Inspiration from the Past: Philosophical Reflections for Today's Challenges (original) (raw)
Related papers
Nicholas D. Smith: Socrates on Self-Improvement. Knowledge, Virtue, and Happiness.
Ancient Philosophy, 2023
In this book review, I discuss Smith’s new interpretation of Socrates' epistemology of virtue, according to which (a) Socratic virtue knowledge is craft knowledge (knowing how to live well), and such knowledge comes in degrees; and (b) Socrates has a certain degree of virtue knowledge, and one does not have to be an inerrant expert to have any virtue knowledge at all. I argue that Smith succeeds in presenting Socratic philosophy in a new light, while also pointing to remaining questions about his account of virtue—specifically, about what exactly the craft of virtue is and how we can practice it and thereby improve ourselves.
Practical Wisdom: Aristotle meets Positive Psychology
Journal of Happiness Studies, 2006
The strengths and virtues identified by positive psychology are treated as logically independent, and it is recommended that people identify their ''signature'' strengths and cultivate them, because more of a strength is better [Peterson and Seligman: 2004, Character Strengths and Virtues: A Handbook and Classification (Oxford University Press, New York); Seligman: 2002, Authentic Happiness (Free Press, New York)]. The present paper contrasts that view with the Aristotelian view that virtues are interdependent, that happiness (eudaimonia) requires all the virtues, and that more of a virtue is not always better than less. We argue that practical wisdom is the master virtue essential to solving problems of specificity, relevance, and conflict that inevitably arise whenever character strengths must be translated into action in concrete situations. We also argue that practical wisdom is becoming increasingly difficult to nurture and display in modern society, so that attention must be paid to reshaping social institutions to encourage the use of practical wisdom rather than inhibiting it.
Socrates on the Human Condition
In his third speech in Plato’s Apology, Socrates consoles those jurors who voted for him by telling them that “death is one of two things”—either annihilation or a transfer to another place. In either case, he says, death would be an “advantage.” Scholars have understood this passage and several others to be found in Plato’s early or Socratic dialogues, as an indication that Socrates accepted that virtue is necessary for happiness (VNH). For Socrates, and all the rest of us who lack virtue, the consequence is that death is an advantage because we can never actually achieve happiness in life. In this paper, I review the textual evidence for attributing VNH to Socrates, and claim that the attribution is mistaken: Socrates did not hold such an extreme view about the human condition, and should be understood, instead, as holding the far more plausible view that human beings who do not achieve complete virtue may nevertheless enjoy some degree of happiness if they make it their mission to “become as wise as possible.”
Socrates on Socrates: Looking Back to Bring Philosophy Forward
In this paper, I explore three autobiographical narratives that Plato’s Socrates tells: his report of his conversations with Diotima (Symposium 201d–212b), his account of his testing of the Delphic oracle (Apology 21a–23a), and his description of his turn fromnaturalistic philosophy to his own method of inquiry (Phaedo 96a–100b).1 This Platonic Socrates shows his auditors how to philosophize for the future through a narrative recollection of his own past. In these stories, Plato presents us with an image of a Socrates who prepares others to do philosophy without him. In doing so, Plato’s Socrates exhibits philosophical care for his students. In the first part of the paper, I briefly discuss Socrates’ overall narrative style as Plato depicts it in the five dialogues that Socrates narrates. I then analyze each of these autobiographical accounts with an eye toward uncovering what they reveal about Plato’s presentation of Socrates’ philosophical practice.2 Finally, I offer a brief description of what it might mean to practice philosophy as care for self and care for others in a Socratic fashion.
Dialogue, 2013
University of the Witwatersrand The concept of human wisdom is fundamental for an understanding of the Apology. But it has not been properly understood. The received interpretations offer insufficient resources for explaining how Socrates could have been humanly wise before Apollo’s oracle, when he falsely believed that he was not wise at all. I argue that a satisfactory interpretation of human wisdom can be given in terms of “philosophia”. Socrates was humanly wise before the oracle because he loved wisdom—even though he did not know that he did. The analysis is confirmed by its resolution of some enduring difficulties in the interpretation of Apology, in particular, the question of why Socrates continued to search for knowledge he thought impossible to attain.La notion de sagesse humaine est fondamentale pour comprendre l’Apologie — mais elle n’a jamais été comprise correctement. Les interprétations généralement acceptées n’offrent pas assez d’éléments pour expliquer comment Socrate pouvait faire preuve d’une sagesse humaine devant l’oracle d’Apollon, alors qu’il croyait à tort ne pas être sage du tout. Je soutiens qu’une interprétation satisfaisante de la sagesse humaine est possible en termes de «philosophia». Socrate fut humainement sage devant l’oracle parce qu’il aimait la sagesse — même s’il ne savait pas qu’il l’aimait. L’analyse est confirmée par le fait qu’elle résout certaines difficultés bien établies de l’interprétation de l’Apologie, en particulier la question de savoir pourquoi Socrate continuait à chercher un savoir qu’il savait être hors d’atteinte.
Socrates, the Greatest Sophist
An anthology of philosohicl studies, v. 9
Nietzsche once said: " Aristophanes was right: Socrates was a Sophist ". Indeed, when we examine the Sophist, we note a suggestion that the most elevated sophists bear many similarities to the character of Socrates as depicted by Plato. Thus, at the end of the dialogue, at 268 c-d, the Stranger and Theaetetus seem to agree that: " He, then, who traces the pedigree of his art as follows – who, belonging to the conscious or dissembling (εἰρνωνικοῦ) section of the art of causing self-contradiction, is an imitator of appearance, and is separated from the class of the phantastic which is a branch of image-making into that further division of creation, the juggling of words, a creation human, and not divine – anyone who affirms the real Sophist to be of this blood and lineage will say the very truth. " In this paper, I will attempt to demonstrate that Socrates was a character situated between the Sophist and the philosopher, but a new kind of philosopher, of which he is the paradigm: the ironical, self-suspicious searcher of truth.
Socrates and the Socratic Philosophies
Socratica IV. Selected papers, 2020
Selected papers on the Socratic Philosophies peer-reviews by the Editorial Committee of the International Society for Socratic Studies.
Despite much ignorance (deliberate and accidental) and neglect, pre-modern literature, philosophy, and theology continue to matter greatly for us today. The quest for human happiness is never-ending, and each generation seems to go through the same process. But instead of re-inventing the proverbial wheel, we can draw on most influential and meaningful observations made already in late antiquity and the Middle Ages regarding how to pursue a good and hence a happy life. This paper examines the relevant treatises by St. Augustine and Boethius (late antiquity), and a religious tale by Gautier de Coincy (early thirteenth century). Each one of them already discussed at great length and in most convincing manner how human beings can work their way through false concepts and illusions and reach a higher level of epistemology and spirituality, expressed through the terms " happiness " and " goodness. "