socrates mythos logos et al Tuesday oct. 1st Theories of Reality Minor review of last week.

define:
philosophy(literally "love of wisdom")

-An attempt to come to a systematic understanding of the world through the use of reason.

the pre-socratic philosophers or natural philosophers were the 1st "scientists". They essentially cleared the way for ancient philosophy and philosophy as we know it today. They merely applied reason to the physical world.

Before people tried philosophy they used mythological or religious explanations. The book calls this Mythos. An example is when people attribute a certain god to a natural event as a way of explaining it. If people believe that a volcano occurs because a monster is throwing fire from his cavern, this animism is a form of mythos.

Prof. Borrowdale posited that most religions began from people hearing voices, because back a couple thousand years ago people heard voices and they told them what to do. i.e. When Moses chatted with a "burning bush" he was really chatting with the voices in his head.

Mythos are one way of explaining nature another is to look at a people's
Social/Cultural Traditions- Essentially people assume that, "this is the way it is done because this is the way it has always been done."

Philosophers supposedly take a different perspective in that they say, "this is the way it is done because this is the way it has always been done..IS THERE A BETTER WAY?"

Logos is the opposite of Mythos. It is for when people explain the world with impersonal and mechanical forces.

Mythos - explains the seasons with a myth about Persephone and Hades etc..

Logos - explains the seasons with a theory based on equilibrium of natural forces called injustice versus justice.

Sophists - Teachers of argument, rhetoric, law, and politics FOR A FEE.
Examples are political consultants, Public relations specialists, spin doctors, defense attorneys etc...

Socrates becomes somewhat of a synergy because he uses the systemic thinking of natural philosophers as well as the argument techniques of the sophists. His questioning of the people of Athens gets him in trouble because he makes people feel like fools and questions the authority of ancient beliefs.

Socrates is tried in court for four things
1. He is accused of being a natural philosopher, a non-religious scientist and of being an atheist. He claims not to be an atheist nor a natural philosopher.
2. He is accused of being a sophist, because he "makes the weaker argument defeat the stronger" in as much as his arguments are nitpicky but they expose a fatal flaw in the larger subjects he is up against. His argument against him being a sophist was that he never charged a fee and merely asked questions.
3. He is accused of corrupting the youth of Athens. Because as he went around asking questions of elders and politicians, he would garner crowds of mostly younger athenians who were impressed by his method of devaluing the ideas of those in power. And who, inevitably, began to question those around town, to the chagrin of the elder statesmen of fair Athens.
4. He is accused of Heresy, or believing in Gods not approved by the state. This, Socrates pointed out, was in direct contradiction to the very first charge leveled against him. He argued that if he was an atheist there was no way he was a heretic and vice versa.

They found him guilty. At which time he was allowed to suggest a punishment and the prosecution was allowed to suggest a punishment. He suggested that they treat him as a state hero and allow him to live in a mansion. They suggested execution. His friends attempted to change his plea to a modest fee. But he was given execution, he said, around this point that, "an unexamined life is not worth living" and he also assumed that death was the best thing for him if he was not allowed to continue his exploration.

Plato wrote all this describing Socrates drinking hemlock and dying but the truth goes marching on...