Socrates (469 BC-399 BC) was an Athenian Greek philosopher who was known for being the first moral philosopher of the Western ethical tradition of thought. He made no writings during his lifetime, but he instructed philosophers such as Plato (who went on to teach Aristotle) and Xenophon, and created the Socratic method.
Biography[]
Socrates was born in Athens in 470 BC, and he worked as a stonemason before fighting as a hoplite in the Peloponnesian War, fighting at the battles of Potidaea, Delium, and Amphipolis. In 406 BC, he was elected to the Boule council, and, after the end of the war, he criticized Athenian democracy and praised Sparta, while also claiming loyalty to his own city. He attempted to improve the Athenians' sense of justice, and he told people to question authority, believing that some "wise people" told lies. Socrates' views clashed with the Athenian religious establishment, and he went to trial for corrupting the minds of the youth and for impiety in 399 BC. He was sentenced to die by drinking hemlock poison, and he refused an opportunity to escape, as he sought to maintain his "social contract" with the state by not breaking the law. He proceeded to drink the hemlock as his student Plato watched, and Plato went on to use Socrates' teachings to influence his own philosophy, Platonism.
