Socrates
Ancient Greek · Europe · 469 to 399 BCE
Athenian who taught by questioning people about how to live, and left no writings of his own.
What it is
Socrates (469 to 399 BCE) was an Athenian philosopher who wrote nothing down and spent his life questioning people about the things that matter most. He said he knew that he was ignorant, and he held that a life without that kind of examination is not worth living. He was put to death by the Athenian democracy, and his trial became one of the best-known scenes in the history of philosophy.
Nearly everything we know about him is second-hand, and much of it is disputed. The three main sources are the playwright Aristophanes, who made fun of him in the comedy Clouds, the soldier and writer Xenophon, and Plato, in whose dialogues he is the leading figure. Because they disagree, scholars speak of the Socratic problem: it is hard to tell the real Socrates from the Socrates each writer, and each later age, wanted to see.
The main ideas
- Question what matters most. He went about Athens asking people about courage, love, reverence, moderation and the state, and testing what they said by question and answer. This way of questioning is still called the Socratic method.
- Know what you do not know. He is best known for saying that he was ignorant, or aware of his own lack of knowledge. The point was not to give up, but to stop pretending to knowledge one does not have.
- The examined life. At his trial he said that the unexamined life is not worth living for a human being. Examining one's own life and other people's was, for him, the central task.
- Care for the soul. He tried to improve the souls of the Athenians, which in his usage means their character and their grasp of how to live well, rather than their wealth or reputation.
- A mission. He said the oracle of Apollo at Delphi had set him this task, after his friend Chaerephon reported what the oracle had said about him.
What it looks like in practice
Picture someone who is sure they know what fairness means, and who meets a person who simply keeps asking. Is it fair to give everyone the same? Is it fair to give more to those who worked more? What if the two rules clash? Step by step the first person finds that their confident answer does not hold together. The Socratic habit is to treat that moment as the start of thinking and not as a defeat: now the question is open, and both people can look at it properly. This scene is an illustration, not a report of a particular conversation.
The trial and its meaning
Socrates was tried in Athens, convicted of impiety, and put to death by his fellow citizens at about the age of seventy. His own words at the trial, as Plato reports them in the Apology, are where the sayings about ignorance, the examined life and the care of the soul are found. The trial took place in a tense time for the city, after years of war and political upheaval, which is part of why historians still discuss it.
Questions and criticism
- Which Socrates is the real one? Since he wrote nothing and the accounts differ, every description of his views is an interpretation. Some readers take Plato's Socrates as the historical man, others the comic or soldierly portraits.
- Is questioning enough? A person who only asks questions never has to defend an answer. It is fair to ask whether the method can lead to knowledge or only to the discovery of ignorance.
- Was the verdict understandable? The charge was impiety, and the sources place it in a tense political time for Athens. Whether the city treated him unjustly, or acted by its own laws, is still argued.
Close neighbours
Plato's dialogues are the main place where Socrates speaks, so the page on Plato is the natural next step.
Written by epchē in our own words, and checked against independent sources on 9 October 2026. The sources are listed below.
Philosophies they belong to or are close to
Who they connect to
Influenced
- Aristippus of Cyrene · He came to Athens to hear Socrates and became his follower.
- Plato · Plato was Socrates' student and made him the main voice of his dialogues.
- Søren Kierkegaard · Kierkegaard wrote his dissertation on Socratic irony and took Socrates as a model of indirect teaching.
Influenced by
- Anaxagoras · Plato's Phaedo has Socrates describe reading him as a young man. (scholars disagree about this link)
Reacted against
- Protagoras · Plato's Protagoras shows Socrates disputing the Sophist's claim to teach virtue. (scholars disagree about this link)
Reacted against by
- Friedrich Nietzsche · Nietzsche blamed Socrates for putting reason above instinct and life.
Runs parallel to
- Confucius · Both were teachers who worked through conversation and made the examined life the centre of their teaching. (scholars disagree about this link)
Other Ancient Greek thinkers
- Thales of Miletus · 624 to 546 BCE
- Anaximander · 610 to 546 BCE
- Anaximenes · 586 to 526 BCE
- Pythagoras · 570 to 495 BCE
- Xenophanes · 570 to 475 BCE
- Heraclitus · 535 to 475 BCE
- Parmenides · 515 to 450 BCE
- Anaxagoras · 500 to 428 BCE
- Empedocles · 494 to 434 BCE
- Zeno of Elea · 490 to 430 BCE