Socrates Essay - 1261 Words

SOCRATES Socrates was a Greek philosopher who lived between 470-399 B.C. He turned Greek attention toward questions of ethics and virtue and away from those of the heavenly bodies. Socrates spent much time in the Agora (marketplace) where he held conversations with townspeople. Socrates believed that real truth could be found out through thought and collaboration with others. He was known for exposing ignorance, hypocrisy, and conceit. Despite having many followers, Socrates was disliked by most Athenians. At the age of 70, he was convicted of atheism, treason and corruption of the young. He was originally ordered to leave Athens, but chose to drink poison instead. This great man valued the law over his life, and so he chose to drank†¦show more content†¦But after Athens lost her empire by losing the Peloponnesian War and had undergone two oligarchic reigns of terror at the hands of the gilded, Socratified rich kids, her patience with Socrates ended. Socrates was charged in 399 B.C. with quot;impiety against the gods of the cityquot; and with quot;corrupting the young.quot; He was guilty on all counts. Socrates basic premise of government -- according to Xenophons quot;Memorabiliaquot; -- was quot;that it is the business of the ruler to give orders and of the ruled to obey.quot; So the ruler should have total, unaccounted power. The second charge against Socrates, that he had corrupted the youth of Athens, was even more damning. The foremost examples of the gilded youth he led astray was Alcibiades and Critias, although Socrates effect on the rich young aristocratic fops was already mentioned in Aristophanes quot;The Birds,quot; written in 414 B.C., fifteen years before he was called to account: Why, till ye built this city in the air, _____ line 1280 All men had gone Laconian-mad; they went __ [Spartan-mad] Long-haired, half-starved, unwashed, Socratified, With scytales in their hands; but Oh the change! 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