Socrates

• Socrates was born in Athens around 469 B.C. and in the years when the city was a democracy ruled by Pericles and exercised hegemony over the Greek world.

• He always showed himself to be a brave and firm man. He participated in great battles and earned a good reputation as a soldier. However, Socrates' behavior aroused the suspicion of many people and created problems for him.

• Two events in Socrates' life were instrumental in turning his attention to ethical and political issues: the disappointment with the philosophy of nature and the revelation of the Oracle of Delphi. The first was motivated by Socrates' assessment that the philosophy of nature was dogmatic. The revelation of the Oracle of Delphi occurred to his friend, who had asked if there was anyone wiser than Socrates. Socrates knew nothing but was aware of his ignorance.

"I know only that I know nothing”

• Hence the most famous statement attributed to him: "I know only that I know nothing”. Socrates' divine mission, therefore, was to expose the ignorance of his fellow citizens.

• This task, however, bothered those who considered themselves wise. Those who were the target of Socrates' questioning did not like to have their statements analyzed or criticized. And found it very uncomfortable to be exposed in public by this man of questions. The Socratic dialogue consisted in asking questions to his interlocutor. And showing the inconsistency of the opinions defended.

• The goal of the first dialogues was to establish the ignorance of the interlocutor by leading him to an aporia. In Plato's later dialogues, Socrates begins with an aporia and leads his interlocutor to conclusions different from his initial beliefs about the subject discussed.

The Socratic method

• The Socratic method is divided into three stages. The first stage of the dialogue is the elenchus method (Greek for "refutation") when the error is shown. The second is called the dialectical method, in which new knowledge is proposed. The element common to both stages is called maieutics. He recognizes that he has a gift: to help "deliver" from other people's souls the ideas they are gestating. This work is essential for both the method of refutation and the dialectical method.

• The question of the Socratic method is controversial. The main one concerns the fact that Socrates left nothing written. The accounts were made by some of his disciples. The most important among them was Plato. Most of his work consists of dialogues in which Socrates almost always appears as a character. But to what extent are Plato's dialogues faithful portrayals of what Socrates thought and said, and to what extent are the ideas Plato's, expressed through the character, Socrates? Some interpreters maintain that all of Plato's dialogues are a reproduction of the Socratic method.

• However, the dialogs that expound philosophical theses and systems go in the different directions of the Socratic maxim.

• For this reason, according to scholars, the first dialogues more faithfully portray Socratic thought. While in the later dialogs, Plato progressively departs from his master to develop a philosophical system of his own.

• There would be two procedures in all Platonic dialogues: the search for universal definitions and the use of induction. Socrates argued that it was necessary to establish the meaning of each philosophical term. On the other hand, induction was used to find satisfactory definitions. And based on a series of particular examples, one could arrive at general conclusions.

• Socrates did not create a philosophical system but defended some philosophical theses or conceptions.

• The first conception is the defense of a philosophy centered on the human being. As we have already mentioned, Socrates marks the shift from a nature-focused philosophy centered on ethical and political problems.

Shift to humanism

• Another way to understand this shift to humanism would be to see it as a shift in focus from origins to ends. The idea of an explanation by means will have force throughout Greek philosophy, especially with Aristotle. Socrates is the first to call attention to this way of understanding the world.

• Thus, we come to Socrates' second philosophical conception: "virtue is knowledge." The thesis implies that anyone who knows what good is will practice it, and likewise, if someone commits a wrong action, it is because they didn't realize the badness of the action. In other words, bad acting is a lack of enlightenment and ignorance.

• Therefore, to achieve excellence as human beings, we need to know what we should seek. If we understand the purpose of human life, of what is worth pursuing because it has value in itself, we will never choose to do the opposite of that.

The purpose of human life

• The purpose of human life, according to Socrates, is happiness. And happiness lies in the perfection of the soul, which must relate to the knowledge of oneself and the search for the good.

• For Socrates, we could not know the good through others. Each one must recognize the good as a kind of direct revelation. Therefore it is impossible to delegate to others the task of evaluating good and evil; only do it by oneself.

Closure

• In 399 B.C., Socrates was put on trial by the city of Athens, accused of impiety and of corrupting the young. The defense that Socrates presented in court was recorded in Plato's Apology.

• According to the Apology, Socrates defended himself against the charge of impiety by saying that it was in fulfillment of a divine mission, received through the Oracle at Delphi, that he set out to practice philosophy. About the accusation of corrupting the youth, Socrates says that it would not be in anyone's interest to make the people in his vicinity worse, so he would never have deliberately corrupted his followers. Socrates' trial was held by a jury of 500 citizens of Athens, who found him guilty of the charges by a small margin.

• Next, both the accusers and Socrates proposed a penalty each, and the jurors were to choose between them. Socrates suggests that he should be supported as a public benefactor. At the insistence and help of his disciples, he later proposes the payment of a fine but refuses to abandon his philosophical activities.

• Faced with this, the jurors chose the penalty suggested by the prosecution: death. Socrates was imprisoned awaiting his execution for some time due to a peculiarity of the city's calendar. He refused even the possibility of escape and, with serenity, took the poison given to him and died at the age of 70. Socrates' legacy to humanity cannot be ignored, for he represented the turn of philosophy toward the human being. Moreover, to make this deep investigation into the human being, Socrates showed himself to be a tireless questioner and resistant to social pressure.