Socrates

Socrates (c. 470 – 399 BC) was an ancient Athenian philosopher, one of the founding figures of Western philosophy and the central figure in the early dialogues of his pupil Plato. He left no writings of his own, and what is known of him comes chiefly from Plato, from the historian and soldier Xenophon, and, more critically, from the comic playwright Aristophanes.

He was born in the deme of Alopece, the son of the stonemason Sophroniscus and the midwife Phaenarete. He served as a hoplite in the Athenian army at the battles of Potidaea, Delium, and Amphipolis during the Peloponnesian War, where he was reported to have shown notable physical endurance and bravery. He was married to Xanthippe, with whom he had three sons.

Socrates spent his time in conversation in the agora and the gymnasia of Athens, questioning fellow citizens about the nature of justice, courage, piety, and the good life and exposing the inadequacy of their definitions. The method, known as elenchus or Socratic questioning, became the model for much later philosophical teaching, and his refusal to claim positive knowledge gave rise to the formula that he knew only that he knew nothing.

In 399 BC, after the restoration of democracy that followed the Thirty Tyrants, he was tried on charges of impiety and corrupting the youth of Athens, condemned by a small majority, and executed by drinking hemlock. The trial and death are recounted in Plato's Apology, Crito, and Phaedo.

Socrates is a Greek masculine given name from sōs, safe or whole, and kratos, power, roughly safe in power; he carried the masculine form.