Socrates   (c. 469-399 BC)
 
Background, Beliefs and Teachings
 
Socrates was born in Athens. He was the son of poor parents. His father, Sophroniscus, was a sculptor and his mother, Phaenarete, was a midwife. He fought in the Peloponnesian War, as a soldier in the army. After he retired from the army he devoted his time to what he called "divine command". He spent much of his time and energy in the pursuit of wisdom (Valstos, 1991). He went about this by engaging in conversation at the Agora (marketplace) with all sorts of men and women.  Socrates did not charge people to speak with him, and he claimed he would talk to anyone, regardless of their social status.  They would discuss a wide range of subjects such as love, politics, war, friendship, poetry, religion, science, government and moral issues.

 People were charmed by his wit, good humor, and his kindly disposition. His special concern however, was moral conduct. Socrates rejected the popular conceptions of the Greek gods and their relation to human beings. He believed that a divine providence had to do with the creation of the world. Furthermore, he thought that the purpose toward which this divine providence was directed was the achievement of the good life by human beings. He believed that man was more than just a physical organism; he felt that man's body was a dwelling place of the soul and what happened to the soul was more important than what happened to the body. He made this statement that describes arete (virtue; goodness):  "Virtue is knowledge." He believed that the chief cause of the evil that men do was ignorance concerning the good life. He believed that through the proper development of the mind in its pursuit of truth, beauty and goodness that the goal and purpose of human life can be achieved. He regarded popular opinion as ignorant. He was very critical of the democratic form of government. He felt that people who are called upon to govern the state ought to possess both intellectual and moral qualifications.

 

Trial and Execution

Socrates had a tendency to point out the shortcomings of certain officials who were, according to him, unprepared for their duties. He usually received harsh resentment from the officials he had offended. This was the case when Socrates pointed out the shortcomings in Meletus, a member of the governing council. In 399 B.C., Meletus and his fellow aristocrats Anytus and Lycon launched accusations at him. They accused him of being a menace to society. They said that he was corrupting the minds of the young men and that he rejected the gods of Athens. Meletus also accused Socrates of being an atheist and said that his teachings would eventually bring about the collapse of public morality. At the trial, Socrates defended himself and his manner of living and presented sufficient evidence to show that the accusations brought against him were without adequate foundations. However, when the jury voted, the majority voted against him.  Socrates was given the chance to come up with a punishment for himself, but he did not consider himself guilty and proposed some very light sentences for himself.  The jury did, however, considered him guilty and sentenced him to death by drinking a poisonous plant extract known as hemlock.

Students Whom He Taught and Inspired

There are no written records of Socrates' work. However, through his students who later turned into his peers, we have some works related to him. Aristophanes wrote The Clouds. Xenophon wrote Memorabilia. However, we receive the most information from the works of Plato. Socrates was the chief character in many of Plato's most famous dialogues. Plato's fame rests on his dialogues which are all preserved. They are usually divided in three periods, early, middle, and late. The early dialogues establish the figure of Socrates, portrayed as endlessly questioning, shattering the false claims of his contemporaries.
 
Plato's early dialogues:
Socratic Method
 
Socrates felt it was very important to demonstrate to the people whom he spoke with that they didn't have as much knowledge on a particular subject (knowledge, wisdom, excellence) as they might have boasted.  Two devices that he used became essential to the development of philosophy:  inductive arguments (asking questions to guide the discussion) and seeking general definitions of ambiguous (unclear) terms.  This process of elenchus (refutation; examination) to guide a discussion by means of deductive reasoning is referred to as the Socratic Method.

There is much debate over whether Socrates used any method at all, because he often claimed that he was not a teacher, nor obtained enough knowledge to know anything about the subjects of his debates.  Socrates also spoke of his spontaneous style of speech.  He claimed that he did not have the answers to the questions that he asked of his fellow Athenians in order to get them to come up with their own answers, instead of being told them.  It is still debated whether or not Socrates himself believed that he did not know the answers to the questions he asked of others, or merely pretended that he did not.  Socrates preferred to discuss, in person, abstract subjects, such as virtue and knowledge, instead of writing about them.  Some believe that his preference for discussion was so great that he protested the written word by writing nothing.  Since Socrates left behind no writings of his own, we must use Plato's dialogues as a guide to Socrates' approach for questioning others.

Socrates would ask the person that he was talking to for a definition of the word that was the subject of the discussion (i.e. from Euthyphro, "What is pious?").  The other person would often give a quick response ("Pious is to prosecute the wrong doer [of the gods]"), but instead of offering a definition of the word they would cite an example or characteristic of that word.  This form of negative questioning (elenchus or elenchos) would continue until the other person would contradict themselves.  Socrates would continue to show the other person that until there is a solid understanding of  "what is x? ", then one cannot say that "P is x" (P represents an example or characteristic of x, the word that is trying to be defined) because P is only one of many different examples of the unclear term x (many other things are pious [ x ] besides prosecuting the wrong doer [ P ]).  Once Socrates is finished demonstrating that his discussion partner does not have an accurate definition of the subject word, nor does Socrates himself, he seems to prove that neither of the two men could know what they were talking about.

This was Socrates' intention, to show the person that he was speaking to that their own beliefs on these subjects contradicted themselves.  He wanted to prove that only the wise man could admit to his own ignorance and aimed to make the people that he spoke with a better person by getting them to "know thy self".  The only thing Socrates claims to have known was that he knew nothing at all.  As Socrates continued to point out the shortcomings of his fellow Athenians, his popularity dropped off sharply.  While the points Socrates made were quite possibly true, no one likes to be shown their own ignorance especially in public (the Agora/ marketplace).

The Socratic method was named by later philosophers and is still used today by many teachers.  Their is much debate over the effectiveness of the Socratic method because of the nature of the questioning process.  While it is effective to make students come up with their own answers instead of having the teacher spoon feed them to their pupils, it is the nature of refutation that can be the problem.  As Socrates encountered himself, many people get upset, even angry, when they are continually shown that they are incorrect.  The person leading the discussion will often be thought of as acting in a condescending manner and the point of the lesson could be missed entirely.

Links to other helpful sites
 
    Socrates - another brief background of the life of the groundbreaking philosopher
    Life of Socrates by Sanderson Beck - a very in-depth look Socrates (great page!)
    Socratic Approach - a guide for teachers interested in using the Socratic Method
    Socratic Circle - a brief description to show how Socrates' non-elitist views live on
    Pictures of Greece - some pictures of Greece with a link to more at the bottom of the page
    Xenophon (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy) - background info on one of Socrates' pupils
    Socrates - this page contains a simplified example of the Socratic Method
    Slate - High Concept - July 30, 1997 - argument against the Socratic Method used in law schools
 
Bibliography

Brickhouse, Thomas C.,

Plato's Socrates,

New York, New York, Oxford University Press, 1994, pp1-29.

Brumbaugh, Robert S.,

The Philosophers of Greece,

Albany, New York, State University of New York Press, 1981, pp; 123-132.

Gower, Barry S. and Stokes, Michael C.,

Socratic Questions:  The Philosophy of Socrates and its Significance,

Routledge:  London, 1992, pp; 137-152.

Grube, G.M.A.,

Plato:  Five Dialogues,

Indianapolis, Indiana, Hackett Publishing Company, 1981, pp;  9-10.

 Hatzfeld, Jean,

History of Ancient Greece,

New York, New York, W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. pp 146-147.

 Plato,

The last days of Socrates,

New York, New York, Viking Penquin Inc., 1969, pp.17-77.

 Vlastos, Gregory,

Socrates, Ironist and Moral Philosopher,

Ithaca, New York, Cornell University Press. 1991.

 

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