My goal in the present work is to add to our understanding of Socratic protreptic. I do so by focussing on psychological traits and qualities of character in Socrates’ young associates. There are a number of candidates throughout the dialogues whose colourful depiction and careful psychological rendering offer us ample material for study. In this study, I focus on two characters in particular. First, I look at the presentation of Alcibiades in the final scene of Symposium. Here I explore how Plato uses hubris and shame to explain the failure of protreptic in this gifted Socratic associate. Next, I look at Theaetetus as presented in the eponymously named dialogue. His characterization as an able, intelligent and model candidate for philosophy gives us a penetrating insight into the Socratic ideal. Finally, I offer a reading of Eros in Phaedrus that examines the psychological dynamic between the lover and his beloved. While a number of types of lovers are envisioned in this dialogue, I argue that if a beloved is to succeed in turning toward philosophy his lover must be a philosophical lover motivated by other-regarding care for his beloved’s soul. / Thesis (Ph.D, Philosophy) -- Queen's University, 2012-04-02 11:04:07.292

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This thesis outlines Nietzsche's view of Socrates in The Birth of Tragedy. Socrates is first argued to be the father of science and then, after having explained the artistic nature of the world and ourselves according to Nietzsche, Socrates' degenerative, nihilistic influence upon the world is detailed. Science is then explained to have originated in a moral perspective on the world, the latter growing out of self-denial, and ultimately illness. The "dying Socrates" is Nietzsche's symbol of science as a negative positing of the artistic forces one is, from whence Nietzsche concludes the impossibility of escaping from oneself by such means.

The goal of this thesis is ultimately to answer the two questions raised and left unresolved in Plato’s Protagoras: What is virtue? Is virtue teachable? Following the dramatic order of Plato’s dialogues as outlined by Catherine Zuckert, I intend to show that the Meno returns to the issues raised and left unresolved in the Protagoras, but now with the idea of recollection. My intention is to look at how the idea of recollection, developed and associated with eros in the intervening dialogues, can help explain the nature of virtue and its teachability. I believe that we can come to answer both questions, “What is virtue?” and “Is virtue teachable?” posed in the Protagoras and the Meno by drawing on the ideas of anamnesis and eros as they appear in the Meno, Phaedrus, and Symposium.

This thesis wants to say that Socrates was a teacher of his fellows. He engaged with them through dialogue because he cared for their wellbeing, or as he might have put it: for the state of their souls. He was an intellectual and he had an intellectualist view of people and reality. He felt that right-mindedness was reasonable; and thus he believed that learning and developing understanding brought people closer to being virtuous; to goodness; and so to mental health. Socrates was a philosopher, and he considered this to be the most prudent and exalted approach to life. He taught his fellows how to be philosophers, and he urged them as best he could to take up the philosophical stance. His form of care for others was ‘intellectualist’. He cared ‘for the souls of others’ and for his own with intellectual involvement because he believed that this was the most appropriate way. He had a view of the human soul that produced intellectualist views of what wellbeing is and how it is achieved. He himself was a humble and able thinker, and was fully devoted to being virtuous and to helping his fellows to do the same. This thesis addresses the question of what Socrates did in the agora (his aims) and how he went about doing it (his methodology). Our answer might seem obvious. One might wonder what is new about saying that Socrates was a philosopher, and that he cared for the souls of his fellows and that he urged them to become virtuous. Perhaps nothing of this is new. Nevertheless, we find that making this ‘simple’ statement about Socrates is not that simple at all. We find that in Socratic scholarship there exist a plethora of contrasting voices that make it rather difficult to formulate even such a basic description of what Socrates did. We do not wish to create a novel and different reading of Socrates. We do not think that this is even possible after civilization has been interpreting Socrates for millennia. We do not see innovation for its own sake as desirable. We prefer clear understanding to the eager ‘originality’. Therefore rather, our aim with this work is to defend and clarify a very basic picture of Socrates as an educator. We see this work as clearing away clutter so as to begin our life-long study of Socratic thought and action: by laying a foundation with which we can read Socratic works and discern their meaning.

RIBEIRO, José André. Sócrates épico, trágico e cômico: um estudo sobre os gêneros literários no eutidemo, banquete e apologia . 2017. 229f. – Tese (Doutorado) – Universidade Federal do Ceará, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Filosofia, Fortaleza (CE), 2017. / Submitted by Gustavo Daher (gdaherufc@hotmail.com) on 2017-05-04T12:16:42Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2017_tese_jaribeiro.pdf: 2520923 bytes, checksum: 93f09c7de17c8dc40e7fc65603704449 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Márcia Araújo (marcia_m_bezerra@yahoo.com.br) on 2017-05-04T14:55:45Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 2017_tese_jaribeiro.pdf: 2520923 bytes, checksum: 93f09c7de17c8dc40e7fc65603704449 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-05-04T14:55:45Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2017_tese_jaribeiro.pdf: 2520923 bytes, checksum: 93f09c7de17c8dc40e7fc65603704449 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017 / The proposal of this work is to provide an analysis of Socrates as a character of Plato’s dialogues. What is meant to show is that this character joins elements of the epic, tragic and comic genres. We assume that Socrates is represented as a kind of philosophical hero, in which epic features merge with a comic mask, whose nuances also bring a tragic dramatization. In view of this, this study identifies the relation of the dialogues with the poetic tradition, from the analysis of some dialogues, which would allow to draw that sense of the character. First, the "Euthydemus" as a comic piece. Second, the epic character of Socrates in the speech of Alcibiades from the Simposium. Finally, an analysis of the encounter between the genres on the character of Apology. / A proposta deste trabalho é fazer uma análise do personagem Sócrates dos diálogos de Platão. O que se pretende mostrar é que esse personagem funde elementos dos gêneros épico, trágico e cômico. Pressupomos que Sócrates é representado como uma espécie de herói filosófico, no qual características épicas se fundem com uma máscara cômica, cujas nuanças também trazem uma dramatização trágica. Em vista disso, este estudo faz um recorte na relação dos diálogos com a tradição poética, a partir da análise de alguns diálogos, que permitiriam traçar esse sentido do personagem. Em primeiro lugar, o Eutidemo como uma peça cômica. Em segundo, do caráter épico de Sócrates no discurso de Alcibíades do Banquete. Por fim, uma análise do encontro entre os gêneros no personagem da Apologia.

The goal of this thesis is ultimately to answer the two questions raised and left unresolved in Plato’s Protagoras: What is virtue? Is virtue teachable? Following the dramatic order of Plato’s dialogues as outlined by Catherine Zuckert, I intend to show that the Meno returns to the issues raised and left unresolved in the Protagoras, but now with the idea of recollection. My intention is to look at how the idea of recollection, developed and associated with eros in the intervening dialogues, can help explain the nature of virtue and its teachability. I believe that we can come to answer both questions, “What is virtue?” and “Is virtue teachable?” posed in the Protagoras and the Meno by drawing on the ideas of anamnesis and eros as they appear in the Meno, Phaedrus, and Symposium.

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No description available.

This thesis is a careful examination of one small Platonic dialogue, the Euthydemus. In broad terms, it argues that the Euthydemus is concerned with what might be described as 'word games', with teaching both the need to know how to speak well and the worth of being able to do so. In more specific terms, it argues that the Euthydemus is comprised of three distinct levels, Socrates' conversation (primarily) with the brothers Euthydemus and Dionysodorus, his conversation with Crito, and Plato's conversation with the reader; levels, it is suggested, which cannot be fully understood unless Crito's role in each of them is first recognized. The first level, Socrates' conversation (primarily) with the brothers Euthydemus and Dionysodorus, is seemingly composed of three separate discussions, between Socrates and the brothers, between Socrates and Clinias, and between Socrates and Ctesippus. The first discussion is a general demonstration of knowing how to use words (or 'word games') and, further, of knowing how to use them well. The second discussion, in contradistinction to the first, centres on a coherent application of words to a specific goal; that being, to begin to demonstrate both that knowledge is the greatest good for individuals and, as well, that philosophy is nothing more than a 'perpetual ruthless questioning' . The third discussion reveals something about Ctesippus' nature. More importantly, it illustrates how words can be used to communicate with certain individuals and not others. The second level of the Buthydemus, Socrates' conversation with Crito, might accurately be described as an application of words to a specific goal writ large. The reason is that, here, Socrates tells Crito a 'story' (this being what was described above as the first level of the E:uthydemus) in order to discourage him from giving his sons a philosophic education. The third level, Plato's conversation with the reader (or Plato as distinguished from Socrates), raises the broader issue of the relation between the philosopher and the city. More precisely, it begins to reveal the effects that different methods of speaking have on an individual, on the opinions that others form as a result of his or her choice in this regard, and thus on the need for an individual to choose wisely. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA)