Thinker · TH-0384
Socrates
Socrates was an Athenian philosopher who wrote nothing and is known through the dialogues of Plato, the writings of Xenophon and the comedy of…
Socrates was an Athenian philosopher who wrote nothing and is known through the dialogues of Plato, the writings of Xenophon and the comedy of Aristophanes, which makes it disputed how far the Socrates of Plato reflects the historical man. He questioned his fellow citizens about virtue and found their claims to knowledge wanting, and he compared himself to a midwife who delivers others' ideas. Convicted of impiety and corrupting the young, he was executed in 399 BCE.
Key ideas
- The elenchus, a method of questioning that tests claims for consistency, exposes false confidence.
- Like a midwife, the teacher helps others bring forth and test their own ideas.
- No one does wrong knowingly; wrongdoing comes from ignorance of the good.
- The unexamined life is not worth living, as Plato's Apology has him say.
Major works
- Plato, Apology (record of his trial defence)
- Plato, Meno and Theaetetus (dialogues portraying his method)
- Xenophon, Memorabilia (record of his conversations)
- Aristophanes, Clouds (comic portrait)
In the conversation
- Discussion How would you tell a wise elder from a well-stocked memory? Odera Oruka’s problem, revisited
- Reading group Reading group for complete beginners: Plato’s Apology, slowly, in three sittings
- Question I know I shouldn’t shout at drivers who cut me off, and I still do. How is that possible?
- Discussion Wang Yangming’s unity of knowing and acting, read alongside Anscombe
- Debate Freire’s banking model is unfair to the lecture, and to the teachers who give good ones
- Discussion What a prison reading class taught me about reading an ancient text for the first time
- Question Do exams measure anything worth measuring? A view from the bac philo
- Debate Vitaṇḍā is not always illegitimate: a critic with no thesis can still be doing philosophy
- Reading group Reading group: Durkheim’s Rules of Sociological Method, chapters 1 to 3
- Reading group Reading group: Plato’s Theaetetus, the three definitions of knowledge
- Reading group Reading group: Plato’s Gorgias in five weeks, one interlocutor at a time
On the map
The questions in The Coordinates of Thought where Socrates takes a place.
- 3.1.4 Moral Motivation Can you know an act is wrong and be entirely unmoved?
- 6.3 Philosophy of Education Is education filling someone up, or drawing something out?