Socrates
Admitting what you do not know is the start of wisdom, and asking persistent questions is how you find out how to live well.
Placement
Left no writings; his method of questioning dialogue made ethics the center of philosophy.
Key ideas
- Awareness of one’s own ignorance (Socratic ignorance)
- Maieutics
- Virtue is knowledge
Students: Antisthenes, Aristippus of Cyrene, Plato
Influence
Influenced by 1
Anaxagoras
influenced by ✓
In Plato’s Phaedo Socrates recalls being excited by Anaxagoras’ claim that mind orders all things, then disappointed that he explained nothing by what is best (97b–99d). Plato, Phaedo 97b–99d; SEP “Anaxagoras”
Anaxagoras › c. 500–428 BCE
Influenced 13
Plato taught
Aristotle
influenced ✓
Aristotle credited Socrates with inductive arguments and universal definition, the starting point of the theory of Forms, but rejected his denial of weakness of will (Metaphysics; Nicomachean Ethics). Aristotle, Metaphysics XIII.4, 1078b27–30; I.6, 987b1–6; Nicomachean Ethics VII.2, 1145b21–27
Aristotle › 384–322 BCE
Zeno of Citium
influenced ✓
Zeno is said to have turned to philosophy after reading Xenophon’s Memorabilia II in an Athens bookshop; Stoic ethics took up Socrates’ view that virtue is knowledge. Diogenes Laertius VII.2–3; SEP “Stoicism”
Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata
Zeno of Citium › c. 334–262 BCE
Epictetus
influenced
Epictetus held up Socrates as the model of a life guided by reason, urging pupils to live as one who wishes to be a Socrates (Encheiridion 51). Epictetus, Encheiridion 51; Discourses I.9, IV.1; A. A. Long, Epictetus: A Stoic and Socratic Guide to Life (2002)
Evidence: also in InPhO · InPhO
Epictetus › c. 50–135
Søren Kierkegaard
influenced
Kierkegaard modelled his indirect communication and pseudonymous authorship on Socratic midwifery, and in Philosophical Fragments (1844) set Socrates the teacher against Christ. S. Kierkegaard (Johannes Climacus), Philosophiske Smuler (1844); SEP “Søren Kierkegaard”
Evidence: also in InPhO · InPhO
Søren Kierkegaard › 1813–1855
Karl Popper
influenced ✓
Popper took Socrates’ awareness of his ignorance and his critical questioning as the model of critical rationalism, set against Plato’s ‘spell’ (The Open Society and Its Enemies, 1945). K. R. Popper, The Open Society and Its Enemies, vol. I: The Spell of Plato (1945); SEP “Karl Popper”
Karl Popper › 1902–1994
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Antisthenes taught
taught ✓
Attested by contemporaries: Xenophon shows Antisthenes as a constant companion of Socrates (Memorabilia 3.11.17; Symposium), and Plato names him among those present at his death (Phaedo 59b). Xenophon, Memorabilia 3.11.17; Symposium 4.34–44, 8.4–6; Plato, Phaedo 59b
Antisthenes › c. 445–365 BCE
Aristippus of Cyrene taught
taught ✓
Attested by Xenophon, who records his conversations with Socrates (Memorabilia 2.1, 3.8); Plato notes that he was absent on the day of Socrates’ death (Phaedo 59c). Xenophon, Memorabilia 2.1, 3.8; Plato, Phaedo 59c
Evidence: also in Wikidata · Wikidata
Aristippus of Cyrene › c. 435–356 BCE
Diogenes of Sinope
influenced
Diogenes took up the Socratic view that virtue suffices for happiness and lived it against all convention; Plato reportedly called him ‘a Socrates gone mad’ (Diogenes Laertius VI.54). Diogenes Laertius VI.11, VI.54; IEP “Diogenes of Sinope”
Evidence: AI draft
Diogenes of Sinope › c. 412–323 BCE
Arcesilaus
influenced
Arcesilaus appealed to Socrates’ avowal of knowing nothing and radicalised it: not even this can be known, so he withheld assent on everything (Cicero, Academica I.45). Cicero, Academica I.44–45; SEP “Arcesilaus”
Evidence: AI draft
Arcesilaus › c. 316–241 BCE
Michel de Montaigne
influenced
Montaigne made Socrates his model of a wise life lived naturally and of a calm death, in the late essays ‘Of Physiognomy’ and ‘Of Experience’ (Essays III.12–13). M. de Montaigne, Essais III.12, III.13 (1588/95); SEP “Michel de Montaigne”
Evidence: AI draft
Michel de Montaigne › 1533–1592
Martin Luther King Jr.
influenced
King cited Socrates as a model of creative ‘tension in the mind’ and of civil disobedience, to which academic freedom owes its existence (Letter from Birmingham Jail, 1963). M. L. King Jr., “Letter from Birmingham Jail” (1963), in Why We Can’t Wait (1964)
Evidence: AI draft
Martin Luther King Jr. › 1929–1968
Sophie Oluwole
influenced
Oluwole compared Socrates, who wrote nothing, with Orunmila, the sage of the Ifá tradition, presenting both as founders of classical philosophy (Socrates and Orunmila, 2015). S. B. Oluwole, Socrates and Orunmila: Two Patron Saints of Classical Philosophy (2015)
Evidence: AI draft
Sophie Oluwole › 1935–2018
Criticism
Criticized by 1
Friedrich Nietzsche
criticised by
Nietzsche saw in Socrates the ‘theoretical man’ whose faith in reason killed tragedy (Birth of Tragedy, 1872), and later a symptom of decadence (Twilight of the Idols). F. Nietzsche, Die Geburt der Tragödie (1872), §§12–15; Götzen-Dämmerung (1889), “Das Problem des Sokrates”
Evidence: AI draft
Friedrich Nietzsche › 1844–1900
Criticizes 1
Protagoras
criticised
In Plato’s Protagoras, Socrates questions Protagoras’ claim to teach civic virtue and presses him on the unity of the virtues. Plato, Protagoras 319a–320c, 329c–334c, 349a–360e
Evidence: AI draft
Protagoras › c. 490–420 BCE
Position
Socrates turned philosophy from nature to the question of how one should live. His method, the elenchus, examined people who claimed to know what courage, piety or justice is, and showed through questioning that their definitions contradicted themselves. His own wisdom, he said, lay in knowing that he did not know. He held that virtue is a kind of knowledge, that no one does wrong willingly and that it is better to suffer injustice than to commit it; “the unexamined life is not worth living”. Known to us through Plato, Xenophon and Aristophanes, he became the model of the philosopher and the starting point for almost every later school.
Life & context
Socrates spent his life in Athens, the son of a stonemason and a midwife, and served as a hoplite in the Peloponnesian War. Instead of writing, he questioned his fellow citizens in the streets and in the agora. In 399 BCE he was charged with impiety and with corrupting the youth, condemned by a citizen jury and executed with hemlock.
Appears in
- Journey ‘From Mythos to Logos’ · Stop 6 of 8
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