Philosophy

Socrates

c. 470/469–399 BC · Athenian (Greek)

Classical Greek philosophy

Socrates of Athens is the pivotal figure of Western philosophy, turning inquiry towards ethics and the question of how one should live. He wrote nothing: we know him through Plato's dialogues, Xenophon's writings and Aristophanes' satire. Tried for impiety and corrupting the young, he was executed by drinking hemlock in 399 BC.

How to spot them

▸Wrote nothing; the elenchus or Socratic method of question and answer
▸'The unexamined life is not worth living'; the gadfly; the Delphic oracle and Chaerephon
▸Hemlock, the trial of 399 BC, wife Xanthippe, his daimonion (inner divine sign)
▸Earlier Greek thinkers are grouped as the 'pre-Socratics'

Key works

Apology (c. 399–390 BC)

By Plato: Socrates' defence speech at his trial

Crito (c. 399–390 BC)

By Plato: Socrates refuses to escape from prison, arguing one must never return wrong for wrong

Phaedo (c. 380s BC)

By Plato: arguments for the soul's immortality on Socrates' last day, ending with his death

Euthyphro (c. 399–395 BC)

By Plato: on piety; source of the Euthyphro dilemma

The Clouds (423 BC)

By Aristophanes: comedy lampooning Socrates as a sophist running a 'Thinkery' (phrontisterion)

Memorabilia (4th century BC)

By Xenophon: recollections defending Socrates' character and teaching

Key ideas

Socratic method (elenchus): testing someone's beliefs through questioning to expose contradictions, often in search of a definition
Socratic ignorance: he was wiser than others only in recognising that he did not know
Virtue is knowledge and no one does wrong willingly; wrongdoing stems from ignorance (Socratic intellectualism)
Care of the soul matters more than wealth or reputation: 'the unexamined life is not worth living' (Plato, Apology 38a)
It is better to suffer injustice than to commit it (Plato, Gorgias)

Quick-fire facts

•He wrote nothing; the difficulty of reconstructing the historical Socrates from the sources is called the 'Socratic problem'
•His friend Chaerephon asked the Delphic oracle whether anyone was wiser than Socrates, and was told no one was
•Charged in 399 BC with impiety (not recognising the city's gods and introducing new divinities) and corrupting the young; executed by hemlock
•His father Sophroniscus was a stonemason or sculptor and his mother Phaenarete a midwife; in Plato's Theaetetus he calls himself an intellectual midwife
•He served as a hoplite at Potidaea, Delium and Amphipolis during the Peloponnesian War
•In Plato's Apology he likens himself to a gadfly stinging the sluggish horse of Athens
•Jacques-Louis David painted 'The Death of Socrates' (1787)
•His circle included Plato, Xenophon, Alcibiades, Antisthenes (precursor of the Cynics) and Aristippus (founder of the Cyrenaics)

Drill it — 10 cards

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Sources

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy — Socrates
Bertrand Russell — A History of Western Philosophy