The unexamined life is not worth living.
—Socrates
The master teacher of ancient Athens, Socrates (c. 470–399 BC) mentored a generation of Greek philosophers and is remembered today as one of history’s most influential thinkers. A political gadfly and intellectual provocateur, he clashed repeatedly with his fellow Athenians about politics, morals, and ethics, challenging them to justify their most cherished beliefs.
The teacher’s constant dissent, however, eventually caught up with him: At age seventy-one, the great philosopher was arrested for insulting the city’s leadership, prosecuted in one of history’s most famous trials, and finally forced to commit suicide by drinking the poison hemlock.
Oddly for a philosopher of such influence, Socrates never wrote anything. Instead, his reputation was established by a former student, Plato (c. 429–347 BC). Indeed, details of Socrates’ life are so sketchy that historians refer to the cloud of unverifiable stories surrounding the philosopher as the Socratic problem.
Socrates lived in Athens during a period that encompassed both its golden age under Pericles (c. 495–429 BC) and its decline. He fought in several wars for the city but avoided politics and was suspicious of the city’s democratic system of governance.
In person, Socrates had a striking appearance and a unique teaching style. He dressed in shabby clothes, grew his hair long, and apparently had no paying job. Students in Athens sought out Socrates for lessons, for which he refused to charge fees. He developed the Socratic method, a method of teaching that involved relentless questioning of the underlying values and assumptions of his students. Instead of drilling students on information, he would simply ask probing questions that helped his pupils explore the nuances and contradictions of religion and politics.
By the end of the fifth century BC, Athens faced mounting woes because of military setbacks and a short-lived coup against the city’s democracy. The city’s leaders, tired of Socrates and his incessant questions—and perhaps seeking a scapegoat—arrested the philosopher on charges of corrupting the city’s youth and condemned him to death. Although he was given the choice to flee into exile, Socrates was convinced that no philosopher should fear death, and he voluntarily drank the hemlock.
ADDITIONAL FACTS
- Socrates was played by Tony Steedman (1927–2001) in Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989).
- The hemlock that Socrates drank at his execution is unrelated to the hemlock tree, an evergreen native to North America and Asia that is not poisonous.
- Impetuous to the end, Socrates was asked after his conviction what punishment he thought would be appropriate for his crime. He answered that he should be given a pension from the city to thank him for having exposed the ignorance of its leaders.
