Lesson Two :

SOCRATES

1. SIGNIFICANCE OF SOCRATES.
Socrates developed a philosophy which, through his own teachings and the teachings of
his immediate followers, especially Plato and Aristotle, eventually won the attention and
respect of thinking men everywhere. All the information about Socrates that we have come to
us by Plato and Xenophon because Socrates himself could not read or write. The Greek thinker,
Socrates, found that his fellow citizens were given to discussing problems connected with
such notions as goodness, justice, and temperance, but they glibly assumed that every body
knew what was meant by these terms .He began to question them about the things they
claimed to know and, as a result of his cross-examination, he asserted that he was wiser than
the wisest of his fellows. They thought they understood what they were discussing but in
reality they were ignorant about it. He claimed to be wiser than they were because although he
was ignorant , he realized his ignorance. He called this method of searching about the truths
by asking leading questions , Maieutics; the art of giving birth to ideas.
He declared that he did not know anything and that his aim in life was to learn, not
to teach something, nor to transmit knowledge. For the Greeks of his time, Socrates was a
sophist. However, he differed from them in many respects.

● First, he did not really have pupils since he never gave lessons: as he knew nothing, he
transmitted nothing .
● Second, he did not ask for any salary ,hence he talked to young people.
● Moreover, the sophists were his adversaries. He criticized them all the time, not in
their absence, but in their presence in a dialogue exchange.
● Finally, in his numerous discussions, he wanted more to learn than to teach. He
inverted thus the role of the sophist by becoming the pupil of his pupils.

2. PHILOSOPHER AND TEACHER.

Socrates was a man of dialogue. He liked to talk to young people particularly,

but also to great sophist teachers, nobles, soldiers, ordinary citizens; in short, to everyone. He
was interested in what people thought they knew, in their certainties, beliefs, ideas,
knowledge. His method was called maieutics, . It consisted of discussing with others, letting
them express their own ideas and asking them questions about the meaning and definition of
the notions they use. Socrates was the first to understanding the necessity of defining the
words people used in order to arrive at an agreement. He is the inventor of definition. Thus,
he led people to think by themselves, rather than to repeat ready made ideas, prejudices and
traditional beliefs. The aim of maieutics is ,therefore, to lead people to use their minds and to
discover Truth by themselves. Socrates emphasized the search for Truth rater than the
accumulation of knowledge.

Socrates devoted most of his adult life to the development of a philosophy and to
teaching those followers who attached themselves to his dialogue discussion groups. Socrates
was distinctive for:
a. Devotion to Ethics an attitude which influenced all later Greek philosophers.
 b. Development of the Inductive Method of reasoning.

c. Linking Knowledge to Happiness. He believed that knowledge, or insight, was the

foundation of virtue and happiness.

d. Rationalism. Socrates believed that man was capable of arriving at truth through the
use of reason.

3. TRIAL AND DEATH. Socrates, at age seventy, was brought to trial on charges that he
was an atheist and a corrupter of youth. He was found guilty and was sentenced to death. On
the order of his judges, Socrates drank poison hemlock and died. The trial and the last days
and death of Socrates are described by Plato in the dialogues Apology, Crito, and Phaedo.

4. SOCRATIC METHOD. Athens became the classroom of Socrates. He went about asking
questions of authorities and of the man in the street in order to arrive at political and ethical
truths. He questioned groups of his students as a means of instruction, to compel them to think
a problem through to a logical conclusion. His dialectic method, or method of investigating
problems through dialogue discussions, came to be known as the Socratic method. It
involved:
1. SOCRATIC IRONY. Socrates pretended that he knew no answers. His assumed
ignorance or willingness to learn from others was the background for adroit
questioning to reveal the t truth or expose the error of the answers he received.

2. DEFINITION. The initial question usually required the definition of the concept.

3. ANALYSIS. Subsequent questions elicited an analysis of the definition in all its

implications.

4. GENERALIZATIONS. After examining all of the particular applications and

consequences of the concept, Socrates reasoned, or persuaded his students to reason, from the
particular to the general, or by the process of induction, to reach a general conclusion.

4. THE EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS OF SOCRATIC THOUGHT.

The contribution of Socrates to the history of education consists of fostering the idea that
education is not a process of transmitting or imposing a content o r a norm. It is rather a
process of training within which the learner is required to assume his own thoughts, his
convictions and life orientations by using his mind. According to Socratic philosophy,
education is related to the idea of discussions without violence during which the participants
expose their respective points of view by using arguments that are susceptible of persuading
the participants. For Socrates, discussion is a means of education. Therefore, the contributions
of Socrates to education were:

1. TEACHING METHOD. The Socratic method offers the following advantages to teaching
act:

a. Problem Centered. The dialectic begins with a problem which must be

analyzed, e.g. "What is your opinion about the nature of justice?"
 b. Based Upon Student Experience. The student responds on the basis of his
own knowledge and experience.

c. Critical Thinking. The student is held responsible for his statements. The
teacher analyzes some of the possible consequences of the student's remarks.
The emphasis is upon the thinking processes of the student, who must think for
himself and accept the consequences of his logic.

d. Teaching Is a Drawing Forth Rather Than a Telling. In the Socratic method

the teacher does not tell the student the proper answer. He draws from the
student the probable answer.

e. Learning Is Discovery. The student learns when he discovers the true

generalization through his reasoning processes.

Conclusion :

The difference between a philosopher like Socrates and a Sophist like Georgas
is the same between a doctor and a cook. The philosopher (like a doctor )
aims at what is best (; the truth), not at what is pleasant, for he enjoins people
to take the bitter draughts, and compels them to hunger and thirst . The
Sophist (like a cook) , however , flatter (with opinion) people with sweetmeats
(rhetoric).

● For the sophists, being educated means to know how to speak, how to argue.
● For Socrates, being educated means to know how to develop logical
argumentations to convince others' of one's point of view.