Socrates is arguably the most influential philosopher of all time.
His ideas not only changed the course of history, but laid the groundwork for what is today
considered Western philosophy.
So who was Socrates?
Well, Socrates was born in 469 BC, and spent nearly all of his life in Athens, Greece.
The city was then at the center of Greece’s ‘Golden Age’, a time of rapid development
and democratization.
He was a soldier, then a stonecutter, before devoting his life to being a philosopher,
which literally means “lover of wisdom”.
But little else is known about Socrates’ upbringing, or the rest of his life, because
he didn’t actually write anything down.
In fact, everything we know about him is through the writings of his contemporaries, most famously
his student, Plato.
Plato published a series of ‘dialogues’, in which Socrates deliberates with politicians
and townspeople in Athens.
In one of Plato’s most famous works, the Symposium, Socrates and his interlocutors
[in-ter-loc-u-tors] discuss the nature of love.
Socrates claimed that everything he knows about love was taught to him by a wise woman
named Diotima.
According to Diotima, love is neither physical or divine, and it cannot be described as good
or beautiful.
Instead, love is the the desire for something - it is the spirit of seeking something - like
people, objects, children, or beauty.
Socrates concludes that his relentless pursuit of ideas makes him a lover of knowledge.
Socrates had plenty of ideas, but he didn’t claim to actually know anything.
In fact, he famously said [quote] “true knowledge exists in knowing that you know
nothing”.
In an attempt to uproot ignorance, which he saw as a danger to society, Socrates acted
as Athen’s ‘gadfly’.
That is, he went around the city pressing people on their beliefs, ultimately exposing
that they knew nothing.
This process of gradual questioning - more commonly known the socratic method - is perhaps
Socrates’ greatest contribution to the academic world.’
It is used as a form of critical discussion in English and Law classes, and its influence
led to the invention of the scientific method, which is similarly based on challenging hypotheses
in an attempt to question their validity.
Socrates forced Athenian politicians and social elite to question their own truths, and in
more than one instance, publicly embarrassed them.
He was also an open critic of the city’s newly formed democracy, as he said it would
ultimately lead to the election of tyrants.
As you can imagine, this didn’t go over well in Athens, and Socrates was very unpopular.
In 399 BC, he was charged with not believing in the Athenian gods and using his ideas to
corrupt the youth and was sentenced to death by poison.
But Socrates didn’t resist the verdict, as it was part of the social contract he had
tacitly accepted by being a citizen of Athens.
Socrates forever changed what we think of as Western philosophy.
What was once an attempt to understand the world around us is now largely an examination
of our inner motivations and values.
Socrates’ method of relentless hair-splitting paved the way for other historical gadflies,
like Martin Luther King, to be vocal critics of their own political system.
But because Socrates never wrote anything down and rarely revealed his own opinions,
historians have struggled to come to a consensus on even his most fundamental teachings and
biographical events.
Plato’s dialogues are the most comprehensive account of Socrates’ beliefs, however some
scholars suspect them to be Plato’s own ideas, relayed through his teacher.
To this day, it’s still unclear whether we really know anything about Socrates at
all.
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As an intellectual center for philosophers, Athens, Greece played a pivotal role in the
rise of Western philosophy.
But has Greece remained an influential country in the world?
Exactly how powerful is Greece?
Find out in this video.
Most of the economy is based on the service sector as well as merchant shipping and tourism.
Greece's important past and large number of UNESCO world heritage sites make it an extremely
lucrative tourist destination.
Tourism brings in roughly 15% of the country's total GDP.
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