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2008-06-05 19:55:10
Forming an accurate picture of the historical Socrates and his philosophical view points is problematic at best. This issue is known as the .
Socrates himself did not write philosophical texts. Our knowledge of the man, his life, and his work is based on writings by his students and contemporaries. Foremost among them is ; however, works by , , and also provide important insights. The difficulty of finding the “real” Socrates arises because these works are often philosophical or dramatic texts rather than straightforward histories. Aside from (who makes no mention of Socrates or philosophers in general), there is in fact no such thing as straightforward history contemporary with Plato. A corollary of this is that these sources don't claim to be historically accurate. Historians are therefore faced with the challenge of reconciling the various texts that come from these men to create an accurate and consistent account of Socrates' life and work. The result of such an effort is not necessarily realistic, merely consistent.
In general, Plato is viewed as the most reliable and informative source of information about Socrates' life and philosophy. However, it is also clear from other writings, and historical artifacts that Socrates was not simply a character, or invention, of Plato. The testimony of Xenophon and Aristotle, alongside some of Aristophanes' work within , can be usefully engaged in fleshing out our perception of Socrates beyond Plato's work.
Details about Socrates are derived from three contemporary sources: the of and (both students of Socrates), and the plays of . He has been depicted by some scholars, including and , as a champion of modes of communication, standing up at the dawn of against its haphazard diffusion.
Aristophanes' play portrays Socrates as a clown who teaches his students how to bamboozle their way out of debt. Most of Aristophanes' works, however, function as parodies. Thus, it is presumed that this characterization was also not literal.
According to Plato, Socrates' father was Sophroniscus and his mother , a . Though characterized as unattractive in appearance and short of stature, Socrates married , who was much younger than him. She bore him three sons, , Sophroniscus and . His friend criticized him for abandoning his sons when he refused to try to escape before his execution.
It is unclear how Socrates earned a living. According to and later sources, Socrates took over the profession of from his father. There was a tradition in antiquity, not credited by modern scholarship, that Socrates crafted the statues of the Three Graces, which stood near the Acropolis until the second century AD.
There is evidence that Socrates never engaged in a profession: In Xenophon's , Socrates is reported as saying he devotes himself only to what he regards as the most important art or occupation: discussing philosophy. Aristophanes portrays Socrates as accepting payment for teaching and running a school with , in The Clouds, while in Plato's
Socrates lived during the time of the transition from the height of the to its decline with the defeat by and its allies in the . At a time when sought to stabilize and recover from its humiliating defeat, the Athenian public may have been entertaining doubts about democracy as an efficient form of government. Socrates appears to have been a critic of , and some scholars interpret his trial as an expression of political infighting.
Despite claiming death-defying loyalty to his city, Socrates' pursuit of virtue and his strict adherence to truth clashed with the current course of Athenian politics and society. He praises Sparta, archrival to Athens, directly and indirectly in various dialogues. But perhaps the most historically accurate of Socrates' offenses to the city was his position as a social and moral critic. Rather than upholding a status quo and accepting the development of immorality within his region, Socrates worked to undermine the collective notion of "might makes right" so common to Greece during this period. Plato refers to Socrates as the "" of the state (as the gadfly stings the horse into action, so Socrates stung Athens), insofar as he irritated the establishment with considerations of justice and the pursuit of goodness. His attempts to improve the Athenian's sense of justice may have been the source of his execution.
According to Plato's Apology, Socrates' life as the "" of Athens began when his friend Chaerephon asked the if anyone was wiser than Socrates; the responded that none was wiser. Socrates believed that what the Oracle had said was a riddle, because he believed that he possessed no wisdom whatsoever. He proceeded to test the riddle through approaching men who were considered to be wise by the people of Athens, such as statesmen, poets, and artisans, in order to refute the pronouncement of the Oracle. But questioning them, Socrates came to the conclusion that while each man thought he knew a great deal and was very wise, they in fact knew very little and were not really wise at all. Socrates realized that the Oracle was correct in that while so-called wise men thought themselves wise and yet were not, he himself knew he was not wise at all which, paradoxically, made him the wiser one since he was the only person aware of his own ignorance. Socrates' paradoxical wisdom made the prominent Athenians he publicly questioned look foolish, turning them against him and leading to accusations of wrongdoing. Socrates defended his role as a gadfly until the end: at his trial, when Socrates was asked to propose his own punishment, he suggests a wage paid by the government and free dinners for the rest of his life instead, to finance the time he spends as Athens' benefactor. He was nevertheless found guilty of corrupting the minds of the youth of Athens and sentenced to death by drinking a mixture containing .
According to Xenophon's story, Socrates purposefully gave a defiant defense to the jury because "he believed he would be better off dead". Xenophon goes on to describe a defense by Socrates that explains the rigors of old age, and how Socrates would be glad to circumvent them by being sentenced to death. It is also understood that Socrates also wished to die because he "actually believed the right time had come for him to die".
Xenophon and Plato agree that Socrates had an opportunity to escape, as his followers were able to bribe the prison guards. He chose to stay for several reasons:
The full reasoning behind his refusal to flee is the main subject of the .
Socrates' death is described at the end of Plato's . Socrates turned down the pleas of Crito to attempt an escape from prison. After drinking the poison, he was instructed to walk around until his limbs felt heavy. After he laid down, the man who administered the poison pinched his foot. Socrates could no longer feel his legs. The numbness slowly crept up his body until it reached his heart. Shortly before his death, Socrates speaks his last words to Crito: "Crito, we owe a cock to . Please, don't forget to pay the debt." Asclepius was the Greek god for curing illness, and it is likely that Socrates' last words were implied to mean that death is the cure, and freedom, of the soul from the body. The Roman philosopher attempted to emulate Socrates' death by hemlock when forced to commit suicide by the Emperor .
Perhaps his most important contribution to Western thought is his method of inquiry, known as the or method of '"elenchos," which he largely applied to the examination of key moral concepts such as the Good and . It was first described by in the Socratic Dialogues. To solve a problem, it would be broken down into a series of questions, the answers to which gradually distill the answer you seek. The influence of this approach is most strongly felt today in the use of the , in which is the first stage. The development and practice of this method is one of Socrates' most enduring contributions, and is a key factor in earning his mantle as the father of , or moral philosophy, and as a figurehead of all the central themes in .
To illustrate the use of the Socratic method; a series of are posed to help a person or group to determine their underlying and the extent of their knowledge. The Socratic method is a negative method of elimination, in that better hypotheses are found by steadily identifying and eliminating those which lead to . It was designed to force one to examine one's 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."
The beliefs of Socrates, as distinct from those of Plato, are difficult to discern. Little in the way of concrete evidence exists to demarcate the two. The lengthy theories given in most of the dialogues are those of Plato, and it is thought that Plato so adapted the Socratic style as to make the literary character and the philosopher himself impossible to distinguish. 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 thinkers.
If anything in general can be said about the philosophical beliefs of Socrates, it is that he was morally, intellectually, and politically at odds with his fellow Athenians. When he is on trial for heresy and corrupting the minds of the youth of Athens, he uses his method of elenchos to demonstrate to the jurors that their moral values are wrong-headed. He tells them that they are concerned with their families, careers, and political responsibilities when they ought to be worried about the "welfare of their souls." Socrates' belief in the immortality of the soul, and his conviction that the gods had singled him out as a divine emissary seemed to provoke, if not ridicule, at least annoyance. Socrates also questioned the Sophistic doctrine that arete (that is, virtue) can be taught. He liked to observe that successful fathers (such as the prominent military general ) did not produce sons of their own quality. Socrates argued that moral excellence was more a matter of divine bequest than parental nurture. This belief may have contributed to his lack of anxiety about the future of his own sons.
Socrates frequently says that his ideas are not his own, but his teachers'. He mentions several influences: Prodicus the and the scientist. Perhaps surprisingly, Socrates claims to have been deeply influenced by two women besides his mother. He says that , a witch and priestess from taught him all he knows about , or , and that , the mistress of , taught him the art of funeral orations. argued that his principal teacher was the Anaxagorean but that his ideas were as Plato described them; , on the other hand, considered Socrates' association with the Anaxagoreans to be evidence of Plato's philosophical separation from Socrates.
Many of the beliefs traditionally attributed to the historical Socrates have been characterized as "paradoxal" because they seem to conflict with common sense. The following are among the so-called Socratic Paradoxes:
Socrates often said that his wisdom was limited to an awareness of his own ignorance. Socrates believed that wrongdoing was a consequence of ignorance and 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 ) 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 (προμνηστικός), as distinguished from a panderer (προᾰγωγός). 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 practice 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 (μαῖα). 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" (ἀνεμιαῖον). 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.
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 mentioned 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."[] Ultimately, virtue relates to the form of the Good; to be truly good and not just act with "right opinion"; one must come to know the unchanging Good in itself. In the Republic,written by Plato, Socrates described 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.
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 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, and Athenian government was far from that. It is, however, possible that Plato's account is colored here by his own views. During the last years of Socrates' life, Athens was in continual flux due to political upheaval. Democracy was at last overthrown by a known as the , led by Plato's relative, , 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 for all recent events.
Socrates' opposition to democracy 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's matters or tell people how to live their lives when he did not yet understand how to live his own. 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 (Senate), can also be seen to 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 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. 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.
In the dialogues of , Socrates often seems to support a side, discussing and the ; 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 . In the culmination of the philosophic path as discussed in Plato's Symposium and Republic, one comes to the or to the sight of the form of the Good in an experience akin to ; only then can one become wise. (In the Symposium, Socrates credits his speech on the philosophic path to his teacher, the priestess , who is not even sure if Socrates is capable of reaching the highest mysteries.) In the Meno, he refers to the , telling Meno he would understand Socrates' answers better if only he could stay for the initiations next week. Further confusions result from the nature of these sources, insofar as the Platonic dialogues are arguably the work of an artist-philosopher, whose meaning does not volunteer itself to the passive reader nor again the lifelong scholar. Plato himself was a playwright before taking up the study of philosophy. His works are, indeed, dialogues; Plato's choice of this, the medium of Sophocles, Euripides, and the fictions of theatre, may reflect the interpretable nature of his writings. What is more, the first word of nearly all Plato's works is a, or the, significant term for that respective study, and is used with the commonly approved definition in mind. Finally, the Phaedrus and the Symposium each allude to Socrates' coy delivery of philosophic truths in conversation; the Socrates of the Phaedrus goes so far as to demand such dissembling and mystery in all writing. The mysticism we often find in Plato, appearing here and there and couched in some enigmatic tract of symbol and irony, is often at odds with the mysticism that Plato's Socrates expounds in some other dialogue. These mystical resolutions to hitherto rigorous inquiries and analyses fail to satisfy caring readers, without fail. Whether they would fail to satisfy readers who understood them is another question, and will not, in all probability, ever be resolved.
Perhaps the most interesting facet of this is Socrates' reliance on what the Greeks called his " sign", an averting (ἀποτρεπτικός) inner voice that Socrates heard only when he 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 that is a gift from the gods and gives us , , , and even itself. Alternately, the sign is often taken to be what we would call "intuition"; however, Socrates' characterization of the phenomenon as "" suggests that its origin is divine, mysterious, and independent of his own thoughts.
He was prominently lampooned in ' , produced when Socrates was in his mid-forties; he said at his trial (according to Plato) that the laughter of the was a harder task to answer than the arguments of his accusers. believed this play was a more accurate representation of Socrates than those of his students. In the play, Socrates is ridiculed for his dirtiness, which is associated with the fad; also in plays by , , and . In all of these, Socrates and the were criticised for "the moral dangers inherent in contemporary thought and literature."
, , and are the main sources for the historical Socrates; however, and 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 later works appear to be more his own philosophy put into the mouth of his mentor.
The are a series of written by and in the form of discussions between Socrates and other persons of his time, or as discussions between Socrates' followers over his concepts. Plato's is an example of this latter category. Although his 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 , under the guidance of Socrates. Most of the dialogues present Socrates applying this method to some extent, but nowhere as completely as in the . 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 , before its incarnation in the body, was in the realm of (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 .
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 . Generally, the early works of are considered to be close to the spirit of Socrates, whereas the later works — including and the — are considered to be possibly products of Plato's elaborations.
Immediately, the students of Socrates set to work both on exercising their perceptions of his teachings in politics and also on developing many new philosophical schools of thought. Some of Athens' controversial and anti-democratic were contemporary or posthumous students of Socrates including and . Critias' cousin, would go on to found the in - which gained so much notoriety that its name Academy became the base word for educational institutions in later European languages such as , , and . Plato's protege, another important figure of the Classical era, went on to tutor and also to found his own school in - the , whose name also now means an educational institution.
While Socrates was shown to demote the importance of institutional knowledge like or in relation to the human condition in his dialogues, Plato would emphasize it with metaphysical overtones mirroring that of - the former who would dominate Western thought well into the . Aristotle himself was as much of a philosopher as he was a scientist with rudimentary work in the fields of and .
Socratic thought along the lines of challenging conventions, especially in stressing a simplistic way of living, became divorced from Plato's more detached and philosophical pursuits but was inherited heavily by one of Socrates' older and diehard students, who became another originator of a philosophy in the years after Socrates' death - . Antisthenes attacked Plato and Alcibiades over what he deemed as their betrayal of Socrates' tenets in his writings.
The idea of being hand in hand with an ethical life or one with piety, ignored by Plato and Aristotle and somewhat dealt with by the Cynics, formed the core of another philosophy in 281 BC - when would discover Socrates' works and then learn from , a philosopher. None of the schools however, would inherit his tendency to openly associate with and respect or the regular citizen.
While some of the later contributions of Socrates to culture and philosophy as well as the has been lost to time, his teachings began a resurgence in both and the alongside those of Aristotle and Stoicism. Socrates is mentioned in the dialogue by Jewish philosopher and rabbi in which a Jew instructs the king about Judaism. , a well-known Arabic philosopher, introduced and tried to reconcile Socrates and Hellenistic philosophy to an Islamic audience.
Socrates' stature in Western philosophy returned in full force with the Renaissance and the Age of Reason in Europe when political theory began to resurface under those like and . even went so far as to write a about the . There were a number of paintings about his life including Socrates Tears Alcibiades from the Embrace of Sensual Pleasure by and The Death of Socrates by in the later 18th Century.
To this day, the is still used in classrooms and law schools as a way of discussing complex topics in order to expose the underlying issues in both the subject and the speaker. He has been rewarded with accolades ranging from numerous mentions in pop culture such as the movie and a to numerous busts in academic institutions in recognition of his contribution to education.
(the fourth Caliph of the ) argued in his book that Socrates was a prophet of the ancient. The apparent prophetic qualities of Socrates are indeed a subject for debate. The constant reference to the oracle and how it performs the active function of a moral compass by preventing him from unseemly acts could easily be taken as a reference to - or substitute for . Similarly, Socrates often refers to God in the singular as opposed to the plural.
Evaluation and reaction to Socrates has been undertaken with both historical and philosophical inquiry from the time of his death to the present day with a multitude of conclusions and perspectives. One of the initial criticisms levied against the philosopher was presented at his - that he was not the proponent of a philosophy but an individual with a method of undermining the fabric of Athenian society, a charge carried by the 500-man jury of Athenians which sentenced him to death. Although he was not directly prosecuted for his connection to Critias, leader of the Spartan-backed , he was seen as a controversial figure that mentored oligarchs who became abusive tyrants and undermined Athenian democracy. The Sophist establishment which he railed at in life survived him but was rapidly overtaken by the many philosophical schools of thought that Socrates influenced by the 3rd Century BC.
Socrates' death is considered iconic and his status as a martyr of philosophy overshadowed most contemporary and posthumous criticism at the time. However, attempts to explain that Socrates purposely welcomed the hemlock due to his old age using the arguably self-destructive testimony to the jury as evidence. Direct criticism of Socrates almost disappears at this point but there is a noticeable preference for Plato or Aristotle over the elements of Socratic philosophy that are distinct from those of his students even into the Middle Ages.
Modern scholarship has held that with so much of the philosopher obscured and possibly even altered by Plato, it is impossible to gain a clear picture of Socrates amidst all the seeming contradictions. That both and , which carried heavy influence from Socratic thought, were unlike or even contrary to further illustrates this. This ambiguity and lack of reliability serves as the modern basis of criticism - that it is near impossible to know the real Socrates. Some controversy also exists about claims of Socrates exempting himself from the homosexual customs of and not believing in the to the point of being monotheistic or if this was an attempt by later medieval scholars to reconcile him with the morals of the era. However, it is still commonly taught and held with little exception that Socrates is the founder of modern Western philosophy to the point that any philosophers before him are referred to as pre-Socratic.
