Name: Baicu Cristina Nadia

School: C.N.”Jean Monnet” Ploiesti

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 Socrates
Socratic method
Perhaps his most important contribution to
Western thought is his dialectic method of
inquiry ancheta, known as the Socratic
method, which he largely applied to the
examination of key moral concepts such as
the Good and Justice. It was first described
by Plato in the Socratic Dialogues. To
solve a problem, it would be broken down
into a series of questions, the answers to
which gradually distill the answer a person
would seek. The development and practice
of this method is one of Socrates's most
enduring contributions, and is a key factor
in earning his mantle as the father of political philosophy, ethics or moral
philosophy, and as a figurehead of all the central themes in Western philosophy.
The Socratic method has often been considered as a defining element of
American legal education.

To illustrate the use of the Socratic method, a series of questions are posed to
help a person or group to determine their underlying beliefs and the extent of
their knowledge.

The statement "I know that I know nothing" is often attributed to Socrates. The
conventional interpretation of this is that Socrates's wisdom was limited to an
awareness of his own ignorance.

He was accused of corrupting the youth and he was arrested by the Greek
democracy. He was found guilty and sentenced to death. Although his friends
offered to help him escape from prison, he chose to remain in Athens and abide
by his principles. His execution consisted of drinking the poison hemlock and
he died in 399 BC.

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 How to use the Socratic method?
1Asking Questions
Sum up the person’s argument. Identify what the other person is arguing. For
example, someone might say, “It’s best to give money away instead of spending
it.” Often, people will believe that they are espousing common sense, which no
one would disagree with.

If you don’t understand what someone is arguing, ask them to clarify their
beliefs. You can ask, “I don’t understand. What are you trying to say?” or
“Could you restate that?”

2Ask for evidence

Before beginning to really challenge a person’s point of view, you should ask
them about their evidence. A person might quickly realize that they are merely
repeating something they have heard before without thinking critically. You can
ask the following questions to uncover evidence:

“Why do you believe that is true?”

“Please explain your reasoning.”
“What has lead you to that belief?”
3Challenge their assumptions ipoteze
Ideas are like building blocks. Your conclusion rests on other blocks, some of
which might be unproven. When an idea is unproven, it is an assumption—and
assumptions can sometimes be wrong. After asking a person for their evidence,
zero in on the ideas which aren’t supported by evidence. These are their
assumptions.
For example, someone might say you should give away money because having
too much money makes you greedy. This person is assuming someone doesn’t
spend all of their available money on necessities.
You can say, “But are you assuming people have money to give away after
buying necessities? Is it best for these people to give their money away?”

4Find an exception
Identify a set of circumstances where the person’s statement would be false. For
example, is it always good to give away your money? You can think of many
situations where a selfless person might cause more harm than good. Consider
the following:

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The person who wants your money is a drug addict. Ask your opponent,
“Should I give my money away to someone who wants to buy drugs?” If the
person says no, then follow up and ask why, which will help you tease out the
other person’s thinking.

You must provide food and shelter. Formulate this as a question: “Should I give
away all my money when my elderly mum is dependent on me?”

5Ask the other person to reformulate their argument

Once they concede that the exception exists, they should reformulate their
argument to account for the exception. For example, they might say, “People
should give their money away if doing so would benefit society.”

6Continue to ask questions or raise exceptions

In the example above, you can ask the person to define what “benefits society.”
You can also ask questions to pin them down if they are confused.

You should continue this process until you can’t invalidate the statement any
more.

7Avoid getting nasty

The Socratic method is not about proving people wrong, so don’t be aggressive
in with your questions. If your goal is to win an argument, then you should seek
out different Greek philosophers, such as the Sophists. Indeed, the key to the
Socratic method is to be humble. Don’t assume that anyone knows anything for
sure. Question every premise.

If the other person starts to get flustered, you can say, “I’m just playing Devil’s
Advocate” or “I’m trying to understand all sides of your thinking.”

You might enjoy the other person’s confusion a little too much. Remind
yourself that Socrates didn’t have answers for every question he asked, which is
typical of an exchange using the Socratic method.

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 Plato

He was a student of Socrates. Plato founded the

Academy of Athens and wrote a number of
dialogues, which applied the Socratic method of
inquiry to examine philosophical problems. Some
central ideas of Plato's dialogues are the
immortality of the soul, the benefits of being just,
that evil is ignorance, and the Theory of Forms.

The Allegory of the Cave, or

Plato's Cave, was presented
by the Greek philosopher
Plato in his work Republic
(514a–520a) to compare "the effect of education and the lack of it on our
nature". It is written as a dialogue between Plato's brother Glaucon and his
mentor Socrates, narrated by the latter. The allegory is presented after the
analogy of the sun (508b–509c) and the analogy of the divided line (509d–
511e). All three are characterized in relation to dialectic at the end of Books VII
and VIII (531d–534e).

Plato has Socrates describe a group of people who have lived chained to the
wall of a cave all of their lives, facing a blank wall. The people watch shadows
projected on the wall from objects passing in front of a fire behind them, and
give names to these shadows. The shadows are the prisoners' reality. Socrates
explains how the philosopher is like a prisoner who is freed from the cave and
comes to understand that the shadows on the wall are not reality at all, for he
can perceive the true form of reality rather than the manufactured reality that is
the shadows seen by the prisoners. The inmates detinuti of this place do not even
desire dorinta to leave their prison, for they know no better life. The prisoners
manage to break their bonds lanturi one day, and discover that their reality was not
what they thought it was. They discovered the sun, which Plato uses as an
analogy for the fire that man cannot see behind. Like the fire that cast light on
the walls of the cave, the human condition is forever bound to the impressions
that are received through the senses. Even if these interpretations (or, in Kantian
terminology, intuitions) are an absurd misrepresentation of reality, we cannot
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somehow break free from the bonds of our human condition—we cannot free
ourselves from phenomenal state just as the prisoners could not free themselves
from their chains. If, however, we were to miraculously escape our bondage, we
would find a world that we could not understand—the sun is incomprehensible
for someone who has never seen it.

René Descartes

31 March 1596 – 11 February 1650) He was a

French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist.
A native of the Kingdom of France, he spent
about 20 years (1629–49) of his life in the Dutch
Republic after serving for a while in the Dutch
States Army of Maurice of Nassau, Prince of
Orange and the Stadtholder of the United
Provinces. He is generally considered one of the
most notable intellectual figures of the Dutch
Golden Age.

Descartes' Meditations on First Philosophy (1641) continues to be a standard

text at most university philosophy departments. Descartes' influence in
mathematics is equally apparent; the Cartesian coordinate system was named
after him. He is credited as the father of analytical geometry, the bridge between
algebra and geometry, used in the discovery of infinitesimal calculus and
analysis. Descartes was also one of the key figures in the Scientific Revolution.

Descartes refused to accept the authority of previous philosophers. He

frequently set his views apart from those of his predecessors. Descartes goes so
far as to assert that he will write on a topic "as if no one had written on these
matters before". His best known philosophical statement is "I think, therefore I
am".

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 Karl Marx

(5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a

German philosopher, economist,
historian, sociologist, political theorist,
journalist and socialist revolutionary.

His best-known titles are the 1848

pamphlet, The Communist Manifesto,
and the three-volume Das Kapital. His
political and philosophical thought had
enormous influence on economic and
political history and his name has been
used as an adjective, a noun and a
school of social theory.

Marx's theories about society, economics and politics – collectively understood

as Marxism – hold that human societies develop through class struggle. lupta In
capitalism, this manifests itself in the conflict between the ruling classes (known
as the bourgeoisie) that control the means mijloace of production and the working
classes that enable these means by selling their labour power in return for
wages.

Marx has been described as one of the most influential figures in human history,
and his work has been both lauded and criticised. His work laid at the base of
communism and some of his ideas were used by Trotsky and Lenin.

More recently, psychology, economics, sociology, and linguistics

were once the domain.of.philosophers., but now they have a weaker connection
with the field. In the late twentieth century cognitive science and artificial
intelligence could be seen as being forged in part out of "philosophy of mind."

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