So Crates

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In his use of critical reasoning, by his unwavering
commitment to truth, and through the vivid example of his own Life and Teachings
life, fifth-century Athenian Socrates set the standard for all . . Defining Piety
subsequent Western philosophy. Since he left no literary legacy . . Methods / Aims
of his own, we are dependent upon contemporary writers like . . Civil Obedience
Aristophanes and Xenophon for our information about his life . . Knowing Virtue
and work. As a pupil of Archelaus during his youth, Socrates Bibliography
showed a great deal of interest in the scientific theories of Internet Sources
Anaxagoras, but he later abandoned inquiries into the physical
world for a dedicated investigation of the development of
moral character. Having served with some distinction as a soldier at Delium and
Amphipolis during the Peloponnesian War, Socrates dabbled in the political turmoil
that consumed Athens after the War, then retired from active life to work as a
stonemason and to raise his children with his wife, Xanthippe. After inheriting a
modest fortune from his father, the sculptor Sophroniscus, Socrates used his marginal
financial independence as an opportunity to give full-time attention to inventing the
practice of philosophical dialogue.
For the rest of his life, Socrates devoted himself to free-wheeling discussion with
the aristocratic young citizens of Athens, insistently questioning their unwarranted
confidence in the truth of popular opinions, even though he often offered them no
clear alternative teaching. Unlike the professional Sophists of the time, Socrates
pointedly declined to accept payment for his work with students, but despite (or,
perhaps, because) of this lofty disdain for material success, many of them were
fanatically loyal to him. Their parents, however, were often displeased with his
influence on their offspring, and his earlier
association with opponents of the democratic
regime had already made him a controversial
political figure. Although the amnesty of 405
forestalled direct prosecution for his political
activities, an Athenian jury found other charges²
corrupting the youth and interfering with the
religion of the city²upon which to convict
Socrates, and they sentenced him to death in 399
B.C.E. Accepting this outcome with remarkable
grace, Socrates drank hemlock and died in the
company of his friends and disciples.
Our best sources of information about Socrates's philosophical views are the early
dialogues of his student Ä , who attempted there to provide a faithful picture of the
methods and teachings of the master. (Although Socrates also appears as a character in
the later dialogues of Plato, these writings more often express philosophical positions
Plato himself developed long after Socrates's death.) In the Socratic dialogues, his
extended conversations with students, statesmen, and friends invariably aim at
understanding and achieving virtue {Gk. EVIXL [| through the careful
application of a dialectical method that employs critical inquiry to undermine the
plausibility of widely-held doctrines. Destroying the illusion that we already
comprehend the world perfectly and honestly accepting the fact of our own ignorance,
Socrates believed, are vital steps toward our acquisition of genuine knowledge, by
discovering universal definitions of the key concepts governing human life.
Interacting with an arrogantly confident young man in u V[R (Eu ), for
example, Socrates systematically refutes the superficial notion of piety (moral
rectitude) as doing whatever is pleasing to the gods. Efforts to define morality by
reference to any external authority, he argued, inevitably founder in a significant
logical dilemma about the origin of the good. Plato's LQE (° ) is an
account of Socrates's (unsuccessful) speech in his own defense before the Athenian
jury; it includes a detailed description of the motives and goals of philosophical
activity as he practiced it, together with a passionate declaration of its value for life.
The DVMX[R (Ô
) reports that during Socrates's imprisonment he responded to
friendly efforts to secure his escape by seriously debating whether or not it would be
right for him to do so. He concludes to the contrary that an individual citizen²even
when the victim of unjust treatment²can never be justified in refusing to obey the
laws of the state.
The Socrates of the ËIR[R (-) tries to determine whether or not virtue can be
taught, and this naturally leads to a careful investigation of the nature of virtue itself.
Although his direct answer is that virtue is unteachable, Socrates does propose the
doctrine of recollection to explain why we nevertheless are in possession of significant
knowledge about such matters. Most remarkably, Socrates argues here that knowledge
and virtue are so closely related that no human agent ever knowingly does evil: we all
invariably do what we believe to be best. Improper conduct, then, can only be a
product of our ignorance rather than a symptom of weakness of the will {Gk.
EOVEWME [|
| . The same view is also defended in the mV[XEVE:
(Ä | |), along with the belief that all of the virtues must be cultivated together.

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