Socrates

Socrates (469–399 B.C.) was a citizen of ancient Athens and one of the most influential people ever. He was known for his virtuous character, for refuting those who claimed to understand what virtue is, for chastising those who claimed not to care about virtue, for denying that he had expert knowledge of virtue, and for receiving personal warnings from an inner, divine voice.

In 399 B.C., Socrates was tried for corrupting the Athenian youth and for not believing in the city’s traditional gods but in new “daimonic” activities. After hearing from the prosecutors and then from Socrates (pronounced SOCK-ruh-teez), the large jury of Athenian citizens found Socrates guilty. The vote was about 280 to 221. He was then sentenced to death. Socrates was 70 years old.

He had lived in Athens his entire life. With bulging eyes and a snub nose, Socrates was not handsome by classical Greek standards, but he had extraordinary courage. As a citizen-soldier, he fought bravely for Athens in three foreign campaigns in his thirties and forties. Like an ordinary citizen, he married and had children. By his mid-forties, though, he had spent enough time in public discussions of virtue, justice, beauty, and knowledge that he had gained a reputation for wisdom, a reputation that he would dispute. 

Fifth-century Athens had many people reputed to be wise. Many of them were foreigners. Some theorized about the cosmos, some taught public speaking, and some claimed to teach virtue. Ordinary Athenians often viewed them with suspicion. Socrates denied that he taught a special skill of any kind, but there was something else that set Socrates apart. Throughout his life, an inner voice often warned him against doing or saying whatever it was he was about to do or say. He believed that these warnings came from a daimon, a kind of god, and that it was always beneficial for him to heed it.

Some Athenians thought that Socrates was a pest, but others were inspired by his words. He exhorted both citizens and foreigners to improve their characters—their souls—before pursuing wealth, fame, or power. He reproached them for cowardice, injustice, and false claims to wisdom. If someone claimed to know how to live well, he would question them to see if they could make their knowledge plain. If they could not, he would expose contradictions in their ideas. The embarrassment led some to improve themselves, but others just hated the questioner.

Why did Socrates treat others this way? In Plato’s account, Socrates had two reasons. First, the god, presumably Apollo, ordered Socrates to do so. Socrates says that the god is concerned about the Athenians, which probably meant that the god wanted them to live well and thought they would not do so unless they realized they were not as good or wise as they supposed. Socrates’ second reason was that discussing virtue every day is good for people and that any worthwhile life includes honestly examining oneself and others for virtue and wisdom.

Why did Socrates think that such examination and discussion are necessary for living well? In his lifetime, Socrates had seen the fear of death negatively affect his fellow Athenians in war, politics, the courts, and an epidemic. He had also seen desires for wealth and power cause people to put private gain above the public good and to trample other people’s interests. Giving in to such desires undermined law, justice, and piety, producing social chaos and private misery and despair. To avoid these outcomes for Athens and himself, Socrates encouraged personal and civic virtue through daily conversations about the nature of virtue and by shaming those who did not give the highest priority to living justly. These examinations, exhortations, and chastisements constituted Socrates’ pursuit of wisdom, his philosophy.

Socrates had many admirers, many of whom wrote about him after his death. The writings of Plato and Xenophon have survived intact; the writings of others survive only in fragments. Plato was more than 40 years younger than Socrates. He attended Socrates’ trial and afterward published Socrates’ Defense Speech, otherwise known as Apology of Socrates. (In ancient Greek, an apologia is a defense speech.) Plato wrote it as if it were a transcript of what Socrates said during and immediately after the trial. How accurately it represents Socrates’ words is a matter of scholarly debate. Plato wrote several other dialogues that depict conversations with Socrates shortly before and after the trial. They include Euthyphro, Crito, and Phaedo. Plato was not present for these conversations, though, and so his accounts of them could be entirely fictional.

Unlike Plato, Xenophon was not at the trial, but his second-hand account of it in his Apology is worth reading, as are his other writings about Socrates in his Memorabilia and Symposium.

The fact that Plato, Xenophon, and many other followers of Socrates wrote so much about him indicates how impressive Socrates was. We are fortunate that some of these writings have survived so that we can glimpse for ourselves the man and his arguments.