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The Great Greek Philosopher: Socrates
by Zedar Thokme

Socrates, best known as the great Greek Philosopher who drank hemlock, was a great thinker. Born in 469 B.C. in Athens of ancient Greece, he was also a gifted conversationalist, especially in his ability to draw both the young and old into a path of questioning and self-discovery of what truly is.

Socrates questioned ideas that we all take for granted such as "what is the good?" "what is beauty?", "what is virtue, our most excellent self?" and "what is knowledge?" Thus, he does not seek to provide answers, but to dialogue with an individual until he sees the answer himself. Socrates sets the stage for western thought and is known today as the father of political and moral philosophy.

On what is knowledge, Socrates demonstrated through a series of questioning how an uneducated slave boy realized the answer to a mathematical problem, like the square root of two. Such inquiries led to Plato's claim that knowledge is not only what we learn from our senses—what we see, hear, smell, touch, taste, think and do-but also what we already know in our minds (Meno, verse 85). Plato was Socrates most faithful disciple and bearer of the Socratic method of inquiry.

The "Socratic method" of self-inquiry consists of a series of questioning to clearly discern a person's underlying beliefs, and to bring out the contradictions therein. By eliminating the contradictions one-by-one, through deeper questioning of fundamental social norms, the person becomes aware of what is known and what is not known. The irony of it all was that Socrates openly declared his own ignorance. His most famous dictum being: "wisdom really is knowing what you know and knowing what you don't know."

In addition to being philosophical, Socrates was mystical, too. He is described as standing barefooted in winter snow, deep in trance and oblivious to the cold with troops marching beside him. Yet when the soldiers reached their point of destination, they were surprised to see Socrates standing before them.

Socrates endeavored to be a beacon to the moral integrity of the great city, Athens. However, at a time when the Athenian empire was shaken after defeat in the Peloponnesian War, his conduct angered higher officials. They felt that Socrates was corrupting the minds of the younger generation against democratic government. He was sentenced to drink poison in the form of hemlock. One of Socrates' rich acquaintances, Crito, wanted to bribe the prison wardens and allow Socrates to escape. The ironic old man philosophized that however, a person should never do injustice (like escape from prison) because injustice cannot lead to justice and that one so old as he, Socrates, should not fear death.

An eighteenth century art by Jacques-Louise David, The Death of Socrates, depicts the seventy-year old philosopher with one arm calmly reaching for the saucer of hemlock poison and the other arm pointing upwards, perhaps a gesture of fearlessness. He died surrounded by close friends and his loyal student, Plato.

Sidebar: Meno was written by Plato. It is a Socratic dialogue in which two speakers, Socrates and Meno, discuss human virtue.

Recommended reading:
Brickhouse, Thomas C. The Philosophy of Socrates. Colorado: Westview Press, 2000.
Stone, I.F. The Trial of Socrates. New York: Random House, 1989.

Internet Sources:
Plato, Meno. http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Meno.
Western Philosophy - Socrates, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socrates#The_Socratic_dialogues

Zedar Eeling Thokme is a freelance journalist. She has published many articles on a wide range of topics from natural health, philosophy, technology, and business. Zedar has traveled to countries both east and west, in search of common ground between different peoples, culture, and philosophy. Her current interest is writing children's literature. Zedar lives in Canada with her three-year old and manages Elderberry Daycare, a registered daycare for young children..