Philosophers #1 - Socrates

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#1 Socrates

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This serie about philosophers and their ideas explained basicly aims to people interested in philosophy but who are scared of reading it because they think they won't understand and it will be a waste of time. Indeed, my aim is to introduce you to a philosopher every day or two days and explaining to you what were his ideas and his writings. I also do this to share to the community my passion for philosophy and its story. Because philosophy is a historical continuum where ideas emerge from older ideas. But it's also new ideas. And that's what we will see today ! Thanks for reading and don't hesitate to upvote or resteem if you liked this first article, which is my first about philosophy, and also to let me know if there are people interested in this (TLDR at the end). 

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Socrates was born in Athens in 470 before Christ. He is the son of a carver and a midwife (this detail is important). He is always reprensented as a discourteer, dressed in a coarse cloak, walking the streets barefoot whatever the weather. 

He has an ignorant and vulgar appearance, he is ugly and has an unbearable and whimpering woman. He never leaves Athens, is not interested in the science of nature but in the human world, and in particular in moral problems. He questions the essence of virtues (such as courage, justice, piety, friendship, love ...) and seeks to propose definitions. It may be said that the Socratic question is of the form "What is x ? " (not the letter, just replace x by a concept huh..) 

At his trial, reported by Plato in the Apology of Socrates, Socrates defends himself little and badly. He refuses persuasive discourse and the sophisticated procedures that could have saved his life, as well as his defense by a lawyer and the ostentatious tears likely to affect his judges. For him, wanting to live at all costs is far from being the best way to live. 

Socrates upseted people, and especially in political matters. Following a defeat in the Peloponnesian War, "intellectuals", perceived as opponents of democracy, were held accountable, and Socrates was dragged to justice for the unbelief and corruption of youth.

He is then sentenced to death and has to drink hemlock, which is a poison, which he accepts as he prefered dying in the truth then living by sophistics methods.

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I know that I know nothing

This is very certainly the most famous quote of Socrates. It is called the Socrates paradox. If Socrates affirms that he knows nothing, it is because he distinguishes knowledge (episteme) from opinion or belief (doxa). Contrary to opinion, knowledge is a belief that can be justified for reasons, not simply a belief. This distinction is so fundamental that we see in it the birth of rationality and philosophy properly so called. From now on, assertions of the thinkers will have to be justified by rigorous arguments.

Having realized this, Socrates will spend his time interrogating his fellow citizens to make them aware of their ignorance. He adopts a falsely naive attitude: he interrogates his interlocutors, pretending to want to learn from them. This is what is called Socratic maieutics: the art of giving birth to the spirits of truth, just as his mother gave birth to women.

The philosopher in the etymological sense (friend (philo-) of wisdom (-sophia)) must therefore be at once savant and ignorant: he does not know, but he knows that he is ignorant, and the consciousness of this lack triggers the desire to fill it.

Socrates' philosophical approach is thus characterized by a form of self-concern. Socrates considers that the first thing to know is what one is oneself. In this sense he takes as his motto an inscription engraved on the pediment of the temple of Delphi: "Know thyself"

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Well... Socrates wrote nothing. We know his thought only through the testimonies of other philosophers, and above all that of his disciple Plato (but other Athenians have written about Socrates, for example Xenophon). Plato wrote many dialogues that put Socrates on stage. It is, moreover, difficult to know, when one reads these dialogues, whether the thought expressed is that of Socrates, or rather that of Plato.

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TLDR :

• Socrates has written nothing; He discusses with people (irony and maieutics) and shows them that they know nothing; He himself pretends to know nothing: "all I know is that I know nothing"

• By thus distinguishing knowledge and opinion, Socrates is the founder of rationality and philosophy
  This recognition of our ignorance is the necessary starting point for all research.

• It is also an ethical injunction to return to oneself: Socrates resumes the injunction of the temple of Delphi: "know thyself"

• Finally, Socrates is condemned to death by the democratic tribunal of Athens, for unbelief and corruption of youth; He might have escaped death, but he prefers to die, out of respect for the laws he loves and accepts; He drinks the hemlock before his crying friends