Socrates

[ReVoLuTiOnArY-BrOtHeR]

Comrades, I would just like to know the variety of perspectives concerning Socrates.

[Weezer]

Regardless whether he was made up by Plato or not, Socrates is one of my favorite philosophers and persons.

[ReVoLuTiOnArY-BrOtHeR]

Regardless whether he was made up by Plato or not, Socrates is one of my favorite philosophers and persons.

I agree with you comrade. People say he sucked due to his thoughts but he was very intellectual.

[Calmwinds]

To me he is some sort of prophet for all people interested in philosophy, his entire persona whether factual or not is completely heroic. He is a good man, and he platonifies(lol) much of what is good in a leader.

[Belisarius]

i like him as a historical figure. there has hardly been anyone in history who was as straight-forward, witty, solid and subversive as Socrates was. he was great at criticizing the ruling ideology of his day.

but on the other hand his suggestions in what the state should actually be like wasn't that democratic. he wanted a totalitarian state and he believed that the people were all stupid and unworthy of rights. he wanted a ruling aristocracy in stead. he projected these beliefs on to his students (Plato's "republic" is totalitarian and militartistic and several of his students organised coups to defeat democracy and return to aristocratic rule (most of his students were frustrated aristocrats by the way))

[narcomprom]

but on the other hand his suggestions in what the state should actually be like wasn't that democratic.
Wasn't Plato related to one of the Tyrants?

[Dimentio]

i like him as a historical figure. there has hardly been anyone in history who was as straight-forward, witty, solid and subversive as Socrates was. he was great at criticizing the ruling ideology of his day.

but on the other hand his suggestions in what the state should actually be like wasn't that democratic. he wanted a totalitarian state and he believed that the people were all stupid and unworthy of rights. he wanted a ruling aristocracy in stead. he projected these beliefs on to his students (Plato's "republic" is totalitarian and militartistic and several of his students organised coups to defeat democracy and return to aristocratic rule (most of his students were frustrated aristocrats by the way))

Socrates ~ "Question everything"

Plato ~ "Give all the power to the philosophers"

At least that is how I'm interpreting it.

[Belisarius]

Socrates ~ "Question everything"

Plato ~ "Give all the power to the philosophers"

At least that is how I'm interpreting it.
Socrates didn't really question everything, rather everyone. he lived in an environment of relativist sophists and he wanted to keep the belief in universal truths (stuff like the Truth, Reason or Love). he questioned everyone who thought he knew the answer to discover that noweone had it. but he didn't draw the conclusion that then there maybe aren't any universals. he believed that by asking the right questions you can get the truth out of someone (his example is that he made a slave understand a mathematical theorem by just asking him questions).

Plato indeed wanted all the power to the philosophers because philosophers know these universal truths, socrates was talking about. he called them Ideas or Forms (for any earthly changeable tree there exists a universal Essence of "Treeness", according to Plato). so you can see that plato is actually the radical consequence from Socrates.

[Belisarius]

Wasn't Plato related to one of the Tyrants?
ha had relations with a lot of tyrants. he went twice to a dictatorship in Sicilia, but was twice expelled. and he knew all of those aristocrat rebels i talked about, since they were all students of Socrates.