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Socrates was put to death in 399 BCE,
ultimately for questioning the basis of
Athenian morality. Here he accepts the
bowl of hemlock that will kill him, and
gestures defiantly at the heavens.
other subjects about which you
hear me talking, and that examining
both myself and others is really the
very best thing a man can do.”
This gaining of knowledge, rather
than wealth or high status, is the
ultimate goal of life. It is not a matter
of entertainment or curiosity—it is
the reason why we exist. Moreover,
all knowledge is ultimately self-
knowledge, for it creates the person
you are within this world, and
fosters the care of the immortal soul.
In Phaedo, Socrates says that an
unexamined life leads the soul to
be “confused and dizzy, as if it
were drunk”, while the wise soul
achieves stability, its straying
finally brought to an end.
Dialectical method
Socrates quickly became a well-
known figure in Athens, with a
reputation for an enquiring mind.
A friend of his, so the story goes,
asked the priestess of Apollo at
Delphi who the wisest man in the
world was: the oracular reply was
that there was no-one wiser than
Socrates. When Socrates heard
about this, he was astounded, and
went to the most knowledgeable
people he could find to try to
disprove it. What he discovered
was that these people only thought
they knew a great deal; under
examination, their knowledge was
proved to be either limited or false.
What was more important,
however, was the method he used
to question their knowledge. He
took the standpoint of someone who
knew nothing, and merely asked
questions, exposing contradictions
in arguments and gaps in knowledge
to gradually elicit insights. He
likened the process to his mother’s
profession of midwife, assisting
in the birth of ideas.
Through these discussions,
Socrates came to realize that the
Delphic oracle had been right –
he was the wisest man in Athens,
not because of his knowledge but
because he professed to know
nothing. He also saw that the
inscription on the entrance to the
temple at Delphi, gnothi seauton
(“know thyself”), was just as
significant. To gain knowledge
of the world and oneself it was
necessary to realize the limits of
one’s own ignorance and to remove
all preconceptions. Only then could
one hope to determine the truth.
Socrates set about engaging the
people of Athens in discussion on
topics such as the nature of love,
justice, and loyalty. His mission,
misunderstood at the time as a
dangerous form of Sophistry—or
cleverness for the sake of it—was
not to instruct the people, nor even
simply to learn what they knew, but
to explore the ideas that they had.
It was the conversation itself, with
Socrates guiding it, that provided
him with insights. Through a series
of questions, he revealed the ideas
and assumptions his opponent held,THE ANCIENT WORLD
I know nothing except
the fact of my ignorance.
Socratesthen exposed the contradictions
within them and brought them to
agree to a new set of conclusions.
This method of examining an
argument by rational discussion
from a position of ignorance marked
a complete change in philosophical
thinking. It was the first known
use of inductive argument, in
which a set of premises based
on experience is first established
to be true, and then shown to lead
to a universal truth in conclusion.
This powerful form of argument
was developed by Aristotle, and
later by Francis Bacon, who used
it as the starting point of his
scientific method. It became,
therefore, the foundation not
only of Western philosophy, but
of all the empirical sciences. ■