Life
Most of what is known about Socrates is derived from information
that recurs across various contemporary sources: the dialogues written
by Plato, one of Socrates' students; the works of Xenophon, one
of his contemporaries; and writings by Aristophanes and Aristotle.
Anything Socrates wrote himself has not survived. Additionally,
Aristophanes' account of Socrates is in fact a satirical attack
on philosophers and does not purport to be a factual account of
events in the life of Socrates. Another complication is the Ancient
Greek tradition of scholars attributing their own ideas, theories
and sometimes even personal traits to their mentors, a tradition
Plato appears to have followed. Gabriele Giannantoni, in his monumental
1991 work Socratis et Socraticorum Reliquiae, attempts to compile
every scrap of evidence regarding Socrates, including material attributed
to Aeschines Socraticus, Antisthenes and a number of others supposed
to have known him.
According to accounts from antiquity, Socrates' father was the sculptor
Sophroniscus and his mother Phaenarete, a midwife. Socrates married
Xanthippe, who bore him three sons – Lamprocles, Sophroniscus and
Menexenus – who were all quite young at the time of his death. Traditionally,
Xanthippe is thought to have been an ill-tempered scold, mainly
due to her characterization by Xenophon.
It is unclear how Socrates earned a living. According to Xenophon's
Symposium, Socrates is reported as saying he devotes himself only
to what he regards as the most important art or occupation: discussing
philosophy. Although he inherited money following his father's death,
it is unlikely it was sufficient to keep him for long. Xenophon
and Aristophanes respectively portray Socrates as accepting payment
for teaching and running a sophist school with Chaerephon, whilst
in Plato's Symposium Socrates explicitly denies accepting payment
for teaching. It is possible Socrates relied on the generosity of
wealthy and powerful friends such as Crito.
Characters such as Alcibiades – the name of one of Socrates' friends
– in the dialogues indicate that Socrates served in the Athenian
army during the Peloponnesian War. Plato's Symposium indicates that
he was also decorated for bravery. In one instance, Socrates is
said to have stayed on the battlefield to protect Alcibiades, probably
saving his life; he then sought Alcibiades' recognition rather than
accepting any of his own. It is also claimed he showed great heartiness
during these military campaigns, such as walking without shoes or
coat during winter.
Trial and death
Socrates lived during the time of the transition from the height
of the Athenian Empire to its decline after its defeat by Sparta
and its allies in the Peloponnesian War. At a time when Athens was
seeking to stabilize and recover from its humiliating defeat, the
Athenian public court was induced by three leading public figures
to try Socrates for impiety and for corrupting the youth of Athens.
This was a time in culture when the Greeks thought of gods and goddesses
as being associated with protecting particular cities. Athens, for
instance, is named after its protecting goddess Athena. The defeat
of Athens in the Peloponnesian War was interpreted as Athena judging
the city for not being pious. The last thing Athens needed was more
punishment from Athena for one man inciting its citizens to question
her or the other gods. In the Apology, Socrates insists that this
is a false charge.
According to the version of his defense speech presented in Plato's
Apology, Socrates' life as the "gadfly" of Athens began
when his friend Chaerephon asked the oracle at Delphi if anyone
was wiser than Socrates; the Oracle responded negatively. Socrates,
interpreting this as a riddle, set out to find men who were wiser
than he was. He questioned the men of Athens about their knowledge
of good, beauty, and virtue. Finding that they knew nothing and
yet believed themselves to know much, Socrates came to the conclusion
that he was wise only in so far as he knew that he knew nothing.
Socrates' superior intellect made the prominent Athenians he publicly
questioned look foolish, turning them against him and leading to
accusations of wrongdoing.
He was nevertheless found guilty as charged, and sentenced to death
by drinking a silver goblet of hemlock. Socrates turned down the
pleas of his disciples to attempt an escape from prison, drinking
the hemlock and dying in the company of his friends. According to
the Phaedo, Socrates had a calm death, enduring his sentence with
fortitude. The Roman philosopher Seneca attempted to emulate Socrates'
death by hemlock when forced to commit suicide by the Emperor Nero.
According to Xenophon and Plato, Socrates had an opportunity to
escape, as his followers were able to bribe the prison guards. After
escaping, Socrates would have had to flee from Athens. In the painting
"Death Of Socrates", under the death bed, there is an
irregularly-shaped tile, which many believe is an escape hatch.
Socrates refused to escape for several reasons. 1. He believed that
such a flight would indicate a fear of death, which he believed
no true philosopher has. 2. Even if he did leave, he, and his teaching,
would fare no better in another country. 3. Having knowingly agreed
to live under the city's laws, he implicitly subjected himself to
the possibility of being accused of crimes by its citizens and judged
guilty by its jury. To do otherwise would have caused him to break
his 'contract' with the state, and by so doing harming it, an act
contrary to Socratic principle.
After Socrates's death, Plato described it in the dialogue Phaedo.
"He walked about and, when he said his legs were heavy,
lay down on his back, for such was the advice of the attendant.
The man who had administered the poison laid his hands on him and
after a while examined his feet and legs, then pinched his foot
hard and asked if he felt it. He said "No"; then after
that, his thighs; and passing upwards in this way he showed us that
he was growing cold and rigid. And again he touched him and said
that when it reached his heart, he would be gone. ... To this question
he made no reply, but after a little while he moved; the attendant
uncovered him; his eyes were fixed."
— Plato, Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Meno, Phaedo
Philosophy
Socratic method
Perhaps his most important contribution to Western thought is his
dialectic (answering a question with a question) method of inquiry,
known as the Socratic Method or method of elenchos, which he largely
applied to the examination of key moral concepts such as the Good
and Justice. It was first described by Plato in the Socratic Dialogues.
For this, Socrates is customarily regarded as the father of political
philosophy and ethics or moral philosophy, and as a fountainhead
of all the main themes in Western philosophy in general.
In this method, a series of questions are posed to help a person
or group to determine their underlying beliefs and the extent of
their knowledge. The Socratic method is a negative method of hypothesis
elimination, in that better hypotheses are found by steadily identifying
and eliminating those which lead to contradictions. It was designed
to force one to examine his own beliefs and the validity of such
beliefs. In fact, Socrates once said, "I know you won't believe
me, but the highest form of Human Excellence is to question oneself
and others."[
Philosophical beliefs
The beliefs of Socrates, as opposed to those of Plato, are difficult
to discern. Little in the way of concrete evidence demarcates the
two. There are some who claim that Socrates had no particular set
of beliefs, and sought only to examine; the lengthy theories he
gives in the Republic are considered to be the thoughts of Plato.
Others argue that he did have his own theories and beliefs, but
there is much controversy over what these might have been, owing
to the difficulty of separating Socrates from Plato and the difficulty
of interpreting even the dramatic writings concerning Socrates.
Consequently, distinguishing the philosophical beliefs of Socrates
from those of Plato and Xenophon is not easy and it must be remembered
that what is attributed to Socrates might more closely reflect the
specific concerns of these writers.
Evidence from the dialogues suggests Socrates had only two teachers:
Prodicus, a grammarian, and Diotima, a priestess from Mantinea who
taught him about eros, or love. His knowledge of other contemporary
thinkers such as Parmenides and Anaxagoras is evident from a number
of dialogues, and historical sources often include both of them
as Socrates' teachers. John Burnet argued that his principal teacher
was the Anaxagroean Archelaus but that his ideas were as Plato described
them; Eric A. Havelock, on the other hand, considered Socrates'
association with the Anaxagoreans to be evidence of Plato's philosophical
separation from Socrates. Apollo himself may be considered one of
his teachers, as Socrates claims (in Plato's Apology) that his habit
of constant conversation was obedience to God. See below for more
on the divine sign.
Knowledge
Socrates seems to have often said that his wisdom was limited to
an awareness of his own ignorance. Socrates may have believed that
wrongdoing was a consequence of ignorance, that those who did wrong
knew no better. The one thing Socrates consistently claimed to have
knowledge of was "the art of love" which he connected
with the concept of "the love of wisdom", i.e., philosophy.
He never actually claimed to be wise, only to understand the path
that a lover of wisdom must take in pursuing it. It is debatable
whether Socrates believed that humans (as opposed to gods like Apollo)
could actually become wise. On the one hand, he drew a clear line
between human ignorance and ideal knowledge; on the other, Plato's
Symposium (Diotima's Speech) and Republic (Allegory of the Cave)
describe a method for ascending to wisdom.
In Plato's Theaetetus (150a) Socrates compares himself to a true
matchmaker, as distinguished from a panderer. This distinction is
echoed in Xenophon's Symposium (3.20), when Socrates jokes about
his certainty of being able to make a fortune, if he chose to practise
the art of pandering. For his part as a philosophical interlocutor,
he leads his respondent to a clearer conception of wisdom, although
he claims that he is not himself a teacher (Apology). His role,
he claims, is more properly to be understood as analogous to a midwife
(µa?a). Socrates explains that he is himself barren of theories,
but knows how to bring the theories of others to birth and determine
whether they are worthy or mere "wind eggs". Perhaps significantly,
he points out that midwives are barren due to age, and women who
have never given birth are unable to become midwives; a truly barren
woman would have no experience or knowledge of birth and would be
unable to separate the worthy infants from those that should be
left on the hillside to be exposed. To judge this, the midwife must
have experience and knowledge of what she is judging.
Virtue
Socrates believed that the best way for people to live was to focus
on self-development rather than the pursuit of material wealth.
He always invited others to try to concentrate more on friendships
and a sense of true community, for Socrates felt that this was the
best way for people to grow together as a populace. His actions
lived up to this: in the end, Socrates accepted his death sentence
when most thought he would simply leave Athens, as he felt he could
not run away from or go against the will of his community; as above,
his reputation for valor on the battlefield was without reproach.
The idea that humans possessed certain virtues formed a common thread
in Socrates' teachings. These virtues represented the most important
qualities for a person to have, foremost of which were the philosophical
or intellectual virtues. Socrates stressed that "virtue was
the most valuable of all possessions; the ideal life was spent in
search of the Good. Truth lies beneath the shadows of existence,
and that it is the job of the philosopher to show the rest how little
they really know." (Solomon 44)
Ultimately, virtue relates to the form of the Good; to truly be
good and not just act with "right opinion"; one must come
to know the unchanging Good in itself. In the Republic, he describes
the "divided line", a continuum of ignorance to knowledge
with the Good on top of it all; only at the top of this line do
we find true good and the knowledge of such.
Politics
It is often argued that Socrates believed "ideals belong in
a world that only the wise man can understand" making the philosopher
the only type of person suitable to govern others. According to
Plato's account, Socrates was in no way subtle about his particular
beliefs on government. He openly objected to the democracy that
ran Athens during his adult life. It was not only Athenian democracy:
Socrates objected to any form of government that did not conform
to his ideal of a perfect republic led by philosophers (Solomon
49), and Athenian government was far from that. During the last
years of Socrates' life, Athens was in continual flux due to political
upheaval. Democracy was at last overthrown by a junta known as the
Thirty Tyrants, led by Plato's relative, Critias, who had been a
student of Socrates. The Tyrants ruled for about a year before the
Athenian democracy was reinstated, at which point it declared an
amnesty for all recent events. Four years later, it acted to silence
the voice of Socrates.
This argument is often denied, and the question is one of the biggest
philosophical debates when trying to determine what, exactly, it
was that Socrates believed. The strongest argument of those who
claim that Socrates did not actually believe in the idea of philosopher
kings is Socrates' constant refusal to enter into politics or participate
in government of any sort; he often stated that he could not look
into other matters or tell people how to live when he did not yet
understand himself. He believed he was a philosopher engaged in
the pursuit of Truth, and did not claim to know it fully. Socrates'
acceptance of his death sentence, after his conviction by the Boule
(Senate), can also support this view. It is often claimed that much
of the anti-democratic leanings are from Plato, who was never able
to overcome his disgust at what was done to his teacher. In any
case, it is clear that Socrates thought that the rule of the Thirty
Tyrants was at least as objectionable as democracy; when called
before them to assist in the arrest of a fellow Athenian, Socrates
refused and narrowly escaped death before the Tyrants were overthrown.
He did however fulfill his duty to serve as prytanie when a trial
of a group of generals who presided over a disastrous naval campaign
were judged; even then he maintained an uncompromising attitude,
being one of those who refused to proceed in a manner not supported
by the laws, despite intense pressure. [1] Judging by his actions,
he considered the rule of the Thirty Tyrants less legitimate than
that of the democratic senate who sentenced him to death.
Mysticism
As depicted in the dialogues of Plato, Socrates often seems to manifest
a mystical side, discussing reincarnation and the mystery religions;
however, this is generally attributed to Plato. Regardless, this
cannot be dismissed out of hand, as we cannot be sure of the differences
between the views of Plato and Socrates; in addition, there seem
to be some corollaries in the works of Xenophon. In the culmination
of the philosophic path as discussed in Plato's Symposium and Republic,
one comes to the Sea of Beauty or to the sight of the form of the
Good in an experience akin to mystical revelation; only then can
one become wise. (In the Symposium, Socrates credits his speech
on the philosophic path to his teacher, the priestess Diotima, who
is not even sure if Socrates is capable of reaching the highest
mysteries). In the Meno, he refers to the Eleusinian Mysteries,
telling Meno he would understand Socrates' answers better if only
he could stay for the initiations next week.
Perhaps the most interesting facet of this is Socrates' reliance
on what the Greeks called his "daemonic sign", an averting
(?p?t?ept????) inner voice that Socrates heard only when Socrates
was about to make a mistake. It was this sign that prevented Socrates
from entering into politics. In the Phaedrus, we are told Socrates
considered this to be a form of "divine madness", the
sort of insanity that is a gift from the gods and gives us poetry,
mysticism, love, and even philosophy itself. Alternately, the sign
is often taken to be what we would call "intuition"; however,
Socrates' characterization of the phenomenon as "daemonic"
suggests that its origin is divine, mysterious, and independent
of his own thoughts.
Satirical playwrights
He was prominently lampooned in Aristophanes' comedy The Clouds,
produced when Socrates was in his mid-forties; he said at his trial
(in Plato's version) that the laughter of the theater was a harder
task to answer than the arguments of his accusers. In the play he
is ridiculed for his dirtiness, which is associated with the Laconizing
fad; also in plays by Callias, Eupolis, and Telecleides. In all
of these, Socrates and the Sophists were criticised for "the
moral dangers inherent in contemporary thought and literature".
Prose sources
Plato, Xenophon, and Aristotle are the main sources for the historical
Socrates; however, Xenophon and Plato were direct disciples of Socrates,
and presumably, they idealize him; however, they wrote the only
continuous descriptions of Socrates that have come down to us. Aristotle
refers frequently, but in passing, to Socrates in his writings.
Almost all of Plato's works center around Socrates. However Plato's
latter works appear to be more his own philosophy put into the mouth
of his mentor.
The Socratic dialogues
The Socratic dialogues are a series of dialogues written by Plato
and Xenophon in the form of discussions between Socrates and other
persons of his time, or as discussions between Socrates' followers
over his concepts. Plato's Phaedo is an example of this latter category.
Although his Apology is a monologue delivered by Socrates, it is
usually grouped with the dialogues.
The Apology professes to be a record of the actual speech that Socrates
delivered in his own defense at the trial. In the Athenian jury
system, an Apology is composed of three parts: a speech, followed
by a counter-assessment, then some final words. "Apology"
is a transliteration, not a translation, of the Greek apologia,
meaning "defense"; in this sense it is not apologetic
according to our contemporary use of the term.
Plato generally does not place his own ideas in the mouth of a specific
speaker; he lets ideas emerge via the Socratic method, under the
guidance of Socrates. Most of the dialogues present Socrates applying
this method to some extent, but nowhere as completely as in the
Euthyphro. In this dialogue, Socrates and Euthyphro go through several
iterations of refining the answer to Socrates' question, "...What
is the pious, and what the impious?"
In Plato's dialogues, learning appears as a process of remembering.
The soul, before its incarnation in the body, was in the realm of
Ideas (very similar to the Platonic "Forms"). There, it
saw things the way they truly are, rather than the pale shadows
or copies we experience on earth. By a process of questioning, the
soul can be brought to remember the ideas in their pure form, thus
bringing wisdom.
Especially for Plato's writings referring to Socrates, it is not
always clear which ideas brought forward by Socrates (or his friends)
actually belonged to Socrates and which of these may have been new
additions or elaborations by Plato — this is known as the Socratic
problem. Generally, the early works of Plato are considered to be
close to the spirit of Socrates, whereas the later works — including
Phaedo and the "Republic" — are considered to be possibly
products of Plato's elaborations.
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