Socrates In Platos Apology Philosophy Essay

Socrates In Platos Apology Philosophy Essay In this essay I will discuss the character of Socrates as he is presented in the Apology, I will look at Socrates as a religious fanatic and an apostle of reason. I will provide an argument from my own personal stance that the character of Socrates in the Apology is a variation of both religious fanatic and apostle of reason. I will also make reference to Crito in order to strengthen my position that Socrates is indeed a religious man of reason. First I shall discuss the Apology and provide examples to strengthen my argument that Socrates is a man of religion and reason. Secondly I shall provide examples from Crito showing that Socrates is a moral and just philosopher. In Platos Apology, Socrates says to the jury that if they said to him, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Socrates, we do not believe Anytus now; we acquit you, but only on condition that you spend no more time on this investigation and do not practice philosophyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ (Socrates 29c-d, 2012), he would rather obey god than the men of Athens and practice philosophy as long as he is breathing. Socrates would continue to question the Athenian citizens about wisdom, truth, and the best state for ones soul, proving that wealth, reputation, and honor are not the most important things in life. According to Socrates, fulfilling his obligation to god is more important than what the law may tell him to do because in practicing philosophy, he is serving god. Be sure that this is what the god orders me to do, and I think there is no greater blessing for the city than my service to the god, (Socrates 30a, 2012). By sentencing Socrates, the men of Athens are mistreating gods gift to them because god himself a ttached Socrates to the city in order for him to question those he encounters. By teaching them about virtue and how important the soul is, Socrates shows them how to live the good life and live it well. As a result of Socrates being given to Athens as a gift from god to question the Athenians to enlighten them and bring about positive outcomes, he is entitled to disobey the courts verdict. If he was breaking the law and harming Athens it would be wrong and immoral, but because god sent him to do this duty, he must overcome every obstacle in his way to do so. There is no inconsistency between what he says in Crito about upholding the laws and never breaking them. What Socrates says in Platos Apology proves that he has found a common ground between reason and religion. Therefore, Socrates is both a religious fanatic and apostle of reason. Thus Socrates argument to continue practicing philosophy even if the men of Athens rule that he should not, is completely justifiable and moral. The Gods placed Socrates in Athens to act as a gadfly stinging Athens in order to wake up the lazy Athenian citizens. Socrates is acting as an apostle of reason and religious fanatic when he challenged the wise men of Athens. After receiving a prophecy from: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦the god at Delphi (Socrates 20e, 2012), that he is the wisest of all men, Socrates concludes that he knows nothing so he mu st be the wisest in the sense that he knows nothing for sure. By challenging the wisest of Athens he follows the Gods wishes in a reasonable way. Through argument, question, and discussion, Socrates exposes false wisdom as ignorance which I argue is fulfilling his obligation to the Gods and reason. Socrates believed that he was following the gods plan for him; it was his moral obligation to question those who claim to be wise. As a philosopher one ought to act as an apostle of reason, whether it is to argue against the government to determine whether a law or idea is justified or completely wrong and determine through reason how to replace it with a new law or idea that has been proved to be correct. A Philosopher is a lover of wisdom which follows the obligation to cross-examine people in order to find out where or not that are wise or just ignorant. As a religious fanatic and apostle of reason Socrates attempted to teach people he argued with that instead of claiming to be wise and arguing for their ideas without reason along with claiming that any previous idea contradictory to theirs was wrong, one should be open to all objections because we are all truly ignorant. In the Apology, Socrates attempted to persuade people through argument and reason to question everything becau se not everything can be answered by saying, God did it. In order to strengthen my argument I shall refer to examples from Crito proving that Socrates is a variation of apostle of reason and religious fanatic. Socrates states that doing wrong to someone is wrong therefore it is immoral. Similar to the Apology, Socrates uses reason to prove his point. Escaping Athens and going against its verdict is disregarding the law, which is immoral and unjust. Socrates makes a connection between the laws of Athens and morals. By escaping, Socrates would be acting against the laws of Athens and disregarding everything he stood for up to this point. By fleeing, Socrates would destroy the citys laws and through the city, all of its citizens. This relationship between a citizen and the city is similar to the relationship between a parent and child. From the city, Socrates was brought to birth, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦was it not through us that your father married your mother and begat you? (Socrates 50d, 2012). Athens instructed Socrates father to get him an educa tion and made sure he was nurtured. Socrates cannot deny that he was brought up being properly educated and nurtured by Athens, therefore he cannot deny being an offspring and servant to it. Just like Socrates is on equal footing with his father, he must respect his superiors wishes. If his father scolded him or beat him, he would not do the same in return to his father because he is superior. From birth Socrates was taught to obey the laws of Athens like his parents did. The laws of Athens should be respected just as much as one does their parent. Your parents teach you what is right and what is wrong, thus it is immoral to disrespect or treat your parents poorly as it is them that have invested in you and raised you into the person that you are. Due to the fact that Socrates is an apostle of reason he cannot go against his parents actions/wishes, he cannot do the same even to Athens because Athens is more sacred than your mother and father and it is to be revered. Even if one feels the sentence was unjust, they should not do anything in return, according to Socrates No Harm Principle. This principle is one of the two fundamental principles needed for a city to function properly. It states, One should never do wrong in return, nor do any man harm, no matter what he may have done to you, (Socrates 49c, 2012). The other fundamental principle is the Just-Agreement Principle which maintains that when one has come to an agreement that is just with someone , they should fulfill it and not cheat on it. By leaving Athens, Socrates will break the Just Agreement Principle and be doing harm which goes against both his principles. If no one obeyed these principles, the citizens would no longer obey the laws and the city would not exist. By remaining in Athens and accepting death Socrates shows he truly loves and respects Athens. In death one will receive peace but if one were to flee and attempt to destroy the laws which hold Athens together, they will be judged harshly and have a rough welcoming in Hades, according to Socrates. Thus, Socrates believed it was always wrong to disobey the laws. According to Socrates the only rational and reasonable way is to accept the punishment given by the law, regardless of what it is. The objective of having laws in place is to teach virtue to those who inhabit the city. The rules which are implemented in the laws act as an outline for how to behave. The laws direct behaviour, censure, and praise in such a way that ensures that the citizens within the city will go after positive goals and partake in positive activities in order to keep the city secure. The fact that Socrates would rather stay in Athens and die rather than flee and love proves that he is an apostle of reason. I believe that by Socrates following through with his death sentence ordered by the Athenians, he proved that he is wise and he stood up for what he believes in. Socrates made a wise decision by refusing to escape and accept his death sentence. If Socrates would have decided to flee Athens to avoid hi s sentence he would not be an apostle of reason; Socrates would not have been able to get his point across. I will also argue that by remaining in Athens rather than escaping it solidifies my argument that Socrates is also a religious fanatic. The gods placed him in Athens for a reason and Socrates fulfilled his service for the gods until his last breath. Work Cited Plato . A PLATO READER: Eight Essential Dialogues Apology. Ed. C. D. C. Reeve. Indianapolis/Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 2012. 21-46. Print. Plato . A PLATO READER: Eight Essential Dialogues Crito. Ed. C. D. C. Reeve. Indianapolis/Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 2012. 47-59. Print.

Midwest Office Products Management Essay

Case Overview: MidWest Office Product was a regional distributor of office supplies to institutions and commercial businesses. The company offered a comprehensive product line like simple writing implements and fasteners to specialty paper for modern high-speed copiers and printers. Warehouse personnel in the company’s distribution center unloaded truckload shipments from manufactures, and moved the cartons into designated storage location until customers request the items. Typically, the company shipped products to its customers using commercial truckers; however the MOP had introduced the new way of shipment which called a desktop delivery option in which the personnel delivered the products directly to the destinations at the customer’s site. The company believed that the new way of shipments would improve the margins and create more loyal customers in its competitive market. Moreover, the MOP introduced the electronic data interchange, which allowed customers’ orders to arrive automatically into the system so that clerks wouldn’t have to enter the data manually. John Malone, general manager of Midwest Office Products, was concerned about the financial results of his business for a calendar year 2013. Malone was concerned that even after introducing the innovations, the company couldn’t earn a profit. The company’s management team decided to check out: What actions he should take to regain the profit? What profits Midwest Office Products had really earned on each of the orders stated? Case Solutions: According to calculations made on the Excel sheet, we think that in order for MOP regain the profits the company should look on the following recommendations: 1) To encourage customers to use more efficient and cheaper types of channels, like in this case the EDI. As you could see on the excel sheet 1 the electronic entry costs $3.50 which is the cheapest way of entering the information about the orders. 2) Improve the efficiency of the warehouse operations and order-entry process ( manual and electronic). We could recommend to decrease the amount of order-entry operators. The following action will help the company to decrease the costs on personnel. 3) To improve the Desktop Delivery option meaning to introduce the specific charges for the following options depending on the amount of drop points, distance, time consumed for travelling If the cost for Desktop Delivery is $75 per hour, the company should introduce the specific charges for a such delivery because it costs almost 5 times higher as the commercial freight. 4) It’s highly recommended to minimize the amount of small orders, may be it would be efficient to establish the minimum order size or put the minimum price for an order

Who Am I, Hedwig - 1291 Words

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10 Fascinating Facts About Fireflies and Lightning Bugs

Fireflies, or lightning bugs, are from the family Coleoptera: Lampyridae and they might be our most beloved insect, inspiring poets and scientists alike.  Fireflies are neither flies nor bugs; they are beetles, and there are 2,000 species on our planet. Here are other interesting facts about fireflies: Flight Like all other beetles, lightning bugs have hardened forewings called elytra, which meet in a straight line down the back when at rest. In-flight, fireflies hold the elytra out for balance, relying on their membranous hindwings for movement. These traits place fireflies squarely in the order Coleoptera. Efficient Light Producers An incandescent light bulb gives off 90% of its energy as heat and only 10% as light, which youd know if youve touched one thats been on for a while. If fireflies produced that much heat when they lit up, they would incinerate themselves. Fireflies produce light through an efficient chemical reaction called chemiluminescence that allows them to glow without wasting heat energy. For fireflies, 100% of the energy goes into making light; accomplishing that flashing increases the firefly metabolic rates an astonishingly low 37% above resting values. Fireflies are bioluminescent, meaning they are living creatures that produce light, a trait shared with a handful of other terrestrial insects, including click beetles and railroad worms. The light is used to attract prey and members of the opposite sex and to warn off predators. Lightning bugs taste bad to birds and other potential predators, so the warning signal is memorable for those that have sampled before. Talk Using Light Signals Fireflies dont put on those spectacular summer displays just to entertain us. Youre eavesdropping on the firefly singles bar. Male fireflies cruising for mates flash a species-specific pattern to announce their availability to receptive females. An interested female will reply, helping the male locate her where shes perched, often on low vegetation. Bioluminescent for Life We dont often see fireflies before they reach adulthood, so you might not know that fireflies glow in all life stages. Bioluminescence begins with the egg and is present throughout the entire life cycle. All firefly eggs, larvae, and pupae known to science can produce light. Some firefly eggs emit a faint glow when disturbed. The flashing part of fireflies is called a lantern, and the firefly controls the flashing with neural stimulation and nitric oxide. The males often synchronize their flashes with one another during courtship, a capacity called entraining (responding to an external rhythm) once thought only possible in humans but now recognized in several animals. Colors of firefly lights range widely among different species, from yellow-green to orange to turquoise to a bright poppy red. Lives Spent Mostly as Larva The firefly begins life as a bioluminescent, spherical egg. At the end of the summer, adult females lay about 100 eggs in soil or near the soil surface. The worm-like larva hatches out in three to four weeks and throughout the fall hunts prey using a hypodermic-like injection strategy similar to that of bees. Larvae spend the winter below ground in several types of earthen chambers. Some species spend more than two winters before pupating in late spring, emerging as adults after 10 days to several weeks. Adult fireflies live only another two months, spending the summer mating and performing for us before laying eggs and dying. Not All Adults Flash Fireflies are known for their blinking light signals, but not all fireflies flash. Some adult fireflies, mostly those in western North America, dont use light signals to communicate. Many people believe that fireflies dont exist west of the Rockies since flashing populations are rarely seen there, but they do. Larvae Feed on Snails Firefly larvae are carnivorous predators, and their favorite food is escargot. Most firefly species inhabit moist, terrestrial environments, where they feed on snails or worms in the soil. A few Asian species use gills to breathe underwater, where they eat aquatic snails and other mollusks. Some species are arboreal, and their larvae hunt tree snails. Some Are Cannibals What adult fireflies eat is largely unknown. Most dont seem to feed at all, while others are believed to eat mites or pollen. We do know that Photuris fireflies eat other fireflies. Photuris females enjoy munching on males of other genera. These Photuris femmes fatales use a trick called aggressive mimicry to find meals. When a male firefly of another genus flashes its light signal, the female Photuris firefly replies with the males flash pattern, suggesting she is a receptive mate of his species. She continues luring him in until hes within her reach. Then her meal begins. Adult female Photuris fireflies are also kleptoparasitic and can be seen feeding on silk-wrapped Photinus species fireflies (occasionally even one of their own kind) hanging in a spiders web. Epic battles can occur between the spider and the firefly. Sometimes the firefly can hold off the spider long enough to consume the silk-wrapped prey, sometimes the spider cuts the web and her losses, and sometimes the spider catches the firefly and the prey and has them both wrapped in silk. Enzyme Used in Medicine Scientists have developed remarkable uses for firefly luciferase, the enzyme that produces bioluminescence in fireflies. It has been used as a marker to detect blood clots, to tag tuberculosis virus cells, and to monitor hydrogen peroxide levels in living organisms. Hydrogen peroxide is believed to play a role in the progression of some diseases, including cancer and diabetes. Scientists now can use a synthetic form of luciferase for most research, so the commercial harvest of fireflies has decreased. Firefly populations are shrinking, and the search for luciferase is just one of the reasons. Development and climate change have reduced firefly habitats, and light pollution depresses the ability for fireflies to find mates and reproduce. Flash Signals Synchronized Imagine thousands of fireflies lighting up at the same time, over and over, from dusk to dark. Simultaneous bioluminescence, as it is called by scientists, occurs in just two places in the world: Southeast Asia and Great Smoky Mountains National Park. North Americas lone synchronous species, Photinus carolinus, puts on its light show annually in late spring. The most spectacular show is said to be the mass synchronous display of several Pteroptyx species in Southeast Asia. Masses of males congregate in groups, called leks, and in unison emit rhythmic courtship flashes. One hot spot for ecotourism is the Selangor River in Malaysia. Lek courting happens occasionally in American fireflies, but not for long periods. In the American Southeast, male members of the blue ghost firefly (Phausis reticulate) glow steadily as they fly slowly over the forest floor searching for females, from about 40 minutes after sunset until midnight. Both sexes emit a long-lasting, nearly continuous glow in the forested regions of Appalachia. Annual tours to see the blue ghosts can be taken at state forests in South and North Carolina between April and July. Sources Buschman, Lawrent L. Biology of the Firefly Pyractomena Lucifera (Coleoptera: Lampyridae). The Florida Entomologist.Larval Biology and Ecology of Photuris Fireflies (Lampyridae: Coleoptera) in Northcentral Florida. Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society.Day, John C; Goodall, Tim I.; and Bailey, Mark J.. The Evolution of the Adenylate-Forming Protein Family in Beetles: Multiple Luciferase Gene Paralogues in Fireflies and Glow-Worms. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution.De Cock, Rapha, et al. Courtship and Mating in Phausis Reticulata (Coleoptera: Lampyridae): Male Flight Behaviors, Female Glow Displays, and Male Attraction to Light Traps. The Florida Entomologist.Faust, Lynn, et al. Thieves in the Night: Kleptoparasitism by Fireflies in the Genus Photuris Dejean (Coleoptera: Lampyridae). The Coleopterists Bulletin.Martin, Gavin J., et al. Total Evidence Phylogeny and the Evolution of Adult Bioluminescence in Fireflies (Coleoptera: Lampyridae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evoluti on.Moosman, Paul R., et al. Do Courtship Flashes of Fireflies (Coleoptera: Lampyridae) Serve as Aposematic Signals to Insectivorous Bats? Animal Behaviour.Wilson, Margaret, and Cook, Peter F. Rhythmic Entrainment: Why Humans Want to, Fireflies Can’t Help It, Pet Birds Try, and Sea Lions Have to Be Bribed. Psychonomic Bulletin Review.