| |
Socrates & His Questioning Profession
by
Kenneth Shouler, Ph.D.
Tags
No tags are currently set for this article.
- Socrates had amazing physical endurance
- Socrates thought wisdom belonged to God
- Socrates was aware of his own ignorance
In 399 B.C. Socrates would ultimately defend himself in a trial before 501 Athenians, explaining to them that “The unexamined life is not worth living” and that he would not cease philosophizing even to save his life. But what was it about Socrates’ life that brought him to an Athenian courtroom at the age of seventy?
The details of Socrates’ early life and education are unclear. What we do know of him comes from several sources. We have the dialogues of his student Plato (428/27—348/47 B.C.), which provide an affectionate, lively, three-dimensional account of Socrates’ character and thinking. In addition, we have the accounts of Xenophon, a contemporary philosopher; Arist-ophanes, a satirical dramatist; and Aristotle, a philosopher and historian of Greek philosophy.
Socrates was born in either 469 or 470 B.C., based on available evidence that he was seventy years old when he died in the spring of 399 B.C. His father, Sophroniscus, was a sculptor and his mother, Phaenarete, was a midwife (Oddly: Socrates would later describe himself as a kind of “philosophical midwife,” seeking to give birth to others’ ideas with his well-placed questions). Socrates was likely a sculptor and stonemason before he turned to philosophy.
Socrates is known for some incredible feats of physical endurance, like walking barefoot across ice in one military campaign. On another occasion he stood in a trancelike state and meditated for thirty-six consecutive hours, as described in Plato’s Symposium. Both events testify to Socrates’ ability to ignore physical discomfort in order to achieve some greater mental or spiritual objective. These are some of the amazing acts that have built the legend of Socrates.
|
|
|