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Socrates

Born in Athens circa 470 BC, Socrates is an enigma of a man. For although he is generally considered to be one of the great philosophers of the times of Ancient Greece (usually categorized together with Plato and Aristotle) there are, in actuality, no writings accredited to him that have ever been found through the ages. He is accepted as the teacher and mentor of Plato, and yet so little is concretely or definitively known about him. All of his ideologies, philosophical tenets and general characteristics are known to man through the writings of other philosophers such as Plato (his student) and Aristotle (Plato’s student), therefore leaving scholars with the task of determining the correctness of their interpretations. This mystery has confounded philosophical circles century after century as is oftentimes referred to as the Socratic Problem.

And yet, for all the uncertainty, Socrates is credited with an influence that changed the course of philosophy and garnered him the title of father of moral philosophy, or, even more, philosophy as a whole. A concrete example of his legacy is a teaching style known as the Socratic Method, which involves instruction by means of asking questions in such a way that forces the student to examine beliefs and prove them right or wrong by process of elimination and by checking for contradictions.

Web Resources On Socrates

SEP: Socrates
Wikipedia: Socrates

Book Resources On Socrates

Four Texts on Socrates: Plato's Euthyphro, Apology, and Crito and Aristophanes' Clouds by West & West (Translators)
Conversations of Socrates by Xenophon

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