...Cultural Diplomacy through Music ‘‘Who writes the Nation’s songs shapes the Nation’s souls,’’ said Abraham Lincoln. This quote is relevant to today’s crisis: the influence of music on our youth. Music has been known to influence those who listen since the end of the Industrial Revolution, when people had more leisure time and the demand for entertainment and amusement began to increase. This is significant because media has a powerful influence on society and affects how we dress, act, and think. In The Republic by Plato, Socrates argues against Thrasymachus’ idea that "Obedience to the interest of the stronger" will lead to a successful tyranny. Socrates believes that "justice is the excellence of the soul,” and that benevolence is the key to a successful state. Yet humans embody not only Apollo, the god of the sun, of dreams, and of reason but also, Dionysus, the god of wine, ecstasy and intoxication, both sons of Zeus. In Plutarch’s Moralia, it is suggested that the state allows society to live for their pleasure so that the state gains the power to control them. We are fighting a constant battle between the rational principle of the soul and the irrational or appetite. The state is determined to keep feeding the Dionysus in each of us in order to continue to control us. The music industry is a tool that is used to influence the youth to indulge in their desires through songs about violence, sex, misogyny and drug use. In the Socratic dialogue in The Republic, Adeimantus...
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...Republic: A Guide to Education The Republic of Plato is a dialogue in which Plato’s teacher Socrates outlines his ideal city. The dialogue first sets out to answer one very important question: what is justice? The story begins with Socrates in the presence of several people, both friends and enemies, to whom he poses the question, ‘What is justice?’ Socrates then goes on to strike down every theory proposed and offers no definition of his own. This brings about the discussion of the ideal city. During this discussion, it is decided that the citizens of the city will be divided into three classes: the auxiliaries, the producers, and the guardians. The guardians are to be a class of citizens above the rest. They will be the defenders and rulers of the city and, therefore, must be the best of the best. This essay will summarize the education that Socrates advocates for the guardians of his city, and then discuss analyze the education of the guardian class in relation to that of Socrates’ own Socratic method to see if Socrates truly believes in the city he is creating. The first mention of the guardians’ education comes after Glaucon wishes to make the city far more luxurious, as he has begun having too much fun making up his own city and cannot imagine his ideal city as austere as the one Socrates has been describing. When Socrates begins adding some of these luxuries to the city, however, a few problems arise. For example...
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...society. In Plato's Republic, Socrates and his interlocutors discuss how to educate children. Is it right to keep them censored, or should they be allowed to study all and every subject(s). The education of children is very important because they are the future of the society. They are the possible rulers, philosophers, guardians, and so on. So, it is important to shape them wisely. This concept is no different than what shapes our society today. It is well known that one of the many qualifications of a good leader is that who can improve the country's educational system. Why?, because the youth are our future leaders and teachers. A parent would rather pick a private school over a public school, and a job interviewer would look more highly on a private school graduate over a public school graduate. You can say that education is important in today's society, as well as Plato's society. The youth can be educated in many different ways, either by keeping them in the shadows, or exposing them to the light. this means that the future of the society can be either ruled by a person who is oblivious to the society's past, or by a person who has been fully exposed to the society's history. If a person is censored from education, then they love their life as a perfect world. this is best described when Socrates says that a Guardian should be a person who "must be gentle to their own people and harsh to the enemy." (375b-c). Socrates wants to educate these Guardians...
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...value. This question is addressed in Plato’s Ion. In Ion, Plato addresses whether it is through experience and skill or through divine intervention that Ion judges the merit of works. Through an explication of the text, one can consider whether it is knowledge or preference that leads to determining value through literary criticism. The dialogue opens with Socrates speaking to Ion who is a rhapsodist, or a professional performer of epic poetry. The reader learns that Ion is a skilled rhapsodist as he has just won first place among competitors at the festival of Asclepius. It is upon this knowledge and skill that Ion bases his affinity for Homer. Ion makes the claim that Homer is a superior poet and because of this, Ion is better able to interpret his works as compared to his inability to interpret other poets’ works. When this claim is made, Socrates goes through a series of deductions in order to determine how Ion has come to realize the merit of Homer’s works. Unlike Ion, Socrates believes that Ion’s judgment is based on divine intervention as opposed to any real skill. In order to prove his argument, Socrates equates the rhapsodist to artists or sculptors and argues that the artist does not limit his or herself to a critique of simply one artist, and that Ion should not do the...
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...Plato • • • • • • When: 427-347 B.C. Where: Athens, Greece What: Philosophy Teacher: Socrates Student: Aristotle Major Theories to Discuss here: – The Forms: unchanging ideas or patterns of reality, which persist through all time and culture. – Dialectic: question/answer methodology used to discover error in beliefs. – Philosopher Kings filipspagnoli.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/plato3.jpg Plato’s Republic • Perhaps Plato’s best known work. • Form: dialogue • Characters: Socrates, Thrasymachus, Glaucon, Adeimantus • Topic: “What is Justice?” Note on Irony in the Dialogue • The Republic takes place in dialogue with the characters of the work. • But Plato seems to include an additional and unnamed character, namely, the reader of the work. The reader is quietly listening in on the dialogue, not unlike another individual (namely, the sophist Thrasymachus, who is also quietly listening in on the dialogue.) • Socratic wisdom is knowing that one does not know. Socrates often tells us that he does not have knowledge. He simply tests what others say when they say they have knowledge. • So when Socrates explains that he doesn’t really know anything about Justice, there’s a sense in which he’s telling us, the readers, that we don’t either, and that maybe we should listen in and even participate in the dialogue. • This same technique is used in other works by other authors. For example, when Sherlock Holmes insults...
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...The philosophy of Plato and its influences on modern society concerning music In modern society music is ubiquitous. Everywhere a person goes music can be heard, from the local grocery store to the radios in cars. With all this exposure to music it would be easy to forget it is even there but how much does this constant exposure affect an individual? Is it good to be subjected to every random song that you might encounter on a day to day basis? Questions concerning the effects of music on people have been around for a long time, going back as far as ancient Greece. While this paper will not attempt to cover the complete body of literature this topic entails nor will it attempt to answer these questions, it will examine one of their most notable philosophers, Plato, and see how his opinions concerning music and its effects on behavior on individuals and society at large match up with the beliefs of today. Plato felt that music could have a profound effect on individuals, for good or for ill, and could shape society at large. In Plato's Republic we find Socrates discussing with Glaucon what proper modes of music should be included in the education of the guardians of their ideal state. By this point in the Republic guardians have been defined as individuals who are both fierce to enemies of the state and gentle to its citizens.(Plato) To this end the two men describe at great length the types of music that encourage or accompany all manner of behaviors and proceed to eliminate...
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...Socrates Philosopher Socrates was a classical Greek Athenian philosopher. Credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy, he is an enigmatic figure known chiefly through the accounts of later classical writers, Wikipedia “Personal background” Born: 469 BC, Athens, Greece Died:399 BC, Athens, Greece Full name: Socrates Nationality: Greek Era: Ancient philosophy Region: Western philosophy School: Classical Greek Main interests: Epistemology, ethics Notable idea: SocraticMethod, Socratic irony Influenced: Most subsequent Western philosophy; more specifically, Plato, Aristotle, Aristippus, Antisthenes Spouse:Xanthippe Children:Menexenus, Lamprocles, Sophroniscus Aristotle Philosopher Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great “Personal background” Born: 384 BC Stagira, Chalcidice Died: 322 BC (aged 61 or 62) Euboea Nationality: Greek Era: Ancient philosophy Region: Western philosophy School: Peripatetic schoolAristotelianism Main interests: Physics, Metaphysics, Poetry, Theatre, Music, Rhetoric, Politics, Government, Ethics, Biology, and Zoology Notable ideas: Golden mean, Aristotelian logic, syllogism, hexis, homomorphism, Aristotle's theory of soul Plato Philosopher Plato was a philosopher in Classical Greece. He was also a mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western...
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...because of his broad build. His family had a history in politics, and Plato was destined to a life in keeping with this history. He studied at a gymnasium owned by Dionysios, and at the palaistra of Ariston of Argos. When he was young he studied music and poetry. According to Aristotle, Plato developed the foundations of his metaphysics and epistemology by studying the doctrines of Cratylus, and the work of Pythagoras and Parmenides. When Plato met Socrates, however, he had met his definitive teacher. As Socrates' disciple, Plato adopted his philosophy and style of debate, and directed his studies toward the question of virtue and the formation of a noble character. Plato was in military service from 409 BC to 404 BC. When the Peloponnesian War ended in 404 BC he joined the Athenian oligarchy of the Thirty Tyrants, one of whose leaders was his uncle Charmides. The violence of this group quickly prompted Plato to leave it. In 403 BC, when democracy was restored in Athens, he had hopes of pursuing his original goal of a political career. Socrates' execution in 399 BC had a profound effect on Plato, and was perhaps the final event that would convince him to leave Athenian politics forever. Plato left Attica along with other friends of Socrates and traveled for the next twelve years. To all accounts it appears that he left Athens with Euclides for Megara, then went to visit Theodorus in Cyrene, moved on to study with the Pythagoreans in Italy, and finally to Egypt. During this period...
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...The minds of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle Submitted to: Sr. Dennis San Gregorio Reported by: Legaspi, Mary Rose T. 1bsed SOCRATES BIOGRAPHY OF SOCRATES SOCRATES, the celebrated Greek philosopher and moralist, was born at Athens in the year 469 B.C. His father, Sophroniskus, was a sculptor and he followed the same profession in the early part of his life. His family was respectable in descent, but humble in point of means. He had the usual education of the Athenian citizen, which included not only a knowledge of the mother tongue, and readings in the Greek poets, but also the elements of arithmetic, geometry and astronomy as then known. Excepting in connection with his philosophical career, few circumstances of his life are known. He served as a hoplite, or heavy-armed foot-soldier, at the siege of Potidaea, at the battle of Deliurn, and at Amphipolis, and his bravery and endurance were greatly extolled by his friends. PLATO BIOGRAPHY OF PLATO Plato was born around the year 428 BCE in Athens. His father died while Plato was young, and his mother remarried to Pyrilampes, in whose house Plato would grow up. Plato's birth name was Aristocles, and he gained the nickname Platon, meaning broad, because of his broad build. His family had a history in politics, and Plato was destined to a life in keeping with this history. He studied at a gymnasium owned by Dionysios, and at the palaistra of Ariston of Argos. When he was young he studied music and poetry. According...
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...Aristophanes is in favor of the traditional educational system that involves learning obedience, poetry and physical fitness. On the other hand, he is strongly against the new system of education which centers on sophistry, science, rhetoric, and ethics. He ridicules one of the main characters in the play, Socrates who is a master philosopher at a school that supports the new system of education, called the Thinkery. However, throughout the play we can see that Aristophanes’ view of Socrates may not be so correct. We can also see that in today’s society students attend schools very similar to that of Socrates’ Thinkery. Aristophanes portrays the Thinkery as a school where young men went to learn subjects and skills that would allow them to achieve power and wealth. In order to enroll in the school students were required to pay a fee. It was lead by Socrates and other sophists who were traveling teachers that taught philosophy and rhetoric. Students would engage in various experiments, learn how to develop good arguments, and study nontraditional subjects such as astronomy, and geometry. Those who did not want the traditional Athenian education of learning traditional values, music and poetry were those who became students of the Thinkery. The learning system at the Thinkery can be seen as a liberal arts type of education. Today students attend schools with a similar learning system where there is a liberal arts core curriculum. In order to attend a liberal arts type of college...
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...Plato was born around the year 428 BC in Athens. His father died while Plato was young, and his mother remarried to Pyrilampes, in whose house Plato would grow up. Plato's birth name was Aristocles, and he gained the nickname Platon, meaning broad, because of his broad build. His family had a history in politics, and Plato was destined to a life in keeping with this history. He studied at a gymnasium owned by Dionysios, and at the palaistra of Ariston of Argos. When he was young he studied music and poetry. After the Peloponnesian War, his mother's brother and uncle tried to persuade him to join in the oligarchical rules of Athens. Instead, Plato joined his two older brothers in becoming a student of Socrates. The trio of Plato, Socrates (his teacher) and Aristotle (his student) they laid the fundamentals of Western philosophy. Socrates has a large influence of his thinking and teachings. Plato began his philosophical career under the guidance of Socrates. When Socrates died he traveled to Egypt and Italy studied in Pythagoras and then remained as an advisor for the rulers of Syracuse. When he returned to Athens around the age of forty, Plato founded a school in Athens, in a grove sacred to the demigod Academus, called the Academy, where he tried to impart the Socratic style of teaching to his students. It was, in effect, a university of higher learning, which included physical science, astronomy, and mathematics, as well as philosophy. In addition to presiding over the Academy...
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...Plato: The Republic (Book II) Glaucon to Socrates: How do you classify things we call good? 1. Do you think that there are some which we would gladly have, not for their consequences, but because we appreciate them for their own sake; as, for example, enjoyment and those harmless pleasures which produce no further effects beyond the mere pleasurable experience? 2. There are some which we prize both for themselves and for their consequences as, for example, thought and sight and health. These and similar good things we appreciate for twofold reason. ?????? 3. Do you recognize a third class of good things, which includes gymnastic exercises, the undergoing of medical treatment, the practice of medicine, and the other forms of money making? These are things which we call troublesome but advantageous. We should never take them for themselves, but we accept them for the sake of the rewards and other consequences which they bring. Question: how are gymnastic exercises and the undergoing of medical treatment forms of money making? Socrates’ response to Glaucon: Amongst those which he, who would be blessed, must love both for their own sake and for their consequences. Glaucon to Socrates: That is not the opinion of most people. They place it in the troublesome class of good things, which must be pursued for the sake of the reward and the high place in public opinion which they bring, but which in themselves are irksome and to be avoided. Glaucon...
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...Aristophanes portrays Socrates as a Sophist: a duplicitous charlatan eager to take peoples' money for teaching them to flout the laws and defy moral norms. The conflation of Socrates with the Sophists is based on a superficial similarity between the interests of Socrates and the sophists concerning education and virtue, but which fails to distinguish between the moral relativism of the Sophists and the belief in absolute moral standards held by Socrates (and his puppet-master Plato). The term "sophist"" is derived from the Greek words sophos and sophia which are usually translated as "wise" and "wisdom". The Sophists were itinerant teachers who claimed to teach wisdom; more specifically, Protogoras, one of the first to willingly identify himself as a Sophist, stated that he taught one how to take "proper care of his personal affairs, so that he may be manage his own household, and also of the State's affairs, so as to become a real power in the city, both as speaker and man of action." (Protogoras 318e-319a). Socrates reinterprets Protogoras' statement as a claim to make students into good citizens, and Protogoras readily agrees. Socrates then presents two objections to the claim that one can learn how to be a good citizen by studying with a teacher. First, Socrates notes that, while an expert is consulted in technical matters such as architecture or shipbuilding, no special expertise is demanded in order to participate in government. Second, Socrates observes that "the wisest...
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...bringing attention to the wildlife noises that begin playing. The tress shown are in canted frames in their close ups. Transitions are made between multiple trees creating the imagery of a peaceful setting. A boy is shown twirling a leaf back and forth. The leaf symbolizes the popular saying to turn over a new leaf. By twirling it more than once, the boy seems to not have made his mind up over what he is going to choose. This choice is similar to the choice Socrates could have...
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...Yap | 2010-34913 | Anthro10 X2 | Mr. Esteban | May 2, 2011 Wisest Is He Who Knows Who the True Genius Is There have been numerous advances in science, mathematics, medicine, art, music, literature, and technology thanks to different scientists, mathematicians, musicians, writers, and artists. As a result, life has been made generally more interesting and comfortable. Work, transportation, communication and the like have become faster, easier, and more manageable than centuries ago. With this fact, people thanked and honored these certain men and women for their contributions. They dubbed these men and women the title ‘genius.’ Examples of these geniuses are Isaac Newton, Alexander Graham Bell, Wolfgang Mozart, William Shakespeare, and Albert Einstein. A man of experience and wisdom, though, would think otherwise. He has a different ‘genius’ in mind -- the type who values not the physical things, but the things that really matter. What are those “things,” and who might that ‘genius’ be? Socrates is the name, and according to him: “An unexamined life is not worth living.” He went around Athens and persuaded others to look and examine themselves while they still have the time; to not be content with who they already are but to keep finding ways to improve the self and enrich the soul. Socrates used the dialectic method (now known as the Socratic method) – a way of investigating problems through dialogue discussion wherein a problem is broken down into series of questions...
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