Socrates - The Father of Western Philosophy

Socrates (c. 469 - 399 B.C.) was a hugely important Greek philosopher from the Classical period (often known as the Socratic period in his honor). Unlike most of the Pre-Socratic philosophers who came before him, who were much more interested in establishing how the world works, Socrates was more concerned with how people should behave, and so was perhaps the first major philosopher of Ethics.

An enigmatic figure known to us only through other people's accounts (principally the dialogues of his student Plato), he is credited as one of the founders of Western Philosophy. He is considered by some as the very antithesis of the Sophists of his day, who claimed to have knowledge which they could transmit to others (often for payment), arguing instead that knowledge should be pursued for its own sake, even if one could never fully possess it.

  

  He made important and lasting contributions in the fields of Ethics, Epistemology and Logic, and particularly in the methodology of philosophy (his Socratic Method or "elenchus"). His views were instrumental in the development of many of the major philosophical movements and schools which came after him, including Platonism (and the Neo-Platonism and Aristotelianism it gave rise to), Cynicism, Stoicism and Hedonism.

About his life,

Socrates was born, as far as we know, in Athens around 469 B.C. Our knowledge of his life is sketchy and derives mainly from three contemporary sources, the dialogues of Plato and Xenophon (c. 431 - 355 B.C.), and the plays of Aristophanes (c. 456 - 386 B.C.). According to Plato, Socrates' father was Sophroniscus (a sculptor and stonemason) and his mother was Phaenarete (a midwife). His family was respectable in descent, but humble in means. He appears to have had no more than an ordinary Greek education (reading, writing, gymnastics and music, and, later, geometry and astronomy) before devoting his time almost completely to intellectual interests.

 His Work,

  As has been mentioned, Socrates himself did not write any philosophical texts, and our knowledge of the man and his philosophy is based on writings by his students and contemporaries, particularly Plato's dialogues, but also the writings of Aristotle, Xenophon and Aristophanes. As these are either the partisan philosophical texts of his supporters, or works of dramatic rather than historically accurate intent, it is difficult to find the “real” Socrates (often referred to as the "Socratic problem"). In Plato's Socratic Dialogues in particular, it is well nigh impossible to tell which of the views attributed to Socrates are actually his and which Plato's own.

Perhaps Socrates' most important and enduring single contribution to Western thought is his dialectical method of inquiry, which he referred to as "elenchus" (roughly, "cross-examination") but which has become known as the Socratic Method or Socratic Debate (although some commentators have argued that Protagoras actually invented the “Socratic” method). It has been called a negative method of hypothesis elimination, in that better hypotheses are found by steadily identifying and eliminating those which lead to contradictions. Even today, the Socratic Method is still used in classrooms and law schools as a way of discussing complex topics in order to expose the underlying issues in both the subject and the speaker. Its influence is perhaps most strongly felt today in the use of the Scientific Method, in which the hypothesis is just the first stage towards a proof.

 

At its simplest, the Socratic Method is used to solve a problem by breaking the problem down into a series of questions, the answers to which gradually distill better and better solutions. Both the questioner and the questioned explore the implications of the other's positions, in order to stimulate rational thinking and illuminate ideas. Thus, Socrates would counter any assertion with a counterexample which disproves the assertion (or at least shows it to be inadequate). This would lead to a modified assertion, which Socrates would then test again with another counterexample. Through several iterations of this kind, the original assertion is continually adjusted and becomes more and more difficult to refute, which Socrates held meant that it was closer and closer to the truth.

Socrates' political views, as represented in Plato's dialogue "The Republic", were strongly against the democracy that had so recently been restored in the Athens of his day, and indeed against any form of government that did not conform to his ideal of a perfect republic led by philosophers, who he claimed were the only type of person suitable to govern others. He believed that the will of the majority was not necessarily a good method of decision-making, but that it was much more important that decisions be logical and defensible. However, these may be more Plato's own views than those of Socrates, "The Republic" being a "middle period" work often considered to be not representative of the views of the historical Socrates.

Thank you,

Ashish Raja