Socrates, Plato, Aristotle

SOCRATES
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Born in Athens, Greece. His Socratic Method laid the groundwork for Western
systems of logic and Philosophy.
PHILOSOPHICAL VIEW OF THE SELF
He attempted to establish an ethical system based on human reason rather than

theological doctrine. He pointed out that human choice was motivated by the desire for
happiness. Ultimate wisdom comes from knowing oneself. The more a person knows,
the greater his or her ability to reason and make choices that will bring true happiness.
Socrates believed that this translated into politics with the best form of government being
neither a tyranny nor a democracy. Instead, government worked best when ruled by
individuals who had the greatest ability, knowledge and virtue and possessed a complete
understanding of themselves.
KNOW THYSELF: A MORAL EPISTEMOLOGY AND INJUNCTION
1. An unexamined life not worth living

2. Philosophy does not mean, as in the sophists, the acquisition of knowledge but a way
of questioning, to challenge, a form of self-concern.
The assertion indicates that a man must stand and live according to his nature. Man has to
look at himself.
To find what?
Plato's Theory of Reminiscence
Everyone, has the knowledge itself, just remember them. That we are born possessing all
knowledge and our realization of that knowledge is contingent on our discovery of it.
Knowledge is inherent in man and wisdom is learning to recollect.
By what means?
The knowledge of oneself can be achieved only through the Socratic Method, that is the
dialogue between the soul and itself, or between a student and his teacher. It is a form of
cooperative argumentative dialogue between individuals, based on asking and answering
questions to stimulate critical thinking and to draw out ideas and underlying presuppositions.
Socratic teaching - giving students questions, not answers. We model an inquiring, probing
mind by continually probing into the subject with questions.
PLATO
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Born in Athens, Greece. An ancient Greek Philosopher, a student of Socrates,

teacher of Aristotle, and founder of the Academy, best known as the author of philosophical
works pf unparalleled influence.
His writings explored justice, beauty and equality, and also contained discussions in
aesthetics, political philosophy, theology, cosmology, epistemology, and the philosophy of
language.
PHILOSOPHICAL VIEW ABOUT SELF
Building on the demonstration by Socrates that those regarded as experts in ethical

matters did not have the understanding necessary for a good human life, Plato introduced
the idea that their mistakes were due to their not engaging properly with a class of entities he
called forms, chief examples of which are Justice, Beauty, and Equality.
As Plato conceived these entities, they were accessible not to the senses but to the
mind alone, and they were the most important constituents of reality, underlying the
existence of the sensible world and giving it what intelligibility it has.
In metaphysics, Plato envisioned a systematic, rational treatment of the forms and

their interrelations, starting with the most fundamental amonth them - the Good or the One;
in ethics and moral psychology, he developed the view that the good life requires not just a
certain kind of knowledge (as Socrates had suggested) but also habituation to healthy
emotional responses and therefore harmony between the three parts of the soul (reason,
spirit, and appetite)
TWO KINDS OF SELF KNOWLEDGE
Knowledge of a person's STATE is gained by that person inquiring into some particular
subject matter
1. Is he knowledgeable or ignorant?
2. Good or bad?
Knowledge of one's CAPACITIES determines the soul's basic constituents and exploring
their behaviour in different conditions.
1. What is one's nature such that one is able to become good or bad, knowledgeable or
ignorant?
2. What are one's capacities to inquire, desire, anger, and so on?
3. Are all these equally essential to what one is?
Both kinds of inquiry treat the self that is to be known as capable of being quite different from
the way it appears to itself in reality.
ARISTOTLE
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in
Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Lyceum, the Peripatetic school
of philosophy, and the Aristotelian tradition.
PHILOSOPHICAL VIEW ABOUT SELF
Aristotle undeniably diverged from Plato in his view of what a human being most
truly and fundamentally is. Plato, at least in many of his dialogues, held that the true self of
human beings is the reason or the intellect that constitutes their soul and that is separable
from their body. Aristotle, for his part, insisted that the human being is a composite of body
and soul and that the soul cannot be separated from the body.
In his theory of causes and of act and potency, Aristotle emphasizes beings in
relation to their actual manifestation, and in turn the soul was also defined by its actual
effects. For instance, if a knife had a soul, the act of cutting would be that soul, because
'cutting' is part of the essence of what it is to be a knife. More precisely, the soul is the "first
activity" of a living body. This is a state, or a potential for actual, or 'second', activity.
"The axe has an edge for cutting" was, for Aristotle, analogous to "humans have
bodies for rational activity," and the potential for rational activity thus constituted the essence
of a human soul. He states: "Soul is an actuality or formulable essence of something that
possesses a potentiality of being besouled", and also "When mind is set free from its present
conditions it appears as just what it is and nothing more: this alone is immortal and eternal".

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SOCRATES

PHILOSOPHICAL VIEW OF THE SELF

He attempted to establish an ethical system based on human reason rather than

KNOW THYSELF: A MORAL EPISTEMOLOGY AND INJUNCTION

1. An unexamined life not worth living

Born in Athens, Greece. An ancient Greek Philosopher, a student of Socrates,

PHILOSOPHICAL VIEW ABOUT SELF

Building on the demonstration by Socrates that those regarded as experts in ethical

In metaphysics, Plato envisioned a systematic, rational treatment of the forms and

TWO KINDS OF SELF KNOWLEDGE

PHILOSOPHICAL VIEW ABOUT SELF

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