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TRANSCRIPT
PLATO’S “APOLOGY OF SOCRATES”
SEPTEMBER 12, 2019INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY
COURSE BUSINESS
Required Reading Next Week:
Plato “Meno”
Gettier “Is Justified True Belief Knowledge?”
Zagzebski, “The Inescapability of Gettier Problems” (*)
NOT Required:
What is Knowledge? [Introduction] pp. 133-37
New Office Hours: Tues / Thurs 2:30 - 3:30
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PLATO’S CAVE [REVISITED]
“THE DIVIDED LINE”
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WORLD OF FORMS
WORLD OF APPEARANCES
Form of CatForm of Circle
Cats [in the world] Circles [in the world]
WHAT WE KNOW
WHAT WE SEE
PLATO’S CAVE [REVISITED]
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PLATO’S CAVE [REVISITED]
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PLATO’S CAVE [REVISITED]
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THE TRIAL OF SOCRATES
4 DIALOGUES: TRIAL AND EXECUTION OF SOCRATES EUTHYPHRO
APOLOGY PHAEDO
CRITO
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THE TRIAL OF SOCRATES
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FIRST ACCUSATION
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FIRST ACCUSATION
“Socrates does injustice and is meddlesome, by investigating the things under the earth and the heavenly things, and by making the weaker speech the stronger, and by teaching others these same things.”
ACCUSATION # 1: Socrates is a SOPHIST!
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SOCRATE’S REBUTTAL # 1
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SOCRATE’S REBUTTAL # 1
Slanderous!
Oracle of Delphi proclaims Socrate’s the wisest man
Socrates’s investigation — attempting to refute the Oracle
Results… “when I considered him and conversed with him, men of Athens, I was affected something like this: it seemed to me that this man seemed to be wise, both to many other human beings and most of all to himself, but that he was not. And then I tried to show him that he supposed he was wise, but was not. So from this I became hateful both to him and to many of those present.”
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SOCRATE’S REBUTTAL # 1
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SOCRATE’S REBUTTAL # 1
Wisdom is not supposing you know something when you know nothing
“[the sophist] supposes he knows something when he does not now, while I [Socrates], just as I do not know, do not even suppose that I do.”
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SOCRATE’S REBUTTAL # 1
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SECOND ACCUSATION
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SECOND ACCUSATION
“it asserts that Socrates does injustice by corrupting the young, and by not believing in the gods in whom the city believes, but in other daimonia that are novel.”
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SOCRATES’S REBUTTAL # 2
“Then, however, I showed again, not in speech but in deed, that I do not even care about death in any way at all—if it is not too crude to say so — but that my whole care is to commit no unjust or impious deed.”
None of Socrates’s students accuse him of corruption
Not begging — to do so: CONTRADICTION IN TERMS
Arguing the Merits — Justices judge what is just
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THE VERDICT
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THE VERDICT
Court’s Opinion:
Sentence Socrates to DEATH
Socrates’s Opinion:
Athens should be his benefactor
“What, then, am I worthy to suffer, being such as this? Something good, men of Athens, at least if you give me what I deserve according to my worth in truth—and besides, a good of a sort that would be fitting for me. What, then, is fitting for a poor man, a benefactor, who needs to have leisure to exhort you?"
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DEATH AND THE BEYOND
Should Socrates fear death?
Death is either…
1. The last and longest sleep [e.g. nothingness]
2. Death is route to immortality [topic of Phaedo]
Conclusion:
Living dishonourable is worse than death
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NEXT WEEK
What is Knowledge?
Plato “Meno”
Gettier “Is Justified True Belief Knowledge?”
Zagzebski, “The Inescapability of Gettier Problems” (*)
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