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Nietzsche wrote of him, that ugly derisive Athenian freak and rad catcher,
forcing the arrogant youth to shiver and cry
was not only wisest among all talking heads ever living,
he was also as great in his silence.
Before the judges sent him to his death,
the great philosopher Socrates said
I shall not give up my philosophy as long as I breathe.
The ancient Greek philosopher Socrates was born in Athens in the year 469 B.C.
into the family of sculptors Sophroniscus and Phaenarete, a midwife.
All the information about Socrates that we have,
came to us through the works of his pupils, Plato and Xenophon
because Socrates himself could not read or write.
We do not know much about the early years of his life,
though it is known that at seventeen he was already the favorite pupil of the philosopher Archelaus.
Socrates’ appearance was extremely plain
but he stood out in strength and endurance hoping to help his fellow citizens become more morally perfect.
Socrates often spoke to them on the street and squares beneath the shady olive trees.
He discussed questions about justice and virtue.
His neglect of his everyday affairs ultimately drove Socrates to poverty.
He walked across Athens barefoot and shabbily dressed.
One of his contemporaries was astonished and commented:
” if a slave was forced to live such a life, he would escape by any means”.
Socrates quite often became so absorbed in his thoughts
that once he was standing all day long in the same spot.
Nevertheless, when danger threatened his native city during the Peloponnesian War,
Socrates fought bravely to protect Athens.
When the Oracle of Delphi announced that Socrates was the wisest man,
the Athenian ragamuffin was extremely surprised.
Socrates interpreting this as a riddle went out to find men who were wiser than he was.
The pompous teachers of philosophy and eloquence called the Sophists.
Pretending to be simple minded, Socrates humbly questioned the men of Athens
about their knowledge of good, beauty and virtue.
Then by asking tricky questions, he drove the persons to disprove their own words.
Then together with this puzzled opponent, Socrates tried to release the wisdom that slept in his soul,
just as his mother, a midwife, had helped children to be born.
Socrates called this method of searching for the truth by asking leading questions “Maieutics”
the art of giving birth to ideas.
Socrates concluded that he was truly the wisest of all people
because even though he had as little wisdom as others,
he at least realized his own ignorance.
"I only know that I know nothing", he said.
Socrates felt that the gods had put him in front of the Athenian people
so that the citizens would not be asleep spiritually
and felt that he was a gadfly annoying a horse.
Actually, Socrates was nicknamed the Athenian gadfly.
He tried to understand and create moral standards which would become the same for all people.
There is only one goodness: it is knowledge.
There is only one evil: it is negligence, Socrates said.
He insisted on regular education for the Athenian youth
in which poets and philosophers, not the parents, should be engaged.
The Athenian citizens grumbled.
It seemed to them that they lost control over their children
and that the crafty philosopher had taken over their places in hearts of the young men.
Aristophanes even described it in a comedy
when one young man asked Socrates whether it was necessary for him to get married,
Socrates answered, act as you wish, you will regret anyway.
Socrates himself, at the age of forty, married nineteen year old Xanthippe, who had a horrible temper
However Socrates explained to his foolish wife with philosophical calmness
by saying he was the bad family man and did not care for children.
After the defeat of Athens in the long Palopenesian War, rigid Spartan rule was established in the city.
This tyranny was headed by Critias, a former student of Socrates
and even though Socrates never cooperated with the tyrants, after their overthrow in 399 B.C.,
he was brought into court and charged with disgrace and depravity of the youth.
Appearing before the court, the 70 year old philosopher proved with logic constructions
that he was not subject to trial but instead should be honored
as a benefactor and spiritual instructor of society.
The judges became furious, Socrates was found guilty as charged and sentenced to death.
While waiting for his execution,
the philosopher spent the whole month in prison
talking with his unfortunate friends about the immortality of the soul.
Before the execution his friend Crito bribed the jailer
and tried to convince Socrates to escape from Athens.
However Socrates refused insisting it was necessary to obey the established laws
even if he had been convicted unfairly.
He easily drank the cup of poisonous hemlock to the bottom remaining calm and quiet
and when his friends who were at the execution began to cry, he shamed them.
The last words of Socrates were: "Crito we owe a rooster to Asclepius".
During those times when a patient recovered,
a rooster was sacrificed to the god of medicine, Asclepius.
The words of Socrates could be interpreted to mean
that the death of his body became a recovery for his soul.
Recently some historians of ancient philosophy have more than once tried to prove
that Socrates was only a literary character that was invented by Plato
to give greater authority to his own ideas.
Nevertheless, the Athenian madcap Socrates became the founder of a new philosophy
and a teacher of many of the great philosophers.