Biography of Socrates

Socrates was a Greek philosopher and moralist who was born in Athens in 469 B.C. His father, Sophroniskus, was a sculptor and later on Socrates followed the same profession. Socrates had the usual education of a Athenian citizen, which included arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy. Little is known about circumstances in his life, but we do know he served as a hoplite at the siege of Potidaea, at the battle of Deliurn. Though he was a philosopher, he never secluded himself for study, nor did he open a school for the regular instruction of pupils.

Socrates shifted the concerns of Greek philosophy to a search for understanding of the natural world toward what it meant to live a good life. This was a new beginning in philosophy and earlier philosophy which is grouped under the term of "pre-Socratic. His method was to go out and question people about the everyday opinions of people. Also to question people of their everyday values they held. His purpose was to get people to become thinkers in a lazy society. ( Freeman 256 )

Socrates came to feel that he had a divine mission to improve the moral education of the Athenians and to do this he had to send time in educational discussions with the Athenians youths. Socrates is known for opening up moral, ethical, and political questions of virtue and justice. Socrates left no writing behind of his own so we rely on on the writings of Plato and Xenophon, who knew him and his philosophy . Both of them were younger then him so they only really knew him as a philosopher during the last 10 years of his life. Plato had left extensive and vivid records of Socrate's life and teachings shown in his writings. Socrates was very influential to Plato, Euclid, Alcibiades, and many others. He spent much of his adult life in the agora or the marketplace talking about ethical issues. He had a characteristic of exposing ignorance, hypocrisy, and conceit among many of the Athenians. From this many did not like him.

When Socrates was in his thirties, the good times of Athens changed. Athen's rivals the Spartans broke their long- standing truce and invaded Athens. From this the people had to blame this terrible crisis on. Socrates was blamed for this. He was charged for corrupting the minds of the youth and worshipping gods other than those of the city.

The most accurate of Plato's writing on Socrates is the " Apology." It is the account of Socrates's defense at his trial in 399 B.C. The word apology comes from the Greek word " defense- speech" and it does not mean what it means today. In the writing it is clear that Socrates's speech turned into a justification for Socrates's life and his death. Some of the famous philosophical ideas are that "the necessity of doing what one thinks is right even in the face of universal opposition, and the need to pursue knowledge even when being opposed." The Athenians thought of Socrates as a Sophist, which means that he had bitter resentment. After the successful return of the Ten Thousand, the Athenians convicted Socrates for wrongdoings. In the end Socrates was sentenced to death. He died by drinking hemlock which was a deadly poison which killed a person very slow and painfully. ( Bauer 546 & 574)

Bauer, Wise, Susan. The History of the Ancient World. New York: Norton & Company, Inc, 2007
Freeman, Charles. The Greek Achievement. New York: Penguin Putnam, Inc, 1999