If you could ask Socrates a question, what would you ask him? How do you think he might respond?
I would ask him to compare his beliefs to his student Plato's beliefs - On the one hand is Plato, who trusted nothing that could not be justified, rationalized, explained, proven, reduced to first principles; on the other hand is Socrates, with his “acoustic hallucination (per Nietzsche)”, who claimed to know nothing. If he truly knows nothing - then why did he embrace death in the name of justice?
Why didn't Socrates escape?
I should say I respect you opinions, but from my point of view and from Socrates´ dialogue with Crito I may say he didn´t escape because he thought that by doing this he would pay the injustice committed to him with another injustice. He said that if he escaped he would be offending and disrespecting the decission the athenians made, which would be doing evil to him, and according to his philosophy it is never good to do evil. Also, by escaping he would violate the laws he defended and agreed with. Finally he stated that if he scaped he couldn´t defend his philosóphy anymore because he himself would have acted against it. I think I would take the punishment as he did.
What did socrates consider himself to be?
you should probably elaborate what type of answer you're lookin for. He believed he knew nothing, if that helps? (he also believed that everyone else knew nothing either, as nothing is certain.)
Did Socrates write plays? If he did, what plays did he write?
As far as we know Socrates did not write anything. What we know of him came from other writers, particularly Plato. He didn't write plays but he was a character in Aristophane's play the Clouds written during his life.
Does Socrates in the Republic successfully respond to Glaucon's Challenge?
I turned my attention to Quora and this question because I was getting demoralized and weary of reading and watching accounts of drinking (often to blackout level) at my university —and so many others. {Never happened at my own college ages ago (with the exception of one guy and his (nick) name was “The Animal”}.My diagnosis is that young Americans today are profoundly pessimistic about contemporary world affairs and lack the wisdom and courage and optimism to do anything about changing the social dynamic. Not unlike Athens in Socrates’ days.So: is your question REALLY about whether is is better to have a “soul” which is harmonious and virtuous than not? (As opposed to what? Those who substitute brute force for virtue [virtue = (“ strength re humanness”)? Drinking in order to black out rather than face our problems and find solutions? Doing whatever the herd or sub-herd was doing instead being a real human being?I’m unsure whether those questions deserve a Philosophic treatise by way of answer. Nor even the 12 or so hours of talking (about ‘last night’s’ events) which the Republic purports to report “today”.Although I DO think that (then as well as now) wise, thoughtful exemplifications might be helpful under such circumstances. And isn’t that what the Republic gives us?
What would a conversation between Socrates and Buddha sound like?
I think it would be a very interesting dialogue. The exchange itself would be polite and respectful. Socrates would presumably approach the Buddha with his usual gambit of seeking knowledge and wisdom, since he lacks these things. The Buddha, for his part, would not be shy in declaring that he possesses both these things, and is willing to teach them.Socrates would then try to lure the Buddha into agreeing with certain propositions, or, perhaps more likely, he might start by presenting some proposition that the Buddha is on record as saying, and then seeking to show that the proposition is untenable. Or he may present 2 statements by the Buddha that appear to contradict each other, and use these as evidence that he wavers or does not have any single point of view, or simply doesn’t know what he claims to know.The Buddha would be wise to his tricks, though, and would not allow himself to be nailed down. While a buddha’s behavior in any given situation cannot be predicted by one who is not enlightened, I would expect that the dialogue would lead to the question of the nature of knowledge, and the Buddha would explain that the deepest, truest knowledge is nonconceptual, and therefore cannot be expressed in words. Words can never be anything more than a finger pointing at the moon; in the end, each person has to see the moon for himself if he wants to know it.I haven’t read all the dialogues of Plato, so I’m not sure whether Socrates was acquainted with the notion of nonconceptual knowledge. I suspect not. So he might ask the Buddha: If nonconceptual knowledge cannot be expressed in words, then how can it be taught? And the Buddha might respond: Through meditation. Socrates might say: I’ve meditated many a time, but I’ve never seen hide nor hair of this “nonconceptual knowledge.” And the Buddha might respond: That’s because you weren’t meditating in the right way.The dialogue would end with Socrates agreeing to learn the Buddha’s manner of meditation, and discovering for himself the truth or otherwise of the Buddha’s claims. And they cordially take their leave of each other.
Why did Socrates say "I know that I know nothing" and what did he mean by it?
Socrates said in Plato's Apology, “I neither know nor think that I know.” What did he mean by this? Socrates himself explains it pretty clearly in the Apology.As the story goes, the Oracle of Delphi stated that no man was wiser than Socrates. Upon hearing this, Socrates wonders what the Oracle could mean by that, since, as Socrates reflects, “I know that I have no wisdom, small or great.” How could he be the wisest?So, in order to find out what the Oracle meant, Socrates proceeds questioning various people considered wise, only to find that they do not actually know what they think they know. The "wisdom of men," he determines, is not true wisdom at all, because it falls apart whenever it is critically examined. In contrast to these people who don’t know anything but think that they know, Socrates says of himself, “I neither know nor think that I know.”What the Oracle meant, Socrates concludes, is that “He, O men, is the wisest, who, like Socrates, knows that his wisdom is in truth worth nothing.” Those, like Socrates, who recognize that they don’t actually know anything, are wisest. Not because they possess some supposed wisdom, but because they know that they do not.