Socrates’s

perspective of
Understanding the self
SOCRATE
S
(470-399
BC)
 BIOGRAPHY

 Father of ethical philosophy

 Son of a sculptor and midwife
 Sculptor
 Married with three children
 Served as city councilor
 Teacher of Plato and Xenophon
 Pre-Socratics
Greek thinkers concerned
with answering questions
such as
 What is the world really
made up of?
 Why the world the way it is
 What explains the changes
that happen around us
 Socrates

• Focused about the problem of the self

• Engaged in a systematic questioning about the self
• to know one self
 “Every person is
dualistic”

BODY SOUL
The three components of the
soul
RATIONAL
SOUL

MA
N
SPIRITED APPETITIV
SOUL E SOUL
 Teaching about self

• The unexamined life is not worth living

• If we spend our lives examining and criticizing ourselves, our
psyches become strong
• In seeking goodness, justice, truth and self knowledge, we will
not become self-satisfied, bigoted and ignorant
• We may not find what we seek, but the life we live will be the one
that strengthen our inner selves
• Our interior life is the most important part of life
• Our soul is healthy when it seeks goodness, truth, justice, and
self knowledge
• A soul in a search of wealth, fame and power becomes weak,
sickly and ignorant
Source:
https://www.slidesharenet