Sign Up Now
Get instant access to over 1 million+ study documents
OR
Already registered? click here to login
By creating your account, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and student honor code.
Ruling as a Skill
In his thoughts on rulers, Socrates defends the premise that ruling is a form of craft or expertise. Thus, the ruling requires knowledge. He argues that good rulers should not be driven by their selfish interests. Instead, they should consider the desires of their subjects. He gives an example of a doctor who values the patients' interests; in this context, medicine does not seek to profit the practitioner. Analogously, a ruler's job is to serve the citizens in the political environment (Plato & C., 2004). Here, it must be noted that while the doctor enjoys some contingent gains in the form of salary or other remunerations, this is not the intrinsic goal in medicine, and a similar model should be replicated in the ruling.
Socrates' example supports the premise that a doctor with negligible earnings can still be conceived. However, a doctor who fails to serve the interest of the patients does not enjoy this credit. This opposes Thrasymachus' claims that the rulers serve their interests. To reinforce his argument of the significance of expertise in defining a ruler and serving the needs of the citizens, Socrates presents Thrasymachus with another example of a ship's captain whose position is represented by ruling the sailors and not sailing in a ship. His expertise and service to the sailors give him the perfect position as a captain (Plato & C., 2004). In this argument, and reflecting on Plato's concept of the philosopher-king, knowledge is seen as a vital attribute of any chosen leadership style. Rulers should possess skills that their followers lack, as that is the only justifiable element to make them lead the citizens in the political domain. Besides, rulers should be elected by educated citizens who possess election skills and not a practice that should be guided by intuition. Thus, Socrates defends his premise using the above examples to emphasize that rulers should have the expertise to execute better the primary responsibility of serving the citizens.
Reference
Plato, & C., R. C. D. (2004). Republic. Hackett Publishing Company, Inc.
Socrates and the Apology Socrates and Death in the Apology In The Apology, Socrates contrasts his ability to address the crowd against more skillful speakers stating that he offers truth over eloquence (17b). In essence, he infers that others use the power of persuasion and slick words to sway others vs. The truth. He postulates that there are others who will always present a skewed depiction of the facts in order to
Socrates Both comedy and tragedy are "related to emotional needs and religious longings that became crystallized and structured in ritualistic celebrations and festivals," (34). Both can be framed as "catalysts" that force "some sort of conversion" in the individual (34). Moreover, both comedy and tragedy reflect the "eternal spectacle of human nature and its weaknesses," (35). Both art forms use imitation or mimicry of a political figure or idea. However, there are
Socrates is one of the most renowned philosophers of all times. His dialectic method is used in a number of ways and has vital importance in literature and deliberation. In the contemporary era, Socratic or Dialectic Method is the term that is used to point out a conversation between two or more people who might have opposing views about an issue but they come to a conclusion after trying to
Socrates and Virtue Comparing and Contrasting Virtue in Taoism and Socrates' Philosophy The idea of virtue in Taoism may be compared and contrasted to the idea of virtue in the teachings of Socrates. For Socrates, virtue is related to the pursuit of wisdom through philosophy, and is ordered to that which is true and good. Taoism similarly calls upon the practitioner to devote himself to the Way, which is the order that
As a result, Plato is demonstrating social disobedience, by highlighting how anyone who questions authority will face a similar fate as Socrates. (Plato, 2007) In Crito, Socrates has been found guilty of his crimes and is awaiting his death sentence in an Athenian prison cell. On an early morning, his friend Crito pays him a visit and offers to help him escape. He feels that if Socrates is able to
Socrates and Plato Greek philosophy held a preeminent place in the middle ages among scholastics like Thomas Aquinas, whose Summa Theologica was an attempt to reconcile faith and reason. The faith aspect was supplied by the Church, but the reason came from classical (pagan) ecclesiology -- notably from Greek philosophers like Plato and Aristotle. The latter was the pupil of the former, and the former was the pupil of the first