Introduction
Socrates (470/469 – 399 BC) was a classical Greek (Athenian) philosopher
credited as one of the founders of Western philosophy. He is an enigmatic
figure known chiefly through the accounts of classical writers, especially the
writings of his students Plato and Xenophon and the plays of his contemporary
Aristophanes. Plato's dialogues are among the most comprehensive accounts of
Socrates to survive from antiquity, though it is unclear the degree to which
Socrates himself is "hidden behind his 'best disciple', Plato".
Through his portrayal in Plato's dialogues, Socrates has become renowned
for his contribution to the field of ethics, and it is this Platonic Socrates
who lends his name to the concepts of Socratic irony and the Socratic method,
or elenchus. The latter remains a commonly used tool in a wide range of
discussions, and is a type of pedagogy in which a series of questions is asked
not only to draw individual answers, but also to encourage fundamental insight
into the issue at hand. Plato's Socrates also made important and lasting
contributions to the field of epistemology, and his ideologies and approach
have proven a strong foundation for much Western philosophy that has followed.
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Standards of beauty are different in different eras, and in Socrates's
time beauty could easily be measured by the standard of the gods, stately,
proportionate sculptures of whom had been adorning the Athenian acropolis since
about the time Socrates reached the age of thirty. Good looks and proper
bearing were important to a man's political prospects, for beauty and goodness
were linked in the popular imagination. The extant sources agree that Socrates
was profoundly ugly, resembling a satyr more than a man—and resembling not at
all the statues that turned up later in ancient times and now grace Internet
sites and the covers of books. He had wide-set, bulging eyes that darted
sideways and enabled him, like a crab, to see not only what was straight ahead,
but what was beside him as well; a flat, upturned nose with flaring nostrils;
and large fleshy lips like an ass. Socrates let his hair grow long,
Spartan-style (even while Athens and Sparta were at war), and went about
barefoot and unwashed, carrying a stick and looking arrogant. He didn't change
his clothes but efficiently wore in the daytime what he covered himself with at
night. Something was peculiar about his gait as well, sometimes described as a
swagger so intimidating that enemy soldiers kept their distance. He was
impervious to the effects of alcohol and cold, but this made him an object of
suspicion to his fellow soldiers on campaign. We can safely assume an average
height (since no one mentions it at all), and a strong build, given the active
life he appears to have led. Against the iconic tradition of a pot-belly,
Socrates and his companions are described as going hungry (Aristophanes, Birds
1280–83). On his appearance, see Plato's Theaetetus 143e, and Symposium 215a-c,
216c-d, 221d-e; Xenophon's Symposium 4.19, 5.5–7; and Aristophanes's Clouds
362. Brancusi's oak sculpture, standing 51.25 inches including its base,
captures Socrates's appearance and strangeness in the sense that it looks
different from every angle, including a second “eye” that cannot be seen if the
first is in view. (See the Museum of Modern Art's page on Brancusi's Socrates
which offers additional views.) Also true to Socrates's reputation for
ugliness, but less available, are the drawings of the contemporary Swiss
artist, Hans Erni.
In the late fifth century B.C.E., it was more or less taken for granted
that any self-respecting Athenian male would prefer fame, wealth, honors, and
political power to a life of labor. Although many citizens lived by their labor
in a wide variety of occupations, they were expected to spend much of their
leisure time, if they had any, busying themselves with the affairs of the city.
Men regularly participated in the governing Assembly and in the city's many
courts; and those who could afford it prepared themselves for success at public
life by studying with rhetoricians and sophists from abroad who could themselves
become wealthy and famous by teaching the young men of Athens to use words to
their advantage. Other forms of higher education were also known in Athens:
mathematics, astronomy, geometry, music, ancient history, and linguistics. What
seemed strange about Socrates is that he neither labored to earn a living, nor
participated voluntarily in affairs of state. Rather, he embraced poverty and,
although youths of the city kept company with him and imitated him, Socrates
adamantly insisted he was not a teacher (Plato, Apology 33a-b) and refused all
his life to take money for what he did. The strangeness of this behavior is
mitigated by the image then current of teachers and students: teachers were
viewed as pitchers pouring their contents into the empty cups that were the
students. Because Socrates was no transmitter of information that others were
passively to receive, he resists the comparison to teachers. Rather, he helped
others recognize on their own what is real, true, and good (Plato, Meno,
Theaetetus)—a new, and thus suspect, approach to education. He was known for
confusing, stinging and stunning his conversation partners into the unpleasant
experience of realizing their own ignorance, a state sometimes superseded by
genuine intellectual curiosity.
It did not help matters that Socrates seemed to have a higher opinion of
women than most of his companions had, speaking of “men and women,” “priests
and priestesses,” and naming foreign women as his teachers: Socrates claimed to
have learned rhetoric from Aspasia of Miletus, the lover of Pericles (Plato,
Menexenus); and to have learned erotics from the priestess Diotima of Mantinea
(Plato, Symposium). Socrates was unconventional in a related respect. Athenian
citizen males of the upper social classes did not marry until they were at
least thirty, and Athenian females were poorly educated and kept sequestered
until puberty, when they were given in marriage by their fathers. Thus the
socialization and education of males often involved a relationship for which the
English word ‘pederasty’ (though often used) is misleading, in which a youth
approaching manhood, fifteen to seventeen, became the beloved of a male lover a
few years older, under whose tutelage and through whose influence and gifts,
the younger man would be guided and improved. It was assumed among Athenians
that mature men would find youths sexually attractive, and such relationships
were conventionally viewed as beneficial to both parties by family and friends
alike. A degree of hypocrisy (or denial), however, was implied by the
arrangement: “officially” it did not involve sexual relations between the
lovers and, if it did, then the beloved was not supposed to derive pleasure
from the act—but ancient evidence (comedies, vase paintings, et al.) shows that
both restrictions were often violated (Dover 1989, 204). What was odd about
Socrates is that, although he was no exception to the rule of finding youths
attractive (Plato, Charmides 155d, Protagoras 309a-b; Xenophon, Symposium
4.27–28), he refused the physical advances of even his favorite (Plato,
Symposium 219b-d) and kept his eye on the improvement of their, and all the
Athenians', souls (Plato, Apology 30a-b), a mission he said he had been
assigned by the oracle of Apollo at Delphi, if he was interpreting his friend
Chaerephon's report correctly (Plato, Apology 20e–23b), a preposterous claim in
the eyes of his fellow citizens. Socrates also acknowledged a rather strange
personal phenomenon, a daimonion or internal voice that prohibited his doing
certain things, some trivial and some important, often unrelated to matters of
right and wrong (thus not to be confused with the popular notions of a superego
or a conscience); the implication that he was guided by something he regarded
as divine or semi-divine was suspect to other Athenians.
Socrates was usually to be found in the marketplace and other public
areas, conversing with a variety of different people—young and old, male and
female, slave and free, rich and poor—that is, with virtually anyone he could persuade
to join with him in his question-and-answer mode of probing serious matters.
Socrates's lifework consisted in the examination of people's lives, his own and
others', because “the unexamined life is not worth living for a human being,”
as he says at his trial (Plato, Apology 38a). Socrates pursued this task
single-mindedly, questioning people about what matters most, e.g., courage,
love, reverence, moderation, and the state of their souls generally. He did
this regardless of whether his respondents wanted to be questioned or resisted
him; and Athenian youths imitated Socrates's questioning style, much to the
annoyance of some of their elders. He had a reputation for irony, though what
that means exactly is controversial; at a minimum, Socrates's irony consisted
in his saying that he knew nothing of importance and wanted to listen to
others, yet keeping the upper hand in every discussion. One further aspect of
Socrates's much-touted strangeness should be mentioned: his dogged failure to
align himself politically with oligarchs or democrats; rather, he had friends
and enemies among both, and he supported and opposed actions of both
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