Socrates

Socrates (469-399 bc)

Socrates, an Athenian Greek of the second half of the fifth century bc, wrote no philosophical works but was uniquely influential in the later history of philosophy. His philosophical interests were restricted to ethics and the conduct of life, topics which thereafter became central to philosophy. He discussed these in public places in Athens, sometimes with other prominent intellectuals or political leaders, sometimes with young men, who gathered round him in large numbers, and other admirers. Among these young men was Plato. Socrates' philosophical ideas and - equally important for his philosophical influence - his personality and methods as a 'teacher' were handed on to posterity in the 'dialogues' that several of his friends wrote after his death, depicting such discussions. Only those of Xenophon (Memorabilia,Apology, Symposium) and the early dialogues of Plato survive (for example Euthyphro, Apology, Crito). Later Platonic dialogues such as Phaedo, Symposium and Republic do not present the historical Socrates' ideas; the 'Socrates' appearing in them is a spokesman for Plato's own ideas.
Socrates' discussions took the form of face-to-face interrogations of another person. Most often they concerned the nature of some moral virtue, such as courage or justice. Socrates asked what the respondent thought these qualities of mind and character amounted to, what their value was, how they were acquired. He would then test their ideas for logical consistency with other highly plausible general views about morality and goodness that the respondent also agreed to accept, once Socrates presented them. He succeeded in showing, to his satisfaction and that of the respondent and any bystanders, that the respondent's ideas were not consistent. By this practice of 'elenchus' or refutation he was able to prove that politicians and others who claimed to have 'wisdom' about human affairs in fact lacked it, and to draw attention to at least apparent errors in their thinking. He wanted to encourage them and others to think harder and to improve their ideas about the virtues and about how to conduct a good human life. He never argued directly for ideas of his own, but always questioned those of others. None the less, one can infer, from the questions he asks and his attitudes to the answers he receives, something about his own views.
Socrates was convinced that our souls - where virtues and vices are found - are vastly more important for our lives than our bodies or external circumstances. The quality of our souls determines the character of our lives, for better or for worse, much more than whether we are healthy or sick, or rich or poor. If we are to live well and happily, as he assumed we all want to do more than we want anything else, we must place the highest priority on the care of our souls. That means we must above all want to acquire the virtues, since they perfect our souls and enable them to direct our lives for the better. If only we could know what each of the virtues is we could then make an effort to obtain them. As to the nature of the virtues, Socrates seems to have held quite strict and, from the popular point of view, paradoxical views. Each virtue consists entirely in knowledge, of how it is best to act in some area of life, and why: additional 'emotional' aspects, such as the disciplining of our feelings and desires, he dismissed as of no importance. Weakness of will is not psychologically possible: if you act wrongly or badly, that is due to your ignorance of how you ought to act and why. He thought each of the apparently separate virtues amounts to the same single body of knowledge: the comprehensive knowledge of what is and is not good for a human being. Thus his quest was to acquire this single wisdom: all the particular virtues would follow automatically.
At the age of 70 Socrates was charged before an Athenian popular court with 'impiety' - with not believing in the Olympian gods and corrupting young men through his constant questioning of everything. He was found guilty and condemned to death. Plato's Apology, where Socrates gives a passionate defence of his life and philosophy, is one of the classics of Western literature. For different groups of later Greek philosophers he was the model both of a sceptical inquirer who never claims to know the truth, and of a 'sage' who knows the whole truth about human life and the human good. Among modern philosophers, the interpretations of his innermost meaning given by Montaigne, Hegel, Kierkegaard, and Nietzsche are especially notable.

1. Life and sources
2. Life and sources (cont.)
3. Socratic elenchus, or refutation
4. Elenchus and moral progress
5. The unity of virtue
6. Weakness of will denied
7. Socrates' personality
8. Socrates in the history of philosophy

Source : Socrates (469-399 BC)

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Once made equal to man, woman becomes his superior.
Socrates

One who is injured ought not to return the injury, for on no account can it be right to do an injustice; and it is not right to return an injury, or to do evil to any man, however much we have suffered from him.
Socrates

Ordinary people seem not to realize that those who really apply themselves in the right way to philosophy are directly and of their own accord preparing themselves for dying and death.
Socrates

Our prayers should be for blessings in general, for God knows best what is good for us.
Socrates

The end of life is to be like God, and the soul following God will be like Him.
Socrates

The greatest way to live with honor in this world is to be what we pretend to be.
Socrates

The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.
Socrates

The poets are only the interpreters of the Gods.
Socrates
Wisdom begins in wonder.
Socrates

Worthless people live only to eat and drink; people of worth eat and drink only to live.
Socrates

The unexamined life is not worth living.
Socrates

The way to gain a good reputation is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear.
Socrates

To know, is to know that you know nothing. That is the meaning of true knowledge.
Socrates
True knowledge exists in knowing that you know nothing.
Socrates

True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize how little we understand about life, ourselves, and the world around us.
Socrates

Where there is reverence there is fear, but there is not reverence everywhere that there is fear, because fear presumably has a wider extension than reverence.
Socrates

A system of morality which is based on relative emotional values is a mere illusion, a thoroughly vulgar conception which has nothing sound in it and nothing true.
Socrates

All men's souls are immortal, but the souls of the righteous are immortal and divine.
Socrates

An honest man is always a child.
Socrates

As for me, all I know is that I know nothing.
Socrates

As to marriage or celibacy, let a man take which course he will, he will be sure to repent.
Socrates

Be as you wish to seem.
Socrates

Be slow to fall into friendship; but when thou art in, continue firm and constant.
Socrates

Beauty is a short-lived tyranny.
Socrates

Beauty is the bait which with delight allures man to enlarge his kind.
Socrates

Beware the barrenness of a busy life.
Socrates

By all means, marry. If you get a good wife, you'll become happy; if you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher.
Socrates

Death may be the greatest of all human blessings.
Socrates

Employ your time in improving yourself by other men's writings, so that you shall gain easily what others have labored hard for.
Socrates

False words are not only evil in themselves, but they infect the soul with evil.
Socrates

From the deepest desires often come the deadliest hate.
Socrates

He is a man of courage who does not run away, but remains at his post and fights against the enemy.
Socrates

He is richest who is content with the least, for content is the wealth of nature.
Socrates

I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.
Socrates

I decided that it was not wisdom that enabled poets to write their poetry, but a kind of instinct or inspiration, such as you find in seers and prophets who deliver all their sublime messages without knowing in the least what they mean.
Socrates

I know nothing except the fact of my ignorance.
Socrates
I know that I am intelligent, because I know that I know nothing.
Socrates

I only wish that ordinary people had an unlimited capacity for doing harm; then they might have an unlimited power for doing good.
Socrates

I was really too honest a man to be a politician and live.
Socrates

If a man is proud of his wealth, he should not be praised until it is known how he employs it.
Socrates

If all misfortunes were laid in one common heap whence everyone must take an equal portion, most people would be contented to take their own and depart.
Socrates

It is not living that matters, but living rightly.
Socrates
Let him that would move the world first move himself.
Socrates

My advice to you is get married: if you find a good wife you'll be happy; if not, you'll become a philosopher.
Socrates

Not life, but good life, is to be chiefly valued.
Socrates