Socrates
The conviction and execution of
Socrates1 (469-399 B.C.), the most famous philosopher of the late fifth
century B.C., became perhaps the most infamous event in the history of Athens after the
Peloponnesian War because his life had been devoted to combating the idea that justice
should be equated with power to work one's will. Coming, as it did, during a time of
social and political turmoil, his death indicated the fragility of Athenian justice in
practice. His passionate concern to discover valid guidelines for leading a just life
and to prove that justice is better than injustice under all circumstances gave a new
direction to Greek philosophy: an
emphasis on ethics2. Although other thinkers before him had dealt with moral issues, especially the
poets and dramatists, Socrates was the first of those thinkers called philosophers to
make ethics and morality his central concern.
Compared to the sophists, Socrates lived in
poverty3 and publicly disdained material possessions, but he nevertheless managed to
serve as a hoplite in the army and support a wife and several children. He may have
inherited some money, and he also received gifts from wealthy admirers. He paid so
little attention to his physical appearance and clothes that many Athenians regarded him
as eccentric. Sporting, in his words, a stomach
“somewhat too large to
be convenient,”4 he wore the same nondescript cloak summer and winter and scorned shoes no matter
how cold the weather. His physical
stamina5 was legendary, both from his tirelessness when he served as a soldier in
Athens's citizen militia and from his ability to outdrink anyone at a symposium.
