Name: Adesina Oluwadamilare

Course: philosophy

Matric no: law/2020/1083

Course code: phi 102

Course title: introduction to philosophy ii

Lecturer : Mrs YUSUF

Concept of virtues as a knowledge

Socrates equated knowledge with virtue According to him "knowledge is virtue". He believed that
ignorance was the cause of wrong doing,for no man in his view,who really knows what is wrong would
do it. Wickedness is due to ignorance; if a man knows what is right he would do it, and if he knows what
it is evil he would refrain from it,for no one ever does evil knowingly. Virtue and good action follow from
knowledge, while wrong doing is the result of ignorance. The goal of life is happiness, and the only path
that lead to this goal is virtue. "By knowledge" Socrates did not mean an abstract knowledge of physics
or mathematics, but the knowledge of virtue,that is, moral knowledge. Socrates was not interested in
speculative knowledge that has no bearing on humans conduct. He was a moralist and indeed the first
moral philosopher in the west.

It should be noted that once we know ourselves, we may learn how to care for ourselves. This concept
will lead us to Socrates theory.

"KNOW YOURSELF"

By"Knowledge"Socrates meant deep personal conviction. Socrates method of teaching was "dialectic"
i.e methods of seeking or acquiring knowledge through questions and answers. His method was also
that of inductive reasoning i.e beginning with particular cases and ending up in the universal knowledge
as a conclusion. Socrates gave no lectures to large group of people; rather he taught by conversing with
people, asking them questions and helping them to seek the answers. He was convinced that man had
knowledge within them,and that all they needed was somebody to help them bring out this knowledge
from within them. Everyman, as it were, is pregnant woman, he needs a "midwife" to help bring out the
knowledge.

Hence, Socrates described himself as a midwife, but in a different sense, he carried out this task of
helping people to bring out the knowledge within them by asking questions during conversation and
helping them to think out the answers by themselves. He asked people for definition of terms and
concepts. He would, for example ask somebody to define justice, to define law,or to define man, etc.
From particular instances of Justice or law etc. He would direct to the universal definition of Justice, the
universal definition of law, and the universal definition of man and so on.
Contrary to the relativism and scepticism of the sophists, Socrates was convinced that there was no
objective and universal knowledge attainable by man and his aim was to lead men to this knowledge so
that in the light of it they could live a good life. Socrates therefore strongly opposes to the relatism and
scepticism of the sophists. It can be deduced that Socrates helped people in bringing out the knowledge
in them through deliberate dialogue. This analyse the concept that we can be help of of help to
ourselves through his analysed theory. This concept we lead us to Socrates attention on self-knowledge.

According to Socrates when he told the people of Athens that his mission was to "persuade everyone
among you that he must look into himself, and seek virtue and wisdom before he looks into his private
interest". It is because some men do not look into themselves and therefore do not know themselves
that they are ignorant of their ignorance. Socrates therefore advocated frequent reflection and self
questioning. To find what by means? These two questions are fundamental.

The what at first, indeed, this invitation to introspection must be connected to the platonic theory of
reminiscence. Everyon, says Socrates, has the knowledge itself, just remember them. Knowledge is
inherentin man, not outside. Wisdom is learning to recollect.

How, then, this knowledge of oneself can be achieved only through the Socratic method, that is to say,
the dialogue between the soul and itself, or between questioner, as an attendant emitional. Socrates
questions because he knows nothing, not she knows nothing, has nothing to learn, but it can help it
follwers to discover the truth they have in them.

Without this work on yourself,life is worthless according to Socrates:

"An unexamined life not worth living"

Philosophy does not mean, as in the sophists, the acquisition of knowledge but a way of questioning, to
challenge,a form of self-conern.

Socrates believed we should find confidence in own beliefs and not be too swayed by others. Obviously
you can't learn if you don't stay open to other beliefs, but it is important we form our own beliefs by
looking at situations objectively- meaning trying to remove most of the bias,emotion and look at the
facts.

Well, most people create their own beliefs and we are all special snow flakes already.

Deep questioning

Well, suppose you did attempt to try Socrates advice from above and doubt our sanity by asking "why
do I think this,and do others don't". You could then use this to determine who and what to follow by
asking yourself and others some questions on life. Like, why do you live the life your are leading? Or,
how do you think life should be lived? Most of us don't even stop to think about these types of
questions because we are stuck in a trace where single second can't be spared to introspect. This is
ironic because spending time thinking is the only way to get clarity and evaluate what you are doing.
Socrates was pretty lucky because he got to collect data points on all types of people and what they
were doing, to optimise for his own life. He noticed as he started question more rich people, they
couldn't explain why they had money and other6 didn't. And with the more confident people,he also
started to notice in adequcies.

He concluded that " regardless of wealth, a wise person will use money the right way, taking to account
virtue and self-actualization( the holistic concept of wisdom), while the ignorant one will be wasteful.
"Money is hence merely a conditional good".

Man, he was so right. But you know what is even mind blowing are that ? The statement above is still
super applicable if you switch the word with time. A wise person will use their time in a right way while
an ignorant one will be wasteful. You can always earn money but you can't just learn more time in life.

That's why the wisest people spend most time investing....wait for it.. in their soul and personal
development. Spending time learning and growing, taking unconventional paths and making decisions
that make sense for yourself instead of just following the herd- all of which has a much greater chance
of success. So why don't we do this? Socrates thought everyone has the duty or reflect on life. "...once
we know ourselves, we may learn how to care for ourselves, but otherwise we never shall". It is a little
overwhelming, but that's not an excuse. We should all overcome laziness and timidity and understand
2nya we think, and stand by it. Socrates was an excellent model of intelligent non-conformity. He didn't
just challenge common beliefs and idealogies for the sake of it, but he did to understand the truth and
develop his own ideas. Socrates was pretty bamboozled by the fact that most people actually most
people actually believe that you can just come up with good ideas without having to think hard about
them. It's similar to making a painting- you can't just expect to have the depth of Picasso's work with a
couple of strokes.it takes time and effort and attention to detail. That's why he created his own method
of developing new ideas. Socrates found that this fellow citizens cared more for wealth, reputation, and
their bodies while neglecting their souls (Apology 29d- 30b).He believed that his mission from the god
was to examine his fellow citizens and persuade them that the most important good for a human being
was the health of the soul. Wealth, he insisted does not bring about human excellence or virtue, but
virtue makes wealth and everything else good for human beings (Apology 30b). In this context,.it must
be noted that, the last" But otherwise, we never shall" will be examined below. Actually the leaders of
Athens never care for their subjects, all they care for was themselve, this is what Socrates was talking
about that it is the duty of everyone to care for one another as a medical doctor cares for the patients. It
can be deduced that the people of leaders of Athens were corrupt leader, this is what Socrates frowned
at. Socrates believes that this mission of caring for souls extends to the entirety of Athens. Heargues
that the god gave him to the city as a gift and that his mission is to help improve the city. Hethus
attempts to show thatge us not guilty of impiety precisely because everything he dies is in response to
the Oracle and the service of the god. Socrates characterizes himself as a gadfly and the city as a sluggish
horse in need of stirring.

REFERENCES
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Cross,R.C.andWoozley,A.D.Plato’sRepublic:APhilosophicalCommentary(NewYork:St.Martin’sPress, 1964

White,NicholasP.ACompaniontoPlato’sRepublic(Indianapolis:Hackett,1979).

Annas,Julia.AnIntroductiontoPlato’sRepublic(Oxford:OxfordUniversityPress,1981).

Reeve,C.D.C.PhilosopherKings:TheArgumentofPlato’sRepublic(Princeton:PrincetonUniversityPress,1988)
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Howland,Jacob.TheRepublic:TheOdysseyofPhilosophy(Philadelphia:PaulDryBooks 2004

Rosen,Stanley.Plato’sRepublic:AStudy(NewHaven:YaleUniversityPress,2005