Essay 1

            My definition of arête is making you worth more than someone else. If you were worth more than the person standing next to you, you would go further in life and get better things brought your way. This is like today’s society, because if you try hard in school and get good grades you will get a better job than someone who barely ever came to school and blew off their work. Socrates demonstrated this by making advancements to the town. When he got in trouble for what he did he simply explained that everything he did was so the city would not fall. He did more work to make sure Greece would be the best possible place, than anyone of his time did. He also created the Socratic Method. This was a big thing because people now did more work to find the answer to a question. He made other people show arête because when they were able to answer a series of questions they were doing more work. This meant they were not just given an answer by whomever they asked without doing any work to get it. Socrates showed arête because he is given partial credit for being a founder of Western philosophy. Also, the ancient Greeks showed this because they created the first democracy. This make them look better than any of the countries during this time. Many people would follow the Greek ways after this and convert to their ruling style, because it was successful.