114 Ancient Ideals
The thinker has much to contend with— the home, marriage, his
own body, convention, books, the weight of past refl ection, and
loneliness. But sometimes he is compelled to contend with some-
thing more: not just the indiff erence or even the mild disdain of the
crowd, but its actual hostility. In Western religion the death of Jesus
is central; in the heroic tradition, the death of Achilles; in philos-
ophy, much revolves around the judicial murder of Socrates.
Athens kills Socrates for thinking—or at least for clearing the
grounds for genuine thought. He is on trial ostensibly for corrupting
the young, for teaching them how to make the weaker argument
appear the stronger, and for investigating what happens in the
heavens and below the earth. But as the trial unfolds, it becomes
clear that Socrates is not really hated for his impiety or his soph-
istry. Those who detest him seem to do so chiefl y for another reason.
If Socrates’ story is true, he has spent his life fulfi lling a simple
mission. Early on, the Oracle at Delphi says something extraordi-
nary. The god declares that no one in Athens is wiser than Socrates.
But how could this be? For Socrates professes to know nothing.
From Socrates’ point of view, the god has set him a task: not to
fulfi ll it would be impiety. He has to fi nd out what this wisdom he
supposedly possesses really is. So, a bit like a warrior- hero, Socrates
goes on a quest. He talks to one fellow citizen after another, paying
special attention to those who have a reputation for wisdom, or who
take themselves to be wise. He questions them closely. He tries to
fi nd out what it is they k now. A nd of course he is badly disappointed.
None of the Athenians he talks with can justify their ways of
thinking. The poets cannot say anything of value about the mean-
ings of their poems; the men of law have no real sense of where the
laws come from and what makes them just or unjust; fathers have
no clear idea of their duties to their children; merchants cannot say
for certain what qualifi es as honesty and what does not.