Socratic
Σωκράτης
c. 470 – 399 BCE · Athens
An Athenian stonemason's son who wrote nothing, Socrates spent his life questioning fellow citizens about justice, courage and the good life. Known mainly through Plato and Xenophon, he was tried and executed in 399 BCE for impiety and corrupting the youth.
“…and that the life which is unexamined is not worth living.”
Plato, Apology, 38a · trans. Benjamin Jowett (1871) · source
Wording awaiting editorial check against the source.
Wording reproduced from memory of the Jowett translation; confirm exact phrasing against the Project Gutenberg text before publication.
After questioning a man reputed to be wise, Socrates concludes that he himself is wiser only in this small way: he does not suppose he knows what he does not know.
Plato, Apology, 21d
Socrates asks his fellow Athenians whether they are not ashamed to care so much about money, reputation and honour while giving no thought to wisdom, truth and the best possible state of their souls.
Plato, Apology, 29d–30b
Paraphrase and reference awaiting verification against the source.
Socrates as portrayed by Plato.
In prison, Socrates argues that one must never do wrong, not even in return for a wrong done to oneself, whatever most people think.
Plato, Crito, 49a–d
Paraphrase and reference awaiting verification against the source.
Socrates as portrayed by Plato.
Against Polus, Socrates maintains that doing injustice is worse than suffering it, a view his listeners find absurd.
Plato, Gorgias, 469b–c, 474b–475e
Paraphrase and reference awaiting verification against the source.
Socrates as portrayed by Plato.
Socrates asks Euthyphro: is the pious loved by the gods because it is pious, or is it pious because the gods love it?
Plato, Euthyphro, 10a
Paraphrase and reference awaiting verification against the source.
Socrates compares himself to a midwife: he gives birth to no wisdom of his own, but helps others bring their ideas into the light and tests whether they are sound.
Plato, Theaetetus, 149a–151d
Paraphrase and reference awaiting verification against the source.
Answering a critic who called his frugal life miserable, Socrates suggests that to need nothing is divine, and to need as little as possible is to come closest to the divine.
Xenophon, Memorabilia, I.6.10
Paraphrase and reference awaiting verification against the source.
Xenophon’s portrait of Socrates differs in emphasis from Plato’s.
Socratic (5th c. BCE). Philosophy as conversation: questioning what we think we know, and caring for the soul above reputation or wealth.