Essay on Socrates Philosophy

The main questions that many Greek philosophers ask themselves is how should we live. Just like Russell, Socrates is also is also concerned with knowing the purpose of life and the main factors that make life meaningful. Also, Socrates is also concerned with the human nature, where he asks some questions such as the main reasons that make people do things in the manner that they do. In his what is considered to be his famous mantra, which states, the unexamined life is not worth living, Socrates explains to us what is ideally considered as the main goal of human beings? He affirms that to live a quite meaningful life; people should know the reasons why they live and the role they should play in the world.

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In the first paragraph, where he starts by lending an apology regarding his style of addressing things. To my observation, I think that Socrates is not complementing his accusers, who he classifies into two categories; nameless accuser and professes accusers. He states that the nameless accusers are the public opinions, and are proud to regard him as an evil-doer, while he adds that the second group believes that Socrates is a corrupter of youth.

Socrates believes he is on trial depending on the things that he is accused of. For example, being regarded as an evil person, corrupter, and curious person is some of the things he should clear all about himself.

He gives a story of his friend Chaerephon who went to Delphi in a quest to inquire from Oracle whether there was anybody wiser than Socrates. However, he got a response that none was wiser than Socrates. This motivated him to go to different people such as politicians, poets, and craftsmen so that he could ask them who they considered being the wisest person, but to his surprise, a good number of them had no idea about it.

While dealing with his second accusation, Socrates meets Meletus; he draws his accusation to Meno, where he wonders that, if he is the corrupter, who the improver of the citizens is. I think while responding to Meletus on the issue of corruption and youths, Socrates is funny enough since he ascertains that everyone is corrupt. Also, while still responding to Meletus on whether he believes in god or not, Socrates states that he trusts in an existence of gods although according to him, it is absurd.

Moreover, on the issue of death, Socrates believes that no one should fear it. However, people should live a good life to the point that they should not fear the spirit of death. As long as he is living, Socrates states that he will stop practice and teaching of philosophy since it helps him improve the soul and search for the truth at any given time from different people. Socrates also believes that wisdom is the most valuable thing since one discovers many new things at any given time.

I agree with Socrates when he states that if you kill such a one as I am, you will injure yourselves more than you will injure me, since if you kill a person full of knowledge such as Socrates, the killer will be left being asked many questions and also being interrogated and will not live in peace. Therefore, such person will have hurt himself more.

The words, For if you think that by killing men you can avoid the accuser censuring your lives, you are mistaken; that is not a way of escape which is either possible or honorable; the easiest and noblest way is not to be crushing others, but to be improving yourselves. Means that a person should not be concerned with creating harm and discomfort to others. However, one should always aim at improving their lives and subsequently add value to it. There is no one who becomes better by destroying other people; improvement is realized when one values and respects the deeds of other people.