Essays on Xenophon

In the middle of all the Socratic philosophizing there are questions about moral virtues, qualities, knowledge and wisdom of the person. In essence the teachings of Socrates are the philosophy of morality and ethics. Moral and ethical meaning of human search for truth and the acquisition of knowledge is predetermined by the fact that the sources, wisdom, and morality, according to Socrates, connected with the gods. A measure of human true virtue is a measure of his initiation to the divine wisdom, and knowledge of the process acquires the character of moral action. The path of knowledge is his ...

Cyrus claims to have learned justice in Persia when he was judge in a case involving two boys. In this case, a larger boy with a small coat took away a large coat from a small boy. Cyrus also claims to have learned justice from the example of his grandfather Astyages. What is Cyrus’ understanding of justice? As he builds his empire, does Cyrus live up to his own standard of justice? "

Introduction:

Cyrus is viewed by many to be a rather magnanimous king in that he was always on the ball on several issues and was deemed to be quite avante garde in certain social ...

Socratic problem consists in the precise determination of the contents of his teachings. The nature of the sources that we have greatly complicate our task: Xenophon’s book “Memoirs of Socrates”, the dialogues of Plato, various Aristotle’s statements, and "Clouds" by Aristophanes. For example, if we were to rely only on the work of Xenophon, we would have got the impression that the main Socrates’ interest was the education of decent people and responsible citizens, and he was not interested in the problems of logic and metaphysics. On the other hand, in Plato's dialogues, we can observe a metaphysician ...

Why, according to Xenophon, are human beings so difficult to rule?

It is, indeed, difficult to rule human beings. Such is because of the fact that human beings possess the ability to reason, which enables them to become highly susceptible to their desires and decisions. In that case, they become very hard to rule because they do not follow instructions coming from others apart from them right away. For them to follow someone who is sending out orders to them, they have to use their reasoning powers to discern whether such orders are compatible with their line of thinking. Thus, an effective ruler of humans is one that possesses great ...

Xenophon, one of Socrates' students, is arguably one of the most pragmatic scholars ever. Unlike other scholars of his time like Plato, Xenophon concentrates on things as they are and not as they ought to be. His philosophy was greatly admired by scholars in the medieval period who wanted a more pragmatic approach to issues in their societies. In his book Cyropaedia “The Education of Cyrus”, Xenophon gives an account of an imaginary life of Cyrus the great. Though the book does not give accurate information about the real life of Cyrus the great, it helps inform various qualities that ...

Socrates is well known as a classical Greek philosopher. He is credited as one of the unique founders of the Western philosophy. He is remembered as an enigmatic figure, known chiefly by the accounts of all classical writers. This is well manifested through the writings of his two students, Xenophon and Plato, together with the plays associated with his contemporary Aristophanes. On the other hand, the Socratic problem is the impossible or difficult nature of establishing what information from an antiquity clearly reflects the attributes and views of historical Socrates. Socrates, a main character in the dialogues of Plato, was a common ...

Socrates, who was an Athenian resident, lived his whole life engaging people into philosophical talks as well as discussions. He had some students or scholars who included Plato, Xenophon and Aristophanes. These scholars wrote several pieces of writings, which indicated Socrates discussions. Aristophanes comedy clouds and Xenophon’s apology of Socrates where considered as some of the best discussions Socrates taught and argued as well. Tragedy simply refers to the form of drama, which is usually based on human or people’s sufferings, hence it normally invokes heavily on the audience (Bell 245). Aristophanes was among the scholars who ...

(I/2) Aristophanes and Plato are among the three primary sources of information about Socrates, including Xenophon. Aristophanes, the playwright, is the earliest source, who claimed that he knew Socrates in his early years. In 423 B.C., Xenophon and Plato were still infants, when Aristophanes produced his comedy The Clouds, in which Socrates appears. During Socrates’s trial and execution, Plato was about twenty-five.

When it comes to having been acquainted with Socrates, Aristophanes’s account is favored since Plato was some forty-five years younger than Socrates, so he must have been acquainted to him in his later years. However, ...

According to Xenophon in his book The Education of Cyrus, "It is easier, given his nature, for a human being to rule all the other kinds of animals than to rule human beings" (p. 22). This quote sums up perfectly the difficulties of rule; one's followers, unlike animals, have the ability to revolt and to disagree with the way a ruler runs things. How can this go right and go wrong? Xerophon's philosophy of stable political rule is shown through the actions and attitudes of three rules in The Education of Cyrus: Cyrus himself, his foolish uncle Cyaxares, and the evil ...

Motivating today’s Employees

I have always been interested in the concept of management verses leadership and while both play their parts in motivation, leadership style is what interests me most. I believe that adopting the role of CMSgt for a week to see how he steps in to motivate the AF workforce he is responsible is an ideal challenge to enable me to understand this perspective. According to the words of Warren G. Bennis, Ph.D., "Leaders are people who do the right thing. Managers are people who do things right.” Undeniably, management and leadership are two concepts that confuse many a person not mentioning ...