Philosophical Works essays

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Plato’s Understanding of the Human Body in Phaedo: Critical Analysis

Throughout history, we have endlessly questioned the nature of our reality- whether or not we feel comfortable in our own skin so to speak. Prior to being awakened at birth to our version of reality, we enjoyed an existence of intelligent design- pureness created to allow for a limitless existence. It is, therefore, by that same design that the body as Deutsch puts it, is seen as a prison holding the soul hostage, driving us to evil ends and maleficent...
3 Pages 1165 Words

My Reconstruction of Crito, Meno, and Phaedo: Reflective Essay

The story of Crito is held in the prison cell of Socrates, where he waits for his prison sentence. His old buddy Crito, who had negotiated to sneak Socrates out of prison, visits him. Crito is a 70-year-old guy who is very rich and well-known for having a good reputation. Socrates seems quite ready for his inevitable execution, so Crito puts forward as many arguments as he can to convince Socrates to bail. Also, Socrates wouldn't need to worry about...
3 Pages 1595 Words

Aristotle’s View on Happiness Found in the Nicomachean Ethics: Analytical Overview

Aristotle was a Greek philosopher that lived in the fourth century BC of Ancient Greece. He spent his life analyzing different philosophical texts; which led to his work on a good human life and happiness. Aristotle believed that in order to achieve a good human life we must be a good human being through our actions. In the film, Groundhog Day, we meet a weatherman, Phil Connors, who repeats the weather countless times on February 2nd. As Phil continues to...
1 Page 658 Words

Application of Golden Mean in Nicomachean Ethics: Analytical Essay

Video Summary: Altruism and Empathy Natural Selection can put certain facts or guides in our brains to allow for our survival. This has to do with kindness and being nice to others. Our ancestors were nice to people so they could stay alive in hard times. While at life and death situations they fought and showed no mercy to protect themselves. This is seen today around the world. We are all taught to be nice to everyone and many people...
1 Page 681 Words

Impact of Plato's Book Euthyphro on Society: Argumentative Essay

No matter how we view our upbringing, morality stems from a higher power. Philosophers question rather this higher power comes from God or somewhere else. When reading religious books, they speak about God and the ten commandments which lay down the laws about right and wrong. Therefore, religious people are more conscientious about their actions. Yet we have the naturalist who believes human laws are defined by morality but not from a higher authority figure. They feel rather right or...
2 Pages 1137 Words

Examples of Socratic Method in Euthyphro and Meno: Analytical Essay

To Destroy, Humble, and Lead Socrates of Athens was famous for his never-ending questioning in search for knowledge and wisdom with the belief that he knows nothing and his method of doing so. This questioning method of Socrates would start off with Elenchus, or “belief destroyer.” Socrates would go around Athens and talk to everyone asking questions and puzzling them with their own words. Socrates would strike conversation with somebody who is deemed knowledgeable and try to gain this knowledge...
2 Pages 724 Words

Socrates' Views on Euthyphro Written by Plato: Descriptive Essay

To start with a quick paraphrase of the reading Euthyphro written by Plato, Socrates meets a young prophet by the name of Euthyphro in Athens Greece. Socrates and Euthyphro are at the courthouse due to their actions that relate to being devout, which turns out to be the central theme of the story. In the reading, we see that Euthyphro is prosecuting his dad for behaving immoral because he allowed a murderous slave who the father had thrown in a...
1 Page 594 Words

Relationship between Mind and Body in Socrates' Phaedo: Analytical Essay

I’d like to preface this paper with the following quote, not because it is directly relevant to my thesis or point, but because I find it “awesomely hilarious.” “Take what has to do with the body to the point of bare need, such as food, drink, clothing, house, household slaves, and cut out everything that is for reputation or luxury.” -Epictetus (Handbook of Epictetus pg. 23) “It’s only through reasoning and intellect, not through the body, that the one can...
2 Pages 1094 Words

A Platonist Critique of Confucius and Socrates' Phaedo: Analytical Essay

The two seminal philosophers, Confucius, and Plato whom we have known as the “father of philosophy” in their respective cultures, though separated by thousands of kilometres and half a century apart, still arrived at similar answers to complex questions. In this essay, I will be discussing the similarities between Socrates as presented by Plato and Confucius in their common pursuit of wisdom as philosophers, and how Confucius displays characteristics and embodies beliefs that Socrates himself preached in Phaedo. Firstly, in...
3 Pages 1525 Words

Reflective Essay on Philosophical Works: Euthyphro, Apology, Crito

Euthyphro Response Formulation 1: Euthyphro identifies piety or holiness as “what he is doing”(prosecuting a murderer, his father) This is met with rebuttal from Socrates telling Euthyphro that he needs actual definitions not examples so that he can apply them to other occurrences in life. Formulation 2: Piety is described as, what is dear to the gods and impiety as what is not dear to them Socrates meets this formulation with the fact that this can’t be true because the...
2 Pages 1049 Words

Euthyphro': An Analysis of Piety

This essay is designed to examine Plato’s “Euthyphro,” and to discuss the ideas of piety which are presented through an elenchus between Socrates and Euthyphro. Throughout Plato's critique and review of philosophical dilemmas, it often seems as though he speaks through the voice of Socrates' himself. A further example of Plato's thought experiments being verbalized by his muse, Socrates, is found in my analysis of Plato's Republic. What's important to realize is that the question of whether Socrates was a...
3 Pages 1278 Words

The Portrayal of Socrates' Beliefs in The Apology and Clouds

In the Apology and in Clouds, we are shown two very different depictions of Socrates’ beliefs on the gods of Athens. In the Apology, we see a version of Socrates that is fairly unconcerned with the discussion of the gods, and more interested in the discussion of the public good. In contrast, the Clouds shows us a picture of Socrates, ready to argue and debate the presence and nature of the gods. Demonstrating his outlook on life at vastly different...
5 Pages 2083 Words

The Republic': Ideas for Building an Ideal Society

In describing the ideal society, Plato cited abstract values and concrete systemic reforms. Abstractly, Plato described the republic through the virtues of justice, courage, temperance, and wisdom. This also came in how one’s soul must be ordered, reflecting the society as a whole, with reason and spirit controlling the appetite for pleasure. This laid the groundwork for the guiding principles upon which citizens were meant to live by. Concretely, reforms must be made as regards government and communal structure.Regarding government...
2 Pages 990 Words

Nicomachean Ethics' Main Ideas

The word happiness in the Ethics is a translation of the Greek term eudaimonia, which carries connotations of success and fulfillment. For Aristotle, this happiness is our highest goal. However, Aristotle does not say that we should aim at happiness, but rather that we do aim at happiness. His goal in the Ethics is not to tell us that we ought to live happy, successful lives, but to tell us what this life consists of. Most people think of happiness...
2 Pages 985 Words

Analysis of 'The Apology' by Plato

Plato wrote The Apology in 400 B.C. chronicling Socrates’ trial in Athens. Socrates is speaking to the court on the good will of his actions. Socrates introduces himself to the court as a man of good character and addresses the claims against him. Socrates explains to the court that the persuasive words of his accusers “almost made [him] forget who [he] was” and then asks that they do not “let [them]selves be deceived be the force of [their] eloquence.” Socrates...
2 Pages 950 Words

Meno': Summary

One of the founding documents of Western philosophy, Plato’s Meno recounts a dialog on the nature of virtue between Socrates and his pupil Meno, a rising star among the leaders of ancient Greece. They discuss how virtue can be recognized, where it comes from, and whether it can be taught. Plato, Socrates’s most famous student, wrote down his recollection of the conversation. It offers a clear picture of Socrates’s method of thinking on difficult topics, and it highlights Socrates’s quick...
4 Pages 2007 Words

Nicomachean Ethics: Overview

All human activities aim at some end that we consider good. Most activities are a means to a higher end. The highest human good, then, is that activity that is an end in itself. That good is happiness. When we aim at happiness, we do so for its own sake, not because happiness helps us realize some other end. The goal of the Ethics is to determine how best to achieve happiness. This study is necessarily imprecise, since so much...
2 Pages 872 Words

The Republic': Philosophy of Education

In 'The Republic' Plato uses the main character, Socrates to explore various issues that societies face and ways in which they should be confronted. For Plato, education was a fundamental to his idea of what it meant for a society to be proper and simple. Ahead of his time, he laid the foundation for various education practices that then and even now still hold great value. Promoting unity and functionality rather than self expression and individualism, Plato's thoughts on education...
2 Pages 905 Words

The Symposium: Overall Summary

Apollodorus relates to an unnamed companion a story he learned from Aristodemus about a symposium, or dinner-party, given in honor of the tragedian Agathon. Socrates arrives at the party late, as he was lost in thought on the neighboring porch. After they have finished eating, Eryximachus picks up on a suggestion of Phaedrus', that each person should in turn make a speech in praise of the god of Love. Phaedrus begins by saying that Love is one of the oldest...
1 Page 475 Words

Euthyphro': Analysis and Themes

The Euthyphro is a paradigmatic early dialogue of Plato's: it is brief, deals with a question in ethics, consists of a conversation between Socrates and one other person who claims to be an expert in a certain field of ethics, and ends inconclusively. It is also riddled with Socratic irony: Socrates poses as the ignorant student hoping to learn from a supposed expert, when in fact he shows Euthyphro to be the ignorant one who knows nothing about the subject...
1 Page 573 Words

The Republic': Overview

Plato’s strategy in The Republic is to first explicate the primary notion of societal, or political, justice, and then to derive an analogous concept of individual justice. In Books II, III, and IV, Plato identifies political justice as harmony in a structured political body. An ideal society consists of three main classes of people—producers, auxiliaries, and guardians; a society is just when relations between these three classes are right. Each group must perform its appropriate function, and only that function,...
2 Pages 1133 Words

Symposium': The Educational Theory

The possibility that eros is simply the motivator to sublimation and fulfillment is worked out further in the Phaedrus. In spite of the fact that the cozy connection between the two exchanges is commonly recognized, the Phaedrus is usually viewed as a lot later work. For in addition to the fact that it accepts the Republic's mental teaching of a tri-partite soul, it likewise advocates the everlasting status of the spirit – principles that are obviously missing in the Symposium....
3 Pages 1267 Words

The Idea of Critical Thinking in Plato's Apology

There is a reason we question the things around us, as we are naturally curious people. Life is so much more than just being on earth, life is about finding and creating yourself, it is creating bonds between people and things. We are constantly searching for something to make us feel like life is worth living, that we have something to offer the world. Socrates believed that “the unexamined life is not worth living”1 and this is what he taught...
1 Page 599 Words

Plato’s Symposium: Love and Philosophy

Plato is regarded by many as the world’s greatest philosopher. In his dialogues, he examined everything from the nature of reality, to ethics, to beauty, to the state. The Symposium, which you can read in full here, is the summation of Plato’s ideas on love, and have proven very influential. The main character in the dialogues is the great philosopher Socrates, who inspired Plato. Scholars have been trying to understand for centuries which of the ideas expressed in the Platonic...
2 Pages 813 Words

Phaedo': Overall Analysis and Themes

The Phaedo stands alongside the Republic as the most philosophically dense dialogue of Plato's middle period. It contains the first extended discussion of the Theory of Forms, four arguments for the immortality of the soul, and strong arguments in favor of the philosophical life. It also contains Plato's moving account of Socrates' final hours and his compelling myth about the fate of the soul after death. More than most of Plato's other writings, the Phaedo is in constant dialogue with...
1 Page 614 Words

Nicomachean Ethics': The Importance of Temperance

It is extremely hard to avoid the attractions of worldly pleasures in today’s world. There are many distractions that can deviate us from our goal of happiness. According to Aristotle, temperance is necessary for happiness because balance indulgence and insensibility. I intend to explain why temperance is problematic, and extremely hard to achieve in terms of Aristotle’s definition. Throughout the course of this paper, I will analyze some of the key concepts Aristotle believes are necessary for temperance. Furthermore, there...
1 Page 595 Words

Fearing The Unknown: Death in The Apology

Novelist Rossiter Worthington Raymond once said, “Life is eternal; and love is immortal; and death is only a horizon; and a horizon is nothing save the limit of our sight.” A horizon, by definition, is no more than the range of one’s knowledge or experience. With this explanation in mind, death is no longer a destination to be feared, but rather an adventure to be explored, full of uncertainties. Long before Raymond ever put pen to paper, philosophical forefather Socrates...
3 Pages 1194 Words

Phaedo': Summary

In the remote Peloponnesian township of Phlius, Echecrates encounters Phaedo of Elis, one of the men present during Socrates' final hours. Eager to hear the story from a first-hand source, Echecrates presses Phaedo to tell what happened. A number of Socrates' friends were gathered in his cell, including his old friend Crito and two Pythagorean philosophers, Simmias and Cebes. The account begins with Socrates proposing that though suicide is wrong, a true philosopher should look forward to death. The soul,...
1 Page 515 Words

A Contrast Between Apology and Crito, Two Works by Plato

In both of Plato’s works Apology, and Crito, Plato portrays his mentor, Socrates, as he goes through trial, and thereafter in which he refuses to escape his punishment. In ancient Athens Socrates is on trial for corrupting the youth, which in reality is a crime that he did not commit. During the trial Socrates gives an incredible speech on how his whole life he’s only sought virtue and in his elder years the only thing that he’s really known is...
4 Pages 1894 Words

Causes and Consequences of Toxic/Abusive Relationships and Relapsing

“A life that has for so long been controlled by manipulation and fear, So many times left broken and in tears. Broken bones and bruises followed by promises allowed to heal, Names and accusations, confusion at the appeal. Was its appeal, or just a distorted view?” (Ashley P.) This poem exhibits the act of an abusive relationship showing how the victim feels all of these toxic feelings, yet still has a love for their abuser. Society views relationships as a...
5 Pages 2226 Words
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