The Socratic ethics is the philosophical current that seeks to explain and understand the virtue and goodness. It refers to the moral approaches of the philosopher Socrates, one of the first thinkers to propose moral philosophy.
Socrates has gone down in the history of philosophy as the first ethical philosopher, being a reference for his search to find a definition of what is good. However, it must be said that there was no written record of him. The main sources for the knowledge of Socrates' philosophy are Plato's dialogues.
Socrates was an Athenian born in 470 BC. C. and died in 399 a. C., contemporary of the sophists without being one of them. His famous phrase "I only know that I know nothing" is the starting point of all his philosophical methodology.
The paradox of Socrates is that by seeking the maxim of good, he manifests the radical practical dimension of his knowledge. Its ultimate determined form becomes possible only in life, in conduct in a practical way.
One of the fundamental questions of ethics is what is the good life? In Socrates' time this had a particular dimension.
His conception of a good life is the one that corresponds to the human being. For this, a proper use of reason must be made. This leads us to discover certain responsibilities and priorities. Socrates sought to "care for the soul" above all other material things.
For Socrates there was no difference between virtues. Each of them necessarily implied the others. To "live well" was to live in the constant exercise of virtue.
Conception of good according to Socratic ethics
Good is objective for Socrates. It was the main study of his ethics, understanding it through virtue. Knowledge and science are part of it. To do this, one must penetrate the essence of being.
For Socrates, cooking was wisdom about divine things. Therefore, knowing is knowing God and good is something metaphysical.
The good is desirable in itself and is an essential and unique value. For Socrates, this union between knowledge and human and divine virtue is what corresponds to good. He claimed that virtue was that excellence sought in order to be in contact with divinity.
In addition, his thinking was also focused on inner knowledge: human reason as study and understanding.
By knowing the essence of the human being, man will tend to act with good. He will act as a human being. But also, his thought led to the establishment of moral rewards and punishments. Kindness and justice were the inner gratification.
The divine character of the soul, he said, means that in the afterlife the just man will find another prize. Furthermore, Socrates believed that the greatest evil was ignorance.
Thanks to Socrates, the constitution of ethics is owed as practical knowledge and its relationship with theoretical knowledge, mainly metaphysical.
And this thanks to dialogue. As philosophers understand it, this technique contains substantive presuppositions that cannot fail to influence the ethics that they build from it.
References
- Barba, C. (2008). SOCRATES. Recovered from encina.pntic.mec.es.
- Bernal, R. Socratic Ethics. Recovered from rubenbernal.wikispaces.com.
- Jaimes, D. (2015). Socratic Ethics. Andres Bello Catholic University. Recovered from prezi.com.
- Martínez, A. / 1980). Socrates' ethics and its influence on Western thought. Malaga University. Recovered from e-spacio.uned.es.
- Yarza, I. (1993). Ethics and dialectics. Socrates, Plato and Aristotle. Recovered from actaphilosophica.it.