Ethical thought of the Ancient Greece Socrates

Sophists
Protagoras and Gorges
Relativism and objectivism;
“A man is a measure of everything”;

SOCRATES

THE HUMAN TORPEDO
Born in Athens on 470 B.C. (his mother was an obstetrician)
A soldier in the Peloponnesian War (Battles of Potidaea, Delium, and Amphipolis)
Breaking the Athenian ideal of kalòs kai agathos (not a beautiful man)
A simple life (with his wife and kids) dedicated entirely to philosophy as a never ending search (lead by a Daemon)
He left no writings (Phedros 275 e): the problem of fonts (Aristophanes, Policrates, Xenophon, Plato, Aristotle)

SOCRATES AND THE SOPHISTS
Common issues:
Anti-conformism and anti-traditionalism: a rational search driven by an unconventional and critical attitude
2) Inclined to dialectic and paradoxes

SOCRATES MORALITY
A new concept of virtue (αρετέ, areté)?
Virtue: the optimal realization of an inner quality (for example, cheetahs’ virtue is speed, lions’ virtue is strength). Traditionally it was something already given by birth or Gods.
With the Sophist and Socrates in particular virtue becomes a value and a goal that should be pursued through education.
Virtue is devotion to research and knowledge: a critical reflection on existence that leads to the concept of living life as an adventure disciplined by reason

The Death of Socrates

THE DEATH OF SOCRATES
399 BC Trial and Execution
Plato’s Apology and Crito
Accuse: impiety (not recognizing the traditional Gods and trying to introduce new ones) and corruption of city’s young men.
Requested punishment: death
Defense: glorification of his educational vocation
Judgment: exile or a punishment adequate to the verdict
Socrates’ statement: he was disposed to pay a fine, but he suggested that the Polis should recognize his merits providing public money for for his livelihood
Verdict: Death
Possible different end proposed by his friends: To Escape and Live in Exile
Socrates’ answer: if he escapes he would be unjust because he would not respect the Laws of the Polis (which can be challenged and changed, but not refused or the life of the Polis would collapse)
Death by poison

Socrates Imprisoned
Socrates has been condemned to death by a jury in a (formally) regular trial
The sentence will be executed when the ship from Delos will arrive: a religious celebration during which any execution was forbidden

Good Life
Not doing evil in return of evil
(Gandhi “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind”)
+ Leo Tolstoy (non-resistance);
+ Pacifism

The example of Socrates
Socrates as an example of civil disobedience
Challenging a decision (or a law, but not the entire system of laws) because it is considered unjust with reference to a moral system that (although not necessarily shared) is understandable by other citizens (for example, contesting a law in the USA on the basis of the Spirit of the Constitution)
The challenge should be staged in a public space (otherwise the action would not be different from a criminal act)
The actor should take full responsibility for what he does and be ready to pay the price (for example, going to jail)

Cynics
Diogenes: born in Sinopec, 4th c. B.C.
“mad Socrates” – a nickname;
His ethics was his lifestyle;
“cynic” = dog;
His philosophy was his lifestyle;
Jokes and proverbs about Diogenes.
Influence modern cynics even on the 20h century.

Cyrenaics
Aristippus: the city of Cyrene;
The foundation of hedonism!;
The power of us controlling the destiny;
Hegessies: no life without satisfaction and desires.

Epicure
Hedonism and Eudemonic philosophy
“Epicurean Garden”
Works: “On Nature”; “On atoms and emptiness”; “On Gods”; “On Nature”
Separation of pains and pleasures;
Happiness is pleasure;
Is hedonism an immoralism?
Why do people suffer?
What is fear? What is hope?
ATARAXIS;

Epicure
What is a “sweet life”?
Our wishes often are too strong;
3 types of wishes: natural; natural, but not necessary; unnatural and unnecessary

Stoicism
Greece and Rome;
Total opposition to hedonism;
Why must a man suffer?
What is glory after all?
What is a human life?