Socrates
Essay by review • February 15, 2011 • Essay • 253 Words (2 Pages) • 955 Views
Socrates of Athens was a philosopher. A philosopher studies human behavior, thought, and knowledge. The word philosophy meant "the love of wisdom" and that is what Socrates had.
When Socrates wrote to the oracle "who is the wisest man of all of Greece" The oracle answered he was. Socrates was puzzled over that so he went to search for a wiser man. He went to see politicians, poets and craft workers. He concluded that the oracles message was, if you would be wise, be like Socrates, who knows that he knows nothing.
Socrates soon had a group of young men who listened to him and learned from him how to think. Plato was one of these young men. Plato wrote dialects about what Socrates taught him, that's how we know of Socrates. Plato also opened an academy and taught Aristotle there. In 399 B.C, some of the Athenians got mad at Socrates for what he what teaching the young boys. He had a big trial in front of an Athenian jury. He was convicted of the charges impiety (not respecting the gods) and corrupting the youth, and was sentenced to death, and he soon died afterwards, when the guards gave him a cup of hemlock (a poisons plant) to drink.
As you can see Socrates loved wisdom so much that he died over it. He even spent half his life looking for a man wiser than he was so he can prove to the oracle that he wasn't the wisest man in Greece.
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