The Socratic Method

For our Forbidden books course, my classmates and I looked at how people that have political power try to ban books because of it's content. We also focused on a writing called The Apology .This reading is very important to today's world because it talks about Socrates, a wise philosopher who was on trial for ''corrupting the youth''. He would often go to the youth and ask them random questions just to hear their responses. The people of Athens, a city in Greece did not wan't the youth thinking for themselves or starting to ask questions, this would lead to a chaos, this is also why they considered his method peril. This method that Socrates used is called question and answer method. 

Socrates  was also put on trail for not believing in the gods of Greece. Although, a dime-god called him the wisest, he wanted to find out if their was anyone wiser. Socrates often questioned everyday topics and was founded guilty and sentenced to death my Hemlock poison. I believe Socrates was truly the wisest because although he had knowledge he did not flaunt and pretend he was something he is not. A famous quote from Socrates is ''I know that I know nothing''. This quote shows that Socrates is willing to admit that he does not know everything rather than pretend he does. Socrates was executed and did not refuse because he wanted to obey the law and truly stand up for what he believed in.

For our action project we had to use the Socratic questioning and answering method on a topic of our choice. The question and answer method is supposed to get the person who answers to dig deeper to a philosophical level and answer a question.The topic I chose was, What does it mean to be alive? I chose this topic because I felt that it makes you really think therefore you should not give a generic answer. I learned that many people have different definitions of the word 'alive', when you hear all these different answers it actually makes you think about what it really means. When writing the script for my project it was somewhat difficult to stay on track on  of the one topic I had. But I managed to make a well crafted script. Down below is my video on the topic: what does it mean to be alive? Along with the transcribed version.

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Characters

Savannah-character 1 AMK

Adam-character 2 -GN

Filmed-outside

Topic: What does it mean to be alive?

S: Hey Adam! I haven’t seen you in a while. Why do you look so happy?

A: Hey Savannah, I've been feeling depressed for a very long time, and now I finally feel alive!

S: Well, I’m glad you are not depressed anymore, but what do you mean by that statement, that you feel alive?

A: Feeling happy, and having something to look forward to of course!

S: Well what’s the difference between feeling alive and being alive ?

S: So if you're feeling depressed or unconscious are you or are you not dead?

A: Being alive is being alert and responsive. Feeling alive is, like I said before, feeling happy and having something to look forward too.

S: What if a person is in a coma or life support, the machine is keeping them alive, so do you think they are alive or dead? They don’t have any feeling or emotion because their brain can’t function on its own so what state is that person in, in your opinion?

A: Um, I don't know. For all we know they could be looking forward  to waking up from the coma..so they could be alive?

S: And for all we know they are unconscious so they may not feel any emotions.

A: I don't know they possibly can’t feel emotions then. When you're asleep aren't you half dead, or umm unconscious? What is the difference between being alive and being unconscious?

A: I suppose, the person in the coma could be dead but they have a small chance of living do they not? Someone who is asleep is still alive.

S: Yes, but If the machine is keeping them alive they are alive but without it they are dead. Therefore, they are unconscious or unresponsive.The person’s brain cannot function on it’s own, but in actuality they are alive and breathing.

S: When you go to sleep are you alive or dead?

A: Umm, I’m not sure now. I guess i'm alive but unconscious, right?

S: So if you are unconscious can you still feel emotions? Is that your definition of being alive,  being able to feel emotion?

A: I don’t know if we can, when I’m asleep I don’t think I feel my emotions. However, I do think that in order to feel alive you have to feel some sort of emotion.

S: I think the problem is that you have a fixed definition on what it means to be alive. You see Adam, being alive doesn't just mean the change of emotions. The actual definition of being alive is alertness,having a pulse, and not being dead. Also the term ‘alive’ has evolved  throughout history. For example people use the term ‘alive’ to express emotion rather than actually being alive.

A: I think I see your point Savannah. Maybe next time I will think twice before I make such a statement based off of my emotions. Let me restate what I said before, I am glad that I am no longer depressed, and I feel happier than  i’ve felt in months!

S: It’s okay Adam, i'm only here to help and i’m glad that you are happy! Have a nice day, bye!

A: You too, bye!