophy, logic, government, societies, and even whole time periods. The eras Socrates had an impact on include the Hellenistic Era, Medieval Times, The Renaissance, The Roman Era, and even up to modern times. The Hellenistic Era was when Alexander the Great spread Greek culture and philosophy all through Asia especially in the Middle East. This era was influenced by Socrates because Socrates was the teacher of Plato, Plato was the teacher of Aristotle, and Alexander the Great was the pupil of Aristotle. The Renaissance, modern times, and Medieval Times were impacted by Socrates because they follow the logic he came up with. The Roman era was when Rome was the center of power of all the Middle East. This era was influenced by Socrates because right when Ancient Greece fell, Rome rose to power. Since Rome’s government was based off of Greece’s, and Socrates helped create the government system for Greece, Rome was impacted by Socrates. All in all, Socrates influenced many, and if it weren’t for him, most government wouldn’t exist today(“Socrates: Biography from Answers.com”).

Socrates was a smart man who inspired government, religion, and ethics. We know Socrates only through his pupil Plato and a historian named X enophon because he wrote nothing. His most famous theory is that the wisdom of humanity is the knowledge of knowing nothing. Also, he had impacts on anything from the rise of Rome to Christianity to modern government. People should know about Socrates because in one way or another, he has impacted them. 

Works Cited "Socrates: Biography from Answers.com." //Answers.com: Wiki Q&A combined with free online dictionary, thesaurus, and encyclopedias//. Web. 10 Dec. 2009. .  <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">"Socrates." //Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy//. Web. 10 Dec. 2009. <http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/socrates/>. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: FR; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">"Socrates (469 B.C.-399 B.C.)." //UXL Biographies//. Online ed. Detroit: UXL, 2003. //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Student Resource Center - Bronze //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">.