Biography of Socrates, Plato, & Aristotle

BIOGRAPHY OF SOCRATES, PLATO, AND ARISTOTLE

SECTION I - SOCRATES

Socrates (Greek Σωκράτης, invariably anglicized as IPA: ['sɔkɹətiːz] Sǒcratēs; ca. 470 - 399 BCE) was a Greek Athenian philosopher.

He is best known outside philosophy for being condemned to death by an Athenian people's court and choosing to die by drinking hemlock. He had been charged with impiety and with corrupting Athenian youth through his teachings [1] and had been given the opportunity to go into exile. However, he chose to die as sentenced as he believed he would otherwise dishonor the agreement he had willingly made to abide by the laws of Athens.

Life

Most of what is now known about Socrates is derived from information that recurs across various secondary sources: the dialogues written by Plato, one of Socrates' students; the works of Xenophon, one of his contemporaries; and writings by Aristophanes and Aristotle. Anything Socrates wrote himself has not survived. Aristophanes was a noted satirist, so his accounts of Socrates may well be biased, exaggerated or even totally falsified; another complication is the Ancient Greek tradition of scholars attributing their own ideas, theories and sometimes even personal traits to their mentors, a tradition Plato appears to have followed. Gabriele Giannantoni, in his monumental 1991 work Socratis et Socraticorum Reliquiae, attempts to compile every scrap of evidence regarding Socrates, including material attributed to Aeschines Socraticus, Antisthenes and a number of others supposed to have known him.

According to accounts from antiquity, Socrates' father was the sculptor Sophroniscus and his mother Phaenarete, a midwife. Socrates married Xanthippe, who bore him three sons - Lamprocles, Sophroniscus and Menexenus - who were all quite young at the time of his death. Traditionally, Xanthippe is thought to have been an ill-tempered scold, mainly due to her characterization by Xenophon.

It is unclear how Socrates earned a living. According to Xenophon's Symposium, Socrates is reported as saying he devotes himself only to what he regards as the most important art or occupation: discussing philosophy. Although he inherited money following his father's death, it is unlikely it was sufficient to keep him for long. Xenophon and Aristophanes respectively portray Socrates as accepting payment for teaching and running a sophist school with Chaerephon, whilst in Plato's Symposium Socrates explicitly denies accepting payment for teaching. It is possible Socrates relied on the generosity of wealthy and powerful friends such as Crito.

Characters such as Alcibiades - the name of one of Socrates' friends - in the dialogues indicate that Socrates served in the Athenian army during the Peloponnesian War. Plato's Symposium indicates that he was also decorated for bravery. In one instance, Socrates is said to have stayed on the battlefield to protect Alcibiades, probably saving his life; he then sought Alcibiades' recognition rather than accepting any of his own. It is also claimed he showed great hardiness during these military campaigns, such as his walking without shoes or coat during winter.

Trial and Death

The Death of Socrates, by Jacques-Louis David (1787).See main article: Trial of Socrates

Socrates lived during the time of the transition from the height of the Athenian Empire to its decline after its defeat by Sparta and its allies in the Peloponnesian War. At a time when Athens was seeking to stabilize and recover from its humiliating defeat, the Athenian public court was induced by three leading public figures to try Socrates for impiety and for corrupting the youth of Athens. This was a time in culture when the Greeks thought of gods and goddesses as being associated with protecting particular cities. Athens, for instance, is named after its protecting goddess Athena. The defeat of Athens in the Peloponnesian War was interpreted as Athena judging the city for not being pious. Enter Socrates, who was perceived as questioning the gods, and in light of the recent war, it was all too easy to ascribe defeat to impiety rather than incompetence. The last thing Athens needed was more punishment from Athena for one man inciting its citizens to question her or the other gods. In the Apology, Socrates insists that this is a false charge.

According to the version of his defense speech presented in Plato's Apology, Socrates' life as the "gadfly" of Athens began when his friend Chaerephon asked the oracle at Delphi if anyone was wiser than Socrates; the Oracle responded negatively. Socrates, interpreting this as a riddle, set out to find men who were wiser than he was. He questioned the men of Athens about their knowledge of good, beauty, and virtue. Finding that they knew nothing and yet believing themselves to know much, Socrates came to the conclusion that he was wise only in so far as he knew that he knew nothing. Socrates' superior intellect made the prominent Athenians he publicly questioned look foolish, turning them against him and leading to accusations of wrongdoing.

He was nevertheless found guilty as charged, and sentenced to death by drinking a cup of hemlock. Socrates turned down the pleas of his disciples to attempt an escape from prison, drinking the hemlock and dying in the company of his friends. According to the Phaedo, Socrates had a calm death, enduring his sentence with fortitude. The Roman philosopher Seneca attempted to emulate Socrates' death by hemlock when forced to commit suicide by the Emperor Nero.

According to Xenophon and Plato, Socrates had an opportunity to escape, as his followers were able to bribe the prison guards. After escaping, Socrates would have had to flee from Athens. As the dialogue Crito makes clear, Socrates refused to escape even in order to evade the execution of his death sentence. Having knowingly agreed to live under the city's laws, he implicitly subjected himself to the possibility of being accused of crimes by its citizens and judged guilty by its jury. To do otherwise would have caused him to break his 'contract' with the state, and by so doing harming it, an act contrary to Socratic principle.

Philosophy

Platonic idealism

Platonic realism

Middle Platonism