Heiner

Zach Heiner
Teresa Welch
PHIL 1000
13 December 2015
Socrates v. Plato
Socrates was a great philosopher. He wouldnt teach anything he wasnt willing to do
himself. He taught inner beauty is what matters, not outer appearance. He believed that no one
knowingly does evil. Many people care very strongly about what others think of them, they want
to be accepted by society so they will do whatever is necessary to fit in. Socrates believed in
being true to yourself, and finding out who you truly are. A famous quote of his is the
unexamined life is not worth living. (Archetypes of wisdom, pg. 106) He wants everyone to
question all your actions. Know why you do what you do, and make sure you are doing them
because it is what you choose to do.
Everything we know about Socrates comes from his students, he never wrote anything
down himself. They described him as being a very ugly, unusual looking man. They compared
him to looking like an eel. He was short, fat, large beard, and dirty cloths. I think that this could
have a big reason as to why he taught inner beauty is what matters. He knew that he wasnt
attractive in they way society viewed people. Socrates taught this and lived his teachings.
Instead of showering regularly and wearing nice cloths to help his appearance, he rarely
showered, wore old torn cloths, and no shoes.
Socrates believed there was good in all people. No one would knowingly choose to do
evil. If someone were to do an evil act, they themselves did not know it to be evil. They will
always have good intent in the outcome of any action they perform. I believe many people liked

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this about Socrates. Choosing to see only the good in people no matter what they did or have
done. Many people believe that Socrates never really existed, just the idea of him does. In many
accounts he seems to good, to noble to be true.
The unexamined life is not worth living. Socrates wanted everybody to find out who
they truly are. He was astonished by the amount of people who didnt know who or what they
were. Your life has no purpose If you dont believe in anything. If you dont now what you stand
for. An examined life does not produce all the answers. Instead it results in a life devoted to
knowing more, a life in which progress means shedding false beliefs, a life in which pretense is
constantly ridiculed. (Archetypes of wisdom, pg. 106-107). You will never know the full truth
to anything, you can never have absolute truth. Weather you live the examined life or the
unexamined life, you wont know the truth. I think he is trying to say it is better to question your
life and try to figure out the truth then just go with the flow and live the life those are that
surround you. It is important to be your own person and not always who your elders want you to
be.
I think Socrates was my favorite philosopher because he lived everything he taught. He
would never do something and then teach the opposite. He never wore shoes to show its not
important to be wealthy. He was deemed an ugly person and he chose to do nothing to change
the peoples mind but rather teach something positive out of it. People offered him money for his
teachings but he would not accept it. Occasionally he would accept gifts from friends, but
refused to be paid for his teachings. Socrates died for teaching the things that he believed. He
had a chance to flee the city and keep his life but chose not to. By choosing to stay, it made me
think of him as a more noble man. Many people would take the chance and stop teaching that
which got them into trouble.

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Plato, unlike Socrates, wrote many things down. We gained most of what we know about
him by his own writings. He came from a wealthy and royal family. Plato was very successful at
music, debate, math, pottery, and wrestling. He was known to be an attractive man. After the
death of Socrates, Plato left Athens for roughly 12 years. After his journey of study, he founded
his Academy. He started the Academy so they could not be effected by Athenian politics and
have the same fate as Socrates. Plato also started the Platonic forms, a way of understanding
everything in the universe.
Plato really respected Socrates for how committed he was to what he believed in. we
know a lot about Socrates because of what Plato has said about him. If Socrates were to never
have existed (or the idea of Socrates) Platos life and history would be dramatically different.
Platos Academy was not for anyone. You had to be chosen to be able to join. Then you
had to be the elite of the class to be able to hear his philosophical teachings. Plato did not write
anything down once he started the school so we dont really know exactly what was taught. He
studied mathematics and Pythagorean philosophy before he founded the Academy so we believe
that is what was taught.
The allegory of the cave is another well known theory of Plato. Summed up its talking
about how our lives could be just a shadow of what is really happening. We have never seen
anything but the shadow so we perceive it to be the real thing. He gave the example of slaves
born in a cave, never allowed out the cave but shown shadows on the wall. They would begin to
think that the shadows were reality since they have never seen the outside world. Then he asked
the question, what would happen if you were to allow one of the slaves into the real world?
Once the prisoner adjusted to the actual world and returned to tell the other prisoners that what
they were seeing on the wall were not the real objects just shadows, they would call him dumb,

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crazy, and other names because they are to ignorant to hear the truth. They have thought this to
be true their entire life so why would they believe him?
Platos theory of the forms are based off of the allegory of the cave. The objects that we
see are just forms of what is rally there. Things we can not perceive. Instead, they are grouped
together into a form. Cats would be a form, chair, beauty, tree, table, all these are just types of
forms that we perceive for the actual source.
Plato believed in weakness of will; he disagreed with Socrates belief that to know the
good is to do the good. (Archetypes of Wisdom pg. 147) He believed in parts of the soul. He
compared the soul to a chariot that was being pulled by two separate horses. One horse knows
what to do, and the other constantly needs the whip to know what should be done. What he is
saying is that we do not always know what id good, what is the right choice. We have to make up
our minds and choose for ourselves what action we will do.
I chose Socrates and Plato because there are so many similarities and yet so many
differences between them. Plato loved Socrates and his teachings and was very hurt by how he
was treated by the Athenian government. Socrates taught anyone that would listen. Never asked
for any money, and lived off of bare essentials. Plato only taught those who were very educated.
He came from a very wealthy background and lived comfortably.
Sources:
Archetypes of Wisdom ( chapters 4-5)