Ancient Greek Philosophy: Socrates and Plato Comparison

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Philosophy is a very ancient science which started its development with the development of humans thought. Having chosen its own way of evolution, a human being started thinking about peculiarities of its development, life, work and origin. These thoughts made us different from the rest of animal world. That is why, it is possible to say that philosophy is one of the most ancient sciences in the world. Ancient Egypt and India, Assyria and Babylon had their own point of view on the sum of things.

They created their own approach, giving birth to development of philosophic science as these countries were known to be the first civilized societies in the world. However, we do not know much about peculiarities of their culture, though people do not deny its importance. Nevertheless, the term philosophy is usually associated with Ancient Greece.

Due to life and activity of such persons as Aristotle, Plato, Socrates, Empedocles and Epicurus humanity now knows a lot about peculiarities of the world perception of the ancient Greeks, the problems which were actual for them and some basic concepts which are important even nowadays. These people created a basis for a classic philosophy and the way we understand this term nowadays.

Among all these personalities, there are several which are the most important for the development of philosophy as a science, as they influenced greatly the appearance and development of new notions. They are Socrates and Plato. Socrates is always taken as a creator of Western philosophy, that is why it is possible to understand how important his work is. However, he still remains as he was in his lifetime an enigma, an inscrutable individual who, despite having written nothing, is considered one of the handful of philosophers who forever changed how philosophy itself was to be conceived (Nails para 1).

He produced a lot of interesting ideas, which we know due to his pupils, who managed to write works which revealed the information about him. Plato was among them. Being the most praised Socrates pupil, he devoted a lot of his works to Socrates figure, trying to investigate his point of view and present it to the audience. Among these works are Platos Apology and Crito. They both are connected with the charges against Socrates. On the background of this process the philosopher tries to answer some ethical questions and cogitates about certain virtues.

Apology is the first work we are going to analyze. It is one of the first works appeared after the Socrates trial and which is considered to be the most authentic source from which we know all details connected with this case, such as the names of the accusers, their social status and attitude towards Socrates. This work is a perfect example of the formal speech of ancient times.

From the very beginning, Socrates starts his defense with the words How you have felt, O men of Athens, at hearing the speeches of my accusers, I cannot tell; but I know that their persuasive words almost made me forget who I was such was the effect of them (Plato, Apology para.1). These statement can show that his speech could be treated as rather ironical as Socrates does not see real subjects for this trial. He reveals facts about his life, trying to find out the truth, no matter how it could influence his further life.

Socrates is accused of being disrespectful to gods and confusing minds of the youth, making weak arguments stronger and winning debates with the help of them. Socrates denies this accusations, saying that he just leads his life in an unusual way, however, its main aim is determined by Apollo. The whole work Apology shows how perfectly Socrates develops his thoughts and how wise and unique his image is. Plato, at the same time, underlines absurdness of this process and its unfair character. Participating in this trial, Socrates even suggests his own verdict, being ready to accept any sentence. However, it is not because he felt guilty.

Another Platos work Crito continues this issue. The action takes place in a prison after the Socrates trial. Plato continues his cogitations about the nature of these accusations and process. This work shows Socrates thoughts about his sentence and his denial to escape from this prison. Crito tries to persuade him O! my beloved Socrates, let me entreat you once more to take my advice and escape (Plato, Crito para. 27), however, Socrates remains firm. He will not do that. This dialogue gives a lot of questions for readers to answer. There is a great number of debates around the issue of Socrates escape.

People argue, whether he sould escape or not and what are the reasons which made him stay. However, it is obvious that stating his innocence and being sure in his rightness, Socrates could not accept Critos proposal. He will give up his life rather than compromise his ethics (Woodruff para. 44). The thing is, that this escape would contradict to his principles and ethics. Accepting this proposal, Socrates will break the law of Athens, which will be appreciated like some wrong action. Socrates promoted that one must never do wrong, even in return for a wrong (Woodruff para. 45).

Moreover, he is proud of this principle. That is why, it is impossible for him to escape. Plato gives Socrates point of view to underline importance of ethics for ancient philosophers. Critos main aim is to show main peculiarities of Socrates though and the way he accepted his sentence. Being very mysterious figure, Socrates managed to make his death mysterious to. He was glad to accept it, as his death would help him to avoid severity and foolishness of this world. Before his death, he sacrificed a rooster to Asclepius as a gift for his recovery.

Having analyzed the data, it is possible to make some certain conclusions. First of all, it should be said that Socrates is a very mystical figure and his life and death are very disputable issues even nowadays. Being one of his pupils, Plato managed to create several works in which he described the Socrates trial and his last days in the prison. Due to this works, we know the majority of information about the image of Socrates.

We can see how strong his will and the firmness in his rightness were. Being accused of promoting new gods and ideas, Socrates denied it, however, accepting the sentence as it was important for him not to do wrong as his understanding of ethics contradicted to it. The works Apology and Crito describe the thoughts of one of the greatest philosophers of all times.

Works Cited

Nails, Debra, Socrates, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2014. Web.

Plato. Apology. 397BC. Web.

. Crito. 396BC. Web.

Woodruff, Paul, Platos Shorter Ethical Works, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2014. Web.

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Ancient Greek Philosophy: Socrates and Plato Comparison

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