Who was Socrates

Surely we all hear this name, we've heard it. Surely we all know that Socrates was a philosopher of antiquity who became famous for being able to die rather than stop defending his ideas and beliefs and, for that, he was forced to drink the cup of hemlock that ended his life. Well we are right, that was Socrates, a philosopher of classical Greece very influential in our current culture for the development of his thinking, a revolutionary for his time that changed the way of looking at the world and reality. In .com we will explain who was Socrates and what he thought.

Life and works

He was born near Athens in 469 BC He became interested in the Philosophy of the first physicists, but decided to devote himself to other tasks: the human being. He reflected on happiness, virtue and everything that concerns man to live better. He considered that one must take care of the soul and know oneself in order to develop the most appropriate moral behavior. He left nothing written, what we know about him comes to us through his disciple Plato.

The search for virtue

This is the great concern of Socrates along with other philosophers of his time, the sophists. It seeks to universally define what virtue is, in order to apply it to all human beings. He considered that for this, man must know himself, and thus he will be virtuous. Virtue is knowledge. Through dialogue and thought, men know each other alone and in front of others.

Method

His method of discovery of virtue or supreme truth is dialogue or mayeutica . To consider that we are ignorant and that we must gradually acquire knowledge is the basis of the development of his thought: "I only know that I do not know anything", and from here and using irony in conversations, he made his interlocutors see that they knew nothing, that they should know themselves better and thus develop their maximum virtue or supreme truth.

The death sentence

This is the most important moment of your life. The politicians of his time considered that Socrates was a corrupt teacher and that his theory of virtue based on "know yourself" was a way of doing evil to the young disciples who dealt with him. For that, he was sentenced to death . His friends tried to convince him to escape or leave aside his theories and thus save his life, but Socrates thought that then he would betray his ideas and himself, and preferred to die.

Plato, his disciple

It will be this other well-known Greek philosopher who will follow the steps of Socrates and develop his ideas to the fullest. Very affected by the unjust death of his teacher, Plato dedicated all his work and in all his dialogues appears the figure of Socrates as the main character. His ideas through Plato have developed to this day, hence the importance of Socrates in our culture.

• Through the figure of Socrates man begins his knowledge of himself, something very fashionable in our days.
• Reading Socrates can serve as a spiritual and personal construction guide.
• Reading something about pre-Socratics will help us understand your Philosophy.
• Go into the theory of the sophists to understand what Socrates did not defend.
• Through the reading of the works of Plato we can understand the thought of Socrates.