Appendix: Socrates

Shanyu Ji

July 15, 2013

Socrates life Socrates, 470-399 BC, was the wisest philosopher of his time. He wasthe first of the three great teachers of ancient Greece (the other two: Plato and Aristotle).Today he is ranked as one of the world’s greatest moral teachers.

Socrates never wrote any book or paper. The details of his life are preserved in manybooks of the historian Xenophon and of the philosopher Plato. It was generally believedthat Plato may put his own thoughts into these books credited to Socrates.

Socrates was born near Athens. His father was a sculpture. He studied sculpture too,but soon abandoned this work to seek truth in his own way.

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Socrates dialogue When Socrates was about in his forties, he began to feel an urgeto think about the world around him, and try to answer some difficult questions such as:“what is wisdom?” “What is beauty?” “what is the right thing to do?” and “what is piety?

Interested in neither money, nor fame, nor power, Socrates wandered along the streetsof Athens in the 5th century BC. He wore a single rough woollen garment in all seasons andwent barefoot. Talking to whoever would listen, he asked questions, criticized answers, andpoked holes in faulty arguments. His style of conversation has been given the name Socraticdialogue. Soon he had a group of young followers who listened to him and learned from himhow to think. Plato was one of these young men. Socrates never charged them any money.

The Socratic Dialogues are a series of dialogues written by Plato and Xenophon in theform of discussions between Socrates and other persons of his time, or as discussions betweenSocrates’ followers over his concepts.

Socratic Method The Socratic method is a way to seek truths by your own lights.Still popular in legal classrooms today, By this method, Socrates taught students by askingquestion after question, seeking to expose contradictions in the students thoughts and ideasto then guide them to arrive at a solid, tenable conclusion. The principle underlying theSocratic Method is that students learn through the use of critical thinking, reasoning, andlogic, finding holes in their own.

Extra reading: http://www.garlikov.com/Soc Meth.html

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Today, Socratic method is still used in law schools, in psychotherapy, in Human resourcetraining and development and in lesson plan elements for teachers in classrooms.

Socrates Philosophical beliefs The philosophical beliefs of Socrates are difficult tobe known because the preserved most of the dialogues are those of Plato, and Plato mayadapted the Socratic style as to make the literary character and the philosopher himselfimpossible to distinguish. Another difficulty is that the historical Socrates seems to havebeen notorious for asking questions but not answering.

Socrates frequently says his ideas are not his own, but his teachers’.

If anything in general can be said about the philosophical beliefs of Socrates, it is thathe was morally, intellectually, and politically at odds with his fellow Athenians.

Deep Thinking Besides debate, Socrates did most is deep thinking. In Symposium byPlato, the following story about Socrates was recorded:

“One morning he was thinking about something which he could not resolve; he wouldnot give it up, but continued thinking from early dawn until noon there he stood fixed inthought; and at noon attention was drawn to him, and the rumor ran through the wonderingcrowd that Socrates had been standing and thinking about something ever since the breakof day. At last, in the evening after supper, some Ionians out of curiosity (I should explainthat this was not in winter but in summer), brought out their mats and slept in the openair that they might watch him and see whether he would stand all night. There he stooduntil the following morning; and with the return of light he offered up a prayer to the sun,and went his way (compare supra). ”

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Socrates death But in 399 BC, some of the Athenians got mad at Socrates for what hewas teaching the young men. They charged him in court with impiety (not respecting thegods) and corrupting the youth (teaching young men bad things). People thought he wasagainst democracy, and he probably was - he thought the smartest people should make thedecisions for everyone. The Athenians couldn’t charge him with being against democracy,because they had promised not to take revenge on anyone after the Peloponnesian War. Sothey had to use these vague religious charges instead.

On a day in 399 BC the philosopher Socrates stood before a jury of 500 of his fellowAthenians. If found guilty; his penalty could be death. The trial took place in the heart ofthe city, the jurors seated on wooden benches surrounded by a crowd of spectators. Socrates’accusers (three Athenian citizens) were allotted three hours to present their case, after which,the philosopher would have three hours to defend himself.

Socrates was 70 years old and familiar to most Athenians. His anti-democratic viewshad turned many in the city against him. Two of his students had twice briefly overthrownthe democratic government of the city.

After hearing the arguments of both Socrates and his accusers, the jury was asked tovote on his guilt. Under Athenian law the jurors did not deliberate the point. Instead, eachjuror registered his judgement by placing a small disk into an urn marked either “guilty” or”not guilty.” Socrates was found guilty by a vote of 280 to 220.

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The jurors were next asked to determine Socrates’ penalty. His accusers argued for thedeath penalty. Socrates was given the opportunity to suggest his own punishment and couldprobably have avoided death by recommending exile. Instead, Socrates initially offered thesarcastic recommendation that he be rewarded for his actions. When pressed for a realisticpunishment, he proposed that he be fined a modest sum of money. Faced with the twochoices, the jury selected death for Socrates.

Socrates had an opportunity to escape, as his followers were able to bribe the prisonguards. He chose to stay for several reasons:

1. He believed such a flight would indicate a fear of death, which he believed no truephilosopher has.

2. If he fled, Athens his teaching would fare no better in another country as he wouldcontinue questioning all he met and undoubtedly incur their displeasure.

3. Having knowingly agreed to live under the city’s laws, he implicitly subjected himselfto the possibility of being accused of crimes by its citizens and judged guilty by itsjury. To do otherwise would have caused him to break his “social contract” with thestate, and so harm the state, an act contrary to Socratic principle.

Socrates’ death is described at the end of Plato’s Phaedo. Socrates turned down the pleasof Crito to attempt an escape from prison. After drinking the poison, he was instructedto walk around until his legs felt numb. After he lay down, the man who administered thepoison pinched his foot. Socrates could no longer feel his legs. The numbness slowly creptup his body until it reached his heart. Shortly before his death, Socrates speaks his lastwords to Crito: “Crito, we owe a rooster to Asclepius. Please, don’t forget to pay the debt.”Asclepius was the Greek god for curing illness, and it is likely Socrates’ last words meantthat death is the cure and freedom, of the soul from the body.

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