Instruction
According to Jones, in a democracy is it dangerous for one to not go along with public opinion?
What does Jones say about this?
At Socrates's trial, what was one of the main charges against him?
According to Jones, did Socrates believe in god?
What does Jones say about this?
According to Jones, there was an ulterior motive for indicting Socrates. And it was the hatred that democratic Athens had for two kinds of people; people to which Socrates served as both a friend and a mentor. What kinds of people were these (not the actual people who are named, but what kind of people were they said to represent)?
According to Jones, what was the only way, understood by an Athenian jury, that a person on trial could successfully defend themselves?
Did Socrates lecture the jury (tasked with deciding whether he would get the death penalty) about their ignorance?
Did Socrates tell the jury (tasked with deciding whether he would get the death penalty) that the way he believed in the gods was far nobler than the way they believed in the gods?
According to Jones, was Socrates's real defense, as reported by Plato, directed at the jury or to future generations?
Did Socrates believe that his accusers described him truthfully to the jury?
What does the text say?
According to Socrates, who's prejudice and the dislike of him would be bring about his condemnation?
Does Socrates believe that he is about to be rightfully or wrongfully condemned?
What does the text say?
Does Socrates express any thoughts about whether (in the future) good men will be condemned in the same way that he has?
What does the text say?
What does Socrates say about those who fear death?
For Socrates, there is more than one kind of ignorance. What kind of ignorance does he call "the most reprehensible"?
Finish this famous sentence by Socrates: "...if I were to say that I am wiser in anything, it would be this,[__________________]."
What does Socrates say that Athens is famous for?
According to Socrates, there are three conditions which must be met if one is to avoid being shameful in their acquisition of wealth, reputation, and honor?
Does Socrates make a distinction between "foreigners" and "citizens"?
What does he say about his relationship with citizens?
Who does Socrates say commands him to never give up philosophy, never stop exhorting people, never stop pointing out the truth to people, and never stop impressing upon people the importance of wisdom, truth, and the perfection of the soul?
What did Socrates believe was the greatest good ever to come to pass in Athens?
Socrates believes that money and all good things come to both individuals and communities (states) from what?
Is Socrates willing to change his conduct if he is acquitted?
What does he say about this?
What reason does Socrates offer for why he only gave advice in private (as opposed to public assemblies)?
Does this reason go back to his childhood? What does he say about this?
Does this reason explain both why he refrains from certain things and engages in other things? What does he say about this?
Does Socrates's explanation imply that he had at one time thought about giving advice publicly? Explain.
What does Socrates say would have happened if he had instead gone into politics and spoken publicly?
W.T. Jones – Socrates In Prison, PP. 114-117 (Handout) (4 pp.)
Jones wants the reader to notice a certain kind of premise (appeal) offered by Crito for Socrates's escape, one which is rejected by Socrates; and some assumptions that are made by both Socrates and Crito. What are they?
Crito's [___________] appeals.
Assumption 1: [__________]
Assumption 2: [__________]
Assumption 3: [__________]
Does Socrates consider what will happen to his friends if the Athenian authorities find out that they helped him escape? What does the text say?
True or False: Socrates compares (a) the opinions of many to (b) the opinions of the one man who is educated about right and wrong and (c) to truth herself.
Which opinion(s) (directly above in number 3. ) does Socrates believe is/are the opinion(s) that ought to be considered and esteemed in relation to his escape? Choose only one from below:
(a)
(b)
(c)
(a) and (b)
(a) and (c)
(b) and (c)
(a), (b), and (c)
True of False: Socrates and Crito agree that it some ways we ought to do wrong intentionally.
True of False: Socrates and Crito agree that we ought to never do evil or wrong to anyone, no matter what they may have done to us.
True of False: Socrates and Crito agree that we do not have to honor our just agreements.
True of False: Socrates poses a hypothetical that the state of Athens comes to Socrates (anthropomorphically in a person) and asked whether his plans to escape were meant to undermine (destroy) Athens.
True or False: Initially, Crito indicates that he believes that he and Socrates ought to argue to the state of Athens that Socrates is morally justified in escaping prison and the death penalty because the state wronged Socrates by not judging his case rightly.
According to Socrates, which agreement did Socrates make with the state of Athens:
"I only agree to abide by cases that are judged rightly."
"I agree to abide by the verdicts pronounced by the state."
True or False: The following is a correct re-construction of the first hypothetical argument from Athens (anthropomorphized). If you believe that the answer is "false", then provide the correct reconstruction.:
P1: We (Athens) brought you into the world.
P2: We (Athens) nurtured you.
P3: We (Athens) gave you a share of all good things.
P4: We (Athens) proclaimed that anyone who is not pleased with us when he has become a man and has seen how we administer the city, may take his goods and go away wherever he likes.
P5: We (Athens) proclaimed that anyone who is not pleased with us when he has become a man and who has seen how we administer the laws, may take his goods and go away wherever he likes.
Conclusion: Anyone who remains in Athens when he has become a man, thereby enters into an agreement with us to do as we command.
True or False: The following is a correct re-construction of the second hypothetical argument from Athens (anthropomorphized). If you believe that the answer is "false", then provide the correct reconstruction.:
Conclusion: He who does not do as we (Athens) command, does wrong in three ways.
P1: He who does not do as we (Athens) command, disobeys us who are his parents.
P2: He who does not do as we (Athens) command, disobeys us who nurtured him.
P3: After agreeing to obey us (Athens), he neither obeys us nor convinces us that we are wrong.
P4: We gave him the opportunity to convince us that we are wrong.
P5: We did not roughly order him to do as we command.
Does Socrates believe that allowing Crito to help him escape prison would equal "breaking agreements and compacts" that he made with Athens? Explain.
Guidance on answering this question: To share the recording with the integrated audio transcript:
https://cccconfer.zoom.us/rec/share/kct5pgM_XLa-ohe4oAEggRJgyLwdRymFllyXzsP0fviv2mITRmFK_jgHH7MyTOo2.G5MwJGRm3HCe8ZkK (Links to an external site.)
Given all of the references (below) to reason and various forms of reference to divinity (i.e. God, divine, spirituality), what would you conclude is the nature of "God" and/or "divinity" for Socrates?
On page 112 of "Socrates' Trial"
"the gods" (plural, not capitalized)
On page 113 of "Socrates' Trial"
"the gods" (plural, not capitalized)
On page 113 of "Socrates' Trial"
"whether he be god (singular, not capitalized) or man"
On page 114 of "Socrates' Trial"
"the god (singular, not capitalized) commands me"
On page 114 of "Socrates' Trial"
"my service to the god (singular, not capitalized)"
On page 114 of "Socrates' Trial"
"something divine and spiritual comes to me"
"it is a sort of voice that comes to me"
"it always holds me back from what I am thinking of doing"
"[it] never urges me forward"
In "Socrates in Prison", in the introduction to the dialogue, on page 114, Jones says that both Socrates and Crito assume that:
"...objective values can be ascertained by a process of reasoning."
In "Socrates in Prison", early in the dialogue, on page 115, Socrates says to Crito
"...I am not only now but always a man who follows nothing but the reasoning which on consideration seems best..."
In "Socrates in Prison", on page 117, in the last comment of the dialogue, Socrates says
"Then, Crito, let it be, and let us act in this way, since it is in this way that God [singular, capitalized] leads us."
W.T. Jones – Socrates’ Death and Effects on Plato, PP. 117-118 (Handout) (2 pp.)
For Socrates, what is the reason why a person would be right to either prolong their life for a few hours or not prolong it?
Who is Socrates concerned might see him as ridiculous for clinging to a profitless few more hours of life?
Socrates mentions "some deity" for which he wants to use the hemlock to pour a libation to. And then he mentions "the gods" that he believes will grant his prayer that his "departure" be a fortunate one.
Is he here talking about the same kind of divinity that he talked about in "Socrates' Trial" and in "Socrates in Prison"? Explain.
Does this mean that Socrates believed that he would continue to exist upon his death? Explain.
Does this need to be made logically consistent with his prior claim on page 113 of "Socrates' Trial" that "To fear death...is nothing else than to think one is wise when one is not; for it is thinking one knows when one does not know."? Or, are they already logically consistent?
How can he both claim ignorance about death, and then pray to a deity asking for a fortunate experience ("departure") upon his death?
Does his desire to pray for a fortunate "departure" imply that he believed that his death would not be his end? Explain