Socrates

?470--399 bc, Athenian philosopher, whose beliefs are known only through the writings of his pupils Plato and Xenophon. He taught that virtue was based on knowledge, which was attained by a dialectical process that took into account many aspects of a stated hypothesis. He was indicted for impiety and corruption of youth (399) and was condemned to death. He refused to flee and died by drinking hemlock

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

Socrates

(470-399 BC) Greek philosopher known mainly from his appearance in PLATO's Dialogues, who was executed in Athens for refusing to recant when accused of corrupting the young. Socrates appears to have been concerned mainly with ETHICS, which he concluded should not be a matter of custom or habit, but based on rational, deductive inquiry. Socrates’ method of instruction – the Socratic method - was to initiate a series of questions and answers, designed to lead those involved to a reexamination of their fundamental beliefs.

Collins Dictionary of Sociology, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2000

Socrates (469–399 B.c.) Athenian

philosopher, propagated dialectic method of approaching knowledge. [Gk. Hist.: NCE, 2553]

See: Philosophy

Socrates

(469–399 B.C.) Greek philosopher; tutor of Plato. [Gk. Hist.: NCE, 2553]

See: Teaching

Socrates

(469–399 B.C.) wise and respected teacher adept at developing latent ideas. [Gk. Hist.: EB, 16: 1001–1005]

See: Wisdom

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Socrates

Born 470/469 B.C., in Athens; died there 399 B.C. Ancient Greek philosopher. Son of a sculptor.

Socrates taught in the streets and public squares, combating the ideas of the Sophists and educating youth. He died by drinking hemlock after having been condemned to death for, in the words of the official sentence, introducing new divine powers and corrupting the youth in the new spirit. Socrates left no writings, and the main sources of information about his life and teachings are the writings of his students Xenophon and Plato; he is the main character in most of Plato’s dialogues.

Socrates was one of the founders of philosophic dialectics, in which truth is sought through conversation—the posing of certain questions and the systematic search for answers. K. Marx called Socrates the “embodiment of philosophy” and “philosophy personified” (see K. Marx and F. Engels, Soch., 2nd ed., vol. 1, p. 99, and Iz rannikh proizv., 1956, p. 199). Not satisfied with ancient natural philosophy, Socrates turned to the analysis of human consciousness and thought. According to Aristotle, Socrates tended to objective idealism, but he was still far from hypostatiz-ing general concepts as independent essences.

Aristotle attributed to Socrates an inductive theory that posits a transition from unstable reality to general concepts and a theory of the definition of concepts that made it possible for the first time to inquire into the essence of any given object; this can be compared with the characterization of Socrates in the early Platonic dialogues. The acknowledgment of the effect of generic essences on surrounding reality was transformed by Socrates into a theory of general and universal reason or a theory of various divinities of reason. In spite of Xenophon’s assertions, Socrates’ teachings had little in common with popular religion, even though Socrates did not reject the latter. Socrates’ teachings on providence marked a decisive break with naive polytheism and took the form of philosophic teleology.

Socrates’ main ethical thesis stated that virtue is knowledge (wisdom) and that the individual who knows what good is necessarily acts virtuously; those acting in an evil fashion either have no knowledge of virtue or perform evil acts to bring about the final triumph of virtue. According to Socrates, there can be no contradiction between reason and wisdom.

Socrates was the target of unfounded accusations that he was inimical to democracy. In reality, he criticized all forms of government, including monarchy, tyranny, aristocracy, plutocracy, and democracy, if these forms of government violated justice. Socrates was considered in later times to be an ideal personification of wisdom.

REFERENCES

Xenophon. Sokraticheskiesoch. Moscow-Leningrad, 1935.
Plato. Soch., vols. 1–3. Moscow, 1968–72.
Trubetskoi, S. Sobr. soch., vol. 3. Moscow, 1910. Pages 398–461.
Giliarov, A. Istochniki o sofistakh: Platon kak istoricheskii svidetel’, parti. Kiev, 1891.
Gomperz, T. Grecheskie mysliteli, vol. 2, pp. 32–88. St. Petersburg, 1913. (Translated from German.)
Zhebelev, S. A. Sokrat. Berlin, 1923.
Serezhnikov, V. Sokrat. Moscow, 1937.
Losev, A. F. Istoriia antichnoi estetiki: Sofisty, Sokrat, Platon. Moscow, 1969.
Maier, H. Sokrates. Tubingen, 1913.
Ritter, C. Sokrates. Tubingen, 1931.
Meunier, M. La Légende de Socrate. Paris, 1965.

A. F. LOSEV

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References in classic literature

After Socrates has given this specimen of the true nature of teaching, the original question of the teachableness of virtue is renewed.

Socrates has no difficulty in showing that virtue is a good, and that goods, whether of body or mind, must be under the direction of knowledge.

'To whom, then, shall Meno go?' asks Socrates. To any Athenian gentleman--to the great Athenian statesmen of past times.

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It is Glaucon who seizes what may be termed the ludicrous relation of the philosopher to the world, to whom a state of simplicity is "a city of pigs," who is always prepared with a jest when the argument offers him an opportunity, and who is ever ready to second the humor of Socrates and to appreciate the ridiculous, whether in the connoisseurs of music, or in the lovers of theatricals, or in the fantastic behavior of the citizens of democracy.

In the second book, when Glaucon insists that justice and injustice shall be considered without regard to their consequences, Adeimantus remarks that they are regarded by mankind in general only for the sake of their consequences; and in a similar vein of reflection he urges at the beginning of the fourth book that Socrates falls in making his citizens happy, and is answered that happiness is not the first but the second thing, not the direct aim but the indirect consequence of the good government of a State.

The delineation of Socrates in the Republic is not wholly consistent.

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The first say, 'Socrates is an evil-doer and a curious person, searching into things under the earth and above the heaven; and making the worse appear the better cause, and teaching all this to others.' The second, 'Socrates is an evil-doer and corrupter of the youth, who does not receive the gods whom the state receives, but introduces other new divinities.' These last words appear to have been the actual indictment (compare Xen.

The enthusiastic Chaerephon (probably in anticipation of the answer which he received) had gone to Delphi and asked the oracle if there was any man wiser than Socrates; and the answer was, that there was no man wiser.

'Is that the way in which he is supposed to corrupt the youth?' 'Yes, it is.' 'Has he only new gods, or none at all?' 'None at all.' 'What, not even the sun and moon?' 'No; why, he says that the sun is a stone, and the moon earth.' That, replies Socrates, is the old confusion about Anaxagoras; the Athenian people are not so ignorant as to attribute to the influence of Socrates notions which have found their way into the drama, and may be learned at the theatre.

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That Socrates was not a good citizen was a charge made against him during his lifetime, which has been often repeated in later ages.

Whether such an incident ever really occurred as the visit of Crito and the proposal of escape is uncertain: Plato could easily have invented far more than that (Phaedr.); and in the selection of Crito, the aged friend, as the fittest person to make the proposal to Socrates, we seem to recognize the hand of the artist.

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For example, if the proposition is "Socrates precedes Plato," the objective which verifies it results from replacing the word "Socrates" by Socrates, the word "Plato" by Plato, and the word "precedes" by the relation of preceding between Socrates and Plato.

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