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Single Idea 185

[filed under theme 21. Aesthetics / A. Aesthetic Experience / 5. Natural Beauty ]

Full Idea

Socrates despises good looks to an almost inconceivable extent.

Gist of Idea

Socrates despised good looks

Source

report of Socrates (reports of career [c.420 BCE]) by Plato - The Symposium 216e

Book Ref

Plato: 'The Symposium', ed/tr. Hamilton,W [Penguin 1951], p.103


The 44 ideas from 'reports of career'

For the truth you need Prodicus's fifty-drachma course, not his one-drachma course [Socrates]
A philosopher is one who cares about what other people care about [Socrates, by Foucault]
Socrates opened philosophy to all, but Plato confined moral enquiry to a tiny elite [Vlastos on Socrates]
Philosophical discussion involves dividing subject-matter into categories [Socrates, by Xenophon]
Socrates began the quest for something universal with his definitions, but he didn't make them separate [Socrates, by Aristotle]
It is legitimate to play the devil's advocate [Socrates]
In Socratic dialogue you must say what you believe, so unasserted premises are not debated [Vlastos on Socrates]
Socrates was pleased if his mistakes were proved wrong [Socrates]
The method of Socrates shows the student is discovering the truth within himself [Socrates, by Carlisle]
Socrates always proceeded in argument by general agreement at each stage [Socrates, by Xenophon]
Socrates sought essences, which are the basis of formal logic [Socrates, by Aristotle]
Socrates developed definitions as the basis of syllogisms, and also inductive arguments [Socrates, by Aristotle]
No one willingly commits an evil or base act [Socrates]
Socrates despised good looks [Socrates, by Plato]
The only good is knowledge, and the only evil is ignorance [Socrates, by Diog. Laertius]
Socrates did not consider universals or definitions as having separate existence, but Plato made Forms of them [Socrates, by Aristotle]
The common belief is that people can know the best without acting on it [Socrates]
Socrates did not accept the tripartite soul (which permits akrasia) [Vlastos on Socrates]
Socrates holds that right reason entails virtue, and this must also apply to the gods [Vlastos on Socrates]
For Socrates our soul, though hard to define, is our self [Vlastos on Socrates]
Socrates first proposed that we are run by mind or reason [Socrates, by Frede,M]
People do what they think they should do, and only ever do what they think they should do [Socrates, by Xenophon]
Socrates was shocked by the idea of akrasia, but observation shows that it happens [Aristotle on Socrates]
For Socrates, wisdom and prudence were the same thing [Socrates, by Xenophon]
For Socrates, virtues are forms of knowledge, so knowing justice produces justice [Socrates, by Aristotle]
Socrates was the first to base ethics upon reason, and use reason to explain it [Taylor,R on Socrates]
All human virtues are increased by study and practice [Socrates, by Xenophon]
The wise perform good actions, and people fail to be good without wisdom [Socrates, by Xenophon]
Socrates conservatively assumed that Athenian conventions were natural and true [Taylor,R on Socrates]
A well-made dung basket is fine, and a badly-made gold shield is base, because of function [Socrates, by Xenophon]
Things are both good and fine by the same standard [Socrates, by Xenophon]
Socrates was the first to put 'eudaimonia' at the centre of ethics [Socrates, by Vlastos]
By 'areté' Socrates means just what we mean by moral virtue [Vlastos on Socrates]
We should ask what sort of people we want to be [Socrates]
Socrates is torn between intellectual virtue, which is united and teachable, and natural virtue, which isn't [PG on Socrates]
Socrates agrees that virtue is teachable, but then denies that there are teachers [Socrates, by MacIntyre]
Socrates made the civic values of justice and friendship paramount [Socrates, by Grayling]
Socrates believed that basically there is only one virtue, the power of right judgement [Socrates, by Williams,B]
Courage is scientific knowledge [Socrates, by Aristotle]
Socrates emphasises that the knower is an existing individual, with existence his main task [Socrates, by Kierkegaard]
Obedience to the law gives the best life, and success in war [Socrates, by Xenophon]
Socrates was the first to grasp that a cruelty is not justified by another cruelty [Vlastos on Socrates]
A lover using force is a villain, but a seducer is much worse, because he corrupts character [Socrates, by Xenophon]
A new concept of God as unswerving goodness emerges from Socrates' commitment to virtue [Vlastos on Socrates]