Socrates: The Man and His Life

in this lecture we are going to examine the life of the ancient Greek philosophers Socrates Socrates was born in Athens in the year 469 BC and died in 399 BC executed by the Athenian state on the charges of religious impiety and corruption of the youth some scholars have suggested that due to the Socratic problem which was discussed in the first lecture of the series these few facts are all we really know for certain about Socrates as a quick reminder the socratic problem arises because Socrates supposedly wrote nothing down and therefore in order to obtain knowledge about his life we must rely on other sources yet the sources we have offered differing and sometimes contradictory depictions of Socrates and hence there is confusion regarding what is fiction and what is fact although little is known for certain about Socrates life there are two events in particular which are most often regarded as being on the side of fact while also being viewed as events of monumental importance in the life of Socrates and it is these two events which will occupy our tension for this lecture the first event concerns Socrates reaction to the Oracle at Delphi which pronounced he was the wisest of all men an Oracle is a religious shrine and sanctuary and Delfy was an ancient Greek settlement to the ancient Greeks Delfy was thought to be the center of the world a feeling which had its origins in ancient Greek mythology according to myth Zeus sent out two eagles from the ends of the universe to find the navel of the world and in Delfy is where they met the Oracle at Delphi was devoted to the god Apollo inscribed on the outside of the temple where the words know thyself as saying often misattributed to Socrates people traveled from all over ancient Greece to visit the priestess of the Oracle the Pythia in hopes of attaining wisdom and guidance the Pythia bestowed on Socrates the title of the wisest man in the world which was to prove extremely influential in the course of Socrates life as it was through his attempt to uncover the true meaning of such a declaration that Socrates was led to discover his life's mission and in turn this life's mission as we will see shortly led directly to the second monumental event in his life that being his trial and subsequent execution we must note that Socrates did not visit the Oracle himself but instead one of his friends traveled to Delphi and passed on the pytheas Oracle to Socrates when the news of this reached Socrates he was astounded in Plato's apology he described his reaction when I heard about the Oracles answer I said to myself what does the God mean I am only too conscious that I have no claim to wisdom great or small so what could he mean by asserting that I am the wisest man in the world in order to try and discover the meaning of such a declaration Socrates took to the streets of Athens certain that he would soon find a man wiser than himself he engaged in conversations with politicians poets and craftsmen and these conversations soon led him to have an epiphany regarding the meaning of the Oracle as he explained the realization dawned on him when conversing with a politician when I conversed with him I thought this man seemed to be wise both to many others and especially to himself but that he was not and then I tried to show him that he thought he was wise but was not because of that he disliked me but I went to wait thinking to myself that I was wiser than this man the fact is that neither of us knows anything beautiful and good but he thinks he does know when he doesn't and I don't know when don't think I do so I am wiser than he is by only this trifle that what I do not know I don't think I do the meaning of the Oracle was that mankind is universally ignorant of the one thing it is most important to know that is how to conduct their lives virtuously so as to attain happiness Socrates was no exception as he too admitted that he did not know anything beautiful and good yet Socrates was the wisest man because he alone was aware of his ignorance as a e-tailer pointed out Socrates is the one exception if he too does not possess this supremely important knowledge he knows its importance and he knows his own ignorance of it he is at least the one-eyed in the kingdom of the blind and the wisest of men as men go upon understanding the true meaning of the Oracle Socrates made it his life's mission to make others aware that they were living in a cave of ignorance in the hope that once they realized they were lacking knowledge of the most important thing in life they would join him in his philosophical quest for wisdom or in other words knowledge of how to live the good life while some took kindly to Socrates life mission most of the Athenians could not endure his critical questioning without becoming defensive and angry it is not surprising that over time Socrates developed a rather poor reputation among the masses this disdain felt for Socrates by the general citizenry of Athens is often suggested to be one of the factors that resulted in charges being laid against him in the year 399 BC the official indictment against Socrates was as follows Socrates is guilty of refusing to recognize the gods recognized by the state and introducing other new divinities he is also guilty of corrupting the youth the penalty demanded is death many scholars believe that in order to understand why Socrates was brought to trial one needs to take into account of the state of Athenian society at this time in history Athens at the turn of the fourth century was in a very precarious and fragile state having recently been defeated by Sparta in the Peloponnesian War a war which had ravaged Greek civilization for decades the city was facing an intense period of decline the citizens longed for a scapegoat on whom they could blame all their troubles and Socrates who garnered so much animosity appeared to be the perfect scapegoat Socrates seems to have been well aware that the animosity felt towards him was a main reason for him being charged and this can be seen in a statement he made at his trial well gentlemen I am no criminal that needs no long defense from me to prove however when I said some time ago that I was heartily disliked by many you may be sure that it is quite true and this is what will convict me rather than being a criminal socrates in fact argued that he was a gift of God to the city sent to improve the lives of the Athenian citizens if they condemned him to death he foretold that they would continue to live out their lives in a waking slumber forever remaining ignorant of their ignorance you can easily kill me he told the judges then you can go on sleeping for the rest of your lives despite his Appeals Socrates was found guilty although the penalty demanded was death according to Athenian law the accused could propose an ultimate penalty it is said that if Socrates had recommended exile such a punishment would have been readily accepted but socrates maintained that he had done nothing wrong and that instead of being punished he should be awarded free meals at the prytaneum the religious and political center of Athens a privilege reserved for those who brought honor and benefit to the city it is not surprising that the judges were insulted by this recommendation and subsequently condemned socrates to death by drinking hemlock after the verdict had been announced socrates issued this warning to the citizens of Athens I wish to prophesy to you who have sentenced me to death I prophesied to you that after my death the punishment will soon descend upon you a punishment far more severe than that which you have inflicted on me you will have caused my death hoping in vain to escape from my critical questioning when Socrates drank the hemlock he supposedly did so joyously and courageously his last words were a credo we owe a rooster to Asclepius pay it without fail Asclepius was the Greek god of healing when an Athenian was cured of a serious disease they paid tribute to the God by sacrificing either a sheep or a rooster but Socrates was not sick so why was he paying tribute to the god of healing Socrates thought that to be alive in some sense was a sickness and while we can make strides to make ourselves healthy it is only in death that we are truly cured

Channel: Academy of Ideas

Views: 151,313

Rating: 4.9268546 out of 5

Keywords: socrates, academy of ideas, trial, last words, oracle, oracle at delphi, death, pythia

Id: b2wM4pApOtM

Length: 8min 34sec (514 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 30 2013