Paper Topic:

short essay

Running head : APOLOGY OF SOCRATES

Plato 's The Apology of Socrates Abstract

If there 's a saying The pen is mightier than the sword ' then I say that The tongue is mightier than the sword ' Language and speech has often been used to influence the thoughts of man to a great extent Today , we owe a lot to Socrates and people like Socrates for the development of our philosophies through the clever use of speech and language . The art of speaking has a lot of power to convince people Socrates has

contributed highly in this art . It is a presentation of ideas in chronological , giving a clear picture in the minds of listeners so that they could develop a thought . A study of this art in this essay will be done using Plato 's Apology

Plato 's The Apology of Socrates

1 . In Plato 's Apology , Socrates repeatedly says that his entire life can be understood as a fulfillment of a divine mission , that is , as if it were guided by God . Explain how this statement appears to make sense . In your answer , give a detailed account of the role played by the Delphic oracle in Socrates ' choice of philosophy as his mode of life . How do you account for his reported faith in the oracle in view of his repeated confessions of ignorance

First of all , let me quote from Apology : but the truth is , O men of Athens , that God only is wise and in this oracle he means to say that the wisdom of men is little or nothing he is not speaking of Socrates he is only using my name as an illustration , as if he said , He , O men is the wisest , who , like Socrates , knows that his wisdom is in truth worth nothing (Plato . These are the words of Socrates when he was on trial . Socrates believed that God had given him a purpose here : to educate people about the truth . He is just a messenger or a medium used by God to open the eyes of men . There were a lot of bad ethics around and people are just blind to see what 's really happening , so he 's there to reveal the naked truth . He even compared himself to a gadfly on a lazy horse ' and without him to sting the horse will still be lazy (Plato . Socrates found out about his holy ' purpose after the oracle said that was wiser than him . What the oracle said riddled him and he took it that he represented man ' and nothing was wiser than man So in that he , as man , is basically ignorant and clueless after all . There are much more things to learn in to gain wisdom . So Socrates told everybody , even the conceited society that they know nothing , and was greatly abhorred by everyone as a consequence . I think Socrates is childlike (in a positive way ) about accepting the truth from the oracle He is open-minded and brave...

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