1. Pre-Socratics and Socrates

2. Pre-Socrates  Early Greek Dichotomies Thales (naturalists) One – Many Permanent – Changing Permanent – Changing HeraclitusKnown – believed HeraclitusKnown – believed Parmanides and Zeno Reasoned (known)– experienced (believed)  Zeno’s Paradox Flying arrow / Chinese “School of names” 一尺之錘，日取其半，百 世不竭  Democritus (and Naturalists). “Methodological individualism” “Methodological individualism”  Logos

3. Socrates  A man who choose death for the sake of having a good life  A man who is wise because he knows his own ignorance  A man who searches virtue but believes that no one is evil  A man who teaches by not teaching

4. I. Socratic Life --- Life Has No Intrinsic Value. "An unexamined life is not worth living." Implications: 1. Life has no intrinsic value Intrinsic and extrinsic -- Good in itself or not. Is it good no matter what? 2. What has intrinsic value to a person? A person is a soul. (Are we essentially a soul or a body?) The excellence of a soul is its awareness. --- So knowledge has intrinsic value. A soul without awareness is worse than nothing. 3. Implications Discussion: 1. Would life be worth living no matter what? 2. Does knowledge have intrinsic value?

5. II Socratic Wisdom --- Knowing One's Own Ignorance. 1. It is not about any information that one adds to one's stock. It is "dropping." 老子 － 知不知知，不知知病 老子 － 知不知知，不知知病 2. It is not pointing to others.

6. III. Socratic Virtue --- It Is A Matter Of Knowing What Is Really Good For Oneself!  Ordinary beliefs: 1. One can be virtuous, but have no knowledge about the virtue and the use of the virtue. 2. One can have knowingly but not virtuous.  Socrates: 1. If one is virtuous, one has knowledge on how and when to use it 2. "No one does wrong knowingly and willingly”. -- No weakness of the will -- One does wrong only out of ignorance -- If one knows what is right, one will do the right -- What we need is not punishment, but education. Arguments: We do voluntarily what we want most. We want most what we think to be the best. We do what we think to be the best. Separate the following: 1. What is considered good by the society or others / what is indeed good. 2. Doing something / something happen to me.

7. DISCUSSION 1. Does Socrates' view entail that there are no rights and wrongs? or that everyone is right? 2. Does Socrates' view entail that everyone always does things that are of one's best interest? 3. Does Socrates believe that one's believe in X's being right justifies one's action of X as right? 4. "People use their knowledge (e.g. computer knowledge) to do crimes. This proves that Socrates is wrong in saying that people who do wrong are ignorant." 5. "The child's being sneaky when he was stealing the candy bar proves that he is doing wrong knowingly and willingly. If he did not know it was wrong, he would not be sneaky." 6. "The Bible says: ‘The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak’ (Matthew 26:41). This proves that one can do wrong knowingly, and there is such a thing called the weakness of the will."

8. IV. Socratic Method -- Teaching By Not Teaching. “Midwife” “Midwife”

9.  Daily One-minute Paper 1. What is the big point you learned in class today? 1. What is the big point you learned in class today? 2. What is the main, unanswered question you leave class with today? 2. What is the main, unanswered question you leave class with today?