Virtue of Knowledge

Virtue of Knowledge

Having lived a modest life, Socrates wandered the streets of Athens with his followers, searching for the true meaning of knowledge and morals. Five theses were set forth of the philosophy of Socrates that are believed to be a set of values by which he lived and taught, and which he in the end gave his life for. Of the five, there are two that stand out at me more than the rest, the first being that, “Virtue is knowledge (no such thing as weakness of will; evil is ignorance).” The second theses, goes hand in hand with the previous and sates, “The autonomy of ethics. To the dilemma set forth in the Euthyphro, is the Good good because God choose, or does God choose the Good because it is good? Socrates answers that God chose it because it is good.” Using these two claims, I will support and argue for the both of them.

To sum up what the two claims made above mean, for claim one Socrates implies that a person must truly know themselves in order to know what they lack and what must be done to correct it. A good person is good with the knowledge that they are good, and the evil actions that are committed are all done with prior knowledge. Ignorance leads to evil and that no person is with thought of doing evil from the start and it is a thought that develops over a period of ignorance. In other words, self knowing is the first step in the direction of a virtuous being. And according to the second claim, to Socrates, goodness does not involve revelation. To him, the gods must obey the same laws and live a virtuous life as rest of mankind. Socrates believes that there is reward for being good. Good is its own reward and religion is there in no way to encourage that goodness in people, but a guideline of how people believe how to live one’s life. According to him, gods did nothing to a man’s morals and the way he chooses to live his life. I will argue against Socrates disagreeing that both claims made above are indeed false.

Starting with the...