Philosophy · Introduction
Who was Socrates?
Socrates (c. 470–399 BCE) was an Athenian philosopher who, famously, wrote nothing — and changed Western thought anyway. He worked in conversation, in the streets and gymnasia of Athens, asking questions that exposed how thin most people's confident opinions actually were.
A philosopher of conversation
Almost everything we know about Socrates comes from those who knew him — chiefly his student Plato, but also the historian Xenophon and the playwright Aristophanes. He left behind no books, no system, and no school in any formal sense. What he left was a way of doing philosophy: through dialogue.
For Socrates, thinking was not a solitary activity. It was something two people did together, by talking carefully, defining their terms, and following arguments wherever they led — even when the destination was uncomfortable.
"I know that I know nothing"
The Oracle at Delphi reportedly declared no one wiser than Socrates. He took this as a puzzle rather than a compliment, and went looking for someone wiser. He found, instead, that those reputed to be wise — politicians, poets, craftsmen — turned out, under questioning, not to truly understand the things they claimed to know.
His conclusion was characteristically humble: he was wiser only in this — that he, at least, knew that he did not know.
Trial and death
In 399 BCE, Athens tried Socrates on charges of impiety and corrupting the youth. He was convicted, refused to escape, and drank the hemlock. His student Plato spent much of the rest of his life writing dialogues in which Socrates was the central voice — turning a single life of conversation into one of the foundational influences on Western philosophy.
Why he still matters
We live in a moment overflowing with answers. Algorithms suggest what to think. Headlines tell us how to feel. Socrates is a quiet, persistent reminder that the quality of your thinking depends mostly on the quality of the questions you are willing to ask of yourself.
Try the method, in conversation.
Begin a dialogueContinue reading: What is the Socratic Method?