What does Socrates contribute to humanity

Why is Socrates great?

Socrates' greatest contribution to philosophy is that he shifted the object of philosophical research from the study of the origin of the world and the exploration of the nature of the world to the study of human beings themselves. Before Socrates, Pythagoras, Empedocles, Heraclitus, and Sophists discussed the human soul and human epistemology to varying degrees when discussing the natural world, but their main idea was to regard man as a part of the subordinate natural world, and lacked sufficient consideration for the reason why man is human. Socrates, on the other hand, understood the task of philosophy as knowing human beings themselves.

Socrates, borrowing a phrase from the Temple of Delphi, "Know thyself", reversed the direction of Greek philosophy and pulled it back from the sky to the earth. He saw that the previous natural philosophers did not first examine their own minds before explaining the original principles of the world, and he believed that the human mind already contained some principles that were consistent with the original principles of the world, and advocated that these principles should be found in the mind first, and then the external world should be prescribed according to these principles. It can be said that the principle of "know thyself" has not only expanded the territory of philosophical research, but also changed the way of philosophical research.

Socrates' proposition saw a fundamental characteristic of human beings: human beings are thinking creatures, and any of his research activities have a strong purpose and can exert a great influence on nature, which is a new breakthrough in philosophical research. However, he further deduced that the whole world is a product of human thought, which has been transformed and designed according to the requirements of thought, but has reversed the relationship between matter and thinking and moved towards idealism.

In the history of philosophy, Socrates' enlightenment far outweighs his academic achievements, and his personality influence is greater than his knowledge. The trial and imprisonment of Socrates is not only an eternal story in the history of philosophy, but also fully exposes the contradiction between the increasingly mature philosophical thinking and the still primitive Athenian democracy.

Socrates was not the first philosopher of ancient Greece, why was he the founder of Western philosophy? Why did Socrates come up with "virtue is knowledge"?

He made such a clear opposition between spirit and matter, and became the founder of idealistic philosophy in the history of Western philosophy.

Socrates pointed out that the series of causes and effects in nature is endless, and that it is impossible for philosophy to know the ultimate cause of things if it seeks only this cause and effect. He believes that the ultimate cause of things is "goodness", which is the purposefulness of things. He replaced the study of cause and effect of things with teleology, which opened the way for later idealistic philosophy.

Socrates admits that he himself has no knowledge and that he has to teach others. This contradiction he solves in this way: this knowledge is not instilled in people by him, but what people already have; People are already pregnant with a "child" in their hearts, but they don't know it yet, Socrates is like a "midwife" who helps others to generate knowledge.

Socrates' midwifery is concentrated in the form of "interrogation" that he often adopts, exposing the contradictions in various propositions and theories put forward by the other party by asking questions, so as to shake the basis of the other party's argument and point out the ignorance of the other party; In the cross-examination, Socrates himself did not give a positive, positive answer because he admitted that he was ignorant. This approach is generally referred to as "Socratic irony". This method of Socrates was developed from the logical deductions of the Elixians and the counter-evidence of Zeno of Elijah.

In the negative form of Socratic irony there are positive results of dialectical thinking that exposes contradictions. This method of Socrates, in the history of Western philosophy, is the earliest form of dialectics.

Socrates emphasized the importance of knowledge and believed that ethics and morality should be determined by reason, and this rationalist thought played a positive role in the development of Western philosophical thought in the future.

Socrates was the founder of Western philosophy.

During his lifetime, Socrates did not leave any philosophical writings or memories. Now, we learn about his life and thoughts mainly through the memories of the stirring writings of Plato and Xenophon, but the memories of Plato and Xenophon are often contradictory, and we do not know which record is more true. Therefore, the philosophical views of Socrates are indeed not worth mentioning compared to his status.

So, why does Socrates have such a prominent position in the history of Western philosophy because he did not have significant philosophical works or philosophical views?

The most important thing is that he created new categories, guidelines and methods of philosophical research for Western philosophy, and spent his whole life to practice them, and finally used his life to practice his philosophical ideas.

Specifically, Socrates' greatest contribution is that he changed the scope of philosophical research, from focusing on self-union and the origin of the world to focusing on man himself (and the society in which he lives).

Second, he created a new method of philosophical research and philosophical speculation, and his spiritual midwifery seems prosaic now, but at the time when the school of wisdom was rampant, it was extremely subversive and groundbreaking;

Third, Socrates broke the ignorance of the ancient Greeks' blind worship of God, and he used his words and deeds to show that the wisdom of human beings is very small, almost negligible, and people are far from reaching the point where they can be complacent, but although the wisdom of human beings is very small, people do not have to be inferior, people can still think, and can obtain correct knowledge through their own thinking;

Fourth, Socrates used his life's words and deeds to popularize knowledge from the wizards and the aristocracy (especially the school of the Sophists) to the general public, making philosophy a theoretical tool that ordinary people could grasp.

Looking at the above four articles carefully, no matter which one of them, was extremely subversive and groundbreaking at that time. Therefore, it is not surprising that he is considered the founder of Western philosophy.

I've always felt that Confucius, Jesus, Shakyamuni and Socrates have a lot of similarities. You can compare and read the thoughts and lives of the sages. It's a fun phenomenon.

Socrates was the founder of Western philosophy.

Socrates, a famous thinker, philosopher, educator, and civic juror in ancient Greece. Socrates, his student Plato, and Plato's student Aristotle, known as the "Three Sages of Ancient Greece", are widely regarded as the founders of Western philosophy. As a citizen of Athens in bright stockings, Socrates is recorded to have been sentenced to death by the Athenian court for insulting the Athenian gods, introducing neotheism, and corrupting the minds of the Athenian youth.

Although Sugsaky was given the opportunity to flee, he chose to die by drinking the juice of the violet, believing that fleeing would only further undermine the authority of Athenian law.

Socrates' philosophical contributions are:

He made such a clear opposition between spirit and matter, and became the founder of idealistic philosophy in the history of Western philosophy. Socrates pointed out that the series of causes and effects in nature is endless, and that it is impossible for philosophy to know the ultimate cause of things if it seeks only this cause and effect. He believes that the ultimate cause of things is "goodness", which is the purposefulness of things. He replaced the study of cause and effect of things with teleology, which opened the way for later idealistic philosophy. Socrates' satirical method was created, which was developed from the logical deductions of the Elian school and Zeno of Elia's method of counterproof, which is the earliest form of dialectics in the history of Western philosophy; Socrates emphasized the importance of knowledge and believed that ethics and morality should be determined by reason, and this rationalist thought played a positive role in the development of Western philosophical thought in the future.

Socrates philosophically advocated the search for external principles in the mind now, and then the external world in accordance with these principles.

Socrates famously said that virtue is knowledge (virtue is knowledge), and virtue here is the principle that is inherent in the heart. A person's knowledge of himself is the knowledge of virtue or virtue.

Only when you know what is good and do good can you be considered knowledgeable. It is a contradiction to know good and not do good, which means that you still don't know good. Virtue is knowledge, emphasizing the unity of knowledge and action, and the unity of truth and goodness.

Socrates' method is: midwifery. That is, to acquire knowledge in the same way that a midwife delivers a child.

Socrates is loved not primarily for his philosophical achievements, but for his practice and personality. Socrates was officially executed by the ** of the time for insisting on his truth.

Contribution bai1: Inheriting the wind of the "Movement of the Wise", philosophy "pulls back from heaven to earth" ([Roman dao] Cicero), and focuses on self.

However, the turn to ethical questions was an important turning point in Greek philosophyContribution 2: the epistemic attitude of "self-knowledge", which distinguishes "wisdom" from "knowledge" in generalContribution 3: Closely related to Contribution 2, in the posture of "midwife", through the "universal definition" of the "dialogue method" ("dialectic"), which contributed to the later Plato's "Theory of Ideas".

Aristotle once said that Socrates' two greatest contributions were the "dialogical method" and the "universal definition".

The role of Socrates in inheriting the past is mainly manifested in his change of the ancient Greek philosophy of seeking the ultimate cause of the world in the natural world, and the philosophical tradition of seeking the ultimate cause in the inner world.

Socrates said that in his youth he had a great passion for the natural sciences, and that it was remarkable to be able to explain the reasons for the creation, development, and death of things. But when he saw in Anaxagora's writings the idea that the mind is the cause of all things, his mind suddenly opened up. ...According to Socrates, the search for the ultimate cause of a specific cause should be sought not from without, but from within, to the mind.

For it is not a natural attribute of things, but a purposeful and regular nature of the whole universe, that is, the pursuit of the good, which can only be explained by the mind. Philosophy shifted from outward to inward, transforming it from cosmology and physics to ethics and anthropology. From now on.

Philosophy began a new development. This is the significance of Socratic philosophy.

If the soul really represents wisdom and knowledge, as Socrates said, then we can not just say that the philosopher is dead, but the philosopher's mind lives on.

Excerpted from The Last Days of Socrates, p 7 8, Joint Publishing House, Shanghai).

Logic was founded. (Original words in the history books).

Teaching Plato did not produce much in itself.