In the earliest of Plato’s “Dialogues”-considered by historians to be the most accurate portrayal-Socrates rarely reveals any opinions of his own as he brilliantly helps his interlocutors dissect their thoughts and motives in Socratic dialogue, a form of literature in which two or more characters (in this case, one of them Socrates) discuss moral and philosophical issues,ġ932 First NFL playoff game is played indoors In Plato’s later works, Socrates speaks with what seem to be largely Plato’s ideas.
Thus, Xenophon’s Socrates is more straightforward, willing to offer advice rather than simply asking more questions. For both, the Socrates that appears bears the mark of the writer. Two of his younger students, the historian Xenophon and the philosopher Plato, recorded the most significant accounts of Socrates’ life and philosophy. His lifestyle-and eventually his death-embodied his spirit of questioning every assumption about virtue, wisdom and the good life. Choosing not to flee, he spent his final days in the company of his friends before drinking the executioner’s cup of poisonous hemlock.ĭespite his intellect and connections, he rejected the sort of fame and power that Athenians were expected to strive for. Socrates was accused of corrupting the youth of Athens and sentenced to death.
Socrates wrote nothing himself, so all that is known about him is filtered through the writings of a few contemporaries and followers, most notably his student Plato. His style of teaching-immortalized as the Socratic method-involved not conveying knowledge, but rather asking question after clarifying question until his students arrived at their own understanding. He grew up during the golden age of Pericles’ Athens, served with distinction as a soldier, but became best known as a questioner of everything and everyone. Viewed by many as the founding figure of Western philosophy, Socrates (469-399 B.C.) is at once the most exemplary and the strangest of the Greek philosophers.
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