Fort Atkinson student presents research at seventh annual Celebration of Scholars event

2017 May 2

Carthage College held the seventh annual Celebration of Scholars event on Friday, April 28, 2017. Celebration of Scholars is a poster exhibition that features original research, scholarship, and creative work completed by Carthage students.

Kory Scherer of Fort Atkinson presented "The Media: Modern Day Sophists" at the event.

This is the project's abstract:

"In Plato's The Republic, true philosophers find their wisdom to be lost in a sea filled with the fallacious ideas of sophists, those whose reasoning prevails at the hands of deception and exploitation. Upon analysis, this concept of sophists dictating the beliefs of society creates a thought-provoking parallel to arguably one of the strongest voices in the modern nation, the media. Explanations to the manipulation of people's thoughts by today's media can not only be emulated through the motives that underlie the behavior of sophists, but also by Socrates' subjective notion of truth. The temptations of wealth and public acceptance prove to offer a strong allure, much greater than the "useless" label that true lovers of wisdom have been given by society. The spreading of popular opinion simply provides more personal gain, in both material possessions and reputation, than the spreading of truth. In both The Republic and modern society, those who have a voice that is heard are those who express what the large majority desires to hear. However, even beyond tricky sophists and media, it is possible that the truth will always struggle to persevere in its purest form. Even in Socrates' ideal society, the ones who held the power of knowledge and wisdom, philosophers, would be given the opportunity to share falsehoods. The meaning of truth may always inevitably be altered."