Socrates was born in Athens to
Sophroniscus, an artisan-sculptor, and to Phenarete, a
mid-wife. We know nothing about his youth. As someone has
remarked, "You would think the Master was born an
old man, with no childhood." His wife was the
notorious shrew, Xanthippe. Socrates remarked that if he
could master Xanthippe he could easily adapt himself to
the rest of the world. But Socrates might well have paid
more attention to the material needs of their three sons.
A report of the Delphic Oracle
proclaimed that Socrates was the wisest man in the world.
Believing that this could not be true, Socrates was
impelled on a life of constantly questioning people in
order to find someone who was truly wise. As he
interrogated citizens in the streets and gymnasiums of
Athens, he attracted to himself a coterie of well-born
young men. Unfortunately some of these disciples, such as
Alcibiades and Critias, turned out to be such scoundrels
that this factor played a role in his condemnation.(12)
Rather than teaching a set of doctrines, Socrates
tried to get men to think for themselves. The
philosophers who preceded him had focused on the nature
of the universe, but Socrates turned his attention to man
and man's behavior. Aristotle and Cicero credited him
with founding ethics. His main teaching, as best we can
determine from his interpreters, was that all values can
be reduced to a single virtue, knowledge. Virtue, then,
can be taught. Evil is blindness: No one does evil on
purpose. He who knows the good will do it.
Socrates was brought to trial in
399 B.C. on charges of "atheism" and corrupting
Athenian youth. This arraignment had at least two
immediate causes: a political reaction which occurred in
Athens after a lengthy war with Sparta and the lampoons
of the comic writer Aristophanes. Though Socrates
eloquently defended himself (the defense is recorded in
Plato's Apology), the jury voted 281 to 220 to put
him to death.
Socrates could easily have fled from Athens after the
trial, but he chose to remain. He said he did not fear
dying because it would bring either annihilation or a
welcome opportunity to fellowship with those already
dead. At the appointed time Socrates calmly drank the
poisonous hemlock. According to the Phaedo, his
last words were: "I owe a cock to Asclepius [the god
of healing]; do not forget to pay it."
