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Socrates

Socrates and the Views of Ethical Decisions

Socrates believed that in order to be certain about our ethical decisions, we must have a good intentional definition.   I can see why Socrates would think in this way since he was always questioning views on the reasoning of things and on life.   I don’t agree with this way of thinking though.   I do not think it is necessary to have a good intentional definition in order to make ethical decisions.   Many ethical decisions we make are not made because we had a good definition on, but rather was made on instinct or previous knowledge of the subject.   Some may argue that having previous knowledge would technically be the same a definition.   I don’t see it in that way though because the way we see things could be interpreted in many different ways by other people.  
A good intentional definition is something that I believe is explained to where there is absolutely no way to argue against it.   It would be hard to have a definition of something and for it to be conclusive with no arguments what so ever.   You can find definitions of words, obviously in a dictionary.   However they way they are defined can be easily misinterpreted and misleading.   For example, the definition of the word example is stated by Merriam-Webster dictionary online says: “one that serves as a pattern to be imitated or not to be imitated.”   I personally feel this is a horrible definition for the word example.   The point there is, in essence, why I feel that Socrates was incorrect when he stated that we must have good intentional definitions in order to make good ethical decisions. As I will state later, there are many ways to make good ethical decisions without having a good intentional definition to back it up.

Socrates and his thoughts
As a great philosopher of his time, Socrates questioned nearly everything that happened in his life.   He found the good in the bad and the bad in the good.   His ways, like many other philosophers was to have an...