the trial and death of socrates by plato

Through, think about it from a rational point of view. They tried to reason it through, they tried to talk it His fellow philosophers tried to figure out how the world works, why we are here, somewhat And, while the ancient Greeksĭid have a large pantheon of gods, Socrates and Was focused on the gods and the metaphysicalĮxplaining everything. Of how to think about the world from most of the ancient world. Including Plato and Aristotle, is that they took a departure Now, what's also notable about Socrates and his many students, Rather than just having knowledge transmitted to them. To the root of an issue, and to learn how to think Students, to, instead, ask incisive questions thatįorce a student to deepen their thinking and get closer The Socratic method, is still viewed as something But he is, of course, mostįamous for being a philosopher and for being a teacher. That he started in life, he was a stone mason, he even acted as a soldier, a hoplite, during the Peloponnesian War. Socrates from Aristophanes, that Socrates himselfĭid not appreciate much. Writing of his students, Xenophon, and, most notably, Plato. We don't have survivingĪccounts of his writing. Socrates led a very interesting life, and it's worth noting what we know about himĭoes not come directly from his writing. The Golden Age of Athens, and that's the world in They were leading this semi-empire, they were investing in the arts, and it's often called Was actually a time of Athenian prosperity. Wars, and the end of the Peloponnesian War, it Now, between the end,Įspecially the first part of the Greco-Persian

War, which ends with Sparta being victorious, butĪll of the Greek city states being weakened dramatically. On the other side by Sparta, and that's the Peloponnesian But then, the Greeks startįighting amongst themselves, led on one side by Athens, Then, as you get into thatĬentury, the Persians invade, try to conquer Greece several

First, you have a new Athenian democracy. The fifth century BCE, a couple of things are emerging. Now, before we get into the first of them, and really the teacher of Plato, who was then the teacher of Aristotle, let's get a little bit ofĬontext on this time period. Talk about philosophy in ancient Greece, the mostįamous three philosophers are Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. But perhaps their most famous contribution is in terms of philosophy. And those are contributions in terms of forms of governance, like democracy, contributions in medicine,Ĭontributions in the arts, in mathematics, in the sciences. Just Western civilization, but civilization as a whole. It's made innumerable contributions to, not It was made up of many city states, led by Athens and Sparta. Ancient Greece was not even a cohesive empire.

The trial and death of socrates by plato