What did Socrates mean when he said that "Astronomy was a waste of time and

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Wicked

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the task of a philosopher is to? give order to man and human society"

please give examples on things that he did or taught that is related to that statement. THANK YOU!!
 
He may have meant,critically, that Astronomy was not a very practical discipline(rather like today's astrophysics is not a practical job).
So,perhaps,he was urging younger students to try to concentrate on "worldy" sciences;(or even a more practical,hence critical, "philosophy",too).
And we all know THAT we should have better order-and-law in the world; but its achieving that,as well as achieving broad agreement throughout the group...- which is the difficult part(!).
As..Socrates..likely meant,i think.
 
I don't think that he said "Astronomy is a waste of time." Plato represents that Socrates was concerned to determine the excellences particular to the human animal which were called virtues. He is credited with the saying "an unexamined life is not worth living". In formal terms he was concerned with the normative and not the empirical.
 
The same thing people mean today when they wonder why we spend money and effort in exploring space when we have Human Problems to solve. I don't agree, but i think that was his intended meaning.
 
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