Socrates was the first of the three great philosophers of ancient Greece. He was born during the Golden Age in Athens. Socrates believed that there was a “universal truth” and that every citizen should seek it. He was told that he was the smartest person in the world, and he came to believe it after realizing that the only thing he knows is that he knows nothing. Then he began using the Socratic method to lead people to discover their universal truth. He asked people questions that challenged them to examine themselves so they could expose their truth. He believed that false beliefs were dangerous and that people should not follow the status quo. He was later arrested and convicted of crimes involving corrupting the minds of young people and was poisoned. Another Greek philosopher, Plato, was a student of Socrates. Plato had many beliefs similar to those of Socrates. He believed that it was the duty of society to enlighten people through the Socratic method. He believed that there should be a perfect society and made a whole plan to achieve his goal. One thing that is different about Plato is that he did not support Greek democracy. Plato believed in the philosopher king and that those responsible should be those who asked the questions and tried to get closer to the truth, or the philosophers. Finally, he established an academy to train people in thinking, knowledge and wisdom. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”?Get the original essay From historical sources, it is known that Socrates was Plato's teacher and that Socrates was Plato's senior by at least a few decades. For the rest, things become much less clear when we examine the relationship between these two founders of Western philosophy. Since Socrates never wrote anything, scholars rely entirely on the works of his students to discover who he was and what his philosophical ideas were. In Phaedrus, Plato presents a Socrates who says that writing is “inhuman, claiming to establish outside the mind what in reality can only be in the mind” (Phaedrus 275a). Socrates was a master of oral discourse and this was obviously his preferred method of engaging his interlocutors and teaching his students. However, when comparing the works of those who mention Socrates, contradictions arise and these works disagree in places. Kierkegaard believes that Xenophon is unreliable because he is superficial, Plato is unreliable because he tries to idealize his teacher, and Aristophanes is too strongly influenced by his nature as a comic playwright. Despite these inconsistencies, it is important to examine the works of these three individuals because it is the only way to begin to understand Socrates. Due to the very large amount of Plato's works that incorporate Socrates, Plato is generally the go-to source for examining Socrates' philosophy. Therefore, understanding the relationship between these two becomes extremely important. Many scholars, including Kierkegaard, consider the Apologies to be the only work that gives a truly reliable picture of the real Socrates. Some scholars extend this to include Euthyphro and Crito, as they also come from what many consider Plato's "early period." No one believes that Plato actually recorded Socrates' words or speeches verbatim, but nothing in the Apologies stands out as anything that Socrates would not have said during his historic trial. It is important to examine the four main points of view held by researchers. on Plato's dialogues and theirrepresentation of Socrates. These views all have very different implications for the relationship between Plato and Socrates. The first view, called the Unitarian view, holds that everything found in Plato's works is a single philosophy referred to as Platonic philosophy. The second view, called the literary atomist view, treats each dialogue as a complete literary work and says that all works can be interpreted without referring to other works, so there is no reason to group dialogues together. Essentially, these first two views give no reason to speak of Socratic philosophy, because everything Plato writes is his own philosophy. The third view, called the developmentalist view, emphasizes the differences between the early and later dialogues and asserts that these differences represent developments in Plato's own philosophical views. This theory divides Plato's works into two categories: Socratic and Platonic. This article defends the final view, called the historicist view. This view acknowledges the developments in Plato's dialogue, but attributes the earlier dialogues to Plato's desire to represent the historical Socrates. Later, however, Plato began to express his own opinions more freely in the mouth of Socrates. In Plato's "early" Socratic dialogues, Plato serves as Socrates' mouthpiece, because without Plato we would not know Socrates' philosophy. Socrates was particularly known for his dedication to careful reasoning. He desired much more than victory over his interlocutors, Socrates sought true knowledge. Socrates was willing to question everything and would accept nothing less than an adequate explanation of the nature of things. In the Apology, Socrates asserts that “the unexamined life is not worth living” (Apology 38a) and that “there is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance” (Apology 28a). Socrates saw his mission as awakening the citizens of Athens and helping them live examined lives (Apology 30e). He simply asked questions to denounce the confusions of his interlocutors, while asserting his own ignorance on the subject. This method became known as the Socratic method. Through his Socratic method, Socrates began to present his own philosophical thoughts, most of which were ethical positions. Socrates held that only virtue is good in itself: whatever is good is good because of its capacity to serve or be used for or through virtue (Apology 30b; Euthydemus 281d-e). Socrates also asserted that committing injustice harms the soul, the most precious thing, and that it is therefore better to suffer injustice than to commit it (Republic I. 353d – 354a). As part of this primarily ethical discussion facilitated by Socrates, some of his other views also emerged, relating to topics such as religion, politics, and epistemology. In the Crito, Socrates proposes that if a citizen has agreed to live in a state, he must always obey the laws of that state, the only alternative being to change the law or leave the state (Crito 51b-c, 52a- d). From a psychological point of view, Socrates believed that any wrongdoing is done in ignorance, because everyone desires only what is good (Protagoras 352a-c; Gorgias 468b). However, in the midst of Plato's dialogues, Socrates is suddenly ready to defend his own interests. theories on many topics he considers important. This is what marks the transition to Platonic dialogues. Plato's views on philosophy did not evolve at all; he simply moves away from his previous method of representing the. 2015.