If you’ve ever been asked “why?” one too many times, chances are you’ve experienced what it might have been like to spend an afternoon with the renowned Greek philosopher Socrates. Long before podcasts, lectures, and self-help books encouraged people to think critically, the elderly Athenian thinker wandered the streets asking questions that often left politicians, craftsmen, poets, and even his closest companions reevaluating their deepest beliefs.
Socrates was not one to speak for hours at a time, nor did he ever claim to have all of the answers so far as wisdom was concerned. Instead, he had a remarkable gift for dismantling certainty one question at a time. That's why over two thousand years after his passing, his simple method of asking thought-provoking questions remains an influential teaching method that continues to invoke deep reflection.
Despite having never written a book himself, historians generally agree on knowing a fair deal about the life of Socrates and his philosophy. The main source of his life predominantly comes from his students, such as Plato, who, through stimulating dialogues, preserved many of the conversations that made his teacher famous. This, however, has left researchers with the difficult task of separating the historical Socrates from the literary character of Plato's writings.
Even so, one thing remains incredibly consistent throughout the tradition: Socrates firmly believed that true wisdom did not emerge from acclamation of wisdom. Instead, it starts with recognizing just how little we really know. Such an attitude is represented in one of his most famous phrases, “I know that I know nothing.” Whether he ever said these words or they were crafted by later writers remains a matter of debate, but the idea reflects what we know of his philosophy.
Instead of entering into conversations by portraying himself as an expert, Socrates often took a much humbler approach. In many ways, his attitude could be considered a representation of the Latin phrase sapere aude (dare to be wise), although it didn't emerge from blind confidence, but through the courage to accept that one's assumptions could be wrong.
Therefore, what Socrates left behind was not a library of important philosophical treatises, nor a theory about the ongoings of the universe; instead, it was a method we know today as the ‘Socratic Method'. While he undoubtedly created, or at least popularised, the practice of conversational inquiry, the name of the method was coined and formalized by later thinkers, and there's every chance Socrates himself might have found the title amusing.
Socrates possessed a unique style of engagement centered on an up-close-and-personal conversation rather than lecturing to a large group. He carefully chose questions that encouraged those he spoke with to examine their own beliefs, and after a series of questions, the participants generally found themselves confronting hidden contradictions or unsupported assumptions, which led them to further question some of their strongest beliefs.
By the end of the discussion, most participants discovered that ideas they had considered obvious were far more complicated than they first imagined. Yet, such a conversation often left an individual feeling uncomfortable. For example, imagine confidently explaining what justice is, only for someone to calmly ask several subsequent questions that eventually leave you realizing that you cannot properly define it at all. This was also a frequent occurrence for anyone who sat down with Socrates on a typical afternoon in Athens.
Unsurprisingly, not everyone appreciated the experience, and if dinner parties existed in ancient Greece as they do today, chances are Socrates was the guest many people thought twice about inviting. Even so, he did not engage in this style of conversation because he was interested in embarrassing people for entertainment. Instead, there was a deeper meaning behind his passion.
He believed that if he could expose the ignorance in the beliefs of his era, it would lead to the beginning of genuine knowledge. What he understood better than most was that if a person truly wants to improve themselves, first they have to understand the limits of their own understanding. This is reflected in the Latin phrase cognosce te ipsum (know yourself). Unfortunately, his relentless pursuit of self-examination put him on a collision course with Athenian society, one that would land him in serious danger.
Athens was a city of great pride, and justifiably so. It was a center of democracy, intellectual achievements, and culture. Yet, it was far from perfect. It still had an aristocracy and political class who did not take kindly to criticism or coercion.
In 399 BC, Socrates felt the wrath of exactly this, when he was put on trial under charges of impiety and corrupting the youth of Athens. While these accusations were almost certainly fabricated and influenced by political tensions that had emerged from years of instability within the city, his age-old habit of encouraging young Athenians to challenge authority did little to help his case.
Prior to his sentencing, Socrates was offered a chance to escape punishment. Yet his unwillingness to abandon his philosophical principles, which he saw as a driving factor in his moral duty, led him to refuse an opportunity to escape from his holding cell and flee to Thessaly.
His refusal stands as a testament to the very ethos that guided him through life, often summed up by the simple phrase attributed to him in Plato’s Apology, in which he declared, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” These words continue to resonate even today, because they remind us that a meaningful life requires a period of deep reflection.
Rather than blindly following the opinions or traditions of others, Socrates believed we should first question them and then decide for ourselves what is worth believing.
Socrates believed so much in his philosophical principles that he was unwilling to compromise even in the face of death. Thus, his decision ultimately resulted in his execution, where he was condemned to drink a brew infused with the highly poisonous hemlock around 399 BC. Looking back, it might seem he lost everything for standing up for what he believed in. Yet history remembers him differently.
His ideas served as inspiration to later writers, with many arguing that they transformed Western philosophy. Plato preserved what he could of his teacher's philosophy, whereas Aristotle expanded upon it. Countless others followed in their footsteps, using what Socrates left behind to explore many similar questions centered on justice, virtue, and the good life.
Perhaps his greatest achievement, and the legacy for which he is most remembered, is that the Socratic Method has never vanished. Today it remains an integral part of academic study, where thoughtful questions have helped people make incredible advances in law, medicine, education, and even psychology.
In an age of unlimited information, yet a lack of wisdom, Socrates reminds us that intelligence begins not with certainty, but with asking the right question.
Bibliography:
Plato (2002) Five Dialogues: Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Meno, Phaedo. 2nd edn. Translated by G.M.A. Grube. Revised by J.M. Cooper. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company.
Xenophon (1994) Memorabilia. Translated by A.L. Bonnette. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Brickhouse, T.C. and Smith, N.D. (2000) The Philosophy of Socrates. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
