苏格拉底的教育对现代世界培养卓越的意义.pdfVIP

Human Systems Management 31 2012 11–16 11 DOI 10.3233/HSM-2011-0755 IOS Press Socratic lessons in excellence for our postmodern world Christos C. Evangeliou? Department of Philosophy, Towson University, Towson, MD, USA Abstract. When precious pieces of Socratic wisdom in action are collected from Plato’s Apology and other Platonic Dialogues and are compared with similar ?ndings in the works of Xenophon, especially in his Apology , Symposium and Memorabilia, a clear and coherent picture of Socrates emerges as an ethical teacher of hellenic Arete ～virtue : he can inspire others to excellence by following his example of living his simple life and facing his tragic death calmly. In this sense, Socrates emerges as something more substantial philosophically than the ironist and skilful practitioner of the Socratic method, as has been presented by many scholars. As an ethical philosopher, the platonic Socrates was very different from Aristotle and John Rawls, and as a Hellenic philosopher in practice, he would appear to be closer to the ancient Indian Gurus than to contemporary analytical philosophers. This aspect of Socratic ethical philosophy is relevant and needed today more than ever before, as it provides an antidote to moral relativism and other sorts of sophistry in the vital processes of transformation and societal change. Keywords: Apology, Arete ～virtue , ethics, Hellenic, Indian, modernity, philosophy, Plato, Socrates Dr. Christos C. Evangeliou is Profes- 1. Introduction sor, Department of Philosophy, Towson University, Maryland, Honorary Pres- ident, International Association for Among Plato’s works, the Apology is one of the most Greek Philosophy IAGP , and the widely read. The platonic art of words has painted here a American Representative of the Interna- tional Center of Philosophy and Inter- moving picture of Socrates in the most critical moment disciplinary Research, based in Athens, of his life, and has thus co