Socrates and Superiority

Socrates and Superiority

I propose a n alternative interpretation of the Crito. The arguments tha t a re typically taken to be Socrates’ primary arguments against escape are actually supplementary arguments that rely on what I call the Superiority Thesis, the thesis tha t the s ta te and i ts citizens a re members of a moral hierarchy where those below are tied by bonds of obligation to those above. I provide evidence ...

Misunderstanding Socrates

THE NOTION OF A Socratic PHILOSOPHY, as distinct from what is commonly known as Platonism, has its origins in the work of Gregory Vlastos1 and continues today through the scholars he has influenced.2 The Socratic movement in Plato studies maintains that one can identify in certain Platonic dialogues a philosophical method and a collection of philosophical theses which may properly be attributed...

Kierkegaard , Socrates and Existential Individuality

The 19 century Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard was a profoundly religious thinker. He is also regarded as the father of Existentialism, one of the most important philosophical movements of the 20 century. The term ‘existentialist’ is applied to those philosophers, like Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus, who held that the foundation of all philosophical thought is to be found in the actual,...

Socrates and Plato on Poetry

Teaching Socrates, Aristotle, and Augustine on Akrasia

A long-standing debate among moral philosophers centers on the question of whether ignorance is always at the root of moral wrongdoing, or whether, in certain cases, wrongdoing stems from something else—namely akrasia. This paper is a discussion of how undergraduate core curriculum teachers can incorporate Augustine’s work into this debate. I begin by briefly reconstructing Socrates’ and Aristo...