Highlights

* Rational discourse is a team sport, a shared pursuit for the wisdom we both seek about the thing and the effort we make at getting it

* Seeking excellence, moral virtue, and flourishing is the first step, the atomic building block, for living well together—seeking mutual good in the form of community and relationships

* Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics 9.8

* Fundamentally, when we form political community, we do so because we collectively agree that there is such a thing as justice

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Highlights

* The Socratic method as an orientation of mind, is different from the orientation of mind that we use by default and therefore challenging. It's a humbler, more inquisitive frame of mind, a path toward intelligence.

* “A life, a good life is a life with pleasure.”

Socrates would ask, “What if a life had a lot of pleasure in it, but it was only obtained by doing horrible things to other people? Would you consider that a good life?”

“Well, no, of course not.”

“Maybe revise what you said.”

* Socrates always finds or suggests contradictions between different things the person believes. This sounds modest and unassuming, this little process, but it has many uses, many payoffs.

* You're really just asking questions about the premises. The major premise behind what people think is in the foreground. And most people are much clearer on what they think in the foreground than they are in the deep reasons for it.

Socrates' fellow Athenians were frustrated and fascinated by him in equal measures. Right down to the present day, students of philosophy have shared a similar experience when reading Plato's dialogues. Socrates was a complex character. We'll conclude by discussing one of the enduring puzzles about him: his notorious profession of ignorance, which scholars call "Socratic irony".

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Did Socrates Have Two Philosophies?

Socrates was well-known for claiming that he knew nothing, or at least nothing of much importance about the most important things in life.

He used to say that [...] he knew nothing except just the fact of his ignorance. – Diogenes Laertius

This aspect of his philosophy is clearly methodological – it helped Socrates to engage in his question and answer approach more freely. On the other hand, it doesn't seem entirely sincere, or entirely true, for him to say he knows nothing about such matters as wisdom and virtue.

Sometimes he merely hints at these beliefs but at other times he states them quite clearly.

Socrates often seems to have an agenda and to be working toward certain conclusions, which are often quite simple but paradoxical in nature. Sometimes he merely hints at these beliefs but at other times he states them quite clearly. For example:

For I go around doing nothing but persuading both young and old among you not to care for your body or your wealth in preference to or as strongly as for the best possible state of your soul, as I say to you: “Wealth does not bring about excellence, but excellence makes wealth and everything else good for men, both individually and collectively.” – Socrates in Plato's Apology, 30b

The Stoics focused on Socrates' positive doctrines about virtue ethics, viewing him as a predecessor of their own school of philosophy in this regard. By contrast, the ancient Greek philosophers known as Skeptics developed a system inspired by Socrates' methodological doubt. Although the Stoics and Skeptics were both influenced by him they chose to focus on different aspects of Socrates' teachings.

Socratic Irony

For the purposes of this short course, we'll focus on Socrates' claim to lack wisdom because it's characteristic of his question and answer style of reasoning. The name "Sophist", Sophistes in Greek, means "expert" or one who claims to possess wisdom. The Sophists claimed to be wise and virtuous, and they charged high fees for teaching wisdom and virtue to others. In contrast, Socrates refused to accept fees, casting himself more in the role of student than teacher.

I share the poverty of my fellow countrymen in this respect, and confess to my shame that I have no knowledge about virtue at all. – Socrates in Plato's Meno, 71b

Through his repeated disavowal of any special knowledge, Socrates is able to focus on asking questions. In a sense, that helps him to keep an open mind, as we would say today.

Plato says that ignorance may be divided into two sorts: "simple ignorance" and "double ignorance". Simple ignorance is less serious. Double ignorance "is accompanied by a conceit of wisdom; and he who is under the influence of the latter fancies that he knows all about matters of which he knows nothing" (Laws, 863cd). Socrates viewed his method as a cure for double ignorance.

The Socratic Method undermines the intellectual conceit, or double ignorance, of the person being questioned by exposing contradictions in their thinking. At the same time, though, the questioner is modelling awareness of his own ignorance. It's as though the questioner is demonstrating the benefit of having subjected himself to the Socratic Method – he or she now enjoys a kind of intellectual freedom.

Now you've completed the lessons, why not take our quiz on Facebook about the Socratic Method? If you think your friends would appreciate this course please share the link them.

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In the previous lesson, we looked at how cognitive therapists use Socratic Questioning today to help clients evaluate their beliefs in terms of evidence and helpfulness. They also help clients examine the "logic" of their beliefs. This is a slightly trickier approach, although closer in some regards to what Socrates and other philosophers were doing.

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We're talking about informal logic here, i.e., whether our thinking is broadly rational and consistent or not. One of the most direct questions we might ask ourselves is therefore simply: Is that belief logical? People often find that hard to answer, though, without having some examples of ways in which their reasoning might be flawed.

Our thinking is definitely irrational if it is based upon a set of beliefs that contradict one another.

Logical Contradictions

First of all, like Socrates, we might look for contradictions. Our thinking is definitely irrational if it is based upon a set of beliefs that contradict one another. One of the most basic principles of logic, indeed, is called the Law of Noncontradiction. If two statements are contradictory they're not necessarily both false, but at least one of them must be. They cannot both be true, that is, but they could both be false.

Spotting contradictory beliefs can require effort and rigorous honesty but it can also be very powerful because most (but not all) of us do feel a strong urge to change our thinking when forced to admit that our own beliefs are in conflict with one another.

Cognitive Distortions

Beck and other cognitive therapists have often found it's helpful to teach their clients the names of typical "cognitive distortions", colloquially known as "thinking errors". There are many studies showing that different cognitive distortions or biases are more common when people are depressed, anxious, or very angry. The cognitive therapist, David Burns, for instance, has a list of about ten common "thinking errors" in his bestselling book Feeling Good. Other therapists use slightly different lists but they generally have a lot in common. Some basic examples are:

* Overgeneralization, or making sweeping statements that go well beyond the known facts.Example: "Nobody likes me" versus "Some people don't like me."

* Catastrophizing, or exaggerating how severe a threat is likely to be.Example: "What if my wife leaves me? I won't be able to cope!" versus "My wife probably won't leave me and even if she did it might be really bad but not the end of the world; I would survive and carry on."

* Discounting, or trivializing information that should cause us to change our behaviourExample: "Pete said he likes me but he's just being nice" versus "Pete said he likes me, and for all I know he's telling the truth, so I shouldn't dismiss that as if it doesn't count."

* Mind-reading, or assuming what other people think without checking – a problem especially common in severe social anxiety.Example: "Everyone at work thinks I'm an idiot and I don't deserve my job" versus "I don't know what people think until I ask them, so I should find good ways to get feedback from my colleagues."

There are many more cognitive biases and distortions. As we'll see, they often resemble what philosophers call informal logical fallacies. For example, the cognitive distortion which psychologists call "overgeneralization" is basically the same as the informal fallacy philosophers refer to as making a "faulty generalization".

Informal Fallacies

Logical fallacies are arguments that are generally understood to be illogical – they're "wrong moves" in reasoning. Often people simply use them by mistake. Rhetoricians throughout the ages, though, have also used them quite deliberately to manipulate their audiences by "cheating" in an argument. Today, as you'll notice, some of these fallacies are extremely common in the media and in online discussions.

Ad Hominem fallacy. For instance, a very common informal fallacy is traditionally known as the argumentum ad hominem. This involves criticizing a person in order to discredit what they're saying. Politicians do this an awful lot, and now it's increasingly common on social media. For example, "This scientific claim can't be true because the people saying it are [conservatives / liberals] and everything they say is a lie!" Of course, nobody lies all the time, and if we're going to think for ourselves we need to learn to judge statements on their own merits rather than leaping to conclusions based on our political prejudices, and so on. Socrates, you may notice, is careful to avoid attacking others. In fact, he may do the opposite, and praise the character of those whose beliefs he is nevertheless questioning.

Straw Man fallacy. You'll also find many examples of the Straw Man fallacy online. This consists in falsely attributing an easily-refutable position to someone in order to discredit them. It's a straw man they're attacking when they do that, a fake opponent that they've manufactured to make an easy target, not the real person. For example, someone might say "Cognitive therapists believe that all emotional problems can be solved by reasoning and that's clearly not true." That, however, is not a claim that any real cognitive therapist has ever made – it's just a caricature of their theory. Attacking a straw man is a way of cheating in a debate, to make it look as if you've refuted your opponent when really you're just refuting something they never said.

Causal fallacies. Scientists are trained, from the outset, to avoid these fallacies. When people who are not educated in research methods quote scientific studies, though, they often fall into errors of reasoning about causation. Causal fallacies take several forms. One of the most common is the post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy or "after the event therefore because of the event." For instance, someone might drop dead after taking a specific type of medicine. You'll often find people arguing "He dropped dead right after he took those pills therefore they killed him!" That does not prove a causal connection. (For all we know, he may have been dying anyway and didn't take enough of the medicine to cure himself.) A more general error of the same kind is known in science as the fallacy of confusing correlation and causation. Every researcher knows to avoid this methodological mistake. Many studies measure statistical correlations. It might be easy to show, for instance, that severity of depression is highly-correlated with frequency of negative thoughts. Nevertheless, it does not logically follow from this correlation that negative thoughts actually cause depression – it could be the other way around.

These are just a few examples of logical fallacies. There are many more. Learning to spot them helps protect us against bad reasoning or "sophistry", which is, sadly, very common in politics and the media, and extremely prevalent in debates on social media.

If you're interested in discussing online you can join our Substack Note thread about "How can we best define wisdom?" and subscribe to the Plato’s Academy Centre on Substack.

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In Breakfast with Seneca, philosopher David Fideler mines Seneca's classic works in a series of focused chapters, clearly explaining Seneca's ideas without oversimplifying them. Best enjoyed as a daily ritual, like an energizing cup of coffee, Seneca's wisdom provides us with a steady stream of time-tested advice about the human condition - which, as it turns out, hasn't changed much over the past 2,000 years.

The most companionable of the new Stoic books.

—Molly Young, New York Times

David Fideler is an esteemed guest speaker at our upcoming virtual event, On Seneca: Anger, Fear, and Sadness on Saturday, August 19th @ 12 pm EDT. Registration is free or you may donate an amount of your choosing. Your generosity keeps us hosting these events. Donations also go towards funding a PAC on-site location near the original Plato’s Academy in Akadimia Platonos, Athens. No need to worry if you are unavailable on the day. A recording will be sent to all registrants post event.

Also, all attendees are eligible to win a paperback copy of David’s acclaimed Breakfast with Seneca! A form will be sent to registrants post event for entry. Then, three lucky winners will be selected.

His research on generations has been featured in a number of media outlets, including Time Magazine, the Globe & Mail, the National Post, the Daily Mirror (UK), Macleans magazine, as well as on CBC’s The National, CTV News Channel, the Business News Network and CBC Radio’s The Current. Dr. Lyons works frequently with private and public sector organizations to identify and address inter-generational issues.

Highlights

* “Unlike heroic theories of leadership that focus on the leader as a heroic figure—who are somehow gifted with unique traits or skills—modern leadership focus on leadership as interpersonal processes that unfold within a group that focus on the leader as an symbol to help them find the right motivation and meaning in their own actions.”

* Leadership is a process of influencing others to achieve a common goal. (Northouse, 2022; 6)

* Virtuous Leadership is distinguishing right from wrong in one’s leadership role, taking steps to ensure justice and honesty, influencing and enabling others to pursue righteous and moral goals. …and helping others connect to a higher purpose. (Pearce et al., 2006; 62)

* Practical Wisdom (phronesis)—seeing the naked truth and knowing what is good, not good, and indifferent

* The Disciplines of Desire, Action, and Assent

Plato's Academy Centre Newsletter is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Highlights

* Prof. Roubineau’s background and research on Greek society and athletics  

* The main misconceptions that people have about Diogenes the Cynic    

* How does Diogenes differ from other Greek philosophers such as Plato?

* How does Diogenes fit into the succession of Greek philosophers, and his relationship with the Socratics and the Stoics?

* What Diogenes thought it meant to be a philosopher 

* To what extent, do you think Diogenes was “cynical” about religion?

* What led Diogenes to say that he was a citizen of the cosmos

* Final Question: “Is comfort an expression of success?”

Links

* The Dangerous Life and Ideas of Diogenes the Cynic

* The Big Think

Diane Kalen-Sukra is the founder of Kalen Academy, an interactive online school for civic leaders and engaged citizens, which she launched after retiring as a city manager. She is also an acclaimed author, speaker and coach. Diane’s most popular book “Save Your City: How Toxic Culture Kills Community & What To Do About It”  takes readers on a successful journey from Bullyville to Sustainaville, which includes a visit to classical antiquity, calling for a renaissance of civic values and civic education as vital to fostering the type of culture that can sustain us, our democracy and our planet.

Highlights

* A city that’s governed well is governed in accordance with reason; because we’re human beings with the capacity to reason and organize together. This is through rational discourse, not through factualism, ad hominin attacks, or rage-farming—which are mistaken by our society as rational strategies.

* 81% of local government US officials have experienced everything from death threats to vandalization of their homes and other forms of abuse. This is the level of government that is closest to the people. So, that very proximity that we need, in a toxic environment, has the capacity to do enormous harm.

* Aristotle would challenge the view that local government exists to provide city services (or some quality affordable civic services). He would say that civic leadership must be people-centered, namely to achieve eudaimonia as a collective.

* “Educate the people or endure them.” —Marcus Aurelius

Her most recent book is Stoic Wisdom: Ancient Lessons for Modern Resilience (2021). Other books include Afterwar, The Untold War (a NYT editors’ pick), Stoic Warriors, Making a Necessity of Virtue, and The Fabric of Character. Sherman lectures internationally on ancient philosophy, military ethics, moral injury, and the emotions. 

Stoic Wisdom: Ancient Lessons for Modern Resilience was rereleased in paperback June 1st and is now available. (Oxford University Press)

Highlights

* We’re part of a larger humanity, the Stoics view this as a cosmos.

* There exists within us a profound sense of resilience, a belief that we can be invincible, impervious to any challenge that comes our way. However, the true essence behind the Stoics penning their wisdom lies in their understanding of our inherent vulnerability.

* “The Stoics give us amazing resources for being able to ask ‘Was my judgement of what happened out there and my emotional response to it—anger, fear, desire, distress—grounded? Was I attached to the correct values?’”

* Fast thinking, when not used for survival, can be caused out of habits of personal bias that we’re not even aware of.

PAC would like to extend their deepest gratitude to Adam Piercey of Modern Stoicism for hosting, conducting, and providing this interview.

Socrates' method of questioning has influenced many different educational approaches, and been used in fields as diverse as law and medicine.

What is Socratic Questioning?

The Socratic Method has influenced countless thinkers throughout the centuries, all the way down to the present age. Of course, its most obvious impact has been in academic philosophy. Socrates' method of questioning, though, has influenced many different educational approaches, and been used in fields as diverse as law and medicine. Speaking of his use of the term “Socratic Questioning”, Aaron T. Beck, one of the pioneers of cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) said in an interview:

I came across the notion of Socratic Dialogue when I read about it in my college philosophy course – I believe it was in Plato’s Republic.

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Beck's early methods of Socratic Questioning led to many subsequent variations, which became central to all cognitive psychotherapy. All of these approaches use the term "Socratic" very loosely, often just to refer to the notion of teaching by asking questions as opposed to lecturing didactically. As we've shown, hopefully, there was a lot more to the original Socratic Method than just asking lots of questions. Nevertheless, we can learn from the types of questions that have been developed by modern practitioners, especially in the counselling and psychotherapy fields. Some of these are perhaps even questions that Socrates himself would have found helpful.

Questioning Evidence

It has often been said that the basic question used in early cognitive therapy, by Beck and his colleagues, was simply: Where is the evidence for that? This is a great question. Researchers and clinicians in psychology, medicine, and other fields, are in the habit of asking this question at conferences about the claims being made by their peers. It's part of the scientific method.

Clients undergoing cognitive therapy or counselling are also asked the same question with regard to beliefs that may be contributing to their emotional or behavioural problems. For example, a depressed client may believe that nobody likes them and that they are worthless. The therapist, after some initial trust-building and assessment, will often encourage the client to ask where the evidence is for those sort of beliefs. (It's really the client who should be doing the questioning, ultimately, although at first the therapist models this behaviour.)

This can be taken a step further by, like Socrates did, drawing up two-columns, although today we usually use the trusty flipchart or whiteboard. One column contains evidence supporting the belief in question ("Nobody likes me") and the other column contains evidence against it being true. Sometimes clients may need to carry out "empirical" tests, or "behavioural experiments", in order to gather information. For instance, they might even survey their friends asking them for their honest opinions about how likeable they are.

Someone who worries anxiously might think "What if something catastrophic happens? I won't be able to cope!" They could question whether or not that's true but we know today that it's often more helpful to target the underlying assumptions. For instance, worriers often assume that thinking like this could be helpful or that their worries in general are realistic. We can check the evidence for that on a flipchart retrospectively, based on past experience, by asking “How many of the things you worried about actually happened?” We could also check it prospectively by actually keeping track of how often their worries turn out to be false over the following weeks. If you're creative, you can probably think up many other ways the evidence for and against troubling beliefs could be questioned or tested out in our experience.

Questioning Helpfulness

A different approach consists in asking how helpful our beliefs are in practice. Arguably this is further away from Socratic philosophy because Socrates was mainly concerned with how true beliefs are, regardless of whether or not they're helpful. Nevertheless, it often makes sense for clients in therapy to examine the consequences of holding different attitudes and, in reality, this often motivates them to reconsider the truth of their problematic assumptions. For example, you might believe that smoking cigarettes calms your nerves. In reality, cigarettes are neurostimulants, although people temporarily relax when they smoke, their heart rate will go up higher than normal shortly afterwards – smoking cigarettes causes stress in other words. The belief that they help smokers relax is something of an illusion as they only do this short-term but make them far less relaxed in the longer-term.

The simplest version of this type of questioning is to ask yourself: How helpful is that belief? We can ask the same question about our behaviour as well. If you wanted to take the same line of questioning further you might ask about the consequences of some attitude or way of thinking. Therapists often like to ask the magic question: "How's that working out for you?"

Delving deeper, if we have the time and inclination, we might ask what the pros and cons (advantages and disadvantages) are of holding some belief. We can even distinguish the short-term pros and cons from the longer term ones. For instance, smoking may help you feel relaxed in the short term (pro) only to raise your heart rate and causes more stress in the long-term (con). Once again, we can, of course, draw a two-column diagram, if we like, with one side headed pros and the other cons.

Generally we consider the personal consequences or pros and cons. Sometimes, though, you might also want to consider the consequences of a troubling attitude or behaviour for your loved ones, or for different aspects of your life such as relationships, work, physical health, mental health, etc. Dividing the consequences up into various domains of life often helps us to evaluate the wider impact of our thinking and behaviour.

In addition to questioning the evidence for and the helpfulness of our beliefs, cognitive therapists use a strategy described as questioning the logic of our reasoning. We'll be examining that more in the next lesson, where we'll discuss how it compares to the way philosophers learn to spot common logical fallacies.

If you're interested in discussing online you can join our Substack Note thread about "How can we best define wisdom?" and subscribe to the Plato’s Academy Centre on Substack.

Regards,

Donald Robertson

President of The Plato's Academy Centre

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This is the full audio recording of Donald’s presentation from the Plato’s Academy Centre Philosophy and Resilience event on 20th May 2023. As there were some glitches with the streaming software, Donald re-recorded the whole presentation and the sound has been edited and quality improved. The recording also includes Lalya Lloyd’s reading of a passage from Plutarch, which contains a verse from Euripides’ lost tragedy, Bellerophon, read by Lalya in ancient Greek.

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Watch the slides that accompany this presentation (optional). We are making the recording available to everyone in this way to make up for the difficulty some had watching the presentation during the event.

Thank you for reading Plato's Academy Centre Newsletter. This post is public so feel free to share it.

He will be speaking at the forthcoming Plato’s Academy Centre virtual conference commemorating Marcus Aurelius’ birthday, Marcus Aurelius Anniversary, alongside Donald Robertson and Dr. John Sellars on Wed April 26th. We’re also honored to have him speak on Philosophy and Resilience at our Sat May 29th virtual conference.

Highlights

* What do you think Marcus thought of Epictetus? 

* Why do you believe Stoicism has gone through a resurgence in popularity in recent decades?

* Were the Stoic unemotional — the role of love.

* Why has Stoicism become more popular than Epicureanism?

* What do you think we can learn from the Stoics about developing psychological resilience?

* Stoicism on animal rights and the environment. 

Links

* “Stoicism and Food Ethics.” Symposion 9, no. 1, Special Issue on Stoicism and Contemporary Thought, S. Aikin and W. O. Stephens, eds. (May 2022): 105–124.

* “Midwest Stoicism, Agrarianism, and Environmental Virtue Ethics.” In Environmental Ethics in the Midwest: Interdisciplinary Approaches, I. A. Smith and M. Ferkany, eds. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, Dec. 2022: 1–42.

* William O. Stephens’ website

Books

* Epictetus’s 'Encheiridion': A New Translation and Guide to Stoic Ethics

* Stoic Ethics: Epictetus and Happiness as Freedom

* Marcus Aurelius: A Guide for the Perplexed

Matthew Sharpe is Associate Professor of philosophy at Deakin University, Australia. He has taught philosophy for over two decades, and is the author of multiple books, including most recently Stoicism, Bullying, and Beyond (in press, 2022), The Other Enlightenment (in press, 2022), and (with Michael Ure), Philosophy as a Way of Life: History, Dimensions, Directions (Bloomsbury, 2021).  He is also the cotranslator of Pierre Hadot, Selected Writings: Philosophy as Practice (Bloomsbury, 2021), and someone whose work continues to centre upon ancient philosophy as a way or ways of life, and the ways it can still speak to people transformatively today.

Plato's Academy Centre Newsletter is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Highlights

* “Consider the consequences if we make politics war. In war, it is wise to lie and deceive the enemy…The point of war after all is to win by destroying one’s foes, not to engage in a shared searched for something higher of larger.”

* “To understand why there is so much anger in our communities, we have to put ourselves in the shoes of those who feel defeated, excluded, cheated, or at risk…What reason do they have to admire their leaders?”

* “The Stoics believed in the natural equality of all peoples…Zeno defined the city (polis) in such a way as to include any citizen or non-citizen who resided in the place.”

* “Teach them better and make it appear better to them, but don't you be angry with them.” —Marcus Aurelius

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Socrates' trademark method was sometimes described as the "question and answer" approach. There's more to it than just asking lots of questions, though! It typically involved asking certain types of question, in a certain way, about certain topics.

Definitions

Socrates was known for insisting on definitions. We often waste our time arguing at cross-purposes when we disagree on the meaning of key terms being taken for granted in an argument. It can require surprisingly hard work to define familiar concepts – what, for instance, is time? Indeed, throughout history, a great deal of philosophy has involved the clarification of abstract concepts such as goodness, justice, and knowledge. Each of Plato's Socratic dialogues tends to focus on the task of defining a word, e.g., The Laches explores what the concept of "courage" means, The Symposium tries to define "love" and The Republic focuses in the definition of “justice”. If we can't pin down the meaning of these words adequately enough how can we hope to build more complex arguments employing them?

Socrates' method therefore typically begins by asking the other person to give a short verbal definition of the most important concept underlying their conversation. For example, in The Laches Socrates is asked, by two Athenian generals, about training young men in the art of hand-to-hand combat wearing heavy armour. Socrates uncovers that his friends are really asking, more fundamentally, about how to make their sons more courageous in battle. So he asks them to begin by defining courage.

The first definition he receives is that courage means standing your ground in the face of the enemy. To an Athenian officer that would have been the most obvious example of courage. A great deal of effort went into training soldiers to remain in their phalanx formation, and having the discipline to do so was one of the Athenian infantry's greatest strengths.

Broadening the Definition

Socrates often points out that the first definition offered is too narrow. He reminds his friends, for instance, that soldiers also show courage when engaged in an orderly retreat from the enemy. Moreover, unlike infantrymen, cavalry units charge at the enemy, rather than standing their ground. His friends agree that they'd overlooked such examples. Socrates therefore asks them how the definition of courage should be revised. This process of raising fresh examples and rewriting the definition can continue indefinitely. For instance, Socrates also reminds his friends that they're only thinking of courage in battle and have overlooked the fact that courage can take a different form during peacetime. "What is that common quality," asks Socrates, "which is the same in all these cases, and which is called courage?” Notice that Socrates is asking his partners in dialogue to provide a general definition, which is bound to end up being somewhat abstract. That tends to make it relatively easy for him to refute whatever they say as he merely has to come up with specific examples that conflict with it.

Narrowing the Definition

Eventually, the revised definition will be broad enough to encompass all of the relevant examples that can be identified. Socrates realized, though, that it would often now be too broad, meaning that it would also include some things that are not courage. His friends end up defining courage, basically, as a sort of persistence or fearlessness. Socrates now points out, though, that not all examples of fearlessness can be called courageous. Suppose someone walks fearlessly into a dangerous situation without even realizing they're taking a risk. If anything, that's a form of stupidity or recklessness, not courage. The definition needs to be reconsidered, this time it should be narrowed more, to exclude examples everyone agrees are not courageous.

The Socratic Method therefore often proceeds either by narrowing a definition, and introducing more fine-grained distinctions, or by broadening a definition, and grouping ideas together into greater generalizations.

Now I myself, Phaedrus, am a lover of these processes of division and bringing together, as aids to speech and thought; and if I think any other man is able to see things that can naturally be collected into one and divided into many, him I follow after and "walk in his footsteps as if he were a god." – Socrates in Plato's Phaedrus 266bc

The Two-Column Method

Xenophon, another of his students, actually said Socrates explained his method by using a two-column technique, similar to those found in modern cognitive therapy. One column might be headed "justice" and the other "injustice". We might list the key examples under injustice like "lying" or "stealing", etc. Socrates would then ask his students whether they could imagine a situation where these examples would belong under the other column — being classed not as unjust but as just. This is an easy way to practice clarifying our own definitions today. Lying might be a good example of injustice, for instance, but can you think of a situation where it might be considered appropriate and just to tell a lie? Socrates, for instance, gives the example of an elected general deceiving the enemy during a war. How might that lead us to revise our definition of justice?

The Socratic Method was carried out in a civil manner, as discussed in a previous lesson. The goal is to get closer to the truth, rather than to persuade anyone of anything by trying to make the false appear to be true. Some people found it infuriating to be questioned in this way, although Socrates' friends said it was also a liberating and enlightening experience.

If you're interested in discussing online you can join our Twitter chat about "How can we best define the virtue of justice?" using #SocraticMethod, and follow @PlatoAcademyCen.

Regards,

Donald Robertson

President of The Plato's Academy Centre

Transcript

This is a talk that I delivered in the grounds of Plato’s Academy Park in Athens, in September 2022, as part of a four-day event organized by the Aurelius Foundation and YPO or Young Presidents Organization.  The mayor of Athens also spoke that day about the importance of celebrating this historic location, near the city centre.  Our nonprofit startup, The Plato’s Academy Centre was created in Greece in order to raise awareness of the area, and we hope, ultimately, to help create a new conference centre there so people can come from all over the world to do philosophy and benefit from ancient wisdom, at the original location of Plato’s Academy. 

Philosophy at Plato’s Academy Park

Behold Where on the Aegean shore a city stands, Built nobly; pure the air, and light the soil; Athens, the eye of Greece, mother of the arts And eloquence, native to famous wits, Or hospitable, in her sweet recess, City, or suburban, studious walks and shades: See there the olive grove of Academe, Plato’s retirement, where the Attic bird Trills her thick-warbled notes the summer long… 

That’s how the English poet, John Milton, envisages this place in his epic Paradise Regained.

According to legend this area, known as Akadimia, originally belonged to, and was therefore named after, the Greek hero Akademos.  He reputedly saved Athens from being sacked by the Spartans, when Helen of Troy was still a child, according to legend.  So the land became sacred to his memory.  Over the years it was cultivated into a public area of pleasant olive groves, and gardens, with streams, running-tracks and popular walks shaded under the trees.  Over time, a palaestra or wrestling school was built here, the ruined foundations of which can still be seen in the grounds of the park.  It could perhaps be described as an ancient Athenian recreational ground, although in addition to sports facilities, there would have been shrines and libraries here.  Young men exercised here in the nude, and older men walked among the groves, discussing politics and philosophy.  

The Academy was destined, as you know, to become synonymous with philosophy, and more famous than Coca Cola because, ever since, down to the present day, every other academy in the world bears its name.  Every single one of you has heard of this place.  And every thinker, every politician, every psychologist, that you admire, thinks and speaks as they do, at least in some small part, because a few hundred of their ancient predecessors were schooled where you’re now standing.

Socrates

The Academy is justifiably famous for being the home of Plato’s school, the first institute of higher learning in European history.  However, as we walk here, we’re following in the footsteps of many other great philosophers, not just Plato.  Perhaps most importantly of all, from time to time, Socrates himself walked here, long before Plato, his most famous student, was even born, posing questions about the nature of wisdom and what it means to live well.  Plato’s dialogue named Lysis opens with Socrates walking from the Academy to the Lyceum, and we’re told he often discoursed on philosophy in the gymnasia of Athens as well as in the Agora, and in the homes of his friends.  We’re bound to imagine Socrates strolling under the trees here, casually discussing philosophy with his acquaintances.  

Plato

Plato was a young man about twenty years old when he first encountered Socrates.  He became his devoted student and remained so for eight years, until Socrates was executed, forced to drink hemlock, in 399 BC.  Plato must have felt utterly disillusioned by Athenian politics and the way his mentor had been treated.  He left Athens, travelling to other regions where he studied with other philosophers.  On his return to Athens, about twelve years later, his friend and patron, Dion of Syracuse, it is said, “bought for Plato the little garden which is in the Academy”, where he made his home, and based his school, consecrated with a shrine to the nine Muses.  We’re therefore told that Plato “lived in the Academy, which is a gymnasium outside the walls, in a grove named after a certain hero, [Akademos]” (Diogenes Laertius).  

Plato spent the next four decades teaching philosophy here.  He had many students.  The most famous was, of course, Aristotle, who came here aged seventeen, and studied at Plato’s Academy for twenty years, although he would later set up his rival school in a gymnasium at the other side of the city, called the Lyceum, part of which is now a pleasant garden, open to visitors.  Can you imagine Plato and Aristotle, the two most brilliant minds of antiquity, walking among these trees, talking most intensely with one another, about the nature of wisdom, for two whole decades?

When Plato died we’re told he was buried in the Academy, and a huge procession of his students turned out for the funeral ceremony.  A statue of him was erected here by his friends, and a tomb, which bore the following epitaph:

Earth hides Plato’s body in her bosom, But his soul has an immortal station with the blessed.  Ariston’s son, whom every good man, though living far off,   Honors for glimpsing the divine life.

Later another epitaph was composed for him, which reads as follows…

Eagle, why do you swoop over this tomb? Tell me,   Do you gaze at the starry house of one of the gods?

The eagle replying, says,

I am an image of the soul of Plato, which has flown to Olympus,   While his earth-born body lies in Attic soil.

This is the resting place, in other words, of the most celebrated philosopher in history.  His remains may still be beneath our very feet.

Zeno

For centuries, the Academy remained a centre for the study of philosophy, and, indeed, a beacon of civilization in the ancient world.  It had quite a colourful history.  For instance, a generation or so after Plato’s death, so the story goes, there was a wayward youth called Polemon who would hide bags of money in the grounds of the Academy “to procure”, we’re told, “the immediate gratification of his desires”.  

Polemon was a drunkard, perhaps an alcoholic.  One day he burst into a lecture on philosophy, intoxicated and reeking of wine, with a garland on his head.  The lecture on temperance, being delivered by one of Plato’s successors, was so persuasive, though, that young Polemon abandoned his hedonistic lifestyle and adopted the ways of a model student.  After years of industrious study, he actually became himself the head of the Academy.  His self-control became so legendary that it was said he remained unmoved even when bitten on the thigh by a rabid dog, though his friends were panicked on his behalf.  

Polemon’s story is that of an intemperate young man who managed to turn his life around and ended up becoming renowned as a philosopher and a role model to others.  We’re told that he chose to withdraw from society and, it is said, to “confine himself to the Garden of the Academy, while close by his scholars made themselves little huts and lived not far from the shrine of the Muses and the lecture-hall.”

The Academy’s name is synonymous with the philosophy of Plato but it also plays an important part in the history of the Stoic philosophy, which you came here to learn about.  Around the same time that Polemon staggered drunk into the Platonic Academy, a Phoenician merchant, called Zeno of Citium, was shipwrecked at the nearby port of Pireaeus.  Having reputedly lost his entire fortune at sea, Zeno turned to the study of philosophy.  He began as a Cynic philosopher but later came here to the Academy, where he studied for around a decade.  Zeno gradually began to build a reputation himself as an expert on dialectic, or logic.  However, he continued to attend lectures at the Academy delivered by Plato’s successors, including Polemon.

Zeno was therefore admired for showing intellectual humility by attending the public lectures of a famous rival philosopher. Nevertheless, Polemon is said to have joked: “You do not escape my notice, Zeno, slipping in by the garden door, stealing my doctrines and clothing them in a Phoenician style!” If that’s true, Stoicism originally bore the imprint of the Academy, as mediated by Polemon, a recovering alcoholic, who had hit rock bottom, but found his salvation in Plato’s philosophy.  Perhaps one day another drunk will stumble through this park into a philosophy lecture, stay just long enough to sober up, and emerge transformed into a budding future sage.

After studying philosophy at the Academy, for roughly a decade, Zeno, taking inspiration both from Plato’s followers and the Cynics, founded his own Stoic school, in a public building called the Stoa Poikile, located in the Agora of Athens.  Zeno’s school, as you know, flourished, and became, along with Aristotle’s Lyceum, one of the main rivals of Academic philosophy.  Toward the end of his life, two pillars were erected as monuments to him in the grounds of the Academy and Lyceum.  They bore an inscription commemorating his exemplary virtue and temperance, and honoring his contributions to philosophy.  It reads as follows:

Whereas Zeno of Citium, son of Mnaseas, has for many years been devoted to philosophy in the city and has continued to be a man of worth in all other respects, exhorting to virtue and temperance those of the youth who come to him to be taught, directing them to what is best, affording to all in his own conduct a pattern for imitation in perfect consistency with his teaching, it has seemed good to the people – and may it turn out well – to bestow praise upon Zeno of Citium, the son of Mnaseas, and to crown him with a golden crown according to the law, for his goodness and temperance, and to build him a tomb in the Ceramicus at the public cost.

That pillar with its decree commemorating the founder of Stoicism once stood around here somewhere, in the grounds of this park, where Zeno had originally been an eager student of philosophy, just like all of you. 

Sulla

Over the following centuries, Greek influence in the Mediterranean was slowly eclipsed by the emerging Roman state.  In 86 BC, three centuries after Plato founded his school here, the Roman dictator Sulla besieged the city of Athens.  He was not a philosopher.  The Athenians sent envoys who begged him to spare the glorious city from ruin but Sulla replied: “I was sent to Athens, not to take lessons, but to reduce rebels to obedience.”  His troops occupied the Academy, outside the city walls, gutting its buildings, and cutting down the trees for timber to make war machines for a long and brutal siege.  Sulla ordered the whole city to be sacked, including all of its temples.  Precious texts were probably looted and sold overseas, or simply destroyed.  The philosophical schools of Athens never fully recovered.  

About seven years later, the Roman orator, Cicero, a lover of philosophy, visited Athens, and found the ruins of the Academy deserted.  Listen to what he says because his experience, of walking in the footsteps of Plato, though written two thousand years ago, may be no different than your own…

When we reached the walks of the Academy, which are so deservedly famous, we had them entirely to ourselves, as we had hoped.  Thereupon Piso [my friend] remarked: "Whether it is a natural instinct or a mere illusion, I can't say; but one's emotions are more strongly aroused by seeing the places that tradition records to have been the favorite resort of men of note in former days, than by hearing about their deeds or reading their writings. My own feelings at the present moment are a case in point. I am reminded of Plato, the first philosopher, so we are told, that made a practice of holding discussions in this place; and indeed the garden close at hand yonder not only recalls his memory but seems to bring the actual man before my eyes.” – Cicero, De Finibus

When I first came to Plato’s Academy Park, I had the same feeling.  I imagined that I was walking where Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and Zeno once walked, discussing the nature of the good life, and laying the foundations of Western philosophy.  Cicero doesn’t mention, and it took me some time to realize, that we are also walking in the resting place of Plato, upon the ground where his body lies buried.  I don’t believe in ghosts but I don’t see any harm in us stopping to imagine for a few moments that Plato’s still here among us, therefore, in spirit, watching over our conversation about his philosophical legacy, and the future of his beloved Akadimia.  

The Future

Nowadays some websites refer to this as a dog park.  It’s true that local Athenians walk their dogs here, their children play here, and people jog and do their exercises in the park.  Not many tourists come here any more, although it’s only about ten minutes by cab from the centre of Athens.  When I came to this park, to be honest, I was surprised that there wasn’t already an international conference centre nearby.  It seemed obvious that there should be, but there wasn’t, so I started to wonder if maybe it was just me, just a crazy idea.  Then I made the mistake of mentioning this crazy idea to other people.  

I asked CEOs, leadership gurus, academics, and other authors, “Would you want to speak at a conference at the original location of Plato’s Academy?”  They’d say “Hell, yeah!”  Then they’d start to look confused.  After a couple of seconds they’d say “Wait a minute… does that even exist?”  I’d say yes.  They’d say “What’s there?”  I’d say “It’s kind of a dog park, with some ruins.”  They’d look even more confused.  They’d say “Surely you can’t build a conference centre on the ruins?”  I’d say, “Yes, but someone could build one near the ruins.”  They’d say, “So when are you going to do it?”  I hadn’t planned to do it.  I was just kind of thinking aloud.  

That was just over a year ago.  Since then, we’ve incorporated as a nonprofit organization, based in Greece, called the Plato’s Academy Centre.  So far we’ve mainly been running virtual events, during the pandemic.  This is the first physical event the Plato’s Academy Centre has been involved with, by offering advice and support to YPO and the Aurelius Foundation.  Next year, we’re planning to run more events online, and in Athens, and, eventually, we’re hoping this will lead to the creation of a new event space near the park.  

Most foreigners, even foreign philosophers, have never actually visited this site.  Three years ago, though, Plato’s Academy park was visited by Simon Critchley, a professor of philosophy at the New School for Social Research in New York.  He wrote a feature article about it for the New York Times, a newspaper still read by over three hundred thousands Americans.  It was titled “Athens in Pieces: The Stench of the Academy”.  Prof. Critchley said that on arriving here, he spotted a man standing by himself, “smoking a huge joint with what appeared to be a bottle of water at his feet”, although he wondered if it was alcohol and if everyone around the ruins was, as he puts it, “quietly getting wasted on a Saturday lunchtime.”  He concludes:

A faint but clearly perceptible smell of urine hung in the air of the palaestra. On the corner as I looked up, two men were rummaging carefully and quietly through a baby-blue refuse bin.

Prof. Critchley left this place feeling disappointed – it was no longer the glorious Academy of classical Athens.  He came here, gazed upon the park, and saw nothing much to his liking.  He hopped back in his taxi, and departed for good.  

I see something quite the opposite.  I wholeheartedly disagree with his appraisal.  Each time I return to this park, I see its potential more and more clearly.  I find myself in agreement with Cicero and his friend, who once walked in the park, after it had been torn apart by Sulla’s legionaries.  I too have seen, in my mind’s eye, Plato walking among these gardens.  

These grounds are steeped in history, and that history means something important, something urgent, something lacking from today’s society.  Something magical that cannot be eradicated by Sulla, or by a cranky article in the New York Times.  We just have to look a little bit more closely to see it for ourselves – we have to give the Academy more of a chance, if we ever want to see it again, and this place, because of its history, deserves our attention.

You, my friends, have walked along the same paths as Plato, and his great mind, in a sense, has been your companion here.  At least, perhaps, for a moment, you may have experienced something, conscious that the warm Athenian air you’re breathing in and out right now once resonated with the gentle voice of Socrates as he asked a crowd of boyish students, young Plato foremost among them, what it means to be a good man, what it means to be wise, and what it means to live well.  

I am an image of the soul of Plato, which has flown to Olympus,   While his earth-born body lies in Attic soil. 

You, my friends, gathered here today, are likewise an image… an imperfect image though it may be…  an image of Plato’s Academy… an image of those ancient thinkers who once gathered here to discuss philosophy with Plato, and perhaps you are also an image of those who are yet to arrive here, who will discuss Socrates and Plato and Aristotle, and all branches of philosophy here, in the future, in years to come.

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Socrates' philosophical method appealed to reason, trying to get to the real truth rather than accepting the superficial appearance of truth. The Sophists, by contrast, were professional orators who dominated Greek education at the time. They typically persuaded audiences to agree with them by using rhetoric to appeal to their emotions. Although the Sophists sometimes sounded like they were talking about the same things as philosophers, Socrates thought theirs was a dangerously misleading approach, which distorted reason. He also made a sharp distinction between dialectic, the pursuit of truth by means of reason, and eristics, which means trying to win arguments for amusement or to look clever – like those who always want to be right.

Questions and Answers

Dialectic was also known as the “question and answer” method. The first change required, to genuinely get at the truth, was simple. No more long-winded speeches. Socrates felt the Sophists were being allowed to speak far too long. They needed someone to interrupt them and actually question the premises upon which their argument was supposedly built. A Spartan king once quipped after listening to a Sophist that he couldn't remember the start of his speech, so didn't understand the middle, and therefore couldn't agree with the conclusion.

Socrates likewise insisted that we should be concise and unambiguous in our speech, and critically evaluate our assumptions each step of the way. It's easy to be deceived if we allow ourselves or others to go on without pausing to question the assumptions made in our reasoning. Long speeches are entertaining, though, and interruptions every few minutes can feel tedious. Socrates realized that this needed to be done without any hint of hostility, otherwise it risked degenerating into a squabble. Sometimes he would even claim to have a bad memory, forcing an orator to pause so that he could question the assumptions made at the beginning of their speech.

Epictetus on Socrates

The famous Stoic teacher, Epictetus, was still urging his students to look first and foremost to Socrates as their role model in life, over five centuries after the latter's execution. It may surprise you to learn that Epictetus didn't think it was Socrates' philosophical doctrines that his students were most in need of studying. Rather, it was his ability to tolerate disagreement over extremely important questions, such as the nature of justice, without getting into a heated argument.

Now this was the first and chief peculiarity of Socrates, never to be irritated in argument, never to utter any thing abusive, any thing insulting, but to bear with abusive persons and to put an end to the quarrel. – Discourses, 2.12

Epictetus says that when most people try to debate such lofty things they tend to confuse both themselves and the other person, get frustrated, argue, take offense, and then end up storming off in a huff. Socrates was adept, though, at getting people to examine their own assumptions. He never took offense at others, although occasionally they did become angry at his questions and insulted him.

Socrates on Coping with Insults

We're told that because Socrates sometimes questioned people too keenly, they were known to fly at him, punching him with their fists or even tearing his hair out. Although he was frequently "despised and laughed at", he bore their insults and even their physical assaults, patiently and with great temperance. Indeed, he is depicted by his friends as exhibiting tireless patience and courtesy.

Once, when a man became angry and kicked Socrates, an onlooker said he was shocked that the philosopher seemed unfazed by such abuse. Socrates replied that there was no more point getting upset at the angry man than at a donkey, if one had kicked him. His point is that the stranger who lost his temper didn't really understand what he was doing, and behaved like an animal lacking reason. So why get upset in response? That would make us no better than him.

On another occasion, Socrates was asked why he wasn't more offended at some outrageous insult. He replied simply that he chose not to take offense, reasoning that it needs two to make a quarrel. During Socrates’ lifetime, the playwright Aristophanes and other comic poets put on satirical plays, mocking him before all of Athens and countless foreign visitors. Socrates said he didn't mind because if they had genuinely pinpointed his faults, they'd be doing him a favour, whereas if their criticisms turned out to be groundless, they were of no consequence to him. We should follow his example, learn to be tolerant of disagreement, and refuse to take offense even at the worst insults. We gain nothing by doing so but merely harm ourselves.

Adopt the Principle of Charity

On social media people often comment on posts quickly and try to be brief, so their arguments often aren't expressed well. They tend to simplify their reasoning, leave their assumptions unstated, and make sweeping generalizations. It's good etiquette in a philosophical debate to assume a stance known as "the principle of charity" and this can be especially helpful online. It means giving people the benefit of the doubt, as we say, and placing the most favourable interpretation possible on their words, rather than jumping to a more negative conclusion. For instance, if someone were to say that "other philosophers admire Plato", it would be charitable to assume that they meant some philosophers rather than all of them. We can avoid a lot of unnecessary quarrels online by checking our understanding based on the most favourable interpretation: "Did you mean that some but not all philosophers admire Plato?"

Socrates typically helped his opponents in dialogue to clarify what they meant, even if this required considerable patience. Actively listening to others in this way, paraphrasing what we think they're trying to communicate, in order to make sure we've understood, can help both parties, and everyone else. It does take patience, though. Sometimes it's better simply to ignore comments if responding to them seems unlikely to help anyone. As Winston Churchill reputedly said, “You will never reach your destination if you stop and throw stones at every dog that barks.” If we're to expend more time and energy responding constructively, we have to learn to respond more selectively.

Socratic Questioning

Socrates did not typically appeal to what other people might say or think in order to persuade his partners in dialogue. He doesn't say "You should view things this way because that's what others say is true." Rather, he looks to the individual to stand on their own two feet, as it were, by rationally evaluating their own beliefs. Indeed, while he was awaiting execution, he reputedly wrote a poem about Aesop’s Fables, which began with the words:

"Judge not, ye men of Corinth," Aesop cried, "Of virtue as the jury-courts decide."

Socrates meant that we should never appeal to the opinion of the majority, as if they were a jury, when it comes to matters as important as the nature of virtue. We have to reason for ourselves.

Socrates tended likewise to avoid lecturing his companions didactically, as though he were an expert. Rather than telling them they're wrong, he preferred to ask questions, which forced them to acknowledge errors in their own thinking. He trusts them to realize when they've contradicted themselves rather than directly forcing his own opinion on them. His whole style of inquiry, therefore, embodies respect for the intellect of the individual with whom he's talking.

Let’s say, then, that you just want to get going. Here is the Socratic method in crude form: When someone makes a claim about right and wrong or good and bad, question it. Ask what the claim means, and about other things its holder believes, and look for tension between those points; show with your questions that the claim must in some way be unsatisfactory to the person who made it. In effect you deny what your discussion partners say, but the denial is artful. If you do this right, it won’t even sound like an argument. They will refine their claims, and now you do it again. – Ward Farnsworth, The Socratic Method

If you're interested in engaging in philosophical discussions, in a tolerant and constructive way, why not join our Plato's Academy Centre Facebook community? Or tag @PlatoAcademyCen on Twitter and use #Socrates to continue the conversion there.

Regards,

Donald Robertson

President of The Plato's Academy Centre

We’re delighted to welcome Dr. Morris back as a guest speaker at our March 11th virtual event, How Can We Save Rational Discourse: Philosophy & Politics.

Highlights

* There is much to be learned about leadership from ancient epic poems

* The Epic of Gilgamesh, an epic poem from ancient Mesopotamia, and regarded as the earliest surviving notable literature, is a great example of a bad leader transformed into a good leader.

* Leaders can learn from Homer’s works, The Iliad and The Odyssey, about the power of collaboration and purpose

* Wisdom consists in “guidance and guardrails”

* The Aesthetic Dimension (one of 4 dimensions of your experience): “People do not flourish in conditions of ugliness…There are two kinds of beauty: there’s the beauty we perceive and performance beauty—everyone needs to feel creative…”

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Highlights

* Simon’s podcast transitioned into community with Sharon Lebell, Kai Whiting and more modern day philosophy influencers in tow

* The Poet and the Sage

* Inspirations from Epictetus and Seneca

* The early journey to Stoicism

* The expanded journey to helping others learn to “live well”

Events in The Walled Garden - The Walled Garden

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Highlights

* How Aristotle defines courage

* Courageous leaders must defy norms

* The story of Army Major Ian Fishback, whose documenting and protest of systematic torture led to the US amendment that banned the practice

* The story of Susan L. Solomon who co-founded the New York Stem Cell Foundation (NYSCF) after her son was diagnosed with Type I Diabetes.

See our EventBrite profile page for details of forthcoming events.

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Mick will be featured at our March 11th event, Stoicism and Politics.

Highlights

* A revisit to Lycurgus’ leadership

* His direction influenced the establishment of American democracy

* Hoplite training began at 7 years of age, endurance and resilience training

* Women had more rights in Sparta under Lycurgus’ leadership than anywhere in the world at that time

See our EventBrite profile page for details of forthcoming events.

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There is no greater evil one can suffer than to hate reasonable discourse. – Socrates in Plato's Phaedo, 89d

There is an optional Facebook Live video of this lesson. NB: You do not need a Facebook account to watch the video but if you want to log in and follow our page, we'd appreciate that.

Asked whether any man was wiser than Socrates, Apollo replied through his priestess, the Pythia, declaring: Of all living men, Socrates is the most wise.

Socrates of Athens

Let's begin with a brief introduction to Socrates, the quintessential Athenian philosopher. Socrates left behind no writings. We know of him primarily through the Dialogues of Plato, his most celebrated student, which portray Socrates discussing philosophy with various acquaintances. Plato's earlier dialogues are believed to be more faithful depictions of his teacher, whereas in those he wrote later he often put his own doctrines into the mouth of Socrates.

Plato is not our only source, however. We also have many Socratic dialogues by Xenophon, a good friend of Socrates who became a famous military general. We even have a satirical depiction of Socrates in the comedies of Aristophanes, particularly The Clouds. There are also many references to him in other ancient sources, although often of uncertain reliability. For example, in Diogenes Laertius' Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, Socrates is described as "the first who discoursed on the conduct of life, and the first philosopher who was tried and put to death."

Socrates and the Delphic Oracle

The key details of his life are as follows. Socrates was born in the early 5th century BC. His father was a stonemason or sculptor, and his mother was a midwife. He distinguished himself during his military service in the Peloponnesian War, when Athens and her allies fought against Sparta and hers. Although by no means wealthy, with the support of his friends, Socrates was eventually able to leave his stonemason's workshop and dedicate the rest of his life to the study of philosophy.

At some point, probably when Socrates was approaching midlife, his childhood friend, Chaerephon, journeyed from Athens to the Temple of Apollo in nearby Delphi, to put a question to the Oracle. Asked whether any man was wiser than Socrates, Apollo replied through his priestess, the Pythia, declaring: Of all living men, Socrates is the most wise. Socrates claimed that he was shocked by this. He set about questioning everyone he met, from all walks of life, in order to put the god's assertion to the test and establish the true nature of wisdom.

The Socratic Method

Greek philosophers who came before him, such as Pythagoras and Anaxagoras, had speculated on the nature of the cosmos and laid down moral dogmas for their students. Socrates, however, became famous for his trademark "question and answer" method. It was designed to cure himself and others of a sort of intellectual conceit: the belief that one knows something that one does not know, such as what is good, or what is virtuous.

It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so. — Mark Twain?

Although that quote is widely attributed to Mark Twain, there’s no evidence, ironically, that he ever said it — perhaps it just ain’t so. Nevertheless, the point it makes is similar to Socrates’ point about the dangers of intellectual conceit.

Casting himself more in the role of great student than great teacher, Socrates began by denying that he actually knew much of importance. This, however, was widely viewed as a stratagem, known as "Socratic irony".

I myself know nothing, except just a little, enough to extract an argument from another man who is wise and to receive it fairly. – Socrates in Plato's Theaetetus, 161b

Socrates' question and answer method was therapeutic. Indeed, Plato actually describes it as a philosophical “therapy of the psyche”, or as we say a psychotherapy. It focused on the values and beliefs held by the individuals with whom he was speaking, in a way that affected them quite deeply at a personal level.

Anyone who is close to Socrates and enters into conversation with him is liable to be drawn into an argument, and whatever subject he may start, he will be continually carried round and round by him, until at last he finds that he has to give an account both of his present and past life, and when he is once entangled, Socrates will not let him go until he has completely and thoroughly shifted him. – Plato's Laches, 187e

Along the way, Socrates exposed the intellectual pretences of many influential figures in Athenian society. We might say he rocked the boat by asking too many questions, and paid the price for this when his enemies charged him with impiety and corrupting the youth.

The Death of Socrates

Socrates' trial in 399 BC was a defining moment in the history of Western philosophy. The jury, of 500 Athenian men, found him guilty and sentenced him to death by forced suicide – he was made to drink hemlock. His execution sent shockwaves through the ancient world, turning him into something resembling a philosophical martyr. Plato was inspired to found The Academy, the first scholarly institution in Western history. It was located outside the city walls, in one of the gymnasia or recreational grounds frequented by Socrates.

The ability to reason well, like Socrates, by patiently asking the right questions and tolerating disagreement, is arguably becoming a lost art today, particularly on social media. However, in the rest of this course, we're going to learn how to use the Socratic Method. We'll also explore how the Socratic Method influenced questioning techniques used today, such as those central to modern cognitive psychotherapy, and how other critical thinking skills can help us to engage in constructive dialogue about important issues.

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What do you think we can learn from Socrates? Let us know in our Facebook Community. Or tag @PlatoAcademyCen on Twitter and use #Socrates to continue the conversion there.

Regards,

Donald Robertson

President of The Plato's Academy Centre

Highlights

* How Eugenia became interested in the practical value of philosophy

* How Plutarch’s On Tranquillity of Mind helped her

* The Greek concept of euthymia in Seneca’s On Tranquillity

* Christianity and Stoicism

* Why “successful” people are sometimes still unfulfilled at the end of their lives

* Taking charge of Elliniki Agogi — adopting a new perspective on teaching Greek

* What it means to “Stoically disrupt” and reinvent oneself

See our EventBrite profile page for details of forthcoming events:

https://platosacademy.eventbrite.com

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Highlights

* Socrates’ involvement with Athenian politics

* What Socrates says about the importance of self-discipline in politics

* Why wisdom is worthless without self-control

* The risks of leaders who lack self-discipline

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* How the two-column technique is used in cognitive therapy today

* The original two-column method used by Socrates

* What Socrates actually said, excerpt from Xenophon’s Memorabilia Socratis

* Example of similar technique used centuries later by a Stoic teacher

* Epictetus seems to describe Socrates doing written exercises in a private notebook

Here’s the link to the original article, which contains a detailed description of a modified version of this exercise, for use in modern-day workshops.

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