Life of Socrates and his moral stance
Socrates lived in Athens from about 470 to 399 BCE. His father was a stonemason and his mother a midwife. He fought as a foot soldier and was known for being calm and brave. He was poor by choice and cared little for comfort.
He wrote nothing. We know him from the dialogues of his student Plato, from Xenophon and from a comic play by Aristophanes. Because these pictures differ, scholars talk about the "Socratic problem": it is hard to know exactly what the real Socrates said.
Sophists and Socrates
The Sophists (such as Protagoras and Gorgias) were travelling teachers. They taught rhetoric, the skill of persuading, and charged fees. Many said truth and right depend on the person or the city (relativism). Socrates looked similar from the outside, because he too argued in public. But he took no money, and he wanted truth, not victory. He believed there is a real answer to "What is justice?", even if we have not found it yet.
His moral stance: never do wrong, even when wronged; it is better to suffer injustice than to do it.
"Know yourself" and the Socratic method
The temple of Apollo at Delphi had the words "Know yourself". A friend of Socrates asked the oracle if anyone was wiser than him; the answer was no. Socrates tested this by talking to politicians, poets and craftsmen. Each believed he knew important things but could not explain them. Socrates concluded: "I know that I do not know", and that is a small but real wisdom.
So self-reflection comes first: check your own beliefs before you judge others. In Plato's Apology he says that a life without such examination is not worth living for a human being.
How the method works (elenchus)
- Ask: "What is X?" (courage, justice, piety).
- The other person gives a definition.
- Socrates finds a counter-example or shows the definition clashes with other things the person believes.
- The person admits confusion (aporia) and tries a better definition.
He also used irony (acting as if he knew nothing) and called his work maieutics, "midwifery": helping others give birth to ideas that are already in them.
Psyche, arete and daimonion
Psyche means soul. For Socrates it is the real self, the part that thinks and chooses. The body, money and fame matter less. His main advice to Athenians was: take care of your soul and make it as good as possible.
Arete means excellence or virtue. A knife has arete when it cuts well; a human has arete when he lives well: wise, just, brave and self-controlled. Socrates thought these virtues are really one thing, because each needs knowledge of what is good.
The daimonion was a "divine sign", an inner voice Socrates heard from childhood. It never told him what to do; it only warned him to stop before a wrong step. It is close to what we now call conscience.
Ethical intellectualism: virtue is knowledge
Ethical intellectualism is the view that virtue is knowledge. Three linked ideas:
- If you really know what is good, you will do it.
- No one does wrong willingly; wrongdoing comes from ignorance, from mistaking a bad thing for a good one.
- Virtue leads to true happiness (eudaimonia), so the virtuous person is the happy one.
So virtue can, in a way, be taught, by helping people understand. Later, Aristotle criticised this: people sometimes know what is right and still do wrong because of weak will (akrasia). This debate is still alive today.
Philosophy and citizenship: the trial, and Aspasia
Socrates called himself a gadfly: a fly that stings a lazy horse (Athens) to keep it awake. In 399 BCE he was accused of not honouring the city's gods and corrupting the young. A jury of about 500 citizens found him guilty. He would not beg or stop philosophising, and he was sentenced to drink hemlock.
In Plato's Crito his friends offer an escape. He refuses: he has lived all his life under the laws of Athens and will not break them now. This shows his idea of a citizen: question openly, but keep your agreements and never do wrong in return.
Aspasia and women in Greek thought
Women in Athens had few public rights. Yet Aspasia of Miletus, the partner of the leader Pericles, was famous for her intelligence. In Plato's dialogues Socrates says he learned speech-making from her, and he credits Diotima, a wise woman, with teaching him about love. These voices remind us that women took part in Greek thought even when history recorded them less.
Key formulas and definitions
- Elenchus: claim → counter-example → confusion (aporia) → better claim
- "I know that I do not know" = wise ignorance
- Virtue = knowledge; wrongdoing = ignorance
- Psyche = soul; arete = virtue/excellence; daimonion = inner warning voice
- Maieutics = the 'midwife' method of drawing out ideas
- Eudaimonia = true happiness, a flourishing life
Worked examples
1. Use the Socratic method on: 'A friend is someone who agrees with me.'
Counter-example: a true friend may disagree to stop you from making a mistake, and a flatterer may agree just to use you. So the claim fails. Better claim: 'A friend wants what is good for me.' Then test it again.
2. Why did Socrates think the oracle's answer was true?
Others believed they knew important things but could not explain them. Socrates knew he did not know. His wisdom was this honest awareness of his own ignorance.
3. A student copies homework knowing it is wrong. How would Socrates explain it?
He would say the student does not truly know what is good: he wrongly believes copying is better for him. With real understanding of the harm to his own soul, he would not do it.
4. How is Socrates different from a Sophist like Protagoras?
Sophists took fees, taught how to persuade and often said truth depends on the person. Socrates took no fees, wanted the truth itself and believed there are real answers about justice and virtue.
5. Why did Socrates refuse to escape from prison?
He had accepted Athens' laws all his life. Escaping would be doing wrong in return for wrong, which he believed always harms the soul.
Common mistakes
- Thinking Socrates wrote books. He wrote nothing; we know him through Plato, Xenophon and Aristophanes.
- Calling Socrates a Sophist. He argued in public too, but he took no money and searched for truth, not victory.
- Thinking 'I know that I do not know' means he knew nothing at all. It means he was honest about the limits of his knowledge.
- Mixing up the daimonion with a god giving orders. It only warned him to stop; it never told him what to do.