Although Socrates left no writings, he is of landmark importance in Western thought. By his
example, philosophy was turned away from its prior emphasis on natural science and became
directed more toward questions of ethics—that is, the right conduct of life. In the words of the
Roman thinker Cicero (ca. 50 BCE), "Socrates was the first to call philosophy down from the
sky."
Socrates profoundly influenced his pupil Plato. Socrates' central conclusions—that happiness
depends solely on living a moral life, and that moral virtue is equivalent to knowledge and is
therefore teachable—became the springboard for Plato's elaborate theory of reality and system of
ethics. Socrates' equation of virtue with knowledge led to the daring corollary that evil is
ignorance and hence unintentional. According to Socrates, the evildoer acts mistakenly in
harming his or her own soul.
Socrates himself taught no doctrine, claiming simply, "I know nothing." This professed
ignorance was denoted by the Greek word eironeia: that is, the famous Socratic irony. Unlike
other philosophers, he never founded a school or charged fees for lessons. At Athens he attracted
a following of young, aristocratic men, with whom he would dispute ethical or political issues.
Since he took no money, his goal was evidently to prepare these students for public office by
teaching them to think for themselves. His "Socratic method" consisted of asking questions,
particularly in pursuit of definitions. For example: "You say that this man is a better citizen than
his opponent? Let us consider therefore what we mean by 'good citizen.'" This question-andanswer process forced the respondent to examine his own preconceptions, in a search for general
truths.
Socrates' disputations and skeptical outlook led him to be associated—unfairly, from his
viewpoint—with those well-paid teachers of intellectual skills, the sophists. One famous sophist,
Protagoras of Abdera, who taught at Athens around 455–415 BCE, is recorded as believing that
expertise (Greek: arete) in most fields is teachable. Protagoras surely inspired Socrates' similar
but more profound view that moral virtue (likewise denoted by the Greek word arete) is
teachable.
Among Socrates' well-heeled students were two destined for great importance in Athenian
politics: the brilliant but erratic Alcibiades and the extreme right-winger Kritias (who was killed
in 403 BCE while trying to abolish Athenian democracy). The link with Kritias was probably
responsible for Socrates' death. In 399 BCE the 70-year-old philosopher was prosecuted for
corrupting the youth (a charge implicitly referring to Kritias and Alcibiades) and for impiety.
After making a flamboyantly nonconciliatory defense speech, Socrates was found guilty by the
jury of 501 Athenians and was sentenced to die by being given poison. The famous prison scene,
in which Socrates discusses the soul's immortality with his visitors before drinking the fatal
hemlock, is recounted in Plato's dialogue Phaedo.
Information about Socrates comes mainly from two sources. Plato's fictional dialogues contain
much biographical information about Socrates while also foisting onto him Plato's own more
complex philosophical theories. Here the insoluble question arises: What aspects of Plato's
Socrates show us the real Socrates, and how much is just a mask for Plato's own thought?
Probably a more biographical Socrates is portrayed in Plato's early work (such as the Krito or
Euthyphro), while the Socrates in the Republic and later dialogues is a more fictionalized
character, who discusses concepts that the real Socrates never explored. The other source is
Xenophon, a stolid Athenian soldier and historian who was one of Socrates' disciples and who
wrote about him in three nonfiction memoirs, Memorabilia, Symposium, and Apology. (The latter
two titles also belong to works by Plato.) That Socrates could be the beloved mentor of two such
different people as Plato and Xenophon is itself revealing. Other information comes from
Aristophanes' stage comedy Clouds (performed in 423 BCE), in which a crackpot scientist named
Socrates operates a "Thinking Shop." Clearly the real Socrates was a dynamic personality who
fascinated friend and foe alike. When one contemporary Athenian asked the oracle at Delphi
who was the wisest of all men, the answer came back "Socrates."
He was born into the Athenian middle class, the son of a stonecutter or sculptor named
Sophroniskos. Socrates came of age during the political primacy of Pericles, when Athens
reached its zenith as a radical democracy and imperial naval power—twin developments that
alienated many conservative Athenians. As a youth, Socrates supposedly studied under a disciple
of the philosopher Anaxagoras, but became discouraged by the emphasis on physics and
cosmology rather than ethics.
During the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta (431–404 BCE), Socrates served as
foot soldier in the Potidaea campaign (432–430 BCE), at the disastrous Battle of Delium (424
BCE), and at Amphipolis (422 BCE), by which time he would have been about 47 years old. On
campaign, he distinguished himself by his physical endurance and courage. One anecdote
describes Socrates striding calmly amid the Athenian retreat from Delium, defying the pursuing
enemy cavalry.
In later life he repeatedly resisted the political hysteria of Athens in crisis. In 406 BCE, while
serving a citizen's normal duty on the council panel to prepare the agenda for the Athenian
assembly, Socrates refused to go along with an illegal motion ordering a group trial for six
commanders charged with negligence after the sea battle of Arginusae. In 403 BCE Socrates
defied his old pupil Kritias, who had seized power in the coup of the Thirty Tyrants: Brought
before the Thirty, Socrates refused to help them arrest a certain intended victim. No doubt
Socrates himself would have become a victim of the Thirty, had not their reign of terror soon
ended. Instead, Socrates was denounced by prominent accusers after the restoration of
democracy.
That Socrates should have been prosecuted under the democracy is significant. An original
thinker who defied convention, Socrates was known for his antidemocratic sentiments. As
Xenophon's memoirs make clear, he criticized the democracy's inability to entrust its government
to the most apt and expert people. Without advocating revolution or dictatorship, Socrates seems
to have favored a meritocracy, with power entrusted to a worthy ruling class. Such beliefs—
although purely theoretical—must have seemed damning after Critias' right-wing coup.
Following the Thirty's downfall, the Athenians' wrath turned against Socrates.
Across the centuries, Socrates' eccentric personality communicates itself. Although magnetic in
character, he was physically unattractive in middle age—balding, pug-nosed, and paunchy. His
contemporaries humorously compared him to the mythical figure Silenus. Socrates was famous
for his austerity: Impervious to cold and fatigue, he almost always went barefoot, even over
frozen winter ground at the siege of Potidaea.
He had three sons by his wife, Xanthippe (whom several sources describe as a bad-tempered
shrew). Socrates may have practiced a stonecutter's trade, like his father, but he evidently spent
most of his time at the Athenian sports grounds where educated men of leisure congregated.
There he would conduct semipublic debates with his followers or rivals.
Political Thought of Socrates:
Often compared to Christ because he criticized the religious establishment, was executed by the
state, but forgave his accusers, Socrates was a teacher of Plato, influencing all classical political
thought.
Most famous for his dictum "Know Thyself" and "the unexamined life is not worth living,"
Socrates begins the Western philosophic tradition. His "Socratic method" of educating students
by asking them questions continues in the Oxford tutorial system, the adversarial legal method,
and the free press as a "Fourth Estate," critically examining the government.
Socrates wrote nothing himself, but his philosophical life and activity is written by various
disciplines, especially in the Dialogues of Plato. The most biographical is The Apology, a
description of Socrates' trial in Athens on charges of heresy and corrupting the young. In his
defense ("apology"), Socrates provides logical refutation of both charges and reveals, through
questioning, their true source in his challenging of the established authority in Greece. Most
serious was his embarrassing of the proud, self-satisfied, prominent leaders of Athens, who only
think they are wise, when in fact their pride and arrogance makes them foolish and ignorant.
True wisdom, for Socrates, is a humble appreciation of one's own lack of knowledge. Such
personal, intellectual humility fuels the search for knowledge and is the true "philosopher's"
("lover of wisdom") premier trait. Most prominent people are infected with the sin of pride and
therefore are stupid. This attitude lands Socrates in court, in jail, and finally to being executed by
the state. He insists that he is not being disrespectful to Athens's leaders or disloyal to his
country; quite the contrary, Greece in its Golden Age has become so rich, proud, and decadent
that it needs a patriotic "gadfly" to sting it and wake it up, according to Socrates. He did that to
save his country.
The Platonic Dialogue Crito details Socrates' time, his obedience to the states' laws, his
patriotism, and his love of country. He even refuses to escape and save his own life when the
opportunity presents itself. Socrates insists that he is following a "higher law," God's command,
when he criticizes the state.
Elsewhere, Socrates is recorded as critical of the Athenean democracy because the majority of
people are selfish, proud, and ignorant. He faults the political leaders for pandering to the masses
to be elected, rather than having any independent intelligence, judgment, or principles.
These Socratic views are developed by his greatest student, Plato, especially in The Republic.
His concern for education leads to a Platonic state, ruled by a philosopher-King and preoccupied
with educating the virtues of all its citizens. His plea that Athens treat his sons as he treated them
and that then they will have "justice" (getting their "due") becomes the central theme of Plato's
Republic—the definition of justice and how to achieve it. Many subsequent philosophers claim
Socrates as their inspiration and example, including John Stuart Mill, C. S. Lewis, and Henry
David Thoreau.